Hour 1: Land Rich, Cash Poor: My Family's Hope and the Untold History of the Disappearing American Farmer
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About our Guest: Brian Reisinger
Brian Reisinger, author of Land Rich, Cash Poor: My Family's Hope and the Untold History of the Disappearing American Farmer, grew up on a family farm in Sauk County, Wisconsin and lives to tell the hidden stories of rural America. A columnist and consultant, Reisinger worked with his father from the time he could walk, before entering the worlds of business journalism and public policy. He has been published by USA Today, Newsweek, Yahoo News, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel/USA Today Network, PBS/Wisconsin Public Radio’s “Wisconsin Life,” The Daily Yonder, RealClearPolitics, The Hill, The Wisconsin State Journal, The Cap Times, Saving Country Music, and many other news, policy, outdoor, and cultural publications. Reisinger’s writing has won awards from the National Society of Newspaper Columnists, first place in the Seven Hills Literary Contest, a Solas Award, and more. He lives with his wife and daughter and serves as President & Chief Content Officer of Midwestern-based Platform Communications, splitting time between a small town in northern California and the family farm in southern Wisconsin. Land Rich, Cash Poor is his first book. |
"An anthem to the family farm in America." —The Associated Press
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Taking on this working-class story of heart and hardship, award-winning writer Brian Reisinger weaves forgotten eras of American history with his own family’s four-generation fight for survival in Midwestern farm country. Readers learn the truth about America’s most detrimental and unexplained socioeconomic crisis: How the family farms that feed us went from cutting a middle-class path through the Great Depression to barely making ends meet in modern America. Along the way, they’ll see what it truly takes to feed our country: accidents that can kill or maim; weather that blesses or threatens; resilience in the face of crushing economic crises, from depressions and recessions to COVID-19; and the tradition that presses down on each generation when you're not just fighting for your job, you're fighting for your heritage.
With newly analyzed data, sharp historical analysis, conversations with some of modern farming’s most notable champions and critics alike, honest debate, and personal storytelling, Reisinger reveals how the hollowing out of rural America is affecting every single American dinner table. Food prices soaring far beyond the rate of inflation, a vulnerable food supply chain, environmental and ecological dilemmas, the security of our farmland from foreign adversaries, a mental health crisis that includes farmer suicides and addictions, a deepening urban-rural divide, and more worries than ever about what’s for dinner. These are all becoming the hallmarks of a food system that has long stood as a modern miracle. Land Rich, Cash Poor offers the honest truth about these issues, and a candid look at what we can do about them—before it’s too late. |
“A Big Difference”: Trump Administration’s Tomato Tariffs Already a Game Changer for American Farmers
Trump says he will set tariffs for 150 small countries in one swoop
PUBLIUS SPECIAL GUEST: Brian Reisinger, author of Land Rich, Cash Poor: My Family's Hope and the Untold History of the Disappearing American Farmer. The hidden history of an economic and cultural crisis that is threatening our very food supply—the disappearance of the American farmer.
In a decisive move to protect American agriculture and restore fairness, the Trump Administration’s tariffs on fresh Mexican tomato imports are already boosting American farmers, growers, and business owners.
Here’s what they’re saying:
TO BOOK INTERVIEWS EMAIL: [email protected]
Trump says he will set tariffs for 150 small countries in one swoop
PUBLIUS SPECIAL GUEST: Brian Reisinger, author of Land Rich, Cash Poor: My Family's Hope and the Untold History of the Disappearing American Farmer. The hidden history of an economic and cultural crisis that is threatening our very food supply—the disappearance of the American farmer.
In a decisive move to protect American agriculture and restore fairness, the Trump Administration’s tariffs on fresh Mexican tomato imports are already boosting American farmers, growers, and business owners.
Here’s what they’re saying:
- Chad Smith, Smith Tomato Farm (Steele, AL): “It’s only been two days now, and we actually have a lot more calls of people having interest in doing business — and the price hasn’t even changed.”
- Matt Rudd, Rudd Family Farm (Browns Summit, NC): “What you see in the grocery store now, instead of all those tomatoes from Mexico and everywhere else, it should be more local and United States-grown — where we can compete with those prices.”
- Rich Troccio, Bloomfield Groceria (Pittsburgh, PA): “It will not bother me if he put a 50% tariff on Mexico. It wouldn’t bother me because I don’t buy from there. It’s just the way I am. As long as it’s something grown here, this is where I want to buy my product.”
- Sam Newell, Fruit Fair (Chicopee, MA): “It’s a win-win for the community and us. Having tariffs on imported goods gives us a more level playing field.”
- Mark Reuben, Gilcrease Orchard (Las Vegas, NV): “We won’t raise our price, so it will stay $1.50/pound, which is what we charge.”
- Logan Duvall, Me and McGee Market (Little Rock, AR): “I can’t see how the tariffs are going to be negative on us at all. Being as tomatoes are a massive part of what we do, and we see the impact when that money goes directly to our farmers in our community versus a multinational conglomerate — it’s a big difference.”
- Steve Longmire, Tennessee Homegrown Tomatoes (Rutledge, TN): “In the fall and wintertime, we have to count on — and, you know, the nation does — tomatoes in the warmer climates, so that’s where it’s going to be a good thing for the farmer. Hopefully more of their tomatoes are going to sell at a little bit better price because of the tariff on the imports.”
- Patty Morgan, Grainger County (TN) Tomato Festival: “It’s a huge industry in our county.”
TO BOOK INTERVIEWS EMAIL: [email protected]
Hour 2: County Veterans Service Office Part 1
Troy D. Payne
US Army Veteran Veteran Services Officer Shasta County Veteran Services Office 1855 Shasta St. Redding, Ca. 96001 (530) 225-5616 “Our debt to the heroic men and valiant women in the service of our country can never be repaid. They have earned our undying gratitude.” Harry S. Truman |
Troy Payne is a Shasta County native with deep roots in the community, having been raised in Redding and Anderson. After graduating from Anderson High School in 1988, he joined the U.S. Army, where he served as a Military Police Officer with postings in Texas, Germany, and Georgia. He was honorably discharged in 1995 and returned home to pursue studies in Administration of Justice at Shasta College.
Troy joined the Shasta County Veterans Services Office (VSO) in 2015, quickly rising through the ranks. Most recently, he served as Senior Veterans Service Representative (VSR III), training new representatives and leading outreach efforts in remote areas of the county. His leadership and dedication to the veteran community make him an excellent fit for this new role. |
Up for discussion today:
September 11, 2025
Greensboro, NC – On September 4, 2025, District Judge William Osteen Jr., of the Middle District of North Carolina rejected defendants’ motion to dismiss, and held that a federal False Claims Act lawsuit which Cohen Milstein whistleblower client, Leslie Carico, filed on behalf of the United States government against Veterans Guardian, a veterans’ disability payment claim consulting firm, Scott Greenblatt, its founder and CEO, William Taylor, its COO (as to conspiracy only), and Gregory Villarosa, a psychologist who worked with Veterans Guardian, could proceed. Notably, the court rejected the defendants’ attempt to dismiss the whistleblower’s conspiracy claims as lacking in the requisite specificity.
Veterans Guardian calls itself a “pre-filing consulting firm” that seeks to increase its military veteran clients’ monthly disability payments from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). It markets itself to and serves veterans nationwide.
The whistleblower, a former Veterans Guardian employee, alleges that in the course of preparing disability applications and submitting them to the VA on veteran clients’ behalf, Veterans Guardian, an unaccredited, for-profit company, fraudulently and without any reasonable basis, routinely assigns new veteran clients a mental illness, typically depression or PTSD, in order to inflate their disability level. Defendants then manipulate the veteran-specific information contained in the various forms required for submission to the VA to fraudulently ensure that the veteran can achieve a 100% disability rating or as close to that rating as possible. Furthermore, the whistleblower claims that individuals at Dr. Villarosa’s psychology practice lack the professional credentials required under applicable law to conduct psychological evaluations of the veterans but nevertheless conduct them.
In exchange for Veterans Guardian’s services, the veteran, who has chosen Veterans Guardian in good faith, agrees to pay the first five months of any increase in any disability payments which he/she receives as a result of the submission Veterans Guardian makes to the VA.
Gary Azorsky, Jeanne Markey, Casey Preston, and Adnan Toric, attorneys in Cohen Milstein’s Whistleblower practice, have been prosecuting this lawsuit on behalf of the whistleblower. “Veterans Guardian has not been shy in promoting its interests publicly, both as part of its ongoing marketing efforts but also as part of its aggressive lobbying campaign to prevent its business model from being jeopardized by recent legislative efforts to curb fraud in this industry,” the Whistleblower team stated. “Cohen Milstein emphatically believes veterans and taxpayers deserve a veterans disability system free from fraud and waste. We intend to play a role in achieving that worthy goal by proceeding with this lawsuit.”
The whistleblower in the case is also represented by Gary Jackson of the Law Offices of James Scott Farrin and by Bill Nettles, John Warren, and Fran Trapp of The Law Offices of Bill Nettles. The case name is U.S. ex rel. Leslie Carico v. Veterans Guardian VA Claim Consulting, LLC, et al., C.A. No. 20-784-WO-LPA, U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina.
[full article: https://www.cohenmilstein.com/court-permits-whistleblower-lawsuit-alleging-nationwide-fraud-by-veterans-disability-claims-consulting-company-and-three-individuals-to-proceed/]
About Cohen Milstein
Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC, a premier U.S. plaintiffs’ law firm, with over 100 attorneys across eight offices, champions the causes of real people – workers, consumers, small business owners, investors, and whistleblowers – working to deliver corporate reforms and fair markets for the common good. For more information visit https://www.cohenmilstein.com
Greensboro, NC – On September 4, 2025, District Judge William Osteen Jr., of the Middle District of North Carolina rejected defendants’ motion to dismiss, and held that a federal False Claims Act lawsuit which Cohen Milstein whistleblower client, Leslie Carico, filed on behalf of the United States government against Veterans Guardian, a veterans’ disability payment claim consulting firm, Scott Greenblatt, its founder and CEO, William Taylor, its COO (as to conspiracy only), and Gregory Villarosa, a psychologist who worked with Veterans Guardian, could proceed. Notably, the court rejected the defendants’ attempt to dismiss the whistleblower’s conspiracy claims as lacking in the requisite specificity.
Veterans Guardian calls itself a “pre-filing consulting firm” that seeks to increase its military veteran clients’ monthly disability payments from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). It markets itself to and serves veterans nationwide.
The whistleblower, a former Veterans Guardian employee, alleges that in the course of preparing disability applications and submitting them to the VA on veteran clients’ behalf, Veterans Guardian, an unaccredited, for-profit company, fraudulently and without any reasonable basis, routinely assigns new veteran clients a mental illness, typically depression or PTSD, in order to inflate their disability level. Defendants then manipulate the veteran-specific information contained in the various forms required for submission to the VA to fraudulently ensure that the veteran can achieve a 100% disability rating or as close to that rating as possible. Furthermore, the whistleblower claims that individuals at Dr. Villarosa’s psychology practice lack the professional credentials required under applicable law to conduct psychological evaluations of the veterans but nevertheless conduct them.
In exchange for Veterans Guardian’s services, the veteran, who has chosen Veterans Guardian in good faith, agrees to pay the first five months of any increase in any disability payments which he/she receives as a result of the submission Veterans Guardian makes to the VA.
Gary Azorsky, Jeanne Markey, Casey Preston, and Adnan Toric, attorneys in Cohen Milstein’s Whistleblower practice, have been prosecuting this lawsuit on behalf of the whistleblower. “Veterans Guardian has not been shy in promoting its interests publicly, both as part of its ongoing marketing efforts but also as part of its aggressive lobbying campaign to prevent its business model from being jeopardized by recent legislative efforts to curb fraud in this industry,” the Whistleblower team stated. “Cohen Milstein emphatically believes veterans and taxpayers deserve a veterans disability system free from fraud and waste. We intend to play a role in achieving that worthy goal by proceeding with this lawsuit.”
The whistleblower in the case is also represented by Gary Jackson of the Law Offices of James Scott Farrin and by Bill Nettles, John Warren, and Fran Trapp of The Law Offices of Bill Nettles. The case name is U.S. ex rel. Leslie Carico v. Veterans Guardian VA Claim Consulting, LLC, et al., C.A. No. 20-784-WO-LPA, U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina.
[full article: https://www.cohenmilstein.com/court-permits-whistleblower-lawsuit-alleging-nationwide-fraud-by-veterans-disability-claims-consulting-company-and-three-individuals-to-proceed/]
About Cohen Milstein
Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC, a premier U.S. plaintiffs’ law firm, with over 100 attorneys across eight offices, champions the causes of real people – workers, consumers, small business owners, investors, and whistleblowers – working to deliver corporate reforms and fair markets for the common good. For more information visit https://www.cohenmilstein.com