Further Reading, Vol. II
Recent updates to stories previously covered by Investigative Economics.
The House Oversight Committee is reportedly investigating representative Ilhan Omar’s finances. Here is the original Investigative Economics’ story on the subject.
Similar to the Investigative Economics story on Medicare spending following enactment of the ACA, the Government Accountability Office published a report last month on fraud and abuse of subsidies under the ACA.
In a similar vein, any readers familiar with our story on the perverse incentives of the ACA’s medical loss ratio rule and how it was encouraging high premiums and consolidation in the medical world should read this recent paper in Health Affairs Forefront which echoes that same sentiment.
Readers of the recent story on the decline of the oil refining industry in California might want to also read this December 2025 preprint of a paper on a similar topic from University of California researchers. The gist is similar: California’s policies have driven refining out of the state and towards foreign imports, but there are some additional details here that aren’t in the Investigative Economics story.
A recent story on the Arabella Network of philanthropies and their funding of political campaigns has some similarities to a recent rule passed in Ohio.
In July, an appeals court upheld a law banning political donations from foreign entities. Specifically, it changed the definition of a foreign entity to include lawful naturalized migrants like those holding green cards, and also applies to indirect contributions targeting ballot initiatives.
The law appears to almost directly target the Arabella Network’s Sixteen Thirty Fund and other philanthropies connected to the Swiss billionaire Hansjorg Wyss. In the Ohio Secretary of State’s press release on the rule, it even goes so far to include an infographic about Wyss’ funding of political advocacy groups in the state.
Ballot initiatives in Ohio have been big money for a number of years, with spending in 2017 almost hitting $87 million—getting close to the large dollar numbers seen in California ballot initiatives. Most of those California initiatives tend to fail but can be considered successful in how they funnel large amounts of cash into the campaign finance system at large.
The most recent ballot initiative in Ohio in 2025—Issue 2 on raising a state bond for construction—only saw a few hundred thousand in spending—so potentially the rule has already cut off the cash, but it’s hard to tell. Not all Ohio ballot initiatives are multi-million dollar affairs.
Similarly, Nebraska’s attorney general pointed out the potential for foreign influence via ballot initiatives in his state.
A recent Chronicle of Higher Education story highlights the same issues of grade inflation found in an earlier Investigative Economics story: declining ACT scores as grades go up. The Chronicle story misses some nuance to the topic, that the sharp decline in ACT scores is likely related to changes to the exam that occurred at that very same time rather than a sudden drop in student intelligence.
Elon Musk on a recent episode of the Joe Rogan podcast talks about the same aspect of gerrymandering that was first written about in Investigative Economics: that non-citizens that can’t vote can still skew elections by changing how districts are apportioned because they are included in the Census counts that determine voting districts.
The improving health of the Great Barrier reef got some recognition in an article from the International Journal of Global Warming back in July. This is the same trend highlighted by Investigative Economics in 2024, but interesting to see it detailed in a journal that might not otherwise cover a subject that might run counter to other global warming theories.
The recent tragedy at Brown University has drawn some attention to what might have been the perpetrator’s motives—potentially a grudge against the school related to recent budget cuts.
University spending is an ongoing contentious topic with the blame commonly pointed at bloated administrative staff as the culprit.
But a prior Investigative Economics story noted how similar complaints aimed at Yale were unfounded. That non-faculty staff ratios were in line with what they were in the past with no sign of large growth in salaries. Instead, faculty costs were the ones that were growing.
And a quick glimpse at the numbers for Brown show a similar albeit different story.
Ratios of administrators to total staff are currently in line with what they were in 2015. Salary costs have actually gone down as a percentage of total expenses. Instead there are other costs like graduate student support and purchased services adding to the totals.
Great roundup of follow-ups. The Ohio foreign funding rule targeting ballot initiatives is particuarly noteworthy, especially how it directly addresses the Arabella Network's influence. I've seen similar attempts in other states to regulate dark money flows but Ohio's approach of redefining foreign entity to include indirect contributions is pretty agressive. That connection between investigative reporting and actual policy changes shows the real impact of this kinda work.