RealClearInvestigations Picks of the Week

RealClearInvestigations'

Picks of the Week

July 26 to August 1

RCI Podcasts & Videos

On this week’s episode of the RealClearInvestigations Podcast, RCI Senior Reporter James Varney speaks with author Jim Rasenberger about his new work of history, “A Perfect Coincidence: The Extraordinary Friendship and Astonishing Deaths of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson.”.  

On The Miller Report: Real Clear Journalism, Maggie Miller speaks with Vince Bielski about his recent RCI artcile reporting on Johns Hopkins University's plan to launch a School of Government and Policy that intentionally recruits scholars from across the political spectrum—including conservatives and heterodox thinkers—to encourage more open debate and challenge intellectual conformity.

Featured Investigation:

Anatomy of the ‘Islamophobic’ Shooting That Wasn’t

Andrew Bostom reports exclusively for RealClearInvestigations that Providence police have concluded, after a 32-month investigation, that Mustafa Ramos – shot near the Islamic Center of Rhode Island (ICRI) in November 2023 – was not targeted because of his Muslim faith, despite the incident's initial framing as a national "Islamophobic hate crime."

• Ramos, a 52-year-old vendor of Islamic merchandise, was shot once in the buttocks outside ICRI six weeks after Hamas's Oct. 7, 2023, attack; he was treated and released within two hours and publicly insisted he was targeted for his religion and attire.
• Major David Lapatin of the Providence Police told the outlet the shooting was not a hate crime, citing the "background and behaviors" of the case's lone suspect, Nasir Dupont, a recidivist criminal with a record of gun, robbery, and drug offenses who remains jailed awaiting trial; no arrests have been made and the case stays technically open.
• Both Ramos and Dupont declined to cooperate with investigators, and evidence issues – a masked shooter, an unrecovered getaway car, and deleted phone records – stalled the probe.
• National media outlets and the Council on American Islamic Relations amplified the hate-crime narrative in 2023, and the Rhode Island House cited it in a 2024 anti-Islamophobia resolution, but no media outlets have followed up with police since December 2023.
• The author's review of ICRI sermons posted on Facebook found repeated anti-Jewish and anti-Christian rhetoric, including Qur'anic references to Jews as "corrupters" and calls to treat non-Muslims harshly, which he argues went unreported alongside the hate-crime coverage.
• The piece cites a 2011 academic study finding most surveyed U.S. mosques supportive of jihadist violence, and FBI data showing only about 1,163 anti-Muslim incidents among roughly 60,000 total bias incidents nationally over five years.

 Waste of the Day

by Jeremy Portnoy, Open the Books

• “Dancing Queens” In NC, RCI
• NYC Paid Embattled Consultant, RCI
• Housing $ Used for ATV Gear, RCI
• Blinged-Out Vending Machines, RCI
• Little COVID Fraud $ Recovered, RCI

Trump 2.0 and the Beltway

• How House Democrats Turned Against Israel Aid, Wall Street Journal
• The Growing Influence of AI Super-Pacs, Politico
• Trump Sitting on Billions Approved for Transit, New York Times
• Trump Overrode Agencies To Deny Dem Disaster Requests, Politico

Other Noteworthy Articles and Series

Deadly U.S. Boat Strikes Haven't Curbed Cocaine Supply 

Washington Post

The Trump administration’s deadly military strikes on alleged drug trafficking boats have not reduced the amount of cocaine entering the United States, this article reports. They are, instead, prompting criminal organizations to develop new strategies and tactics and undermining traditional investigative methods, according to a previously unreported assessment by the Drug Enforcement Administration, a closed-door congressional briefing and interviews with current and former U.S. and foreign officials.

In a recent assessment reviewed by The Washington Post, DEA analysts found the strikes had failed to affect the supply or price of cocaine in the United States and had led traffickers to diversify beyond go-fast boats and to avoid international waters, opting instead for larger boats and hemming close to coastlines, where U.S. forces are less likely to open fire. In a closed-door briefing last month, Pentagon officials told lawmakers the strikes in international waters off South and Central America had not reduced its purity. Traffickers are also relying more on aircraft, which take off from clandestine airstrips along the Colombian-Venezuelan border and head east to Guyana and Suriname to avoid U.S. forces, according to the DEA assessment.

Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell told the Post the strikes were accomplishing “exactly what [they were] designed to do: detect, disrupt and dismantle designated terrorist organizations and the networks they rely.” He said, “transnational criminal organizations have continually adapted their tactics for decades. That does not indicate the pressure is ineffective. It demonstrates that we are imposing systemic friction on their operations.”

Fauci's Diary Reflections on COVID’s Origins and Fame

New York Times

The man who publicly led the nation’s response to COVID-19, Dr. Anthony Fauci, repeatedly invoked his Fifth Amendment right in a Senate hearing Wednesday in response to questions about the pandemic. “On the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer,” Fauci repeatedly said, refusing to answer questions on the grounds his answers might be incriminating. Senator Rand Paul, the panel’s chairman, pointedly warned the scientist that there would “be repercussions” for his refusal to answer questions.

At the center of Mr. Paul’s inquiry is whether the coronavirus originated naturally, as Dr. Fauci believes, or in a laboratory. Mr. Paul insists that the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which Dr. Fauci ran from 1984 until his retirement at the end of 2022, funded dangerous research in China that spun out of control and essentially created the virus that led to the pandemic. Dr. Fauci says that is not true.

This article notes that Dr. Fauci received a pre-emptive pardon from former President Joseph R. Biden Jr., but the pardon protects him only from federal prosecution for actions he took through the date it was issued, Jan. 19, 2025. He told the panel that it pained him not to answer questions, but that he was doing so on the advice of his lawyers.

Illness Has Transformed Biden's Post-Presidential Life

Washington Post

If Joe Biden had won a second term in 2024 would he still be president today? This article reports that, in addition to the cognitive decline that helped scuttle his reelection campaign, the former president is now weakened by his treatment for an aggressive form of prostate cancer that has spread to his bones.

In media interviews, former first lady Jill Biden has described her husband’s diagnosis as deeply unexpected, saying the family was shocked to learn that the cancer had already reached Stage 4 and metastasized to his bones. Since then she has offered a cautiously optimistic assessment of her husband’s health, saying his treatment is working and that he is maintaining a regimented schedule.

As the article foregrounds President Trump’s criticism of his predecessor, it neglects the central issue: assuming Biden did not go from cancer-free to stage four in four months, how did White House doctors fail to detect a serious health issue? Did political considerations – made by whom? – imperil Biden’s health and possibly put the country at risk of having a debilitating leader?

In a separate article, the New York Post reports that in heavily redacted recordings from 2017, Biden “appeared confused, struggled to remember facts and lost his train of thought during a series of meandering conversations with his ghostwriter roughly four years before he was elected president. The former commander-in-chief also repeatedly made reference to retaining classified information in the discussions with his biographer Mark Zwonitzer.”

Inside the Elite Club for 'Politically Homeless' Dems 

London Times

This masterfully written article by Olivia Empson profiles a group of well-heeled Democratic women in New York City who are put-off by their party’s leftward turn.

A private members club for young Democratic women, Juno was founded in 2024 by friends and former colleagues Ellyn Guttman and Lily Patricof. Members pay between $2,500 and $5,000 a year, with all the funds directed to local and state politicians at the start of their careers. Rather than spending their money on a Soho House membership or SoulCycle classes, the sixty members of Juno have access to monthly dinners with elected officials, candidates or speakers. Some, of course, still do both. … Citak, who goes by Blinken Citak on LinkedIn, described growing up in a family steeped in Democratic history, where discussing politics was a fixture on vacations in Sun Valley, Idaho, where the family has a house. This particular evening, she wore a top “from Paris”, a Cartier bracelet and trousers from Love Shack Fancy. Asked where she spends time in New York, she reeled off The Odeon, The Carlyle Hotel and Monkey Bar, but said she no longer belonged to any traditional members’ clubs. “I used to be, but I’m not anymore,” she said, swaying her long brown silky hair. “This is my type of membership club and I’m doing something more impactful.” … By 7.30pm, the women had taken their seats. Bowls of coconut red lentil dips were passed alongside sesame focaccia and fattoush salad. “We really are in a very populist moment,” Shor said, as diamond-set fingers shot up to ask questions. “If the 2028 election was today, we would probably lose.”

“One thing we can do is try to elevate candidates who understand this desire that the country clearly has right now for candidates who don’t feel elitist, don’t feel like they’re ignoring the plight of people who can’t afford their daily lives,” group founder Lily Patricof said. “We can show there are people doing that who aren’t scary to the more centrists.”

‘Restorative Justice’ Brings Violent Schools 

Wall Street Journal

In his March 1, 2018, article for RealClearInvestigations, Paul Sperry reported that Parkland school shooter Nikolas Cruz was able to escape the attention of law enforcement, pass a background check and purchase the weapon he used to slaughter three staff members and 14 fellow students at his Florida school because of Obama administration efforts to make school discipline more lenient. This op-ed hails that the Education Department’s July 23 announcement that it is rejecting a key part of that approach – variously known as “restorative practices,” “social-emotional learning” and, most telling, “restorative justice” – which, the piece argues, has weakened school discipline. Consider the Little Rock School District in Arkansas that embraced the approach.

Since the 2021-22 school year, districtwide assaults by students on other students have jumped 118%. Assaults by students on teachers and staff have climbed 151%. In a January 2026 meeting, LRSD board members learned that despite their heavy investments in restorative justice, black male students, who make up 29% of LRSD students, commit 54% of disciplinary infractions.

This piece argues that the LRSD’s experience isn’t unique. The East Stroudsburg Area School Board in Pennsylvania received a glowing 2025 restorative practices report from its director of secondary education, a “certified Restorative Practices trainer.” A contemporaneous internal survey, however, indicated that less than half the district’s teachers said students treated each other with respect. Forty percent of middle-schoolers didn’t feel safe in their schools. More than half of elementary-school children were afraid to go to the bathroom. The survey also revealed that only 30% of teachers said their schools consistently held students accountable.