Florida Sentinel Bulletin

RIVERDALE, GA – Dr. Evelyn Wynn-Dixon has come a long way. Her story is a testimony to her ability to overcome the odds and persevere through difficult times.

At her lowest point she was a homeless single mom raising four young kids who contemplated suicide by throwing herself off a bridge. In a frantic attempt “to find a way out” Wynn-Dixon made her way to Pryor Street Bridge in Atlanta, overlooking I-75, and was prepared to jump.

A Life Spiraling Out Of Control

“I felt as if everything was gone and I’d ruined my life with one poor decision.” She says her life spiraled out of control after she became pregnant during her first semester at Fort Valley State University. Dixon, a high school honors student, was forced to abandon her scholarship and drop out. Upon returning home, her mother passed away, leaving her with a six-month-old baby to care for.

Demarco Dent is lucky to be alive after Iyana Mentor, his lover of only three months, allegedly tried to run him down with her SUV three times, succeeding on the last try. Why would she try and run the man down, you may ask? Because he couldn’t spend time with her after getting off work.

Mentor was arrested and is now facing charges of aggravated assault and hit-and-run. The violent lover’s spat began when Dent asked Mentor to drop him off at a specified location in Clayton County, Ga. As the couple drove on a highway, Dent, who had just gotten off work, alleges that Mentor became angry when he told her he could not spend any time with her because he was tired.

Dent then alleges that Mentor did not take his news too kindly and began behaving irrationally, spewing profanities and driving recklessly.

WASHINGTON — An outside group supporting President Barack Obama’s agenda plans to air a series of ads this summer promoting Pres. Obama’s health care overhaul.

Organizing for Action intends to spend at least $1 million this summer on ads to draw attention to the implementation of the health care law, including its quality of care and coverage of uninsured Americans.

The move comes as the White House works to implement the law. People without access to health coverage through their jobs can start shopping for subsidized private insurance in new state markets beginning Oct. 1. Those benefits will kick in Jan. 1.

The organization’s first ad touts benefits for consumers, including preventive care, average rebate checks of $150 last year and tax credits for small businesses to pay for part of their workers’ coverage.

WASHINGTON — The White House is threatening to veto the House version of a massive, 5-year farm bill, saying food stamp cuts included in the legislation could leave some Americans hungry.

The House is preparing to consider the bill. The legislation would cut $2 billion annually from food stamps and make it harder for some people to qualify for the program. That is around 3 percent of current spending.

The Obama administration said in a statement that food stamps are “a cornerstone of our nation’s food assistance safety net.” The White House argued that the House should make deeper cuts to farm subsidies like crop insurance instead. The bill, which costs nearly $100 billion a year, would save a total of about $4 billion annually, including the food stamp cuts.

SANFORD, Fla. — Tracy Martin and Sybrina Fulton are in the car with their attorney, Ben Crump, after a long day in the Seminole County Criminal Court in Sanford, Florida, where they have been daily observers since jury selection began June 10th, in the trial of George Zimmerman, the man who shot their 17-year-old son Trayvon Martin to death in February 2012.

Zimmerman has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder.

“You can’t describe the feeling when you learn that your loved one has been lost. That’s like …” Martin says before trailing off. As the case plays out in court, both pa-rents say they’re fighting a daily battle to preserve the memory of the Trayvon they knew, and to not let him become a media caricature.

“I think one of the things that everybody seems to overlook is the fact that, OK, that was our child,” Martin said Wednesday, in a telephone interview. “So whatever your opinion is of him, that’s your opinion. At the end of the day that was our child, and we knew our child and we loved him. And no matter what you try to say about him, [or] how you try to spin his image, or you try to assassinate his character, we know his character, we know his image, and it’s up to us to not let you smear him.”

NEBRASKA – Danielle Powell was close to earning her diploma in 2012, until Grace University discovered her lesbian relationship. The university responded by kicking her out, rescinding her scholarship and sacking her with a $6,300 tuition bill.

Now, Powell is fighting back with an online petition to get the school to relinquish the debt. Powell began her same-sex relationship in 2011-the first time she identified as gay. When Grace, religious institution, found out about the relationship, they ordered Powell to a judiciary board to determine if she should stay or not.

Though the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act bars the institution from publicly discussing a student’s record, Grace’s handbook states that “Any student involved in sexually immoral behavior, including premarital sex, adultery, and homosexual acts, is at minimum placed on University probation and may be subject to a Judiciary Hearing.”

NEW YORK — A Long Island dad is now facing drug and child endangerment charges in Suffolk county after cops say he toted along his eight month-old daughter as he sold heroin in Central Islip — all because he could not find a babysitter.

Tyreek Langs, 23, was in possession of five bags of heroin, worth about $500, when he and his daughter were brought into custody by undercover police officers. Officers were surprised to see a baby in the middle of an alleged drug deal.

“Bizarre situation that someone would go to those lengths with complete disregard for a child,” said Det. Lt. James Rooney. ”Anything can happen in a drug deal,” Rooney added. The mother of the child was said to be at work while the drug deal took place.

HOUSTON  — The Southern Baptist Convention approved a resolution Wednesday expressing its opposition to and disappointment in the Boy Scouts of America’s new policy allowing gay Scouts.

The resolution was voted on by members at the denomination’s annual meeting in Houston. It also calls on the Boy Scouts to remove executive and board leaders who tried to allow gays as both members and leaders without consulting the many religious groups that sponsor Scout troops.

While the resolution does not recommend that Southern Baptists drop ties with the Scouts, it expresses support for those churches and families that decide to do so. It also encourages churches and families who choose to remain with the Scouts to work toward reversing the new membership policy.

Pictured: Rev. Fred Luter Jr. points upward after being re-elected as the Southern Baptist Convention’s president during the 2013 Southern Baptist Convention Annual Meeting at the George R. Brown Convention Center Tuesday, June 11, 2013, in Houston. Luter was the SBC’s first black president. 

With Americans still skeptical about the National Security Agency’s phone record monitoring, House Speaker John Boehner  spoke with ABC News  to call the whistleblower a “traitor.” The most powerful Republican in Washington had an exclusive interview Tuesday (June 11) where he was pressed about the IRS scandal, immigration reform, and Edward Snowden and the Verizon Wireless phone records being leaked.

Boehner had some tough words saying that Snowden’s, who leaked the report, categorizing his actions as a “giant violation of the law.”  He also believes that Snowden’s reveal of the national security information puts American’s at risk. “He’s a traitor. The president outlined last week that these are important national security programs to help keep Americans safe and give us tools to help fight the terrorist threat we face,” Boehner said.