Leid Stories

Leid Stories--U.S., Allies Push Coup in Venezuela; Trump Hints Shutdown 2; We Called It On Starbucks' Ex-CEO ... and More!--01.28.19

Leid Stories looks at major issues in the news, and updates a few stories we were way ahead of the pack on.

Leid Stories--First, Free Your Mind!--01.25.19

You're cordially invited to our weekly open forum, "Free Your Mind Friday," where your opinion really matters. 

Call 888-874-4888 and share your thoughts on the issues of the day or any subject you choose. We especially like it when folks offer solutions to problems.

Leid Stories--Trump Stokes Overthrow of Venezuela's Maduro; The Shutdown Continues, But to What End?; Is Trump Winning the Propaganda War?--01.24.19

Leid Stories looks at troubling signs that we're losing ground. Bigly.

Leid Stories--Puerto Rico: Still In the Eye of the Storm--01.23.19

Citizen-journalist Elisa Llenza has been reporting for Leid Stories on the devastating impact of Hurricane Maria, the worst natural disaster to hit Puerto Rico in almost 100 years.

Her report today confirms that the island nation remains in the eye of the storm, as political, real estate and unseen interests wrangle over post-hurricane development money. Meanwhile, they appear to be running their own parallel governmental system to divvy up the spoils while avoiding oversight and input from the people.

 

Leid Stories--Fuel Crisis in Haiti Compounds Other Major Woes; U.S. Pushes Ouster of Venezuelan President--01.22.19

Kim Ives, investigative reporter,  independent documentarian and editor of the English-language editions of Haïti Liberté, updates his report on Haiti's fuel crisis, which has added to the turmoil in the debt-ridden nation.

 

The Trump administration says Venezuela is not a "real" democracy and is actively encouraging the ouster of the country's president, Nicolas Maduro, saying his recent reelection was rigged and therefore illegitimate.

Leid Stories asks: Are the U.S.'s involvement and actions regarding Venezuela legitimate?

Leid Stories--Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.: The Debt We Owe--01.21.19

He was born on Jan. 15, 1929, but a nationwide (and international) push to honor the life, work and legacy of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. resulted in the designation of the third Monday of January as a federal holiday, Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

 

Leid Stories is encouraging all of us to give real meaning to this day. 

Leid Stories--Don't Fall for Their Madness, Resist and Free Your Mind!--01.18.19

It's "Free Your Mind Friday," our weekly free-form open forum in which we trade in information, opinions and ideas, and you take the conversation where you want it to go.

Prove you aren't falling for their games. Call 888-874-4888 and join us in freeing our minds. 

Leid Stories--Pervasive Institutional Dysfunction Adds to Our Burdens and Misery--01.17.19

In the surreal "Twilight Zone" of a Donald J. Trump presidency and administration that we've been living in for the past two years, we can see how pervasive and acute institutional dysfunction has added to our burdens. 

 

Leid Stories asks: Have we abdicated our roles and responsibilities as partners in creating and maintaining a democratic society?

Leid Stories--How Much Crazier and More Dysfunctional Can It Get?--01.16.19

As a nation, we seem to be going through a mysterious phase--a "Twilight Zone," as we'd discussed before, in which the familiar is strange, chaos is the order of the day, and not much jars the senses or shocks the conscience because we lost these to "the way life is" some time ago.

Is this truly what we're becoming or have become? 

 

Leid Stories--Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Still Keeps Us On Task--01.15.19

As keynote speaker at the National Conference for New Politics (held at Palmer House in Chicago over the Labor Day weekend in 1967), Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. minced no words as he laid bare multipronged systems of oppression that activists in the  United  States  and  all over the world confront in the course of their advocacy work.

Less than a year later, on April 4, 1968, King was assassinated as he stood on the balcony of a black-owned Memphis motel that served as the local headquarters for planning and coordinating support for hundreds of black sanitation workers who went on strike over inequitable pay and dangerous working conditions.

On April 8, a silent march by King's widow, Coretta Scott King, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and more than 40,000 people forced the city to concede to the sanitation  workers' demands.

Leid Stories asks: Why the refusal, even by people of color, to acknowledge that King's life's work went beyond "civil rights?"