HOUR ONE:
Author Sarah Bird shares her novel Above the East China Sea. She describes the challenge and fascination she felt in her research for Okinawa. "They're very welcoming people... very very open."
"I wanted to tell the story of a contemporary military kid... It's hard growing up that way... moving constantly." She talks about the difficulty in military families now because moms are not necessarily staying at home and the growing number of single parents.
She lived in Okinawa as a child for three years while her family was stationed there. "I learned to scuba dive there. At the time it was one of the great barrier reefs of the world."
Filmmaker Vivian Norris joins us today to promote her film, Obama Mama, which will play this weekend at the Louisiana International Film Festival. The film depicts the life of President Obama's mother, Stanley Ann Dunham.
Norris calls her a "pioneer in micro-finance for women."
She managed to get a PhD as a single mother. "The fact that she died fighting with insurance companies to pay bills... That's something that stuck with the president."
They also comment on Ted Cruz and the debate surrounding the acceptable birthplaces of presidents.
Part of the National Asian American Pacific Forum, Lawyer Shivana Jorawar comments on House Bill 701 which was passed on Wednesday. Jorawar is a Queer Indo-Caribbean lawyer and policy advocate with a focus in gender equity, immigrant rights and racial justice. House Bill 701 bans sex elected abortions in Louisiana.
"It's a strategic ruse that is meant to confuse people into passing something that is negative for women."
"The strategy is here is to open the door for more and more abortion bans to question a woman's motives."
Jorawar says HB 701 is founded on "myths to propagate dangerous abortion restrictions."
HOUR TWO:
C. B. Forgotston comments on the governor's race and the louisiana legislative session. Today, the House passed 11 bills which raise $670 million in revenue.
Forgotston is not impressed. "That was blowhard and rhetoric. There's not one solution in it." He continues, "Most of the taxes end in 18 months."
"There's still going to be cuts to higher ed. They admitted they didn't pass enough."
Tax measures require 2/3 approval in the house and the senate.
"Jay Dardenne has no path to make the runoff besides trying to run down Senator Vitter."
Sports Writer Mark Kram Jr. gives his opinion on the New England Patriot's deflated football scandal and how this affects the team and Tom Brady.
Kram calls the language in the report very circumstantial. "It's called cheating. It's not something that's unusual."
"I do think Brady is disingenuous when he says he had no knowledge of it. He's the quarterback..."
Governor of New Jersey Chris Christie comes to the defense of Tom Brady. Christies says, "I think it's way way overblown."