Episodes
Friday Sep 15, 2017
Leid Stories—Storms After the Storms—09.15.17
Friday Sep 15, 2017
Friday Sep 15, 2017
Our rather stormy week is not yet over.
Listeners churn out their own bruising commentaries about other storms they weathered this week.
It’s “Free Your Mind Friday” on Leid Stories, and you’re invited to add your voice to our free-form, unscripted conversation.
Call 888-874-4888 and have your say.
Thursday Sep 14, 2017
Thursday Sep 14, 2017
George Webb, a citizen journalist with Crowdsource the Truth, fleshes out the latest chapter in a major scandal involving Imran Awan, a mysterious Pakistan-born IT engineer who through high-level contacts in the Democratic Party set up a family business handling restricted accounts of dozens of Democratic members of Congress.
On July 24, federal agents arrested Awan at Dulles International Airport on bank-fraud charges as he attempted to leave the country. His wife, Hina Awan, in a separate but related action, also has been charged with bank fraud.
Webb has been untangling an intriguing web that appears to connect Awan and his unusual family business to Florida congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the ousted leader of the Democratic National Committee.
In following the trails of this story, Webb has been encountering a dark, criminal underworld that one would hardly suspect is connected to the world of politics.
Wednesday Sep 13, 2017
Wednesday Sep 13, 2017
U.S Attorney Jeff Sessions’ announcement yesterday that his Department of Justice will not prosecute six Baltimore officers who had been implicated in the controversial death of Freddie Gray two years ago has triggered new rounds of criticisms about preferential treatment for law-enforcement officers in the criminal-justice system.
Leid Stories discusses the significance and impact of Sessions’ announcement.
Tuesday Sep 12, 2017
Leid Stories—After the Storms, Few Reasons to Be Calm—09.12.17
Tuesday Sep 12, 2017
Tuesday Sep 12, 2017
There’s big money blowing in behind the storms this hurricane season, and if history tells us anything, there won’t be much careful thought behind who’ll get it and how it will be spent. While no one’s looking too closely in the middle of several disasters, this is when a lot of shady deals are done.
Leid Stories cautions that citizen watchdog groups be formed now to participate in overseeing rebuilding projects, wherever they are to being undertaken.
Thursday Sep 07, 2017
Leid Stories—Hurricane Irma’s “Free Your Mind Thursday—09.07.17
Thursday Sep 07, 2017
Thursday Sep 07, 2017
Irma, now classified as an “extreme Category 5” hurricane, is giving South Florida a taste of what she can do. Two days before her formal arrival, there are scattered power outpower outages.
Leid Stories, therefore, is pushing up our schedule by one day, just so ardent fans of “Free Your Mind Friday” won’t miss out on their weekly forum. Let’s hope this works.
Wednesday Sep 06, 2017
Wednesday Sep 06, 2017
Skipping across the country to promote and sell her recently released book, “What Happened”—her explanation for why she lost the 2016 election to Donald J. Trump—Hillary Clinton gives no hint that there’s much more than meets the eye.
But there is. Leid Stories explains what she’s hiding.
Tuesday Sep 05, 2017
Leid Stories—Disasters Are Great for Political Business—09.05.17
Tuesday Sep 05, 2017
Tuesday Sep 05, 2017
Major cities and towns along the U.S. Gulf Coast slammed by Hurricane Harvey’s torrential rains and massive flooding are on storm watch again, hoping there won’t be a repeat performance from Irma, a storm picking up force and speed in the Caribbean that potentially can hit the South Florida coastline later this week.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott says cleanup would cost between $180 and $200 billion in his state. But that’s just an estimate. And that’s at the top of the list of things that go unaccounted for, it seems, in disaster funding.
Leid Stories discusses how disasters are great for political business.
Friday Sep 01, 2017
Leid Stories—Harvey Horrors and Other Raging Storms—09.01.17
Friday Sep 01, 2017
Friday Sep 01, 2017
Reeling from a slamming by Hurricane Harvey (now downgraded to a tropical depression), residents and businesses in coastal Texas and Louisiana are cleaning up and figuring out their next move, while keeping an eye on Irma, another major storm developing in the east Atlantic.
Leid Stories listeners discuss whether, as in the case of Houston, we really are prepared to live with natural disasters and catastrophic events.
Thursday Aug 31, 2017
Thursday Aug 31, 2017
Having been called out on the slipshod and highly irregular administrative and business practices of the Clinton Foundation and its affiliated entities, it appeared Bill and Hillary Clinton began to shut down parts of their U.S.-headquartered operations, especially those that were running afoul of U.S. charity and other laws.
At the same time, the foundation seems to be increasing its involvement overseas, flying under the radar of strict compliance and accountability.
Three agricultural projects run by the Clinton Foundation in Malawi, Rwanda and Tanzania again raise the issue of how the Clintons repeatedly flout laws, domestic and international, that regulate charities.
Ex-Wall Street banker-turned financial investigator Charles Ortel for years has been tracking the under-the-radar operations of the Clinton financial empire, at the core of which is a family foundation. The foundation, formally The Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton Foundation, claims it is a charity helping to solve major human challenges in the world, but Ortel has found damning proof that it has been operating in flagrant violation of domestic and international law as a slush fund for the Clintons, selling access and favors to “donors.”
“It’s the largest unprosecuted fraud in U.S. history,” says Ortel, who proved that several Wall Street-traded companies had been overvaluing their stocks by billions of dollars during the time of the 2008-2009 stock market crash.