Florida Sentinel Bulletin

DUBLIN, GA — Maleik Carr didn’t hesitate to act when he and his little sister were confronted by unleashed pit bulls on their way to the bus stop.

The dogs had escaped through a neighbor’s broken fence as the pair of Dublin, Georgia siblings walked across their backyard Monday morning. As soon as they became aggressive and started snapping at his five-year-old sister, Jalia, Maleik, 11, stepped in.

“I ran over there and started kicking them away from her, and they bit me. And I told Jalia to run.” “When they locked on to my leg, I got a chair and started hitting them with it.”

His quick thinking saved both his and his sister’s life. Maleik battled the dogs alone and once he was able to keep them off long enough, he jumped over his backyard fence to safety. That’s when his older sister took him to the hospital.

The young boy had emergency surgery for the deep wounds on his legs. He sustained a total of 23 bites on his leg, and a few more on his hands.

“It hurt me to my soul when I saw those cuts,” said the father, Willie Carr. “It was very hard not crying in front of him because he was already so strong, and I wanted him to continue being strong.”

WARREN, Michigan  — The husband of a 400-pound U. S. woman has been charged with abuse after her recent death.

Authorities are accusing Michael Brooks of allowing Yolanda Reese-Brooks to fester in a bed surrounded by her own waste. The 40-year-old woman died of morbid obesity and other injuries last week.

The prosecutor’s office says Brooks was his wife’s primary caretaker after she sustained a crushed pelvis and ruptured bladder in a 2011 auto wreck.

Brooks is charged with second-degree abuse of a vulnerable adult. Prosecutor Eric Smith says Brooks’ conduct was “shameful.” Reese-Brooks’ four children now are living with a relative.

NEW YORK  — Commuters streaming into New York City on Monday endured long waits and crowded trains, giving the recovering transit system a stress test a week after Superstorm Sandy ravaged the eastern third of the country, with New York and New Jersey bearing the brunt of the destruction.

Trains were so crowded Monday on the Long Island Rail Road that dozens of people missed their trains. With PATH trains between New Jersey and Manhattan still out, lines for the ferry in Jersey City quickly stretched to several hundred people by daybreak.

One commuter in line pleaded into his cellphone, “Can I please work from home? This is outrageous,” but many more took the complicated commute as just another challenge after a difficult week.

“There’s not much we can do. We’ll get there whatever time we can, and our jobs have to understand. It’s better late than absent,” said Louis Holmes of Bayonne, as he waited to board a ferry in Jersey City to his job as a security guard at Manhattan’s Sept. 11 memorial site.

Each year, African American women spend millions of dollars on hair extensions and hair care products, contributing to the multi-billion dollar bottom line of a market that is 90 percent owned and operated by Korean businesses.

In recent years, there’s been an outcry by the African American community calling for an investigation on the Korean domination of the market and many media outlets including Madame Noire have tackled this issue in the past.

In spite of higher-than-normal barriers of entry to entrepreneurship in the Black hair care and weaving industries, veteran companies like Carol’s Daughter, Dudley’s Q and newcomers like Huetiful and curlBOX are working feverishly to reclaim ownership of the brown beauty conversation.

Joining those ownership ranks is Amizade Hair, a new hair extension company founded by friends Michelle Morant and Kendra Austin that launched this past August.

According to Austin, the company provides “quality, affordable, and luxurious virgin hair extensions from around the world, in a range of textures, styles, and lengths,” and hopes to become a go-to brand among extension loyalists who may have traditionally purchased products from a non-Black owned company.

A Navy veteran, who was charged with resisting arrest and assaulting a police officer, is claiming she was a victim of police brutality.

Some of the altercation between Stephanie Nickerson, 25, of Durham, North Carolina, and the police officer was caught on dark and blurry cell phone video.

A voice can be heard off-camera, yelling, “Don’t hit her man, don’t hit her. Come on bro, that’s a female.”

Nickerson said police came to her friend’s home Sunday morning after receiving a call about a disturbance, and they wanted to search the house. She told her friend she didn’t have to let police into the residence and that’s when the officer allegedly became aggressive.

Stephanie Nickerson after she says she was beaten by a Durham, North Carolina police officer.

Nickerson says the charge of assaulting an officer is not true.

“You can hear the officer. Even though he has his knee in my back and my face is in the ground, he says don’t hit me, don’t hit me. How am I hitting you when I’m down on the ground, pinned, beat up?” she asked.

Nickerson has filed a complaint with the police department. The incident is currently under investigation.

NEW YORK — The nation’s largest school system lurched to life Monday, with all but the students most affected by Superstorm Sandy making their way back to classes on foot, ferry and subway.

Students at Stuyvesant High School, the city’s most selective school, swarmed out of Lower Manhattan’s subway stations after electricity was restored to the devastated area by the weekend.

“Being cooped up in my house for nine days was not fun!” said sophomore Nathan Mannes. “I did my homework, and when I finished that I played some video games.”

Less than 50 schools throughout the five boroughs remained closed because of structural damage and fewer than 20 were without power, Mayor Michael Bloomberg told reporters at mid-day. About 16 were being used to shelter people left homeless by Sandy, though most will be relocated by the time those students return Wednesday, he said.

WASHINGTON — New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg backed President Barack Obama over Republican Mitt Romney on Thursday, saying the incumbent Democrat will bring critically needed leadership to fight climate change after the East Coast devastation wrought by Hurricane Sandy.

The endorsement from the politically independent and nationally recognizable mayor was a major boost for Pres. Obama, who is spending the campaign’s final days trying to win over independent voters whose voices will be critical in determining the winner of Tuesday’s election.

FORT MYERS, FL — Long lines at polling places have been a familiar sight this week, but two hours in line is nothing compared to how long one Fort Myers, Florida woman chose to wait.

For the first time in her 99 years of life, Rosie Lewis cast a ballot.

“She’s an amazing person. 99-years-old and still has her right mind,” said her grandson Nelson Lewis.

In her modest Fort Myers home, she sat in her favorite chair close to the Bible and with her ballot in hand. “I just trust in the Lord to let me go on,” Lewis remarked.

Her life has spanned 24 presidential elections. Yet, this is the first time she’s voted in one.

“She completely understands what she just did,” said her grandson. “My grandmother never forgets anything.”

Family friend Gerri Ware registered Lewis to vote. “I said, ‘Honey, when and where because I will be there,’” said Ware.

Lewis credits the election of Pres. Barack Obama for inspiring her to vote. “I said I’m going to vote if the Lord spares my life this time,” said Lewis. “I made it up to my mind to vote.”

NEWARK, NJ — Newark mayor Cory Booker has won widespread praise in the past of his hands on efforts with his cities residents. When it comes to the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, he’s burnished his reputation even further, by offering up his home to victims of the storm.

Hurricane Sandy hit the state of New Jersey head-on when it made landfall on Monday, decimating the Jersey shoreline and knocking out power to over a million people.

In the storm’s aftermath, the Newark mayor has been tweeting non-stop, offering updates on power outages, calming frazzled constituents and checking up on those in need.

And now he’s inviting neighbors without power to seek refuge at his house.