Leid Stories

Leid Stories - 10/09/14

Souls to the Polls: The Pimping of the Black Church  

We can tell it’s election time. The news is all about hotly contested races, media networks rake in millions in political advertising, and Black churches are suddenly popular among politicians of all stripes who normally wouldn’t set foot in their would-be voters’ neighborhoods.

The Democrats have made a science of pimping the Black church, recruiting influential pastors with significant flocks into the party’s fold. Consequently, says Leid Stories, the interests and rights of many Black communities across the country are actually being undermined by the very people who should be championing them.

Leid Stories - Copout!: Why the Brown and Garner Cases Have Gone Nowhere - 10/09/14

Today marks two months since Michael Brown, 18, was shot and killed by Ferguson, Missouri, police officer Darren Wilson and almost three months since Eric Garner, 43, died after a violent attempted arrest by a group of police officers during which one of them, Daniel Pantaleo, used an illegal chokehold. To date, no arrest has been made in either case and state and federal probes have yielded no indictments.

Lawyers for both men’s families appear to be interested only in the civil side of the case—the huge settlements they expect to get from their wrongful-death claims against both cities. Meanwhile, that aspect of the case, which is about justice, is being left to the whims and machinations of the very systems they should be fighting.

The sexual-assault cloud hanging over one of the Rev. Al Sharpton-appointed lawyers, Sanford Rubenstein, did not prevent him from staking an early claim to a portion of the Garner family’s expected wrongful-death payout; he filed a notice of claim for $75 million in court yesterday in behalf of the family.

Leid Stories - 10/07/14

Detroit: As Trial Winds Down, Claims of Light At End of Bankruptcy Tunnel

The Trouble With Lentils: Life on the Edge In Obama’s Prosperous America

The federal trial to determine whether Detroit’s bankruptcy-exit plan is fair and feasible is winding down, but the week began with lawyers for Financial Guaranty Insurance Company, the lone remaining major creditor (with a claim against the city for $1.1 billion), all wound up over a meager payout. They want cash and real estate to settle.

Meanwhile, Gov. Rick Snyder and Mayor Mike Duggan have given emergency manager Kevyn Orr’s draconian plan their blessing—with Snyder predicting that Detroit will be out of bankruptcy within 30 to 60 days.

Abayomi Azikiwe, our correspondent on Detroit’s bankruptcy, provides an update on what’s happening in and out of court.

A fast run to the supermarket for lentils yesterday turned into a slow burn about life in Obama’s America, with object lessons drawn from a not-Mr.Rogers-type neighborhood, where people are quietly unraveling. 

Leid Stories - 10/06/14

Sharpton Lawyer’s Sex-Assault Probe Revives Tawana Brawley Case

Dictator’s Death Closes One Chapter, Opens Another, In Haiti’s Life

The Rev. Al Sharpton has gone silent—“no comment at this time,” says his PR flak—about the allegation by a top executive of his National Action Network that she was sexually assaulted by his attorney friend Sanford Rubenstein after a star-studded 60th-birthday bash for Sharpton at the posh Four Seasons restaurant in Manhattan last Wednesday.

Rubenstein, who has made millions litigating police-brutality cases literally delivered to him by Sharpton, is the lawyer for the family of Eric Garner, killed by police chokehold in Staten Island, N.Y., on July 17.

Leid Stories in a commentary notes several reasons why the bloviator-in-chief’s self-imposed silence and media coverage of the Rubenstein probe are stunning—and not.

The death of Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier in Haiti on Saturday has set in motion a new wave of political machinations in the beleaguered country to which the ousted dictator had returned three years ago, hoping for a comeback after 25 years in exile in France.

Kim Ives, a prizewinning documentarian and editor of Haïti Liberté, a news weekly serving the Haitian diaspora, discusses the fallout.

Leid Stories - 10/03/14

First Nations And The Nation: Sovereignty and U.S. Land and Treaty Law

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder last Friday officially signed off on a record $554-million settlement with the Navajo Nation that brought to an end a slew of lawsuits over the government’s alleged mismanagement of the Navajo Nation’s land-use funds and its natural resources for decades.

Apart from avoiding huge litigation costs on both sides, the settlement justice for past wrongs, Holder said. The Navajo and other First Nations have several other lawsuits in litigation and pending.

The settlement raises a seldom-explored issue: What is the nature of the relationship between First Nations and the U.S. government? More than anything, it’s based on land.

Professor Charles Wilkinson, professor of law at the University of Colorado-Boulder whose 14 books include the standard law texts on public land law and on Indian law, discusses this complex relationship within the framework of treaties, sovereignty, conflicting world views and justice. 

Leid Stories - 10/02/14

It’s Here! It’s A Day Early! It’s ‘Free Your Mind … Thursday(?)’

Don’t panic, “Free Your Mind Friday” is still in full effect. We’re just making a switch to accommodate tomorrow’s guest’s crammed academic schedule (you won’t want to miss that program). The benefit, of course, is that you get to sound off a whole day sooner!

The world’s greatest forum for the exchange of opinions and ideas is open to you. Share your thoughts and unique perspectives on critical issues of the day, or take us on an unscripted tour of other realities we’re reluctant, or too timid, to confront.

Bring your intellectual best to the gathering place. Call 888-874-4888 and trade some quality merchandise.

Leid Stories - 10/01/14

In the Matters of Ferguson, MO: The Unseen Legal Battles Over Rights

Detroit: Yet Another Round of Court for Activists Wanting Their City Back

Two months since Ferguson, Missouri, erupted in protest over the shooting death of 18-year-old Michael Brown by Police Officer Darren Wilson, and the small predominantly African American city remains taut and on edge as it tries to reassemble itself with a template of its own making. Meanwhile, the old one still is in effect, and it continues to wreak havoc.

Tony Rothert, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Missouri, discusses cases his office has litigated that provide a snapshot of the root of long-simmering tensions in Ferguson and in other communities of color across the state.

Without even a functioning court in their forced-into-bankruptcy city to hear their case, a group of activists must travel an hour out of town to Ingham County Circuit Court to legally challenge the state’s takeover and decimation of Detroit’s public-school system.

Elena Herrada, a member of the Detroit School Board and an activist with Detroiters Resisting Emergency Management, gives an update on their third battle with the state.

Leid Stories - 09/30/14

Fighting Words: At War Or Not At War? The Answer Is … Well, Sorta Kinda  

President Obama shocked the nation and the world when he said at a White House news conference on Aug. 28 that he had “no strategy yet” for dealing with the rise of Islamic State jihadist terrorism in the Middle East—despite more than a year of top-level reports and briefings and inside pressure since 2008 to respond. On Sept. 10, he unilaterally declared war against the IS, announcing that he had authorized a bombing campaign against its strongholds in Iraq and Syria. By Sept. 22, he had rustled up a “coalition” to participate in the airstrikes.

So, the United States is at war, right? Yes. And no. And not really, but sort of, but not legally.

Congress wants a showdown of its own with Obama. It did vote to authorize a budget for Obama’s war-not-war, but it did not authorize war, leaders say.

Leid Stories continues its discourse on the questions it asked from the beginning: Are Obama’s actions legal, according to U.S. and international law, and is the nation at war? Listeners contribute their thoughts.

Leid Stories - 09/29/14

Wizard of Odd: Obama Ramps Up on Race; Finds There’s No Place Like ‘Home’

Having carefully avoided the subject of race/racism/white supremacy for most of his tenure in office—except to make points about Blacks’ penchant for self-inflicted pathology—President Obama seemed to be ungagging himself. But wait. It was just another tell-them-what-they-want-to-hear moment.

Keynoting the black-tie dinner that caps the Congressional Black Caucus’s annual summit on illusory legislative power, Obama went “home,” touching on issues that remain raw with most of Black America. But just when you think he’s achieving his own “teachable moment,” he gives lets the cat out of the bag. It’s just a hook to introduce Eric Holder as the heir to Thurgood Marshall’s civil-rights legacy (and, possibly, his seat on the U.S. Supreme Court?) and a lead-in to “bring souls to the polls” in the November election.

Leid Stories airs last night’s speech and follows with a commentary.

Leid Stories - 09/26/14

It’s Imperative! For Your Own Good, Free Your Mind Now!

You have no choice. Too much stuff has crowded into your one and only working mind this week. It’s time to make room. Time to defrag, declutter and debunk, and “Free Your Mind” Friday” is here to help.

What’s your take on this week’s roster of news issues and developments? What do you know that we ought to? Give us a guided tour in this open forum designed specifically for the exchange of information, opinions and ideas—and for your mental health and well-being; we want you nice an calm so you can enjoy your weekend with family and friends.

Call 888-874-4888 and free your mind now!