Florida Sentinel Bulletin

WASHINGTON  — Michelle Obama is harvesting vegetables and plants at the White House with children from across the country for the first time.

The first lady was helped by school children from New York, Pennsylvania and North Carolina in planting potatoes, spinach, broccoli, carrots, radishes and onions at her fourth annual spring planting. Children from Washington-area schools, who have helped in previous years, also joined in the harvest of the White House Kitchen Garden.

It is the first vegetable garden at the executive mansion since Eleanor Roosevelt’s Victory Garden.

White House Chefs Cris Comerford, Sam Kass and Bill Yosses were also on hand to help the children with sowing plants.

Mrs. Obama said the kitchen garden is part of her Let’s Move! initiative to spark discussion about healthy eating habits for children.

Curtis Scott, 25, and Gary Jackson, 26, were charged with impersonating  police officers on the night that 18-year-old Ervin Jefferson was killed outside of his home in Dekalb County, GA.

The private security guards allegedly detained women at the scene of the shooting by telling them that they were officers. According to reports they were fired upon from Ervin’s residence by his step-father, Bobby Hubbard Jr., 35, was also arrested and charged with “reckless conduct and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.”

Ervin was shot by Scott — who called 911 at approximately 10:29 p.m. to say that he was being fired upon — as he approached the car containing the women who, he believed, were coming to fight his younger sister. Investigators have confirmed that is why the women were there.

Pictured: (L) CURTIS SCOTT And (R) GARY JACKSON

SANFORD, Fla. — The parents of a slain Florida teenager are blaming police for leaking information about their son being suspended for marijuana and details about the fight he had with the shooter that portrayed the teen as the aggressor.

Trayvon Martin’s mother, Sybrina Fulton, and family attorneys said Monday that it was part of an effort to demonize her 17-year-old son who was shot and killed last month by neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman.

“They killed my son and now they’re trying to kill his reputation,” Fulton told reporters.

Martin was suspended by Miami-Dade County schools because traces of marijuana were found in a plastic baggie in his book bag, family spokesman Ryan Julison said.

Martin was serving the suspension when he was shot Feb. 26.

The Sanford Police Department insisted there was no authorized release of the new information, but acknowledged there may have been a leak. City Manager Norton Bonaparte Jr. said it would be investigated and the person responsible could be fired.

New Orleans police officer, Jason Giroir, 35, has been suspended indefinitely without pay for making disparaging remarks about 17-year-old Trayvon Martin online.

In response to a comment posted Sunday on WWL-TV.com on a story about Trayvon, who was unarmed when he was gunned down by George Zimmerman, 28, Giroir said that the 17-year-old deserved to die:

“Act like a Thug Die like one!” he wrote.

Giroir’s wife echoed her husband’s sentiments on the same article:
“He acted like a thug and died like one,” she wrote.

When a commenter said that Giroir’s comments were racist, the veteran did not back down:
“… come on down to our town with a ‘Hoodie’ and you can join Martin in HELL and talk about your racist stories!”

Police Superintendent Ronal Serpas said that he is outraged by Giroir’s comments and that they do not  reflect the views of the New Orleans Police Department.

Giroir was placed on desk duty during a recent investigation after he killed a Black man during a routine traffic stop. Justin Sipp was in the car with his brother, Earl Sipp, when Giroir and two back-up officers claim that Justin opened fire and was subsequently killed. Once the investigation was complete, Giroir was returned to his post in the 8th district.

A 4-year-old girl was shot in the ankle Saturday by a hidden gun that was wedged under a mattress as she jumped up and down on a it at her home.

According to police, the illegal gun belonged to Jarquise Upton (pictured), who is the boyfriend of the child’s mother.

WASHINGTON  — The monumental fight over a health care law that touches all Americans and divides them sharply went before the Supreme Court on Monday. The justices will decide whether to kill or keep the largest expansion in the nation’s social safety net in more than four decades.

Two years and three days after President Barack Obama signed into law a health care overhaul aimed at extending medical insurance to more than 30 million Americans, the high court begins three days of hearings over the law’s validity.

The challenge from 26 states and a small business group puts the court smack in the middle of a heavily partisan fight over the president’s major domestic accomplishment and a presidential election campaign in which all his Republican challengers oppose the law.

If upheld, the law will force dramatic changes in the way insurance companies do business, including forbidding them from denying coverage due to pre-existing medical conditions and limiting how much they can charge older people.

The law envisions that insurers will be able to accommodate older and sicker people without facing financial ruin because of its most disputed element, the requirement that Americans have insurance or pay a penalty.

Dekalb County police confirmed that two private security guards shot and killed Ervin Jefferson Saturday night after responding to a disturbance outside of his home. They were supposed to be securing the premises of an apartment complex near the family’s home.

The teen was transported to an area hospital, where he was pronounced dead. The investigation is on-going at this time.

President Barack Obama made a searingly personal plea on Friday for Americans to come together and do some “soul searching” after the shooting death of African-American Florida teenager, Trayvon Martin by a neighborhood watchman, noting: “If I had a son, he’d look like Trayvon.”

“My main message is to the parents of Trayvon Martin. You know, if I had a son, he’d look like Trayvon. And you know, I think they are right to expect that all of us as Americans are going to take this with the seriousness it deserves and that we’re get to the bottom of exactly what happened,” Pres.

Obama said in response to a shouted question in the White House Rose Garden.

Amid angry charges that race played a central role in the tragedy, Pres. Obama said “all of us have to do some soul searching to figure out how does something like this happen—and that means that we examine the laws and the context for what happened as well as the specifics of the incident.”

NEW YORK — The 87-year-old mother of the Rev. Al Sharpton has died.

His spokeswoman says Ada Sharpton died early Thursday morning in Dothan, Ala., following a long battle with Alzheimer’s disease and dementia.

Rachel Noerdlinger says Sharpton will fly to Alabama to make arrangements for his mother’s funeral after attending a rally Thursday evening in Sanford, Fla., for Trayvon Martin.