he joins frus knoxville, tennessee, and rosa toussaint-ortiz, and she joins us from huntsville.let me start with you, representative ball. we heard not only from mr. spencer. we talked today with a contractor in the state who is concerned about people leaving these jobs. was that the consequence you expected when the law was passed? >> yes, i think so. i think that was the-- that was the purpose of the law was to discourage those who are here in alabama illegally. we have a poverty problem in alabama. we have a problem with unemployment. and many of the folks that come to alabama illegally, they have a different set of rules that they're hired by. they don't have to have workmen's comp shrnls. they don't have to have employee tax. a lot of them were paid 1099 or paid under the table. it puts our working, the very people having the problem with unemployment, it puts them at a competitive disadvantage, and we need a level playing field. >> woodruff: miss toussaint-ortiz, how do you see the effect the law is having? >> what i see is i understand what they are saying in reference to

. >> narrator: willingham was taken to the texas state prison at huntsville to await his execution. >> he said the worst thing in the world is to be accused of what he is accused of and to be found guilty of that, and then have to go to death row and live with that. >> when he was in death row, they would step on his heels, you know, and trip him and call him "baby killer" and everything else, you know. >> narrator: willingham sat on death row for seven years. his appeals were going nowhere. there was little interest in his case. then inmate number 999041 received a letter. it was from 47-year-old elizabeth gilbert. >> someone asked me if i would like to write a man on death row, be a pen pal, and i was like, "sure," and i volunteered. i had been in a place in my life-- a relationship had ended, my parents were getting elderly, i was kind of adrift. the name that was given to me, just randomly, was todd willingham. >> narrator: willingham eagerly wrote back. >> i was just really struck by the letter from todd. it was very polite. it was very kind. >> narrator: gilbert wanted to know m

and this huntsville, alabama native would go on to give the invocation at the inauguration of america'sst black president. >> do you ever have a moment where you still just break down and cry in losing your general, essentially, certainly your good friend? but do you all ever have those moments? and when do those happen? >> i'm too tough. too strong. too physical. >> is that right? >> too male to cry in front of you. i think we've all cried from time to time. and it's what we're crying about, we have to make sure that it's right. >> one of the most visible on our panel of the friends of king is reverend jesse jackson, who joined king's movement when he was just 22 years old. dr. king would name jackson heaved sclc's famed operation bread basket, set up to pressure white corporations to hire minorities and buy from black businesses. jackson, who later left the sclc and formed his own civil rights organization, would become the second african-american to run for president. shirley chisholm being the first. in 1988 jackson surprised many with nearly 7 million votes and several primary vict

. >> want to bring in the huntsville times.t you're paper has been doing reporting on this law. the specific number that i have, 1,988 kids. that's the number of kids that didn't go to school friday alone. that was the day after the ruling. where are they going and what are these families telling your reporters? >> well, what we're hearing is sort of -- it's more global than just schools. we're hearing this global state of fear and labor shortages in all areas, restaurants, farms, and people are taking their children out of schools. whether they are taking them out because of the law that applies to the public schools or the global nature of the law, we can't really determine. >> okay. let's stick with schools here for a minute. >> okay. >> i read that the interim superintendent, a man by the name of larry craven, says, schools will comply with the law but nobody will be denied an education s that an oxy more ran? >> that is how the law reads. they have to check the immigration status of all newly enrolled students and they hav

paul reporting from huntsville, alabama. >> thank you. bill:. been an underdog when this whole race started. he was the first person to declare his candidacy for the gop. businessman herman cain is suddenly at the top of the polls, folks. we'll take a look what is behind his surge and the whole story. bill: also watch your screen left. that is new surveillance tape just released on the mother of a missing missouri baby. what she is doing only hours for her daughter disappeared. do they provide cluts that investigator are looking for. >> panicked, you don't think when something like that is happening, you don't think. your thoughts are everywhere. they're racing. there is no, nothing makes sense in your head. you just, it is like not real. it's a dream. it's a nightmare. >> bill: there is a precious new clue in the search for least irwin, deborah bradley, the baby's mother, seen at a supermarket under the surveillance camera, only hours before she said her daughter vanished. remember parents called police at 4:00 in the morning, that search, does

one of the school districts seeing a lot of no-shows in classes is huntsville, alabama.ard is the district's spokesman and he joins us now. thank you for coming on to discuss this. what is the situation in your district today? are there more hispanic students absent? are there any withdrawing even from school? >> well, we have had a few that have withdrawn that we know of. we had approximately 207 hispanic student absences out of a total hispanic enrollment of approximately 1,435 on thursday. that number had decreased to 127 on friday and we'll vex act totals for today by the end of the school day. >> yeah. as we look at the numbers, when you think about these parents making this very difficult decision to not send their child to school, probably out of fear, has there been any contact with the parents who have chosen to do this? >> well, our superintendent actually had a message delivered in spanish that outlined the provisions of the law, how it related to schools. and that was aired on our local cable access channel and posted on youtube to try to calm some of the fea

reporting that 231 hispanic students were absent from school in montgomery on monday alone and the huntsvilleational executive director for the league of united latin america citizens. surprise sod many students seemed to be staying away? >> not surprised at all this type of thing has happened in the past when these harsh anti-immigrant laws are passed, we see the community acting in a way they are very scared, being safe rather than sorry and pulling their kids out of school, very up fortunate, because these students need a good education and unfortunately, pulled out of the school and interresulting their studies. supporters of the law say this doesn't block enroll n school bus helps tract illegal immigrant students who are there and also helps calculate the cost of educating them what do you say to those folk she is in. >> that is completely dishonest. i mean this is really intended to harm and punish the undocumented population and even the legal immigrant population of alabama. they know very well that this is what is going to result from this and doing on purpose and i think that is wha

huntsville now, not terriblery strong but strengthening towards the coastline.ards the delmarva, winding itself up during the day tomorrow and throughout the overnight tomorrow night. it looks like significant snow in inland areas. ocean temperatures still kind of warm. as long as you get that breeze off the water it's going to keep temperatures just warm enough so we don't see a significant accumulation, but could see a difrting, an inch maybe two in places like new york city or boston. you go further inland. winter storm watches posted as far south as virginia. of course, as far north as parts of maine. three to six inches potentially. you may say, it's that time of year? no. this is unusual if we get this much snow to fall this time of year. we still have leaves on the tree. weighted down by the snow. power outages especially away from the i-95 corridor. for some folks, ali and carol, we're going to see maybe a bit of a white trick-or-treat scenario. >> i love it. people tweeting their kids will wear snowsuits for the first time before their halloween costume

number five, the snow basin ski resort in huntsville, utah.arble, crystal chandeliers. pretty fancy. number four, don's johns president luxury restroom trailer in chantilly, virginia. set up for president obama's inauguration. third, the scottsdale center for performing arts in scottsdale, arizona, multicolored lights making your bathroom experience one to remember. so who could have the top two public rest roomts in all of erica? i know you're waiting for it. find out after this. rs in all o? i know you're waiting for it. find out after this. os in all o america? i know you're waiting for it. find out after this. os in all o america? i know you're waiting for it. find out after this. ms in all o america? i know you're waiting for it. find out after this. >>> you've been thinking about it over the break. want to know where the top two public restrooms in america are. number two, the renaissance arlington capital view where the water comes out red if it's hot and blue if it's cold. number one best bathroom break is the field museum in chicago w

host: huntsville, alabama, good morning to william. you're on the air. caller: thank you. question is, i don't know if this is in your realm of expertise, but are there any figures on the unemployment rate of ex-sex offenders. host: there was a bit of breakup in your question. would you repeat it? caller: unemployment for ex-felons, specifically sex offenders. guest: that would not be on the census bureau. the bureau of labor and statistics has unemployment data and some of that is collected by census survey takers. in addition, the department of justice has a lot of statistics on people who have been through the criminal justice system. it's not an area that i work in, though. host: want to put on a chart. national export initiative, 2000 to 2014. what is the export initiative? guest: it was introduced by president obama in 2009 and the goal is to double exports in five years. so we're looking and we kind of monitor the export rate so doubling exports required an annual growth rate of about 14.7% based on our 2009-2010 data. so we've actually achieved a 16.7% growth from