Anna King
Podcasts
Stories
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Crime
Part 3: The Gamble
Why would someone create a ghost herd? Behind Cody Easterday’s swindle was an even-bigger gambling habit on the futures market. That vice may have changed the price of American beef slapping down on your kitchen table. We also look at how all farmin’ is a gamble.
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Why egg prices are so high, and some shelves are so bare
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Hundreds of Lewiston, Idaho residents under boil water order after city water reservoir busts open
This week a Lewiston, Idaho city reservoir ruptured and sent three million gallons of water racing into blocks of neighborhoods and businesses. Now, hundreds of residents, several schools and restaurants are having to truck in, boil or chlorinate their water.
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Crime
Part 2: The Swindle
Cowboy Cody Easterday lies big, creating a “ghost herd” of 265,000 cattle that only exist on paper and bringing in hundreds of millions of investment dollars from companies including a meat-packing giant. It’s fraud on a massive scale. We examine how he carried it out.
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Delicious Death: Tariffs on apple imports to India crush business for Northwest Red Delicious apple
For decades boatloads of Northwest apples have shipped to India – especially the variety Red Delicious. But since Trump-era tariffs on steel and aluminum went into place, retaliatory tariffs have put a crunch on that valuable fruit market. Now, Washington state's full congressional delegation is asking the federal government for help.
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Business
Tariffs stopped many Washington apples from reaching India. Lawmakers want to fix that
The Northwest ships many of its apple harvest to India, including boat loads of red delicious apples.
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Crime
Cody Easterday is in the federal pen after one of the largest cattle swindles in U.S. history
Northwest rancher Cody Easterday recently turned himself in to a minimum security prison camp at Lompoc just south of Santa Maria, California. Easterday carried out one of the largest cattle swindles in U.S. history, from near Pasco, in Washington state.
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Law & Courts
New podcast uncovers a true story of family, fraud, land and power in the American West
Kim Malcolm talks with Anna King, host of the new podcast Ghost Herd.
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Crime
In 'Ghost Herd,' greed and deception illuminate the fight for land ownership in the rural West
A new podcast from Northwest Public Radio and KUOW takes listeners to the Columbia Basin, where the value of dirt is illuminated by one family's story of deception and greed.
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Crime
Part 1: The Empire Builders
Meet the Easterdays – ranching royalty rooted in the Columbia Basin in southeast Washington state. But behind the well-known family name hides a dark secret, concealed in spreadsheets and bum invoices, that’s eating away at their vast empire.