freelance journalist and author
Freelance journalist and author of A Dream Foreclosed: Black America and the Fight for a Place to Call Home
PROFILE
Laura Gottesdiener
Guest
FROM Laura Gottesdiener
To the Point
Big Oil, Big Problems Because of the oil-drilling technique called fracking, North Dakota’s Bakken shale formation is producing more than a million barrels a day. Laura Gottesdeiner is an independent reporter who spent a month in Williston—once a sleepy agricultural town of 12,000 people, now three times larger and still growing fast. On the website TomDispatch.com , her article was called, “ Adrift in Oil Country .” It was republished in Mother Jones magazine.
To the Point
Who’s Being Left Out of the “Housing Recovery?” The home foreclosure crisis staggered the US economy and led to the Great Recession six years ago. Now — finally -- new housing is under construction. But it's not single-family homes that are going up, but mostly apartment buildings. And Wall Street is going into the rental business. Meantime, many homeowners, especially blacks and Latinos, are still underwater. What does this new form of housing "recovery" reveal about the economy? Does it contain the seeds of another recession?
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To the Point
Ex-FBI Director Comey tells his side of the story Today, former FBI Director James Comey came close to calling the President who fired him a liar. The White House denied the claim and called it insulting, but Republican Senators did not challenge Comey’s truthfulness. Many questions remain: did the President try to obstruct a federal investigation? Later, we’ll go behind the “velvet rope” for a look at 5-Star health care for the richest Americans.
To the Point
Is the threat from Russia missing from the Russia meddling probe? There's much being made about the Trump administration's possible ties with Russia. But the bottom line is Russia's effort to influence American democracy. Do the President and his aides care enough to take action before voters go back to the polls?
To the Point
Venezuela spirals into economic and political chaos Venezuela, a country whose potential for prosperity is unmatched, finds itself on the verge of civil war. What sustains the repressive government? With time running out, guest host León Krauze looks at what the international community can do to pull the country from the edge of collapse.
To the Point
Who's to blame for the opioid crisis? Some of the lawyers who took on Big Tobacco are now going after Big Pharma. It’s all about the deadly epidemic of opioid use. Are the drug companies to blame? What about the users? Later, on today’s Talking Point: making sense of Britain’s upset election.