Florida Sentinel Bulletin

WASHINGTON  — Former President Bill Clinton is headed back to the White House — just for a day — and Oprah is coming, too.
Clinton and Oprah Winfrey will be among 16 people that President Barack Obama will venerate later this year with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the White House announced Thursday. They’ll join other prominent people to be honored this year, including musicians, scientists, activists — even an astronaut.

Clinton, who served as Arkansas’ governor before being elected the 42nd president, will be recognized also for his humanitarian work through the Clinton Foundation, which promotes global public health, economic development and environmental protection. The White House also noted his work with former President George W. Bush to raise money for Haiti after the Caribbean nation’s devastating 2010 earthquake. Clinton also spoke on Pres. Obama’s behalf at the 2012 Democratic convention, and his wife, former Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, was Pres. Obama’s first-term secretary of state.

Winfrey’s career as an American broadcaster, actress and activist has spanned decades, with The Oprah Winfrey Show becoming the highest rated talk show in America for 25 years. Her philanthropic efforts have been focused largely on education and creating opportunities for women and girls, in the U.S. and Africa. She was also an early and avid supporter of Pres. Obama’s first presidential campaign, raising money and campaigning in what was considered a major boost to Pres. Obama’s campaign.

Others who will receive the medal:
—Daniel Inouye, former senator from Hawaii, World War II veteran and the first Japanese American in Congress. Inouye will receive the award posthumously.
—Ben Bradlee, former executive editor of the Washington Post who oversaw the newspaper’s coverage of Watergate.
—Sally Ride, the first American woman to fly in space. Ride will receive the award posthumously.
—Richard Lugar, former senator from Indiana who worked to reduce the global nuclear threat.
—Gloria Steinem, writer and prominent women’s rights activist.
—Ernie Banks, baseball player who hit more than 500 home runs and played 19 seasons with the Chicago Cubs.
—Bayard Rustin, civil and gay rights activist and adviser to Martin Luther King Jr. Rustin will receive the award posthumously.
—Daniel Kahneman, psychologist who won the Nobel Prize in Economics.
—Loretta Lynn, country music singer.
—Maria Molina, chemist and environmental scientist who won the Nobel Prize in chemistry.
—Arturo Sandoval, Grammy-winning jazz musician who was born in Cuba and defected to the U.S.
—Dean Smith, head coach of University of North Carolina’s basketball team for 36 years.
—Patricia Wald, first woman appointed to U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia and became the court’s chief judge.
—C.T. Vivian, civil rights leader and minister.

On Monday, Attorney General Eric Holder announced his “Smart on Crime” initiative, calling for major changes to drug sentencing, the release of elderly prisoners, and a decreased length of non-violent crime sentences. These measures will have a major impact on African-American defendants.

Blacks have been disproportionately sentenced at higher rates than Whites, “African Americans are incarcerated at a rate six times more than Whites.

Many of these inequities in justice have led to the U.S. prison system facing major overcrowding problems. According to Holder, despite the United States having only 5 percent of the world’s population, 25 percent of the prisoners in the world are in the United States.”

One key problem to prison overcrowding is the requirement for mandatory sentencing guidelines, which Holder is looking to change.
These mandatory sentences take all discretion from the judge and prosecutor in sentencing a person who pleads guilty or is found guilty of a drug crime.

For example, there was a mandatory 5-year sentence for 5 grams of crack and a mandatory 5-year sentence for 500 grams of powder cocaine. These type of guidelines, which were developed in the mid-1980’s, disproportionately sentenced Blacks, who were more likely to abuse crack, with no possibility of early parole or release.

Consequently, Holder has launched a review of policy in an effort to create fairness in the justice system.

This will allow courts more discretion when sentencing for low level, non-violent offenders.

NEW YORK — The New York Police Department deliberately violated the civil rights of tens of thousands of New Yorkers with its contentious stop-and-frisk policy, and an independent monitor is needed to oversee major changes, a federal judge ruled Monday in a stinging rebuke for what the mayor and police commissioner have defended as a life-saving, crime-fighting tool.

U.S. District Court Judge Shira Scheindlin said she was not putting an end to the policy, but rather was reforming it. She did not give many specifics on how that would work, but instead named an independent monitor who would develop reforms to policies, training, supervision, monitoring and discipline. She also ordered that officers test out body-worn cameras in the police precinct where most stops occurred.

“The city’s highest officials have turned a blind eye to the evidence that officers are conducting stops in a racially discriminatory manner,” she wrote. “In their zeal to defend a policy that they believe to be effective, they have willfully ignored overwhelming proof that the policy of targeting `the right people’ is racially discriminatory.”

ATLANTA —- A 15-year-old boy in DeKalb County is in desperate need of a heart transplant, but doctors say he doesn’t qualify for the transplant list. Anthony Stokes is receiving treatment at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta at Egleston.

Doctors have told his family that Anthony has less than six months to live, but he can’t be put on the transplant list because of a history of non-compliance.

“They said they don’t have any evidence that he would take his medicine or that he would go to his follow-ups,” said Melencia Hamilton, Anthony’s mother. Hamilton said that the transplant is the only fix for her son’s enlarged heart.

Keepers of the nation’s transplant list have strict guidelines about who qualifies, and while doctors didn’t specify the reason, family friends said they’ve been told it’s partly because Anthony has had low grades and trouble with the law.

Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta spokeswoman Patty Gregory said in a statement, “The well-being of our patients is always our first priority. We are continuing to work with this family and looking at all options regarding this patient’s health care. We follow very specific criteria in determining eligibility for a transplant of any kind.”

Anthony has been at the hospital since July 14.

ORLANDO — A dozen wartime years are winding down, but the job of caring for veterans new and old is only just beginning, President Barack Obama told thousands of veterans in Orlando on Saturday.

“So long as I’m the United States’ president, I will make it my mission to make sure that America is right there beside you every step of the way,” Pres. Obama told the Disabled American Veterans National Convention.

“This time of war may be coming to an end, but the job of caring for veterans goes on, and our work caring for our newest veterans has only just begun.”

The President and First Lady Michelle Obama addressed a Hilton ballroom loaded with military caps, motorized scooters, wheelchairs and more than 3,000 veterans before heading to Martha’s Vineyard for a family vacation.

“We are not where we need to be, but we are making progress,” Pres. Obama said. “Finally the backlog is shrinking. In the last five months alone, it’s down nearly 20 percent. We’re turning the tide.”

The president outlined a new, $100 million initiative for research into brain injuries and mental health challenges, including post-traumatic stress disorder and what he called “this epidemic of suicide among our veterans and troops.”

MARIMAR, FL – While most 17-year-olds are contemplating which college they plan on attending next fall, James Martin is thinking about where he wants to attend graduate school.

Martin, of Marimar, Fla., just received his bachelor’s degree in molecular biology from Florida Atlantic University (FAU) during a ceremony Tuesday. The baby-faced teen was by far the youngest graduate in his class of 1000 other students; he was also one of the most accomplished, finishing with a 3.9 GPA.

While Martin is not sure of what his next steps will be, he does eventually want to pursue higher education.

“In a couple years, hopefully, I’ll be on my way to getting a PhD, and so that would be a tremendous blessing,” he said. “In another eight years, I’ll be a professor somewhere.”

BALTIMORE – Tavon White, the leader of the Black Guerrilla Family who impregnated four guards inside of the Baltimore City Detention Center, pleaded guilty to federal racketeering conspiracy charges.

White, nicknamed “Bulldog,” admitted to smuggling drugs and phones inside of the jail. During a “slow month,” he claimed he earned more than $15,000 with the assistance of a “harem of correctional officers.”

Of the six correctional officers, 4 gave birth to White’s children, and 2 tattooed his name on their body.

According to an FBI release, the corruption was deep and pervasive.

A federal grand jury returned a racketeering indictment charging 25 individuals, including 13 correctional officers with the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services, for conspiring to run operations of the Black Guerilla Family (BGF) gang inside correctional facilities.

DETROIT, MI – Two Detroit women were found naked, beaten, burned, possibly sexually assaulted and left for dead within 24 hours of each other and police believe the cases are connected.

A woman walking on Detroit’s west side discovered the first victim, wedged beneath a couch in a field, moaning in pain.

Less than 24 hours — and less than a mile away —another woman was discovered after people nearby observed smoke and flames coming from a van.

Both women are allegedly prostitutes and the cases are believed to be connected.

BURBANK, CA — President Barack Obama said Tuesday that he was “disappointed” that Russia had granted temporary asylum to National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden, defying Obama administration demands that the former government contractor be sent back to the U. S. to face espionage charges. Pres. Obama, in his first comments about Snowden since Russia’s decision last week, said the move reflected the “underlying challenges” he faces in dealing with Moscow.

“There have been times where they slip back into Cold War thinking and a Cold War mentality.” Snowden, an ex-NSA systems analyst, is accused of leaking details about highly-secretive government surveillance programs. He spent several weeks in the transit zone of a Moscow airport before being granted asylum for a year. Russia’s decision has pushed the White House to reconsider Pres. Obama’s plans to travel to Russia in September.