Florida Sentinel Bulletin

WASHINGTON — Senate Republicans derailed a Democratic “Buffett Rule” bill Monday forcing the nation’s top earners to pay at least 30 percent of their income in taxes, using the day before Americans’ taxes are due to defy President Barack Obama on one of his signature election-year issues.

By a near party-line 51-45 tally, senators voted to keep the bill alive, but fell nine votes short of the 60 needed to continue debating the measure.

SANFORD, FL — The neighborhood watch volunteer charged with killing an unarmed black teenager in Florida asked a judge in the case to step down Monday after she revealed a potential conflict of interest.

George Zimmerman’s attorney, Mark O’Mara, filed the request and said Circuit Judge Jessica Recksiedler revealed the potential conflict last week.

Zimmerman was charged last week with second-degree murder in Trayvon Martin’s Feb. 26 death. The lack of an arrest in the shooting inspired weeks of protests nationwide. Zimmerman is pleading not guilty, saying it was self-defense.

Recksiedler’s potential conflict involves her husband, who works with attorney Mark NeJame. Zimmerman’s family first approached NeJame about representing Zimmerman. He declined and referred them to O’Mara.

The Pulitzer Prize committee at Columbia University announced its winners Monday afternoon. Among those selected were three Black writers: film critic Wesley Morris of the Boston Globe, Tracy K. Smith for her book Life on Mars and the late Manning Marable for his final work, Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention.

Morris won the best criticism award, Smith for poetry and Marable in the category of history.

Charles Cannon, 26, Michael McLaughlin, 41, and Brian Kerstetter, 32, were all convicted of a hate crime by a federal grand jury for assault of a 29-year-old Black man.

The jury decided that their attack of the victim at a bus stop in downtown Houston violated the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act enacted in October 2009.

Matthew Shepard, 22, was a gay, White man who was brutally tortured, pistol-whipped then left for dead because of his sexual orientation on October 6, 1998. James Byrd, Jr., 48, was a Black man tied to a pick-up truck by three White supremacists on June 7, 1998, who then dragged him along an asphalt road until his body struck the edge of a culvert, severing his arm and head.

The defendants in this case were identified as White supremacists by their tattoos. They were also heard screaming racial slurs as they beat their victim, according to a witness who called 911. All men face a maximum of 10 years in prison.

CARTAGENA, Colombia — President Barack Obama, speaking for the first time about allegations that Secret Service agents hired prostitutes, said Sunday that “of course I’ll be angry” if those accusations are proven true by an investigation.

The president never directly mentioned that the specific accusations, confirmed by media outlets, that agents were cavorting with prostitutes before the president arrived in Colombia.

The Secret Service sent 11 agents home and placed them on leave for misconduct as the agency reviews what happened.

Pres. Obama Pledges Immigration Reform Early In 2nd Term

President Barack Obama participates in a three-way conversation with Brazil’s President Dilma Rousseff and Colombia’s President Juan Manuel Santos, not pictured, at the CEO Summit of the Americas, in Cartagena, Colombia, Saturday April 14, 2012.

In his most specific pledge yet to U. S. Hispanics, President Barack Obama said Saturday he would seek to tackle immigration policy in the first year of a second term. But he cautioned that he would need an amenable Congress to succeed.

“This is something I care deeply about,” he told Univision. “It’s personal to me.”

Pres. Obama said in the television interview that he would work on immigration this year, but said he can’t get support from Republicans in Congress.

Pres. Obama also tried to paint his Republican presidential challenger, Mitt Romney, as an extremist on immigration, saying that Romney supports laws that would potentially allow for people to be stopped and asked for citizenship papers based on an assumption that they are illegal.

Pres. Obama Pays $162,074 In Taxes On $789,674 Income

WASHINGTON — Pressuring Mitt Romney on taxes, President Barack Obama’s campaign re-released more than a decade of tax records Friday, a political maneuver designed to pressure the Republican presidential candidate to divulge tax records beyond two years and to stop “hiding” details of his huge personal wealth.

Pres. Obama’s own tax return for last year showed that he and his wife paid $162,074 in federal taxes on $789,674 in adjusted gross income, an effective tax rate of 20.5 percent. Their income plunged from $1.7 million in 2010, with declining sales of the president’s books. In 2009, the Obamas reported income of $5.5 million, fueled by the best-selling books.

Romney’s campaign has projected he will pay more than $6.2 million in taxes on $45 million in income in 2010 and 2011 but has not released tax information prior to the past two years.

OKLAHOMA CITY — Two men accused of going on a shooting spree that terrorized Tulsa’s predominantly Black north side face murder and hate crime charges, prosecutors said Friday in an announcement praised by community leaders who had called for swift action by authorities.

Jake England, 19, and his roommate, Alvin Watts, 33, each were charged with three counts of first-degree murder, two counts of shooting with intent to kill and five counts of malicious harassment, prosecutors said. The harassment counts allege the victims were targeted because of their race.

Police say England and Watts, arrested early Sunday after a two-day manhunt, have confessed and appeared to have chosen five random victims. Three died and two others were wounded. All the victims were Black and police have said one motive might have been England’s desire to avenge his father’s fatal shooting by a Black man two years ago.

Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney has filed for a six-month extension to file his 2011 taxes.

The deadline to file this year is on April 17th, but the IRS grants six-month extensions for those who request it. According to the IRS, 10.5 million people filed for an extension last year.

Romney spokesperson Andrea Saul said Romney will file and publicly release his 2011 return “when there is sufficient information to provide an accurate return.” She said it would be before the November election.

Romney, who’s net worth is in hundreds of millions of dollars due to his time as CEO of Bain Capital, released his 2010 returns and projected 2011 rates after repeated calls from his rivals during the Republican primary process.

According to the extension filed, the Romneys have paid $3,434,441 in estimated taxes for 2011.

Democrats have seized on Romney’s taxes, pressing him to release more years of his tax returns.

President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden released their returns today. Mr. and Mrs. Obama paid a 20.5 percent tax rate. They paid $162,074 in taxes on $789,674 of income. The Bidens paid $87,900 in total federal tax for 2011 for $379,035 of income, which puts them at a 23 percent tax rate.

The Miami-Dade Fire-Rescue Department is investigating a Facebook post by one of its captains that seems to blame the shooting death of Trayvon Martin on the “shi*tbag parents” of “our urban youth,” and the “ghetto hoodie look” of young black men like Martin.

The entry was posted on the personal Facebook page of Miami-Dade fire captain Brian Beckmann.

The page’s profile entry lists Metro-Dade Firefighters Local 1403.

“The state seeks reelection again, truth aside. I and my coworkers could rewrite the book on whether our urban youths are victims of racist profiling or products of their failed, sh*tbag, ignorant, pathetic, welfare dependent excuses for parents, but like Mrs. Corey, we speak only the truth. They’re just misunderstood little church going angels and the ghetto hoodie look doesn’t have anything to do with why people wonder if they’re about to get jacked by a thug.”

Beckmann responded to questions about the page in a Facebook message, saying, “I am a private citizen and have the same right to freely express an opinion on any subject that anyone else does. I choose not to embellish or alter the facts as your employer chose to do.”

“Right now the phone line is going crazy and it’s all news people. The calls are coming from all over the country.”

Teel Coleman, acting as receptionist in Mayor Cory Booker’s office, couldn’t answer the calls coming in fast enough. “Good morning. Mayor’s office. Please hold.” Someone just called from London,” Coleman announced, “She wanted an interview about the mayor’s heroic actions.”

And, according to Newark Fire Director Fateen Ziyad, Mayor Booker’s rush into a burning house was even more impressive.

Those same sentiments were echoed by Newark Fire Chief John Centanni. “It was a legitimate rescue. It was an heroic effort by the Mayor and his staff. It wasn’t just walking into a little smoke and walking out. Everybody was in grave danger.”

Cory Booker’s “heroic actions” didn’t come as a complete surprise to either. “That’s his character. That’s his personality.” They both agreed with Ziyad, in good humor, likening Booker to the comic book hero Superman. “The mayor, being who he is, rushed in. He changed from the mayor into Super Fireman. Going through burning buildings to rescue people.”