• Listen to this segment with Maya Rockeymoore

• Listen to the entire program with Host Sonali Kolhatkar

Uprising’s guest expert Maya Rockeymoore, President of the Center for Global Policy Solutions, a social change non-profit dedicated to making policy work for people and their environment, analyzes today’s news headlines:

Conservative leaders are slow to denounce comments by a racist Nevada rancher who became the darling of the right. Cliven Bundy has been locked in a battle with the Bureau of Land Management over grazing fees for his cattle and was praised as a “patriot” by some GOP lawmakers and Tea Partiers like Senator Ted Cruz and Texas Gov. Rick Perry for taking an anti-government stand. But his comments about African Americans at a press conference earlier this week exposed his racist sentiments. Bundy said, among other things, “I’ve often wondered, are they better off as slaves.” While some Republicans distanced themselves immediately from Bundy, others like Cruz and Perry have remained silent. Click here for a Think Progress article about the story.

In an underreported story, a two day caravan from Fresno, California to El Paso, Texas kicks off today in support of nearly 40 detained undocumented immigrants from India who have been on a hunger strike. The immigrant men, who are mostly from the Northern Indian state of Punjab, have complained about horrific conditions at an immigration detention facility in El Paso where they have been held for nearly a year. While their plight has been covered in the Indian press there has been little attention here in the US. According to Al Jazeera, “Many of the men are politically active with India’s Sikh community and came to the United States seeking asylum.” Click here for an article in The Hindu about the story, and here for a link to the caravan’s website.

A book by French economist Thomas Piketty, called Capital in the 21st Century has shot to the tops of best seller lists causing some panic among defenders of capitalism, and according to the Huff Post, “set the economics field ablaze.” The book, which is also the topic of Paul Krugman’s column in today’s New York Times, lays out a scathing critique of wealth inequality in the US and world. Meanwhile, a 10 year old girl made headlines yesterday for handing her unemployed father’s resume to First Lady Michelle Obama at a Q&A session. Click here for Paul Krugman’s article about Piketty’s book, and here for Global Policy Solutions’ website.