Leid Stories

Leid Stories - Something to Say? Get It Said!’ - 06.24.16

What a week it’s been. Calamity. Treachery. Conspiracy. Intrigue. And that’s just Congress!

You’ve got a lot to say about this week’s news issues and events, and about other things, too. Well, get them said on Leid Stories’ “Free Your Mind Friday,” the world’s best open forum.

Call 888-874-4888 and tell it like it is.

Leid Stories - Third Cop Walks in Freddie Gray Case; The Orlando Massacre: Was It Terrorism? - 06.23.16

Caesar Goodson, the third officer, and “star” defendant, tried in connection with the brutal death of Freddie Gray today was cleared of all charges—including second-degree depraved-heart murder; three counts of manslaughter; assault; reckless endangerment; and misconduct in office.

Noted attorney Alton H. Maddox Jr., who predicted the outcome of the case, deciphers the verdict.

In the immediate aftermath of the June 12 massacre of 49 people and the wounding of 53 others at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Fla., President Barack Obama told the nation that the alleged lone gunman, Omar Mateen, a 29-year-old security guard, had committed “an act of terror” and “an act of hate.”

Various other officials in his administration—including Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, FBI Director James Comey and their boss U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch—have echoed the president’s characterization of the tragedy, and it appears to be the legal definition that is informing the government’s ongoing investigations.

Leid Stories - Orlando Massacre Raises Questions [Again] About U.S. Justice Department’s Problems - 06.20.16

U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch, the nation’s highest-level law-enforcement official, followed quickly on the heels of President Obama’s declaration of outrage about the June 12 massacre at the Pulse gay nightclub in Orlando, Fla., and his promise to the nation to “seek justice.” Lynch was a featured guest on major weekend newsmaker shows discussing the progress the DOJ was making in pursuing leads in the case, with the alleged gunman, Omar Mateen, 29, and others believed connected to him at the center of the investigation. Forty-nine people were killed and 53 wounded in the mass shooting. Mateen died was killed in as gun battle with police.  

Leid Stories discusses a troublesome—and recurring—theme in the DOJ’s investigations, raised once again in Lynch’s probe of the Orlando massacre

Leid Stories - Talk All About It on ‘Free Your Mind Friday!’ - 06.17.16

Join us at “the gathering place for the exchange of information, opinions and ideas.” It's “Free Your Mind Friday” on Leid Stories, and listeners call is as they see it. Call 888-874-4888 and free your mind!

Leid Stories - Mass Murder, Mass Media and Race Politics (Part 4) - 06.16.16

It took 15 hours of pleading by Senate Democrats yesterday before Republicans agreed to consider two gun-control measures that would add controls on licenses and background checks for people buying guns. Sen. Chris Murphy, the junior senator from Connecticut, noting that almost four years after the massacre of 20 schoolchildren and six staff members at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in his home state, “we have done nothing, nothing at all to reduce the likelihood that that will happen again to another family.”

But it did, just three days before Murphy’s filibuster. Forty-nine people were killed, and 53 others wounded, in a mass shooting on June 12 at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Fla. Omar Mateen, 29, the alleged lone gunman, mowed down his victims with a military-style assault rifle and a high-powered handgun, even though he had been, at one point, on two federal “watch” lists.

Leid Stories discusses the quandary that plagues gun-control legislative efforts in the United States.

Leid Stories - Mass Murder, Mass Media and Race Politics (Part 3); D.C. Primary Proves A Major Point - 06.15.16

As more is learned about Omar Mateen, the alleged lone gunman responsible for the June 12 massacre at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Fla., and about other related developments, we see a shift in how the story is being reported and how officials are continuing to manage the mass killing as “an act of terrorism.” Leid Stories continues the discussion of the previous two days.

Yesterday’s Democratic primary in Washington, D.C., the last hurrah of the primary season, predictably handed an easy victory to Hillary Clinton over Bernie Sanders—78.7 percent of the vote and 16 additional delegates to supercharge her nomination. The D.C. primary, however, was not just a ceremonious end to the faceoffs between the two candidates, says Leid Stories; it pointedly brought home the necessity to part ways with the established political order and the failure of third parties and political movements to make inroads with constituencies that are looking for alternatives.

Leid Stories - Mass Murder, Mass Media and Race Politics (Part 2) - 06.14.16

President Obama, expected to hit the campaign trail to support Hillary Clinton, instead will be in Orlando today, paying his respects to the victims of the June 12 mass shooting by a lone gunman at a gay club there. Fifty people—including the gunman, Omar Mateen, 29—died in the carnage, and 53 others were wounded, many of them sustaining multiple wounds.

Leid Stories continues yesterday’s discussion on the politicization of the tragedy.

Leid Stories - Mass Murder, Mass Media and Race Politics - 06.13.16

A lone gunman, identified as Omar Mateen, 29, of Port St. Lucie, Fla., without warning opened fire inside a popular gay nightclub in Orlando in the wee hours of Sunday morning as patrons were celebrating Pride Month. Mateen died in a gunfight with a SWAT team, but not before himself killing 50 patrons and wounding 53 others, many of them critically.

The massacre has shocked and outraged the nation and the world—and especially the LGBTQ community, which has been reporting an escalation in homophobia-related violence. The Orlando mass killings, however, are a new threshold in such violence, which is occurring in a carefully orchestrated climate, says Leid Stories.

Leid Stories - Talk All About It on ‘Free Your Mind Friday!’ - 06.10.16

Join us at “the gathering place for the exchange of information,opinions and ideas.” It's “Free Your Mind Friday” on Leid Stories, and listeners call is as they see it.

Call 888-874-4888 and free your mind!

Leid Stories - Election 2016: Primaries Deliver A Big Payday for Clinton, An Inevitable Payout for Sanders (Part 2) - 06.09.16

Leid Stories’ listeners chime in on yesterday’s topic, which predicted Sanders’ capitulation to Clinton and the Democratic Party in the name of “party unity,” and the almost certain death of the “progressive” movement he started.