Episodes
Tuesday Sep 29, 2015
Leid Stories – 09.29.15
Tuesday Sep 29, 2015
Tuesday Sep 29, 2015
Fiat Chrysler Workers in Detroit Reject Contract; Strike Ahead?
Obama Goes Professorial, but Gets Read, at 70th U.N. General Assembly
A four-year tentative contract negotiated between the auto workers union and Fiat Chrysler appears headed for recall. More than 40,000 members of the United Automobile Workers currently are voting on whether to ratify the contract, but so far the UAW’s largest locals have voted against the deal.
Greg Gardner, labor reporter for the Detroit Free Press, explains why workers are against the contract and whether their thumbs-down on it is a harbinger of contract negotiations with Ford and General Motors. The Big 3 auto manufacturers employ about 141,000 workers.
At the opening of the 70th United Nations General Assembly in New York yesterday, President Barack Obama was in full professorial mode, lecturing world leaders about international affairs. Several of them conducted teach-ins of their own that corrected the teacher’s syllabus.
Monday Sep 28, 2015
Leid Stories – 09.28.15
Monday Sep 28, 2015
Monday Sep 28, 2015
Holier Than Thou: The Role of Religion in the 2016 Presidential Race
The 2016 presidential race has unleashed a devil’s brew of marketing ploys—chief among them a distinctly nativist “American Christian” religiosity.
U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), was the first to tout his evangelical credentials to the [self-] righteous. In early April, in a bid to woo evangelicals, his campaign ran a 30-second spot, titled “Blessing,” in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada—the states with the earliest primaries.
In the ensuing months, the candidates’ religious beliefs, and religion as a whole, have featured prominently in media coverage of the presidential campaign. Leid Stories discusses the role of religion in shaping electoral choices.
Friday Sep 25, 2015
Leid Stories – 09.25.15
Friday Sep 25, 2015
Friday Sep 25, 2015
Your Opinions and Ideas Are Premium on ‘Free Your Mind Friday!’
It’s Free Your Mind Friday on Leid Stories, and listeners’ opinions and ideas take center stage in this open forum.
Call in (888-874-4888) and either start or be part of the conversation.
Thursday Sep 24, 2015
Leid Stories – 09.24.15
Thursday Sep 24, 2015
Thursday Sep 24, 2015
The Constitution and Citizenship: The Dred Scott Decision (Part 2)
Last week, when the nation observed Constitution and Citizenship Day, Leid Stories began a discussion on how these two things are connected and are at the root of American “identity.”
One case, decided by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1857, proved then, and still proves to this day, that neither the Constitution nor citizenship was meant to be of benefit to all Americans. Known as Dred Scott v. Sandford, the court ruled that African Americans, specifically, whether enslaved or free, were neither meant to be beneficiaries of constitutional rights nor its protections as citizens.
Legal scholar Paul Finkelman, who teaches constitutional law, legal history and race and the law at Albany Law School in New York, is presented here discussing the constitutional origins of the issue of citizenship in a detailed examination of the landmark Dred Scott case.
Why is this case important? Why should you know about it? Because it is the formal articulation—by the nation’s highest court, no less—of the answer to the still-roiling question: Who is a citizen of the United States of America?
Wednesday Sep 23, 2015
Leid Stories – 09.23.15
Wednesday Sep 23, 2015
Wednesday Sep 23, 2015
Auto Workers Begin Voting on New Contracts. Deal or No Deal?
Starving for Education in Chicago: Hunger Strikers Fight for A School
About 40,000 workers are voting this week on whether to ratify a new four-year contract their union, the United Auto Workers, has worked out with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles. All eyes in the auto industry are looking for the outcome, which might predict how contract negotiations with General Motors and Ford Motor Co. will go as well. The industry employs 141,000 people.
Two longtime union workers discuss their concerns about the contract-negotiation process, the concessions they say the UAW has made, the definitive change in workers’ rights and benefits, and the outsourcing of jobs.
It took a 34-day hunger strike by 15 activists to force Chicago Public Schools to reopen the historic Dyett High School, shut down last year. But the fight’s just beginning, say the strikers, who envision the creation of the Dyett Global Leadership and Green Technology High School, and the rebirth of community control over education in the City of Chicago.
Tuesday Sep 22, 2015
Leid Stories – 09.22.15
Tuesday Sep 22, 2015
Tuesday Sep 22, 2015
Behind the Headlines: Pope Francis, President Xi Jinping Visit the U.S.; Chaos in Europe; A Military Coup in Burkina Faso; and the 2016 Presidential Race
Dr. Gerald Horne, the John J. and Rebecca Moores chair of history and African American studies at the University of Houston and frequent analyst of world affairs on Leid Stories, provides unique insights on several major news issues and developments.
Topics include the Pope’s visit to Cuba and the United States; President Xi Jinping’s six-day trip to the U.S.; the rapidly escalating refugee crisis in Europe; the military coup in Burkina Faso; and the 2016 presidential race.
Horne has written more than 30 books, and more than 100 scholarly papers and reviews, on struggles against imperialism, colonialism, fascism, racism and war.
Tuesday Sep 22, 2015
Leid Stories – 09.21.15
Tuesday Sep 22, 2015
Tuesday Sep 22, 2015
Ben Carson: So Fanatical, So Bigoted, So Wrong, On So Many Levels
The Mysterious 23-Month Gap In Hillary Clinton’s Haiti Emails
Republican presidential candidate and self-professed man of God Ben Carson has made it plain: The nation’s highest office should be off-limits to Muslims. Further, he contends Islam is not “consistent” with the U.S. Constitution.
Zahra Billoo, executive director of the Bay Area office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, weighs in on Carson.
Of the 7,945 emails of former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made public so far, 391 pertain to Haiti—a country at the heart of several questionable political and financial dealings involving the Democratic presidential candidate and her family.
Kim Ives, cofounder of the international weekly newspaper Haïti Liberté, discusses a mysterious 23-month gap in Clinton’s emails on Haiti.
Friday Sep 18, 2015
Leid Stories – 09.18.15
Friday Sep 18, 2015
Friday Sep 18, 2015
Got Something to Say? Say It on ‘Free Your Mind Friday!’
It’s been quite a week. No doubt you have something to say about the issues and events that made the headlines. Or, maybe you’d like to share your thoughts about something altogether different. Either way, there’s plenty of room for your information, opinions and ideas on Leid Stories’ “free Your Mind Friday,” the world’s greatest open forum.
Thursday Sep 17, 2015
Leid Stories – 09.17.15
Thursday Sep 17, 2015
Thursday Sep 17, 2015
On ‘Constitution and Citizenship Day,’ Dred Scott Decision Still Relevant
On this day in 1787, delegates to the Constitutional Convention signed the document in Philadelphia—a date officially commemorated since 1940.
Constitution and Citizenship Day extols the two things that are the core of American ideology and identity. But not so for a large segment of America, historically and even today.
Legal scholar Paul Finkelman, who teaches constitutional law, legal history and race and the law at Albany Law School, discusses the constitutional origins of the issue of citizenship in a detailed examination of the landmark Dred Scott case.
Wednesday Sep 16, 2015
Leid Stories – 09.16.15
Wednesday Sep 16, 2015
Wednesday Sep 16, 2015
The Ferguson Commission Report: An Exercise in Futility?
CNN Takes Its Turn As Carnival Barker At Two-Ring Circus
The Ferguson Commission—a 16-member blue-ribbon panel appointed last November by Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon to look into underlying causes of the rebellion that enveloped the city three months earlier, after the police shooting of Michael Brown—concluded its task two days ago with a 198-page report.
Titled “Forward Through Ferguson: A Path Toward Racial Equity,” the report makes 169 recommendations in four areas it identified as requiring urgent attention— the law-enforcement/criminal-justice system, issues uniquely related to local youth, economic development, and entrenched racism.
Our guest, Al Gerhardstein, a Cincinnati-based civil-rights attorney with a long history of successfully litigating police-brutality cases and forcing court-ordered reforms in the criminal-justice system, discusses the Ferguson Commission’s report.
CNN takes its turn tonight as carnival barker at the two-ring circus it’s calling a presidential debate. Leid Stories in a commentary explains how CNN is merely filling its role as one of “The 3 M’s” in this political season.