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Wednesday May 02, 2018
Wednesday May 02, 2018
The official coroner’s report on the March 18 killing of Stephon Clark by two still-unnamed Sacramento Police Department officers has touched off a new round of tensions. The report, released yesterday, disputes key findings of an earlier, independent autopsy performed by the Clark family’s forensic pathologist. The reports differ in the number of bullets that struck Clark, where about the body he was struck, and whether Clark was facing his shooters or was attempting to run away from them when he was hit.
Entertainer Bill Cosby, convicted April 26 in a Pennsylvania court on three felony counts of aggravated indecent assault, is to learn the length of his prison sentence in June. The maximum for each count is 10 years.
Leid Stories continues with listeners’ observations about the fairness of his trial.
Tuesday May 01, 2018
Tuesday May 01, 2018
A week into a strike by 50,000 teachers in Arizona over long-overdue salary increases and funding for basics like books and school supplies, and one doesn’t get a sense that this constitutes a state of emergency. Similarly, in Colorado, some 10,000 teachers walked off their jobs demanding pay hikes, facility upgrades and new textbooks for students. The state governments say they simply don’t have the money. Shouldn’t this be where Secretary of Education rides to the rescue and brokers a solution?
Vice President Mike Pence decided yesterday to keep the issue of “The Wall” going. He visited a wall-building project in Calexico, Calif., and used it as a backdrop to tell the media that President Trump will have his wall. Earlier in the day, about 150 people (most of them from Central American states) seeking to file for asylum in the United States were turned away at a border-crossing processing center in San Diego. We discuss why it was against both U.S. and international law to turn them away, and why the administration continues to conflate the issue of asylum with illegal immigration.
Listeners continue to share their views about the just-concluded Bill Cosby trial, in which a jury found the entertainer guilty of three counts of aggravated indecent assault for sexually assaulting a female basketball coach he had mentored in his Philadelphia home in 2004. Cosby, 80, faces up to 10 in prison on each count when he is sentenced in June.
Monday Apr 30, 2018
Monday Apr 30, 2018
More than a month ago, about 150 people, including many families with children, began a 2,000-mile trek north—from southern Mexico to a border-crossing processing center in San Diego, Calif.—seeking legal entry into the United States. Most of them said they were fleeing the intolerable poverty, political turmoil and unspeakable violence in their home countries in Central America. But when they got to San Diego, they were turned away by U.S. Customs and Border Patrol at the San Ysidro crossing, which told them there was no room. Trump’s ramped-up immigration policy seems to include swamping Mexico with Central American migrants.
President Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeria begins a three-day visit at the White House today. He and President Trump are expected to discuss trade, economic development throughout the African continent, and stemming the tide of terrorism. Talks with Trump are said to have as a backdrop President Obama’s purportedly lackluster relationship with Africa’s leaders.
Leid Stories listeners share their views in a preliminary discussion on the Bill Cosby trial, which ended last Thursday with a jury’s verdict convicting him of three counts of aggravated indecent assault for sexually assaulting a female basketball coach he had mentored in his Philadelphia home in 2004. The 80-year-old comedian faces up to 10 in prison on each count when he is sentenced in June.
Friday Apr 27, 2018
Friday Apr 27, 2018
Welcome to the best peer-education program on the planet—“Free Your Mind Friday” on Leid Stories.
It’s an open forum for the exchange of information, opinions and ideas, and analytical thinking is the star of the show.
Share your intellectual wealth. Call in (888-874-4888) and help us all fight the power and frustrate the system by freeing our minds!
Thursday Apr 26, 2018
Thursday Apr 26, 2018
A presidency continually rocked by scandal, turmoil and a distorted view of his own power. A Congress that dislikes the open contempt he shows it. A Republican Party that holds him personally responsible for decimating its political gains. A record exodus of Republicans from the House and the Senate. A Cabinet of novices who aren’t quite sure what they’re supposed to be doing. A Democratic opposition that threatens often to impeach. World leaders who think he’s an intellectual light and clown. Media outlets that give him no slack, sensing he’s vulnerable. A wife who swats away his hand. His “Make America Great Again” political base aren’t themselves feeling great about the promises he made. And now, a personal lawyer he thinks might “flip” on him under the intense pressure of concurrent federal investigations.
It’s not easy being Donald J. Trump right now. And yet, he’s got to pull a whole lot of rabbits out of a hat right quick, with midterm elections right around the corner. Can Trump survive the demons that hound him?
Wednesday Apr 25, 2018
Wednesday Apr 25, 2018
For several years now, The Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton Foundation has been the principal target of a self-initiated forensic investigation by Charles Ortel, a retired Wall Street banker, who early into his probe found evidence that the foundation was a sham, an extremely lucrative money-making operation for the family. The foundation, he found, not only was operating outside of its original purpose (to build and maintain a presidential library in Little Rock, Ark.), but had illegally launched a number of “affiliated” entities that appeared to be nonprofits but were in fact additional sources of revenue for the Clintons.
How were they able to accomplish these things without detection or sanction? How were they able to get away with such massive fraud (Ortel alleged it is “the largest unprosecuted fraud in history.”)?
The answer: Coverups by governmental officials at the highest levels.
Ortel has been reporting his findings on the Clinton foundation for more than two years. His reports have kickstarted probes by several governments who had contributed billions of dollars to the foundation’s purported “good works.” But here in the United States, coverups provided unprecedented protection.
On Leid Stories today, Ortel asserts that the evidence shows the Clinton-coverup road leads directly to former President Barack H. Obama.
Tuesday Apr 24, 2018
Tuesday Apr 24, 2018
Ostensibly to commemorate deep historical ties and the continuing strength of the relationship between The United States and France, President Emmanuel Macron and First Lady Brigitte are the honored guests of a three-day state visit hosted by President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump. The highlight of the visit, which began Monday, is a series of bilateral talks and conferences scheduled today. And, of course, the obligatory fancy-schmancy white-tie state dinner tonight at the White House.
Macron’s visit comes soon after France and Britain joined the United States in unsanctioned April 13 airstrikes on targets within Syria alleged to be production plants for chemical weapons the Bashar al-Assad regime is accused of using against its enemies in an ongoing civil war.
Gilbert Mercier, cofounder and editor in chief of newsjunkiepost, discusses the on-again, off-again budding bromance between Macron and Trump and the significance of Macron’s state visit.
Monday Apr 23, 2018
Monday Apr 23, 2018
Gwen Carr, the mother of Eric Garner, is still holding on to the hope that the U.S. Justice Department will bring to account Daniel Pantaleo, the NYPD officer who put her 43-year-old son Eric in an illegal chokehold on July 7, 2014 that killed him. The New York Times reported last week that some federal prosecutors within the Justice Department had recommended prosecution of Pantaleo on federal civil-rights charges, but that others were uncertain whether such charges would yield a conviction.
The Garner case, which has been a frequent topic on Leid Stories, deserves a much closer look—this time discussing the intricacies of how justice is actually railroaded by systems that publicly proclaim their rugged pursuit of it.
Friday Apr 20, 2018
Friday Apr 20, 2018
It’s “Free Your Mind Friday” on Leid Stories. Listeners take charge of the netwaves, voicing their views on issues and events of the day or about matters they believe warrant further discussion and debate.
Add your own unique flavor to this full-bodied intellectual soup. Call 888-874-4888 to free your mind!
Thursday Apr 19, 2018
Thursday Apr 19, 2018
When Defense Secretary James Mattis advised President Donald Trump to seek congressional approval before ordering the April 13 military strikes on alleged chemical weapons production sites in Syria, his concerns were summarily dismissed.
Mattis tried to tell the president that the War Powers Act (also known as the War Powers Resolution of 1973) obligated a president to apprise Congress (the people) that the United States military imminently would be involved in armed conflict; the reasons; how long it is expected to last; and the resources needed.
Trump saw no need to obey either the letter or spirit of the law as commander in chief. Moreover, he invited Britain and France to participate in the April 1 attacks.
Leid Stories asks: Is Trump a law unto himself?