RealClearInvestigations'
Picks of the Week
March 24 to March 30 In RealClearInvestigations, James Varney and Abigail Degnan explore the known unknowns of migrant crime as illegal immigration has surged under the Biden administration. What they found belies euphemizing the word “illegal,” since out of illegal immigration flow a multitude of crimes. They report: A migrant's first step across the border is a lawbreaking one -- whether done with overtly malign intent or not. It is often followed by life on the law’s margins: living in the U.S. without insurance or proper work papers, providing illicit labor, turning to black markets for counterfeit Social Security cards, or becoming targets for robbers or extortionists. Illegality surrounds masses of newly arrived “unaccompanied alien children.” The feds have mishandled these new arrivals, meaning minors are routinely trafficked and U.S. child labor laws widely violated. Immigration illegality surfaces across the United States. A street in Corona, Queens, has been transformed “into the city’s boldest open-air market for sex" – one advertised on YouTube. Dealers in San Francisco’s Tenderloin district, an open-air drug market, tend to be "Hondos" – Honduran migrants. Those migrants who work for legal businesses are also breaking the law, for example, through widespread identity theft victimizing unwitting Americans. The problem begins south of the border. Vulnerable people making the more than 2,000-mile trek from the Darien Gap in Panama fall victim to rape and thievery. While migrant advocates argue that illegal arrivals commit crimes at lower rates than Americans, the claim is unverifiable because the federal government and most states do not break down crimes by immigration status. Nor do “sanctuary” cities cooperate. In RealClearInvestigations, Amanda Kieffer reports how occupational licensing regulations increasingly are a major impediment to ex-cons trying to go straight. She reports: It’s a little-noticed development as unionization has declined in the private American workforce, erecting comparable obstacles to good jobs, plus other givens of a normal citizen’s life. As the U.S. continues to house the highest number of prisoners in the world, concerns are growing among both advocates of “decarceration” on the progressive left and crime-fighters on the right. Researchers and advocates say the employment barriers of occupational licensing make it more likely that ex-cons will return to crime, costing the economy billions. Ex-convicts are subject to more than 46,000 state and federal collateral consequences of criminal convictions – penalties beyond doing time and paying fines. These include denied voting, Second Amendment and housing rights. In Michigan, those with a felony involving physical injury can be ruled ineligible for state nursing scholarships. Alabama has 825 collateral consequences on the books for ex-cons. In Virginia, a conviction for any of 176 different crimes -- from capital murder to kidnapping to pointing a laser at a cop -- can bar an ex-offender from a so-called direct care position, including substance abuse counseling. Rudolph H. Carey III was dismissed as a drug counselor in Virginia for nearly five years when his employer discovered his disqualifying conviction. He’s back at his chosen vocation only after Gov. Glenn Youngkin granted him a pardon last year. That was the upside: The law that prevented Carey from working as a counselor is still on the books. Waste of the Day
by Adam Andrzejewski, Open the Books U. of Va.'s $20M for 235 DEI Staffers, RCI
$324M in Gov't-Funded Oddball Podcasts, RCI
Houston Water Boss Tapped Vanity Coins, RCI
Stalking the Elusive Ice Worm, RCI
NY Taxes to Multiply Campaign Giving, RCI California is preparing to thwart Donald Trump if he is duly elected this November in a free and fair election. “We’re definitely trying to future-proof California in every way, shape or form,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said at the recent signing of a climate change agreement with Sweden. This article reports: Trump campaign officials openly acknowledge that they plan to attack California policies, confirming to POLITICO this week that the state’s electric vehicle programs would be a top target. … What Newsom called future-proofing is effectively Trump-proofing. The latest sign of these preparations came last week with a deal between California and Stellantis, the world’s fourth-largest automaker, which agreed to abide by the state’s emissions rules. With that voluntary commitment, the Chrysler and Dodge manufacturer helped armor California’s climate agenda against lawsuits and a potential federal effort to roll back its more ambitious policies. Chief among California’s arsenal is its strategy in the courts. The state sued Trump 136 times under Attorneys Generals Xavier Becerra and Rob Bonta, according to Paul Nolette, a Marquette University political scientist who studies states’ legal tactics. Other Biden, Trump and the Beltway Joe Biden's Political Origin Story Is Likely Bogus, Washington Free Beacon
Trump’s Mother-in-Law Came to U.S. via Process He Derided, Washington Post
U.S. Intel Agency: Ban Terms 'Radical Islamists' and 'Jihadist', Free Beacon
Filing: Ex-Adviser to Joe and Hunter Biden Stiffed Designer, Fox
Nancy Pelosi's Son Dodges Charges Again, Daily Mail Other Noteworthy Articles and Series For years, China’s state-backed hackers have stolen huge troves of company secrets, political intelligence, and the personal information of millions of people. On Monday, officials in the United States and United Kingdom expanded the long list of hacking allegations, claiming China is responsible for breaching Britain's elections watchdog and accessing 40 million people’s data. The countries also issued a raft of criminal charges and sanctions against a separate Chinese group after a multiyear hacking rampage: The moves come as countries increasingly warn of an increase in China-linked espionage, during a year when more than 100 countries will host major elections. Statements from officials focus on the impact of the hacking activity on democratic processes, including the targeting of elected officials around the world and the compromising of pro-democracy activists and lawmakers in Hong Kong. … China has a broad range of hacking groups linked to its intelligence services and military, as well as companies that it contracts to launch some cyber operations. Many of these groups have been active for more than a decade. Dakota Cary, a China-focused consultant at security firm SentinelOne, says that groups associated with China’s civilian intelligence service are largely conducting diplomatic or government intelligence collection and espionage, while China’s military hackers are behind attacks on power grids and US critical infrastructure such as water supplies. “We do see China engaging in all of those activities simultaneously,” Cary says. Tim Ebel’s visit with an ear, nose and throat specialist at an Ohio clinic last October came to $348. At the same time, he got a second bill for $645. That larger fee, this article reports, came from the hospital system that charged him separately for use of the office where he met his physician. It is what is known as a facility fee, which included overhead for the system’s hospitals, though Ebel hadn’t set foot in one: Hospitals are adding billions of dollars in facility fees to medical bills for routine care in outpatient centers they own. Once an annoyance, the fees are now pervasive, and in some places they are becoming nearly impossible to avoid, data compiled for The Wall Street Journal show. The fees are spreading as hospitals press on with acquisitions, snapping up medical groups and tacking on the additional charges. The fees raise prices by hundreds of dollars for widely used and standard medical care, including colonoscopies, mammograms and heart screening. … Fees have grown more pervasive as hospitals have gone on an acquisition tear in recent years, chasing after patients who have more options to get medical care somewhere else. Many hospital systems now get at least half their revenue from patients who aren’t admitted. By one estimate, more than half of doctors work for hospitals. This article reports that hospitals say such fees are necessary to help offset the extra costs that they incur to meet federal regulations. One patient who was hit a facility fee six years ago when his son broke his arm is now on guard. “Every appointment I make, the first question I ask is do you charge facility fees?” In recent years, many tech giants have declared their commitment to climate change goals. The rise of power-hungry AI computers is complicating that, this article reports, and it seems Silicon Valley is more inclined to burn fossil fuels than threaten their business: A March International Energy Agency forecast estimates input-hungry AI models and cryptocurrency mining combined could cause data centers worldwide to double their energy use in just two years. Recent reports suggest tech leaders interested in staying relevant in the booming AI race may consider turning to old-fashioned, carbon-emitting energy sources to help meet that demand. … [A recent study reported that] energy demands from AI servers in 2027 could be on par with those of Argentina, the Netherlands, or Sweden combined. Production of new data centers isn’t slowing down either. Just last week, Washington Square Journal reports, Amazon Web Service Vice President of Engineering Bill Vass told an audience at an energy industry event in Texas he believes a new data center is being built every three days. Other energy industry leaders speaking at the event, like Former U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz, argued renewable energy production may fall short of what is needed to power this projected data center growth. In a separate article, the Epoch Times reports that the respected commercial weather forecasting service WeatherBEL predicts a “hurricane season from hell,” for the cycle that begins June 1. But, this article reports, the cause is not climate change, but the normal transition from El Niño patterns to La Niña, which is “correlated with higher-than-normal hurricane activity.” Quote from Joe Bastardi, WeatherBELL’s chief forecaster: If you hang around people constantly spouting negative stuff and how bad it is, guess what you’re going to believe? … It’s a great strategy for pushing this thing—if I wanted to argue the CO2 [carbon dioxide] argument, I'd do exactly what they’re doing. But there’s been no increase. And the size of the storms is getting smaller. That’s the other thing: hurricanes are smaller and more compact. Migrants are bringing more than hopes and dreams and fiscal crisis to Chicago – some are also carrying disease. This article reports that 26 measles cases (since updated to at least 41) have been reported in the Windy City, 19 of which have been in children younger than 5. Most of the cases have been associated with one migrant shelter: Chicago health officials announced Monday that residents at a migrant shelter in Pilsen should receive a second dose of the measles vaccine 28 days after the first shot. The Chicago Department of Public Health said the new policy was necessary because of the continued increase in measles cases among young children at the Halsted Street shelter. The second dose will help protect preschool children until their immunity to measles is fully developed and will also help stop the spread to other children who haven't received a second dose of the shot. In a separate article published in December, RealClearInvestigations reported that many forgotten but still formidable infectious diseases in addition to measles have begun to reappear in the U.S. as millions of migrants have crossed the border. For two years running, polio has been detected in some New York water samples, and this fall, leprosy re-emerged in Florida, where cases of malaria have also been recorded. Squatters – people who illegally live in someone else’s home long enough that some laws allow them to claim they are its legal resident – are popping up all over the place as a spate of news articles detail. Other squatters have also refused to leave Airbnbs and, as this article reports, hotel rooms: On a June afternoon in 2018, a man named Mickey Barreto checked into the New Yorker Hotel. He was assigned Room 2565, a double-bed accommodation with a view of Midtown Manhattan almost entirely obscured by an exterior wall. For a one-night stay, he paid $200.57. But he did not check out the next morning. Instead, he made the once-grand hotel his full-time residence for the next five years, without ever paying another cent. … The story of how Mr. Barreto, a California transplant with a taste for wild conspiracy theories and a sometimes tenuous grip on reality, gained and then lost the rights to Room 2565 might sound implausible … But it’s true. Whatever his far-fetched beliefs, Mr. Barreto, now 49, was right about one thing: an obscure New York City rent law that provided him with many a New Yorker’s dream. At one point during years of court fights, Barreto claimed to own the entire property. The article notes: “Across the country, it is not uncommon for overworked municipal recorders to accept property filings under the assumption that they are legitimate, and for real estate speculators to take advantage of the system.” Now, however, Barreto’s maneuverings may provide him with new free lodgings: jail. | 