Leid Stories - 07.27.15

Shared Agendas: Trump’s Media-Aided Meteoric Rise

In Memory of Sandra Bland: A Requiem for All of Us

Just six weeks after announcing his candidacy, Donald Trump is leading the pack of 16 Republican presidential contenders and closing in on Democratic rival Hillary Clinton, according to public-opinion polls.

Leid Stories explains Trump’s meteoric political rise.

Funeral services were held Saturday for Sandra Bland, the 28-year-old woman who was found dead in a jail cell in Waller County, Texas, on July 13, 2015, three days after being arrested for failing to signal when changing lanes. State and federal investigations into her death continue; local medical examiners, however, have said she died from “self-inflicted asphyxiation.”

Official focus predictably has centered on Bland’s alleged suicide to expunge itself of blame. But her death and the chain of events that led up to it are deeply rooted in a history we know all too well, says Leid Stories.