Florida Sentinel Bulletin

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RANCHO MIRAGE, Calif.  — On Saturday,  President Barack Obama signed separate measures into law to lift the federal debt limit and restore benefits that had been cut for younger military retirees.

Pres. Obama signed the bills during a weekend golf vacation in Southern California.

The debt limit measure allows the government to borrow money to pay its bills, such as Social Security benefits and federal salaries. Failure to pass the measure, which the Senate passed 67-31 earlier this week and sent to Pres. Obama for his signature, most likely would have sent the stock market into a nosedive.

The Treasury Department is now free to borrow regularly through March 15, 2015, meaning lawmakers won’t have to revisit the issue until a new Congress is sworn in after the November elections.

Separate legislation passed in December would have held annual cost-of-living increases for veterans age 62 and younger to 1 percentage point below the rate of inflation, beginning in 2015. The measure was designed to hold the line on the soaring cost of government benefit programs, which have largely escaped trillions of dollars in deficit cuts over the past three years.

The cuts were enacted less than two months ago, with a projected savings to the government of $7 billion over a decade. Veterans groups and some lawmakers said the cut was a mistake, and they began campaigning to have the benefits restored.

The pensions go to veterans who retire after 20 years of service, regardless of their age. Nearly 2 million retirees currently are eligible, including about 840,000 under age 62, according to the Pentagon.

For a sergeant first class who leaves the service at age 42 after two decades, the bill passed in December would have meant an estimated $72,000 in reduced pension payments.

Quick action by lawmakers on this year’s debt limit bill stands in contrast to lengthy showdowns in 2012 and last fall, when Republicans sought to use the must-pass bill as leverage to win concessions from Pres. Obama. They succeeded in 2011, winning about $2 trillion in spending cuts. But Pres. Obama has been unwilling to negotiate over the debt limit since his re-election in 2012.

The bill he signed Saturday is the third consecutive debt measure to pass Congress without concessions from the White House.

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JACKSONVILLE, FL — Nineteen years ago, Ron Davis and Lucia McBath celebrated the birth of a son. Sunday, they should have celebrated Jordan Davis’ birthday with him. Instead, they faced the prospect of a new trial for the man accused of killing him.

A jury in Jacksonville on Saturday found Michael Dunn guilty of attempted second-degree murder for opening fire on three other teens in the same SUV as Jordan Davis — but deadlocked on the murder charge against him in Davis’ death.

Prosecutors had argued that Dunn recklessly shot at the teens after complaining about the volume of their music in a convenience store parking lot. Three of his 10 shots struck Davis, one of them cutting through his liver, a lung and his aorta. Dunn testified that Davis threatened him and that he thought he saw a gun sticking out of the Dodge Durango. But Ron Davis said his son was a good kid and didn’t deserve to be collateral damage in an argument over loud music. McBath said she was happy for a little bit of closure.

“It’s sad for Mr. Dunn that he will live the rest of his life in that sense of torment, and I will pray for him,” McBath said. “And I have asked my family to pray for him, but we are so grateful for the charges that have been brought against him. We are so grateful for the truth.”

And moments before prosecutor Angela Corey said she would seek a new trial on the murder charge, McBath said she and her ex-husband will continue to stand up for their son, who was 17 when he was killed.

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Joseph “Gabe” Sonnier is now the principal at the Louisiana elementary school where he served as a janitor for 27 years.

Sonnier had been working at Port Barre Elementary for over 30 years when he was selected as their new principal last November.

He originally began his college education at Southern University, The Advocate reports, but dropped out in 1979 after one year to help support his mother and four siblings.

The inspiration to complete his education degree came in 1985, when the principal at the time approached him about becoming a teacher, reports CBS.

The former custodian began studying in his free time and working towards his degree, which he earned and began teaching in 2008, according to The Advocate. Sonnier continued his education and completed his masters degree through Arkansas State University.

The newly appointed principal recognizes his accomplishments, and even still cleans his own office.

“Don’t let your situation that you’re in now define what you’re going to become later,” Sonnier told CBS. “I always tell them it’s not where you start, it’s how you finish.”

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JACKSONVILLE, Florida  — The Florida man charged with fatally shooting a 17-year-old boy after an argument over loud music testified Tuesday that he thought he saw the barrel of a gun from a neighboring vehicle pointed at him and that he feared for his life before firing his weapon.

Dunn is charged with first-degree murder. He has pleaded not guilty and says he acted in self-defense when he fatally shot 17-year-old Jordan Davis outside a Jacksonville convenience store in November 2012.

The trial comes less than a year after a former Florida neighborhood watchman, George Zimmerman, was acquitted in the killing of an unarmed black teenager, Trayvon Martin.

Both cases have stoked racial tensions. Dunn is white and Davis was black. No weapons were found in the SUV where Davis was riding with two other teenagers.