Florida Sentinel Bulletin

ATLANTA – Atlanta Police are still on the lookout for 6 brazen thieves who robbed the Mayors Jewelry store in Lenox Square Mall on last Friday afternoon in upscale Buckhead.

Police say one man stood lookout while 5 casually dressed men entered the jewelry store on the upper level of Lenox Square Mall. Footage from Mayors security cameras shows the men loitering around the center island where pricey diamonds are on display.

The men then drifted over to the Rolex case at the back of the store. Two of the men produced hammers and smashed the glass cases, grabbing Rolex watches priced upwards of $100,000 a piece. Police estimate the thieves snatched $940,000 worth of Rolex Watches in 30 seconds.

“This was well-coordinated and thought-out,” Sgt. Greg Lyon reported. “They had seconds to commit this and get away.” Witnesses told police the thieves made their getaway in a white 2013 Dodge Caravan that was found abandoned 2 miles away. Within minutes, police located the van, with help from a tipster. Inside the van police found 3 of the Rolexes, T-shirts, tennis shoes, underwear and baseball caps. Police hope DNA left on the items will lead them to the thieves.

The van, which did not have a tag, was reported stolen in Michigan.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Anthony Foxx, the mayor of Charlotte, N.C., and a political ally of President Barack Obama, was unanimously confirmed by the Senate last week to be transportation secretary.

The Senate voted 100-0 in favor of Foxx. As secretary, the 42-year-old Foxx will oversee the agencies within the department that regulate the nation’s aviation, rail, transit and highway systems, as well as auto safety. He replaces outgoing secretary Ray LaHood, who campaigned against distracted driving and led the Obama Administration’s efforts to boost the economy by improving the nation’s transportation.

The mayor won national recognition when Charlotte hosted the Democratic National Convention last year. Foxx calls President Obama a friend and was a key surrogate in North Carolina for the president during his re-election bid last fall.

As mayor, Foxx has pushed for expanded use of streetcars and a light rail extension, helped build a new runway at Charlotte Douglas International Airport and helped create a new regional freight distribution center that will link planes, trains and trucks to East Coast ports. He has also unveiled a pilot program for electric vehicle charging stations.

Foxx takes over the department in an era of constraint as federal agencies are grappling with across-the-board spending cuts that are scheduled to ratchet up next year. At the same time, years of pushing off expensive repairs and improvements to roads, airports, air traffic control systems, rails and ports have left the nation with an overstrained transportation system. Foxx isn’t new to Washington. His background includes stints as a Justice Department attorney and a Democratic aide to the House Judiciary Committee.

WASHINGTON — The U. S. State of Texas executed its 500th convict since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976, a record in a country where capital punishment is in decline elsewhere.

Kimberly McCarthy, 52, was declared dead by lethal injection at 6:37 p.m. (23:37) GMT in the “Walls Unit,” a red brick prison in the small town of Huntsville, prison officials said. After 14 years on death row, time stopped for the former crack addict who was condemned to death for the savage murder of 71-year-old retired college professor, Dorothy Booth in 1997.

McCarthy fatally stabbed Booth with a butcher’s knife and beat her with a candelabra before, police said, she cut off Booth’s finger to take her wedding ring. “As the lethal drugs began to take effect her last words were ‘God is good,’“ the Texas Department of Criminal Justice said in a press release.

McCarthy, who is Black, received two last-minute reprieves in January and April due to allegations of racial discrimination during the selection of what became her all-white jury. But after a Texas appeals court refused to reopen the case, she ran out of both options and time.

NEW YORK — Target Corp. said Thursday that it is ending its relationship with celebrity cook Paula Deen as fallout builds from revelations that the Southern celebrity chef used racial slurs in the past.

Diabetes drug maker Novo Nordisk also joined the companies distancing themselves from her. The discounter, based in Minneapolis, said that it will phase out its Paula Deen-branded cookware and other items. “Once the merchandise is sold out, we will not be replenishing inventory,” said Molly Snyder, a Target spokeswoman.

Diabetes drug maker Novo Nordisk said Thursday it and Deen have “mutually agreed to suspend our patient education activities for now.” The developments are the latest blow to Deen’s business.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world’s largest retailer, said Wednesday that it’s also cutting ties with Deen. The world’s largest retailer currently carries a variety of products under her moniker, including food items, cookware and health and wellness products, at all of its 4,000 U. S. namesake stores.

JOHANNESBURG  — South Africa’s president on Monday said a critically ill Nelson Mandela was “asleep” when he visited the 94-year-old at the hospital, and he urged the country to pray for Mandela, describing him as the “father of democracy” who made extraordinary sacrifices on behalf of his people.

President Jacob Zuma told dozens of foreign and South African journalists that doctors are doing everything possible to help the former president feel comfortable on his 17th day in a Pretoria hospital, but refused to give details of Mandela’s condition, saying: “I’m not a doctor.” The briefing came a day after the government said Mandela’s condition had deteriorated and was now critical.

The U.S. Supreme Court did not outlaw affirmative action in a widely-anticipated opinion, instead issuing a narrow ruling that sends the University of Texas’ college admissions program back to a lower court for reconsideration.

In a 7-1 opinion, in which Democratic-leaning justices Sonia Sotomayor and Stephen Breyer joined the Court’s five conservatives, the Court did not rule on the broader question of whether race should ever be considered in college admissions.

Instead, the Court argued that the lower courts did not properly apply prior Supreme Court precedents in examining the case. In particular, the Supreme Court said lower courts had not applied “strict scrutiny” to the University of Texas, which uses race as a plus factor in its admissions policies.

The Court called for the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals to examine the University of Texas’ program under that strict scrutiny, arguing the lower court had not in its original ruling.

The ruling is something of a surprise. The Court has long been divided between its liberal and conservative swings on affirmative action, and it was expected this would be a case in which those divides were illustrated, with the conservatives repeating their call for ending all consideration of race in public life, while the Court’s liberals defending affirmative action.

Clarence Thomas Bluntly Calls For End Of Affirmative Action

Justice Clarence Thomas again urged the end of affirmative action on Monday, writing a fiery concurring opinion in which he agreed with the Supreme Court’s decision not to defend the University of Texas’ diversity program, but urged the Court to go further and simply outlaw the consideration of race in public life.

Thomas has long been an opponent of affirmative action and repeated much of the rhetoric he has used before in condemning the policy. But in his 20-page opinion, Thomas broke new ground in repeatedly likening the rationales of the University of Texas in its admissions program to the people who defended segregation generations ago.

As he did in 2003, when Thomas also called for the Court to issue a broader ruling against affirmative action, Thomas suggested racial preferences not only violated the Constitution and discriminated against white and Asian students, but also did not benefit the Blacks and Hispanics it was designed to help. He argues that students who benefit from affirmative action end up in schools in which they cannot keep up with more qualified students and that all of the Black and Hispanic students at the University of Texas would be tarred as having only been admitted for diversity purposes, even those who would have gotten into the school without racial considerations.

Illinois GOP official Jim Allen resigned last Thursday (June 20) amid outrage over controversial remarks he made toward a Black Congressional candidate.

In the statement, Allen called the woman a “street walker” who would only get a job to meet a minority “quota.”

Erika Harold was on the receiving end of Allen’s disrespectful remarks.

Jim Allen stepped down from his post as Montgomery County Republican Party chairman after an email he sent about former Miss America and GOP congressional candidate Erika Harold was published by Republican News Watch. Illinois Republican Party Chairman Jack Dorgan, who called the email “offensive and inappropriate,” accepted Allen’s resignation.

Edward Snowden, the man behind security leaks regarding the National Security Agency’s anti-terrorism efforts has been charged with espionage.

Snowden has been hiding out in China and after having landed in Russia, may be on his way to Ecuador.

U.S. Federal prosecutors brought the charges against Snowden requesting that he be extradited from Hong Kong.

Snowden admitted to leaking confidential information, effectively unveiling the governments spying efforts, touted as tactics to monitor terrorism.

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama’s upcoming weeklong trip to Africa will mark his most significant personal investment in the developing region since taking office. The White House is hoping the return on that investment will be an increased foothold for U.S. businesses on a continent where China and other emerging economies are already major players.

Casting a shadow over Pres. Obama’s trip will be the health of former South African President Nelson Mandela, who has been in the hospital for two weeks. The White House says it will defer to Mandela’s family for decisions on whether the anti-apartheid leader will be able to meet with Pres. Obama.

In addition to South Africa, Pres. Obama will also visit Senegal and Tanzania. He is due to depart Washington on Wednesday.