Florida Sentinel Bulletin

WASHINGTON  — Short on support at home and allies abroad, President Barack Obama unexpectedly stepped back from a missile attack against Syria on Saturday and instead asked Congress to support a strike punishing Bashar Assad’s regime for the alleged use of chemical weapons.

With Navy ships on standby in the Mediterranean Sea ready to launch their cruise missiles, Pres. Obama said he had decided the United States should take military action and that he believes that as commander in chief, he has “the authority to carry out this military action without specific congressional authorization.”

Congress ‘Evenly Divided’ On Obama’s Next Move In Syria

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama and his top aides launched a full-scale political offensive on Sunday to persuade a skeptical Congress to approve a military strike against Syria, but faced an uphill struggle to win over many lawmakers and a war-weary American public.

Pres. Obama made a series of calls to members of the House of Representatives and Senate, with more scheduled for Monday, underscoring the task confronting the administration before it can go ahead with using force in response to a deadly chemical attack blamed on the Syrian government.

Dozens of lawmakers, some in tennis shirts or shirtsleeves, cut short their vacations and streamed into the corridors of the Capitol building for a Sunday afternoon intelligence briefing on Syria with Obama’s national security team.

When they emerged nearly three hours later, there was no immediate sign that the many skeptics in Congress had changed their minds.

A New York maintenance man is “elated” to have hit a $5 million lottery jackpot — though it took seven years, and a criminal trial to finally cash in.

New York State Lottery officials on Wednesday verified that Robert Miles of Syracuse is the rightful winner of a 2006 scratch-off jackpot after it was determined a family of convenience store workers tried to bag the winnings for themselves.

In October 2006, Miles turned the winning scratch-off lottery ticket into The Green Ale Market in Syracuse where, according to Miles’ testimony in court, Andy and Nayel Ashkar convinced him the ticket was only worth $5,000.

The brothers, sons of the store’s owner, paid him $4,000 for it and kept $1,000.

Last year, the brothers tried to claim the multi-million dollar jackpot, triggering an investigation by state gaming officials and a criminal trial in Onondaga County.

Andy Ashkar, 35, who was working behind the counter at the store that day, was convicted in May of possessing the stolen ticket and received up to 25 years in prison, the Syracuse Post-Standard reported. It was determined there was not enough evidence to convict his brother, Nafel, of possession of stolen property. Both were cleared of conspiracy charges.

Their father, Nayef Ashkar, pleaded guilty to filing a false instrument and admitted he lied in a state lottery affidavit. He is expected to go to trial in September on conspiracy charges.

At trial Miles, who works a Syracuse apartment complex, testified he was addicted to crack cocaine at the time he bought the ticket and was confused by the Ashkar brother’s actions when they took it from him.

Originally the $5 million Extravaganza scratch-off winnings would have been paid out as a $250,000 annuity over 20 years, lottery officials said. But the rules have changed, and Miles will have the option of receiving a lump sum payment of $3.2 million, or $2.1 million after taxes.

FORT WORTH, TEXAS  — The hardest part of college life for Carson Huey-You is the weight of the books he must carry in his backpack.

After all, Carson’s only 4-foot-7, 75 pounds — and 11-years-old as he embarks on his freshman year at Texas Christian University.

He became TCU’s youngest student ever when classes started last week. The physics major says he plans to be a quantum physicist.

The Southlake child graduated in May as co-valedictorian from a private Grapevine high school at age 10. He scored 1770 on his SAT, and his mother, Claretta Huey-You, says Carson was reading by age 2. She says numbers and math came easily to him, he plays classical music on the piano, and he can speak Mandarin Chinese.

MIAMI – A man, who left his 7-year-old daughter sleeping in the car while he was drinking at a topless bar, was arrested Wednesday, the Orange County Sheriff’s Office said.

Around 1 a.m., Elliut Gonzalez was having drinks at Diamond Club in Orlando when deputies received a call about a young girl who was left alone in a car, the arrest report said.

When the deputies arrived, Gonzalez’s daughter was sleeping in the front passenger side of the vehicle wearing her seatbelt, the report said.

The deputy tried to wake her up but the young girl did not respond. Florida tag registration information showed that Gonzalez owned the car.

When Gonzalez left the topless bar he confirmed to deputies that it was his car, and that he had left his daughter in the car because he did not want to go back to his home, about a mile away from the bar, the report said.

WASHINGTON  — Former Secretary of State Colin Powell says the jury verdict that freed the killer of Florida teenager Trayvon Martin was “questionable.” But he isn’t sure it will have staying power in the public consciousness.

Speaking on CBS’s Face the Nation, Powell said cases like Martin’s “blaze across the midnight sky” and are forgotten.

The first Black chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and first Black secretary of state, Powell says America has come a long way toward racial equality 50 years after Martin Luther King Jr.’s, “I Have a Dream” speech. Powell recalled being refused service when trying to buy a hamburger before the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Minorities have many more opportunities today, but Powell says King would still demand work on education, housing and economic opportunities.

TEXAS – Most adults would freeze with fear if burglars entered their homes while they were there.

But not 12-year-old Deion Murdock of Port Author, Texas. Murdock was home alone last Tuesday when he heard home invaders inside of his house. He took cover inside of a closet in his mother’s room and called 911.

“Someone’s trying to break into my house,” Murdock told LaTonya James, 32, the dispatcher with the Port Arthur Police Department. The brave young man stayed on the line and followed James’ instructions to hide in a closet after the intruders broke through a window. He remained brave and calmly described to her what he could hear from inside the closet.

Even when the intruders entered his mother’s room, Murdock kept his cool. “I’m going to have to whisper now because I think they’re coming in,” he said. “It sounds like there are multiple people.” After the boy began to whimper in fear as the men walked around the room, James praised the boy’s bravery.

The cops arrived at the scene in a matter of minutes.

They saw the two suspects flea into a wooded area near the house. The men were later caught and arrested.

PHOENIX, AZ – A Phoenix, Ariz. man who died at the age of 87 had no problem leaving a legacy.

Samuel Delbert Whitney claimed to have fathered 54 children during his long and busy life — including a daughter he reportedly had when he was 74 years old.

After Whitney’s death in July, stepdaughter Lexie Woods discovered bottles of 100 milligram Viagra — the highest possible dosage — and a pile of birth certificates in Whitney’s apartment. The 68-year-old has made it her goal to help Whitney’s biological children bring the large brood together. But Whitney had always been a quiet person who didn’t want to talk about how, when, or why he sowed his wild oats.

“What we want to do is find these children and let them know that they have a family that loves them and wants to know them,” Woods told the Daily News.

Lexie Woods wants to reunite the entire Whitney brood. ‘We just want to know where they are,’ she said. Sandra Whitney, 69, is the man’s oldest biological daughter.

Darryl Houston, 47, a Houston pastor, has been accused of sexually assaulting his foster daughter and charged with three counts of sexual assault of a child under 17.

At least six times in April of this year, Houston had sex with the 14-year-old inside the family home, allege prosecutors.

The 14-year-old victim said the first time she had sex with Houston was at his home on April 7. She said while she was doing her chores, Houston called her into the TV room and began kissing her neck. The two of them began to “make out” and then had sex, according to court documents.

The two allegedly had sexual contact at least six times, even when others were in the home, up until April 24. Two days later, she told her therapist at the Children’s Assessment Center. The teen said she enjoyed being with Houston and that he allegedly told her the two of them would be together in the future.

But when investigators questioned Houston, he denied the allegations and accused the teen of being “promiscuous.”

No bond was set for Houston.

Modern day heroine Antoinette Tuff (pictured), the fearless woman who calmed an armed 20-year-old gunman inside the main office of her Atlanta-area elementary school, received a call from President Barack Pres. Obama on Thursday evening thanking her for her courage.

Pres. Obama referred to Tuff as courageous and told her how she probably saved a lot of lives as a result of her heroic efforts. “Here is somebody who is not just courage, not just cool under pressure, but also had enough heart that somehow she could convince somebody that was really troubled that she cared about him,” Pres. Obama told CNN’s Chris Cuomo. “I think we might have to have her maybe make a visit to the White House,” Pres. Obama added.

He said that he listened to Tuff’s 911 call and read about how brave she acted when faced with such a perilous situation. “She was pretty cool, too,” Pres. Obama said of his telephone conversation with Tuff. “She was happy about it.”

Tuff said the call was “awesome.”

A school bookkeeper at Ronald E. McNair Discovery Learning Academy in Decatur, Tuff prevented Michael Brandon, who has a history of mental illness, from unloading nearly 500 rounds of ammunition via his AK-47 style rifle within the facility that houses some 870 students from kindergarten through fifth grade.