Florida Sentinel Bulletin

Borgella Antoine’s family said he is being held for $500,000 ransom.

MIAMI — It has been over two weeks since the family of Steeve Pierre, a Miami resident originally from Haiti, received the dreaded phone call asking for a ransom for the release of his cousin.

Pierre, 40, who came from Haiti in 2019 and owns a landscaping business in Miami, said his cousin, Borgella Antoine, went missing in Haiti at the end of February. Antoine, a truck driver, was delivering goods when he was kidnapped by members of a gang.

“At the beginning, we were trying to do something,” Pierre said. “I even sent money to Haiti in an effort to raise enough money to get him released.”

But the gang started asking for more money and now wants $500,000. It’s too much for Pierre’s family, and the owner of the truck company he works for is now trying to negotiate to lower the ransom.

“It’s very stressful for all the family. Whenever your phone rings you’re afraid to answer because you don’t know what the news will be,” Pierre said. “We’re praying he’s alive and will come home safe.”

Bobby Brown and His Wife Alicia

Nationwide — R&B icon Bobby Brown and his wife, Alicia, recently received honorary doctorates in humanity from Leaders Esteem Christian Bible University. The honor recognizes their impactful charity work, especially through the Bobbi Kristina Serenity House.

The ceremony happened on Bobbi Kristina’s birthday at the Taglyan Complex during the 4th Annual Gala of the Bobbi Kristina Serenity House, according to Because of Them We Can. The event celebrated the organization’s expansion to Los Angeles, alongside its presence in Boston and Atlanta.

The event was a star-studded affair, with guests donning purple and elegant masks to support the fight against domestic violence. The city of Houston also honored Brown by declaring September 23rd as “Bobby Brown Day.”

Despite the tragic loss of Bobbi Kristina, her legacy thrives through the organization. It offers safe havens, promotes mental health awareness, and provides resources for domestic abuse survivors.

In a heartfelt letter on the organization’s website, Bobby Brown reaffirmed his commitment to ending domestic violence. He emphasized giving a voice to the voiceless and building a world free from such violence.

Trump With Faked AI Images

Donald Trump supporters have been creating and sharing AI-generated fake images of black voters to encourage African Americans to vote Republican.

BBC Panorama discovered dozens of deepfakes portraying black people as supporting the former president.

Mr Trump has openly courted black voters, who were key to Joe Biden’s election win in 2020.

But there’s no evidence directly linking these images to Mr Trump’s campaign.

The co-founder of Black Voters Matter, a group which encourages black people to vote, said the manipulated images were pushing a “strategic narrative” designed to show Mr Trump as popular in the black community.

A creator of one of the images told the BBC: “I’m not claiming it’s accurate.”

The fake images of black Trump supporters, generated by artificial intelligence (AI), are one of the emerging disinformation trends ahead of the US presidential election in November.

Unlike in 2016, when there was evidence of foreign influence campaigns, the AI-generated images found by the BBC appear to have been made and shared by US voters themselves.

One of them was Mark Kaye and his team at a conservative radio show in Florida.

They created an image of Mr Trump smiling with his arms around a group of black women at a party and shared it on Facebook, where Mr Kaye has more than one million followers.

Peter Cichuniec and Elijah McClain

A paramedic convicted of fatally dosing Elijah McClain with the controlled sedative ketamine will spend five years in prison, according to a sentence doled out in court on Friday (March 1). Peter Cichuniec was found guilty of criminally negligent homicide and second degree assault during his trial in December.

The young Elijah was walking home with a plastic bag and iced tea when he was approached by police responding to reports of a suspicious person wearing a ski mask. The harrowing interactions, which were captured by the officers’ body cameras, showed that the Black man was wrestled and placed in a chokehold, causing him to lose consciousness.

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Peter Cichuniec and Elijah McClain

Ohio University

Last Thursday (Feb. 29), NBC News reported that Ohio University put a hold on race-based scholarships. In a statement shared by the institution, the reason pointed to the Supreme Court’s 2023 decision to strike down affirmative action.

“As a public institution, we must abide by state and federal laws. Within that context, following the June Supreme Court decision in the Harvard case, we began a process to review selection criteria for admissions and scholarships as well as language in our gift agreements,” it read. “We are temporarily pausing the awarding of impacted scholarships, which represent a small but important subset of our annual awards, as we contemplate any necessary revisions. Scholarships already awarded to current students are not impacted by this review.”

The statement continued, “This necessary work in no way changes our values as an institution, which include a commitment to fostering an inclusive University community where all students — regardless of race, background, gender, religion, or disability — are welcome and feel a sense of belonging.”

Emmitt Smith 

Last  Friday (March 1) the University of Florida announced in a memo that its diversity, equity and inclusion office was shuttered and contracts pertaining to the initiative were severed.

NFL legend Emmitt Smith is warning college athletes at his alma mater, the University of Florida, to use their voices to speak out against the school’s decision to shut down its diversity, equity and inclusion office and sever contracts promoting inclusivity with outside vendors.

Smith is a distinguished alumnus of the university and has remained an invested member of the Gator Nation. However, the school’s March 1 pivot to do away with DEI initiatives is a step in the wrong direction, according to Smith, who, like others, condemned the politically motivated choice.

“I’m utterly disgusted by UF’s decision and the precedent that it sets. Without the DEI department, the job falls to the Office of the Provost, who already has their hands full to raise money for the university and continue to advance the academic studies and athletic programs,” he said in a statement shared on Twitter on Sunday (March 3).

The Pro Football Hall of Fame inductee further noted, “We cannot continue to believe and trust that a team of leaders made up of the same background will make the right decision when it comes to equality and diversity. History has already proven that is not the case. We need diverse thinking and backgrounds to enhance our university, and the DEI department is necessary to accomplish those goals.”