Leid Stories

A state Capitol packed with supporters of teachers in their eighth day of a walkout over pay didn’t sway some Senate leaders to approve a 5-percent pay raise the governor, union leaders and the House of Delegates had signed off on. The state Senate would go no higher than 4 percent for the teachers, who are among the lowest paid in the nation. Taking cues from Trump, hard “negotiations” resume today.

What is the point of prolonging a statewide school shutdown over 1 percent?

This is not about fiscal responsibility, says Leid Stories. It’s the hard-nosed,   Trumpian attitude about who gets to make money and who does not, and who matters politically.

Think Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, keynoter at the America Israel Public Affairs Committee’s convention in D.C., and President Trump, his gracious host at Blair House, appreciated the irony of the moment? We discuss.

The 2018 policy conference of the innocuously named American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) ends tomorrow in Washington, D.C. A list of strategic policy objectives will soon be announced as having been accomplished, and there’ll be nothing innocuous about that. AIPAC wants it known that, once again, the juggernaut lobbying organization pulled through for Israel and for Jews all over the world. And, once again, the United States is almost singlehandedly footing the wish-list bill.

Many Middle East experts, however, are sensing a storm brewing against the lopsided power arrangement between Israel and the United States, especially as it applies to billions in aid. It is way past time to revise the formula, they say.

It’s “Free Your Mind Friday” on Leid Stories—our popular weekly open forum that encourages the exchange of information, opinions and ideas.

Call 888-874-4888 and take your turn at the podium.

African American History Month ended yesterday.

Today marks the beginning of Women’s History Month, which “honors and celebrates the struggles and achievements of American women throughout the history of the United States,” according to a Library of Congress guide on national observances and commemorative months.

Isn’t this a good thing? Not necessarily, says Leid Stories. National “heritage” celebrations also are/can be used to thwart popular movements for justice, equality and power. We discuss.

Black History Month, observed in the United States and Canada in February (the United Kingdom commemorates it in October) “officially” draws to a close today. So, what happens tomorrow and beyond?

Leid Stories plumbs the depths of listeners’ minds about Black History Month.

The stock market is humming and all’s well on Wall Street, if we are to believe herds of financial analysts and forecasters. There’ll be an occasional dip, of course, but when has there never been a dip, they say. The market is only responding to dynamic, momentary shifts that occur in markets all over the world, and things are steady, they say.

But Charles Ortel, a retired Wall Street banker who in recent years has turned his attention to charity fraud, says don’t believe the hype. He warned Leid Stories two years ago to prepare for a major stock market eruption, and today he says it’s closer than he expected.

Eleven years ago, Ortel not only sounded the alarm, but pinpointed where, why and how it would happen. General Electric, he said, would be the eye of the storm .

Ortel joins us today to further explain what he says is about to happen.

The students, faculty and administrators of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., are expected to put in a full day today. It’s the first day since an ex-student with an array of discipline and mental-health went on a killing spree at the school problems on Valentine’s Day, killing 17 and injuring dozens more with a military-style assault rifle.

Politicians and officials were quick to offer up “thoughts and prayers” in the immediate aftermath of the tragedy—which was warned about a month before it happened—but now everyone is expected to return to school and resume life as if nothing happened.

On so many levels, says Leid Stories, this is unacceptable and wrong.

It’s “Free Your Mind Friday” on Leid Stories, and it’s all about speaking your mind. Why? Because to speak your mind is to free your mind.

You take the conversation wherever you want it to go. Call 888-874-4888 and tell us what’s on your mind.

Dr. Gerald Horne, one of the most prolific historian-authors of our time, discusses the role of history in a society and, in particular, whether history can be relied upon as a true and impartial account of anything.

Horne’s work (more than 30 books and hundreds of articles and commentaries) relentlessly peels away the veneer of authenticity that mainstream history widely enjoys. Horne invests heavily as a scholar in presenting dimensions to historical issues and events that otherwise would let stand unchallenged the history-is-the-story-of-the-world’s-power-elite model. Horne wants the record to reflect the full fight.

It’s already one for the movie record books. The weekend opening of Black Panther in the United States and Canada alone raked in an estimated $235 million, while international ticket sales, not including major markets like China, Japan and Russia, added another $169 million to the film’s debut total.

On the one hand, Black Panther’s spectacular box office success validates longstanding arguments that the industry, at its own financial peril, has clung to the racist status quo instead of pursuing available new markets and demographics with new products relevant to them. On the other hand, is the aggressive pursuit of new audiences—in the way Black Panther has gone about it—fraught with too many risks that the industry is simply recalibrating itself until it finds a new racist equilibrium?