Leid Stories

Leid Stories - 02/07/14

Detroit At Ground Level: The Fight’s Far From Over

 

When the City of Detroit last July 18 formally sought a federal court decree to file for bankruptcy—making it the largest municipal collapse in U.S. history, with a claim of $18 billion in debt—it did so with confidence not only that it would prevail in court but also that it could withstand the firestorm the bankruptcy petition surely would ignite.

On both counts, however, people power is blowing that confidence to bits.

Longtime community builder, school board member and union organizer Elena Herrada discusses the role of grassroots, people-centered coalition activism in successfully challenging the status quo on many levels in Detroit.

Listeners ask questions after her presentation.

Leid Stories - 02/06/14

Really, Really Sick!: Racial Disparities in Health Care (Part 2)

 Concluding her two-part presentation on racial disparities in health and health care, law professor emerita Vernellia Randall (University of Dayton), author of Dying While Black, makes the case that a major impediment in the battle for health and health-care equality in the United States is in the Civil Rights Act of 1964—which, ironically, was enacted to eliminate racial discrimination in all forms.

Professor Randall explains the problems with the Civil Rights Act and makes recommendations on a law that would close the disparity gap. Additionally, she tackles the contributing problem of “colorblind racism,” focusing particularly on President Obama’s brand of it.

Professor Randall writes extensively on and speaks internationally about race, women’s issues and health care. She is the recipient of the Ohio Commission on Minority Health Chairman’s Award. A public-health professional as well, she administered a statewide health program in Alaska. For the past 15 years, she has focused on eliminating disparities in health care for minorities and the poor.

Leid Stories - 02/05/14

Really, Really Sick!: Racial Disparities in Health Care

 In practically every area of life in the United States, race-based inequality remains significant, persistent and devastating. A stark illustration is health care. African Americans today are sicker than whites at almost every income level, and if the death rate were about the same for both groups, between 80,000 and 100,000 African Americans would not die each year.

In the first of a two-part presentation, law professor emerita Vernellia Randall (University of Dayton), author of Dying While Black, discusses the health status of African Americans and how a history of slavery, legal apartheid, racism and racial re-entrenchment have led to health problems that merely eating right and exercising will not correct. What is needed, she argues, is a human rights act for the 21st century that outlaws all forms of discrimination, including negligent and nonintentional discrimination.

Professor Randall writes extensively on and speaks internationally about race, women’s issues and health care. She is the recipient of the Ohio Commission on Minority Health Chairman’s Award. A public-health professional as well, she administered a statewide health program in Alaska. For the past 15 years, she has focused on eliminating disparities in health care for minorities and the poor.

Leid Stories - 02/04/14

The Best Exchange Ever! Trade Your Ideas and Opinions on Open Forum!

It’s Tuesday, a brisk trading day for listeners on Leid Stories’ “Open Forum.”

Bring your intellectual best to “the gathering place for the exchange of information, opinions and ideas,” and vigorously engage in the fine art of discussion and debate.

It matters not whether people agree or disagree with your position, but it is important that you capably defend your point of view.

Test your mettle! Call in! Be heard!

Leid Stories - 02/03/14

The IRP6 & the FBI, Chapter 2: A Raid That Really Wasn’t?

 

On Feb. 9, 2005, 21 armed FBI agents without warning swarmed the Colorado City offices of Investigative Resource Planning Solutions (IRP Solutions), a fledgling black-owned software-development company that had created an effective, integrated case-management system for law-enforcement and national-security agencies.

By then IRP’s Case Investigative Life Cycle (CILC) solution had been getting enthusiastic reviews and, from one agency alone, quote requests for more than $100 million in software support. By then, too, FBI Director Robert Mueller had suffered a humiliating dressing down by a Senate subcommittee for blowing $170 million and more than three years to develop a similar program but had nothing to show for it. Testimony by Glenn A. Fine, the Justice Department’s inspector general, sealed the FBI program’s fate; it was scuttled.

IRP associates Samuel Thurman and Cliff Stewart recall the day of the raid and peculiar things that happened that day that strengthen their belief that sinister motives were behind it. It was, after all, the reason six of the company’s core executives inexplicably were charged with fraud, and why IRP’s promisingly lucrative future came to an ignominious end.  

Thurman and Stewart are advocates with A Just Cause, which is seeking a Justice Department investigation into the targeting of the IRP6.

 

Leid Stories - 01/31/14

Hard ‘Justice’ Kills Software Company, Imprisons Its Execs

Advocates Charge It Was An Organized Hit; Demand Probe

 

Six men who formed the core of Investigative Resource Planning Solutions (IRP Solutions), a small but tenacious black-owned software-development company specializing in solutions for law-enforcement agencies, believed they were on the brink of a multimillion-dollar breakthrough after two years in the cutthroat business.

They had developed a software solution for a major communications and coordination problem that law-enforcement, national security and intelligence agencies said affected not only the response to the 9-11 terrorist attacks, but to any such attacks and even day-to-day investigations.  Their product, an interagency case management and investigation system, got rave reviews; one agency requested quotes for more than $100 million worth of business.   

But without warning on Feb. 9, 2005, 21 FBI agents swarmed their Colorado City, Colo., offices under a warrant to gather evidence of fraud. And thus began for the six men a nightmare in which their company was destroyed, they were convicted on highly contentious charges in a most unusual federal trial, and currently in federal prison serving between 7 and 10 years.

The first part of this story on Leid Stories today.

Leid Stories - 01/30/14

Unheard and Unseen: The American Way of Poverty

“Poverty” or “the poor” are words President Obama doesn’t use frequently – unless he’s referring to the “extreme poverty” U.S. foreign aid is helping to alleviate in other nations. At home, though, the president says his focus is on “income inequality.”

But 50 million Americans have little or no income; they are poor. And an estimated equal number depend on government-subsidized food programs to sustain themselves and their families. Poverty is epidemic in America.

Leid Stories presents a briefing on poverty in America by way of author Sasha Abramsky, who has written several books, articles and papers on the subject. His current work, The American Way of Poverty: How the Other Half Still Lives, serves as an update on the misery index on the large and growing segment of America that, 50 years after President Lyndon B. Johnson’s declaration of a “war on poverty,” remains largely unheard and unseen, despite vigorous advocacy and intervention. 

Leid Stories - 01/29/14

What’s Behind the Emergency Management and Forced Bankruptcy of Detroit?

Continuing our coverage of Detroit’s mammoth bankruptcy saga, Leid Stories provides a primer on the hidden motives behind the appointment by Gov. Rick Snyder of an emergency manager to take charge of the city’s fiscal and related operational decisions while choreographing its forced descent into bankruptcy.

A special presentation is given by Abayomi Azikiwe, who regularly contributes reports to Leid Stories on the battles in bankruptcy court and on the growing tide of opposition among Detroiters, who see themselves as victims of political machinations that in effect have placed them under autocratic rule. A Q&A follows his presentation.

Azikiwe is the editor of the Pan-African Newswire, a Detroit organizer for the Workers World Party, and an organizer-activist with Moratorium Now!, a grassroots group that has been seeking a halt to foreclosures, evictions and utility cutoffs for struggling Detroiters. 

Leid Stories - 01/28/14

Of Course You’re Different! You Actually Use Your Brain! It’s Tuesday, Open Forum day on Leid Stories, where great minds gather for vigorous, substantive discussion and debate about issues of the day. No “wrong” or “right” judgments here about what you have to say, but respect and appreciation for sharing your thoughts and opinions and extending the same courtesies to others. There is a lot to talk about and share since last week’s Open Forum. What’s been percolating in your brain?

Leid Stories - 01/27/14

Obama’s SOTU 2014:  Generous Portions of Lame Duck;

In his State of the Union address tomorrow, President Obama likely will revive his oft-repeated theme: “Last year was unnecessarily challenging, and this year will be, too, unless Republicans cooperate with me to get things done.” This will be his rationale for cutting back on big-ticket items this election year.

The truth is, the president has arrived at the first year of his second term with huge political deficits and miscalculations accrued over the last four years -- which the Republicans effectively have used to keep him in check. Obama’s SOTU 2014, therefore, will reflect the chastened president’s new reality: launching any major legislative offensives this year and leading up to 2016 is politically too risky, both for his legacy and the fortunes of the Democratic Party.

Obama will pursue an agenda that is expedient and safe. The hurting constituencies that elected him should hold out no hopes that their needs top his list.

Leid Stories listeners express their views.