Florida Sentinel Bulletin

NEW YORK  — A man has been sentenced to 240 years in prison for terrorizing patrons at a New York City bar during a bizarre hostage ordeal more than a decade ago.

Steve Johnson cursed at the judge and railed about the economy during his sentencing Friday in the 2002 kidnapping at Bar Veloce in the East Village.

Johnson invaded the bar with three pistols, a samurai sword and a container of kerosene. He shot and wounded three people and sprayed kerosene on several customers.

A jury convicted Johnson last month of charges including attempted murder. Authorities say Johnson, who is black, targeted white patrons.

It was the 45-year-old’s third trial. The first trial deadlocked in 2004. The second resulted in a conviction and a 240-year prison sentence, but was overturned on appeal.

The drama around the $85 billion in federal government cuts due to start on March 1, known as the sequester, centers around one fundamental question: how much has President Obama’s victory in November changed the nation’s political dynamics on fiscal issues?

Since Election Day, President Obama has demanded Republicans back down from some of their strongest-held positions, arguing the American public handed him a mandate to rechart the country’s fiscal course by electing him a second time. Yes, the Republicans would allow higher taxes on the wealthy, Pres. Obama insisted, and the GOP eventually conceded. Yes, Republicans would allow the country to raise its debt limit without accompanying spend cuts, Pres. Obama insisted, and again the GOP relented.

With the sequester, the Republicans finally feel like they are in a fight they can win. They say the president, who is insisting the $85 billion in cuts this year be replaced by an agreement that includes both spending reductions and tax increases, can’t cast the GOP as a crazy, anti-tax party after Republicans just allowed a tax increase less than two months ago. And while allowing the sequester to occur could result in thousands of layoffs and furloughs for workers, Republicans won’t be blamed for a full economic meltdown, which could have resulted from going over the federal debt limit. In fact, the GOP can point out, as party leaders are, that the sequester was originally proposed by top Pres. Obama aides.

This fiscal debate is also much different than the other two issues consuming Washington: gun control and immigration. Republicans have a strong incentive to reach a deal on immigration, rather than oppose Pres. Obama, as they view taking that issue off the table as a starting point to winning more Latino voters in future elections. And the president’s main legislative priority on gun control, passing universal background checks, does not target a fundamental Republican value.

On the sequester, both parties’ positions are much more hardened. Pres. Obama argues correctly that the majority of the voting public shares his view that deficit reduction plans should include a combination of tax increases and spending cuts.

CHICAGO – In a race where guns quickly dominated the debate, gun control advocate Robin Kelly clinched the Democratic nomination for Illinois 2nd Congressional District general election Tuesday by more than 50 percent of the vote.

The race to replace Jesse Jackson, Jr. has not been brief, or clean. As many as two dozen aspirants entered a crowded field back in November 2012, when Jackson, Jr. resigned from his post after months of absence, citing health issues and acknowledging a federal probe.

Rev. Al Sharpton says he could not believe his ears Wednesday morning when he heard the arguments in the Supreme Court to overturn Section 5 of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. Rep. John Lewis joins Sharpton to talk about expectations and implications of the anticipated case decision.

Congressman John Lewis, a hero of the civil-rights movement, said he was appalled to hear Justice Antonin Scalia refer to the Voting Rights Act as a “racial entitlement” today. Rep. Lewis was at the nation’s highest court to listen to arguments about whether the 1965 Voting Rights Act should be struck down as unconstitutional.

“It was unreal, unbelievable, almost shocking, for a member of the court to use certain language,” he said “I can see politicians and even members of Congress–it is just appalling to me.”

For Lewis, the comments were especially offensive because he knows from experience how hard he and others fought to win those rights. He was severely beaten by Alabama state troopers as he marched across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Al., on March 7, 1965, a date that’s now known as Bloody Sunday.

Reverend Al Sharpton, who was also in the court, called Scalia’s words “shocking.”

“How is that an entitlement?” Sharpton asked. “I thought African-Americans were citizens! For us to have the right to vote protected is some kind of entitlement program?”

Lewis agreed, calling the right to vote “precious, almost sacred. It is the most powerful nonviolent instrument that we have in a democratic society. And if the courts come to that point where they declare this section, section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, unconstitutional, it would be a  dagger in the heart of the democratic process.”

A 10-year-old boy in Brockton called 911 because he didn’t want to go to bed, but the phone call got the boy a late night visit from police.

“He’s like, ‘I’m going to call the cops on you,’” said Shamayne Rosario, the boy’s mother. “911 — he just pushes it into the phone.”

Danny called 911 just after 8 p.m. Wednesday. He never actually spoke with anyone — he hung up the phone after dialing 911. That was enough for police to not only call back, but send an officer to the home.

The dispatcher called back saying, “Hi, this is 911. Somebody just called from there?”

Rosario: “Yeah, it was my son, my 10-year-old son.”

Dispatcher: “Ok…”

Rosario: “No, everything is fine here…I told him to go to bed and he doesn’t want to go to bed. He’s like, ‘I’m going to call the cops on you.’ I said, ‘Go ahead.’”

WASHINGTON  — After more than a century, the Census Bureau is dropping its use of the word “Negro” to describe Black Americans in surveys.

Instead of the term that came into use during the Jim Crow era of racial segregation, census forms will use the more modern labels “black” or “African-American”.

The change will take effect next year when the Census Bureau distributes its annual American Community Survey to more than 3.5 million U.S. households, Nicholas Jones, chief of the bureau’s racial statistics branch, said in an interview.

LAS VEGAS, N. V. — A 26-year-old man was being sought Sunday as the prime suspect in a pre-dawn shooting on the Las Vegas Strip last week which led to a fiery crash that left three people dead and several others injured.

Las Vegas police Capt. Chris Jones said Sunday that investigators are working around the clock to sort through evidence and find Ammar Harris (pictured) following the discovery Saturday of a black SUV used as a getaway car in the shooting and six-vehicle chain-reaction carnage on the neon-lit boulevard near the Bellagio, Caesars Palace, Bally’s and Flamingo resorts.

Jones cited “lots of information coming at us all at once, especially on the Range Rover.” He wasn’t specific. An aspiring rapper driving a Maserati was shot to death Thursday, and two people in a taxi died in a crash and fireball when the Maserati hit their vehicle.

Harris, who police said was arrested last year on allegations that he was a pimp, was named Saturday as the prime suspect in the triple homicide. Jones said police didn’t know where he was. Police released a jail photo of Harris taken following his arrest in Las Vegas last year on pandering, kidnapping, sexual assault and coercion charges. The disposition of that case was not immediately known.

ALPINE, N. J. – An alleged Bloods gang member was caught with 100 bags of heroin in his rectum as a result of a routine traffic stop in New Jersey, according to a police report.

Rasoul H. Speight (pictured) and Gary T. Sylak of N.Y. were stopped by cops because their 2005 Mitsubishi Lancer had unclear license plates. During processing, Speight was found to have bags of heroin in his rectum and Sylak had a syringe and a spoon, both with heroin residue, inside of his jacket. Both men were charged with possession with intent to distribute; Sylak was additionally charged with possession of drug paraphernalia.

The heroin allegedly retrieved from Speight’s buttocks had a street value of $1,000 in New York City and $2,000 in upstate New York areas.

FISHKILL, N. Y. – A female prison guard has been charged with rape after having sex with a male inmate at a maximum-security state prison in the Hudson Valley. State police say that Tyshinia Love Brewster was in a sexual relationship with an inmate at Downstate Correctional Facility in Fishkill. She has been employed there for 7½ years.

Brewster, 39, of Poughkeepsie was arrested at her home on Wednesday. She also faces an official misconduct charge in addition to a rape charge. Police say that Brewster and the inmate–who has not been named–would meet in the cell where he was housed during her shift assignment. The two have allegedly been intimate since 2010. The inmate, who was imprisoned as a result of a felony conviction out of New York City, has been transferred to another prison. Police say Brewster is six months pregnant. She is currently free on bond.

Brewster’s arrest marks the second time this month a prison guard out of New York State has been accused of sleeping with an inmate.