Leid Stories

Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Chicago's city council today are being forced to explain a number of extraordinary incentives the city seemed almost certain to agree to in laying out the red carpet for the planned Obama Presidential Complex. Outraged  Chicagoans, however, say the sprawling complex, a project of the Obama Foundation, has already taken on the stench of corrupt, Chicago-style politics. Speaking of the murky world of politically connected foundations, Leid Stories provides significant updates on domestic and international probes of the Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton Foundation. Charity fraud expert and retired Wall Street banker Charles Ortel, whose forensic investigations have unmasked the Clinton Foundation as a massive fraud, explains why the Obama Foundation also is not passing the smell test.

Leid Stories--One thing's for sure this election year: Voters have a lot of homework to do to get at some reasonable understanding of issues that matter to them. For 'tis the season of heavy distraction. Leid Stories takes a look at the heavy artillery being deployed against voters' desire to understand issues important to them and, ultimately, how they might vote.

You're invited to join our weekly open forum, "Free Your Mind Friday," where discussion and debate about the issues of the day aren't just features of the show, but the show. Present your ideas and opinions to an audience waiting to hear them and eager to respond. We are passionate folks, but friendly, well-mannered, and appreciate a sense of humor.  Call 888-874-4888 and participate in an hour of the best talk in talk radio.    

Based on our experience, especially in recent years, with the longstanding two-party system, is it not time to abolish political parties--which, Leid Stories contends, leave little or no room for true political diversity and civic participation?

The Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin, is gone, but will her spirit live on in community revitalization and renewed political will? Longtime activist Obayomi Azikiwe, who is editor in chief of Pan-African News Wire and a frequent contributor to Leid Stories, discusses the possible impact Franklin's deep community involvement could have on community development in her home city. Azikiwe also provides updates on major issues in the city and state that Leid Stories has been covering.

Leid Stories revisits a conversation with Richard Gage, founder of Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth.  

Vice President Mike Pence is already calling foul. It's a breach of presidential tradition and "very disappointing," Pence says, that former President Barack Obama will be blasting President Donald Trump and his administration in a series of rallies to support Democratic candidates running for congressional seats in midterm elections. But Obama's in the fight, and he's committed to campaign for the  next  two  months. Is this because the Republicans are strong in these contested districts and the Democrats vulnerable? 

Our doors are wide open, come on in! Join us for our weekly open forum where the conversation goes wherever you want it to go. It's "Free Your Mind Friday" on Leid Stories, and it's all about having your say. Join us for an hour of thought-provoking radio. Call 888-874-4888 and tell us what's been rattling around in your head.      

To accommodate callers who didn't get in on yesterday's discussion due to time constraints, we revisit the subject today so they can have their say.

A new book, Fear: Trump in the White House, by noted investigative reporter Bob Woodward, won't have us resting easy. It details the almost daily frenzied efforts by President Donald Trump's top aides and staff to head off major catastrophes that tend to originate from one main source: Trump's dysfunctional mind. This is not the first time Trump's mental acuity has been called into question. But the time has come for open debate on the subject..

Nation of Islam leader Minister Louis Farrakhan was among many dignitaries and notables attending "Queen of Soul" Aretha Franklin's homegoing in Detroit last Friday. He was seated in the front row, along with former President Bill Clinton and civil-rights leaders the Revs. Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson, who delivered their panegyrics. But Farrakhan didn't speak. Why not, asks Leid Stories. For yet another year, more than a million people showed up on Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn on Labor Day to have a good time celebrating Caribbean culture and heritage. For yet another year organizers of the West Indian Carnival would like revelers to eat up, drink up, jump up and go home. No politics.

"Free Your Mind Friday" is our way on Leid Stories of staying sane. We share information, opinions and ideas with each other, happy to entertain views to the contrary. We have good manners and generally are a pleasant bunch, even when we're tackling tough subjects. Join our open forum. Call 888- 874-4888 to free your mind.

After President Trump's announcemcent last week that he has asked Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to "closely study" South Africa's proposals for land redistribution, President Cyril Ramaphosa appears to have slowed the pace and scope of constitutional debates on land reform.  Laws encoded during South Africa's colonial and apartheid eras have allowed whites, who comprise 8 percent of the population, to own 72 percent of farms, while blacks, who are four-fifths of the population, own only 4 percent.  Trump's assignment to Pompeo follows a Fox News report on "land and farm seizures" and alleged "large-scale killing of [white] farmers." President Ramaphosa was "seizing land from his own citizens without compensation because they are the wrong skin color," said the report, which the South African government decries as defamatory and inaccurate. Trump's veiled threat to South Africa is the focus of our discussion today.

A five-way primary race for governor in Florida, one of the largest swing states in the nation, ended with a bang last night with a Bernie Sanders-backed, come-from-behind candidate claiming the big prize. Andrew Gillum, the 39-year-old mayor of Tallahassee, advances to the general election to face off against Republican nominee Rep. Ron DeSantis. Is Progressive power taking hold? Pope Francis's recent trip to Ireland--the first papal visit in almost 40 years--was not the triumph hoped for. To the contrary, it served as a  backdrop for renewed demands by angry and tormented Catholics that the church respond forthrightly to an epidemic of sex abuse, especially against children, by priests and officials immunized by the culture of silence and coverup within the church. Confronted in Ireland about the crisis, Pope Francis responded by saying he felt shame for the church. Now a militant faction wants the pope to resign. But Leid Stories asks: Will that solve the problem?

Midterm elections are just around the corner, and candidates vying for office are honing their messages--i.e. their sales pitches to voters about where they stand on key issues and why they will be better legislators than their opponents. They'll sell you on their and their party's agenda, but will it be in sync with yours?