RealClearInvestigations Newsletters: RCI Today
RealClearInvestigations Picks of the Week
RealClearInvestigations'
Picks of the Week
May 24 to May 30
RCI Podcasts & Videos
On The Miller Report: Real Clear Journalism, Maggie Miller interviews Jesse Ausubel, Director of the Program for the Human Environment at Rockefeller University, to discuss the future of energy, environmental realism, and what America’s energy system could look like in 2030 and 2050.
Featured Investigation:
GOP Battles Sharia: Is Islamic Law
a Threat or Dog Whistle?
Paul Sperry reports for RealClearInvestigations that congressional Republicans, backed by President Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson, are advancing legislation to restrict immigration from Muslim-majority nations and curb the spread of Sharia law in America. They warn that growing Muslim immigration is enabling the formation of parallel societies governed by Islamic law – a system they say is fundamentally incompatible with American legal and cultural norms. Many Muslim groups and others are slamming their efforts as a paranoid and unconstitutional assault on religious liberty.
- Senator Tommy Tuberville has proposed deporting recent Muslim immigrants and barring entry to anyone advocating Sharia practices that conflict with U.S. law; Representative Chip Roy has launched a "Sharia-Free America Caucus" with over 60 members.
- A planned Sharia-compliant community near Dallas known as EPIC City has become a national flashpoint, with critics warning it could become an unaccountable Islamic enclave; it is now under state and federal investigation.
- Sharia-sanctioned practices increasingly present in America include domestic violence, polygamy, forced child marriage, and female genital mutilation – the CDC estimates over 500,000 young women are now at risk of FGM annually.
- Informal Sharia councils and tribunals have quietly taken root across America, with some U.S. judges referring family law cases to these panels or deferring to foreign Islamic courts, raising due process concerns.
- Two prominent American Islamic legal bodies – the Fiqh Council of North America and the Assembly of Muslim Jurists of America – have issued rulings endorsing wife-beating, polygamy, and FGM, while advising Muslims to follow U.S. law only when it does not conflict with Sharia.
- Defenders of American Muslims argue these concerns are overblown and unfairly demonize an entire faith community, while critics point to Britain – where Sharia councils are widespread and honor crimes go largely unprosecuted – as a warning of where American permissiveness could lead.
In a separate article, Sperry reports on Shariah's growing influence on U.S. finance.
Waste of the Day
by Jeremy Portnoy, Open the Books
Calif. Inmates' Lewd Tablets, RCI
ICE Vendor’s Fake Employee, RCI
Iraq Training Money Squandered, RCI
Trump 2.0 and the Beltway
Trump Tries to Cut Bait in Iran, Tablet
Trump's Trade War Caused $15B Decline in Farm Sales to China, Reason
WH Intervened on $620M Contract Tied to Trump Son, ProPublica
FDA Staff Blindsided by E-Cigarettes & Nicotine Policy, AP
Jill Biden Worried Joe was Drugged at Debate, Daily Mail
Time Off: Congress Turning into Vacation Land, Daily Caller
Other Noteworthy Articles and Series
Why Scientists Retired Dire Climate Scenarios
New York Times
This had to be a hard story for the New York Times to report. After decades of spreading climate alarmism, the newspaper had to admit that scientists have finally affirmed that the most extreme scenarios they envisioned and spread are “implausible.” Nevertheless, the Times also tried to cover its backside by noting that the nightmare scenarios it advanced were always suspect and that there are still some doomsayers out there.
In this latest update, the researchers abandoned a dire – and often criticized – high-emissions scenario known as RCP8.5 that has been prominently cited in thousands of climate studies over the past decade. The authors said the scenario was now “implausible” given recent energy trends. That provoked online arguments among scientists. For years, critics of the high-emissions scenario had argued that it was always unrealistic, in part because it envisioned that countries would burn coal at absurdly high rates. They argued that any studies or news reports relying on that scenario exaggerated the risks of climate change. Why, those critics now asked, did the course correction take so long? Other researchers, however, noted that scientists still can’t rule out extreme warming, even if the odds might be low, and that there are good scientific reasons for studying high-emissions scenarios.
The article reports that “the majority of climate scientists still say global warming is a serious problem, and that even more plausible, medium-emissions scenarios can carry grave dangers. But the new paper has raised questions about whether some of the risks of climate change have been poorly communicated or overstated in years past and how best to think about those risks going forward.” For an insightful overview of climate science listen to Roger Pielke Jr.’s interview on the RCI Podcast.
Fighting Ebola with Sand, Oatmeal, No Water
Associated Press
As Ebola spreads across the Congo, this article reports that there are few resources to provide even basic protection against infection in the war-ravaged country.
There is one handwashing station and one infrared thermometer to fight the Ebola epidemic in a camp for 10,000 displaced people in Bunia, a city at the heart of the outbreak in eastern Congo. Camp leaders say they tell residents to wash their hands before eating – with soap for the lucky ones who have it. For the rest, the advice is to use oatmeal or sand. “My fear is that we are here with nothing to protect ourselves. We have no protection, no water or soap, and we live near garbage,” Francine Leve Janguzi, a resident of the so-called ISP camp told The Associated Press, as she opened an empty tap in a sea of tarpaulin roofs.
This article reports that hundreds of people have already died from the disease in the Congo – which for years has seen attacks by dozens of separate rebel and militant groups, some of them with links to foreign countries or the extremist Islamic State group. It also reports that the highly contagious disease – which can be contracted from bodily fluids such as vomit, blood or semen – has spread to neighboring Uganda.
Fake ICE Agents Terrorize Immigrants
NBC News
Last month, RCI reported on a startling trend: the growing numbers of criminals pretending to be cops. Amalia Wompa reported that a small but inexact number of these cases involved people posing as Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents. This NBC News article reports that an analysis by Noticias Telemundo, based on court records, police reports and news articles, provides some specific statistics on this phenomenon.
Our investigation documented at least 31 cases in 2025 alone – a sharp increase compared to an average of 5.3 incidents per year in the previous decade. Overall, we identified 84 instances of impostors posing as immigration agents between 2014 and 2025. … Among the incidents reviewed, the level of violence also appears to have increased. Between 2014 and 2024, an average of 23% of documented cases each year involved violent acts; in 2025, that figure rose to 38%. The recorded incidents include intimidation, robbery and sexual assault, as well as so-called “immigration operations” carried out by armed vigilantes against what they describe as an “invasion” of foreigners in the U.S.
This article reports that immigrants can be easy prey for these fake agents: “They often comply without resistance, may not speak or understand English well, and often fail to report crimes or withdraw from investigations and court proceedings out of fear of deportation.”
States Driving More Antitrust Actions
Politico
As the Trump administration pulls back from the aggressive antitrust actions driven by Biden’s Federal Trade Commission, this article reports that state attorneys general in both parties are looking to expand their authority in this area.
Ask a state attorney general, blue or red, where they’d like to focus their attention, and the answers span the economy: mergers and consolidation in technology and AI, health care, housing, energy and power, restaurants and so-called algorithmic collusion cases in agriculture, hotels and more. What may be less obvious: This means companies and policymakers will need to contend with state attorneys general with interests that diverge from the federal government’s – and sometimes from each other.
This article reports that this dynamic “goes beyond antitrust: As a polarized Congress leaves major questions on AI, energy and other issues unresolved, and as policy debates shift to the state level, attorneys general in both parties are increasingly asserting their authority on issues of economic policy. … For ambitious and savvy attorneys general, antitrust isn’t just good policy — it’s typically smart politics at a moment when the cost of living dominates. It’s no coincidence that more than half a dozen state attorneys general are running for governor this year.”
Private Money Helps Fund LAPD, Gives Boosters Access
Los Angeles Times
Like other big-city police forces, this article reports, the LAPD has long turned to wealthy boosters to supplement its multibillion-dollar annual budget, which mainly goes toward salaries and other payroll costs. Modernizing the department’s aging computer systems, outfitting officers with body cameras and purchasing new drones were all paid for through charitable donations in recent decades. The influx of money is raising concerns about access and perks for donors.
Most neighborhood police stations now have their own dedicated booster organizations. Other charitable funds help maintain the department’s fleet of helicopters, support the spouses and children of slain officers and promote the official police department band that performs at graduations, funerals and other functions. … Police boosters have enjoyed special perks, according to the LAPD sources who requested anonymity. Within the last four years, some Police Foundation members received realistic-looking honorary badges. In the same time period, others had their applications for concealed-carry permits fast-tracked. One was even given his own office at LAPD headquarters, where he once caused a stir by bringing in his dog and taking pictures of it posing in the office of a deputy chief.
This article reports that at least 17 groups have had their nonprofit status revoked by the California secretary of state’s office and another 31 have been suspended by the agency that oversees the state’s tax system. “Former LAPD Chief Bernard Parks said he helped launch the main Police Foundation in 1998, modeling it after similar organizations in New York and New Orleans. Parks, who later served on the City Council, said he was leery of any arrangements that left the department indebted – even if only in appearance – to rich donors.”
