Florida Sentinel Bulletin

GOP presidential hopeful Rick Santorum must have forgotten his multiple degrees and ambitious educational career after addressing a Tea Party forum in Michigan ahead of Tuesday’s primaries. During the gathering, the former senator of Pennsylvania referred to Pres. Barack Obama as a snob because of the President’s wish that every American be afforded the opportunity to higher education.

The irony? Santorum has more degrees than Pres. Obama.

Santorum’s penchant for the implausible statement is well known, however this latest attack may have trumped them all. “Not all folks are gifted in the same way,” said Santorum at the Americans for Prosperity forum in Troy, MI.

Political pandering at its worst, Santorum failed to mention to the 1,000 Tea Party members in attendance that he holds a bachelor’s, master’s and law degree, one degree more than the “snobbish” Pres. Obama.

Perhaps Santorum’s version of snobbery is different from most Americans or rather, he’s once again proven that he needs to head back to college himself to work on the necessary fundamentals of basic math and education.

Michelle Butler, 20, is facing charges after nurses found maggots in her 10-month old baby’s diaper.

The South Carolina mother took her sick baby to a neighbor’s home, who immediately noticed that the child had a fever and was tugging on his ear. After telling Butler that the baby needed medical attention, the neighbor called 911. Butler said that she stopped giving her baby his medicine because she accidentally spilled it.

A police officer accompanied the baby to the emergency room and when the nurses removed his diaper several maggots fell out. Police subsequently checked Butler’s apartment, discovering baby essentials such as food and formula amidst extreme filth.

CHARDON, OH  –  A third student has died after being shot at Chardon High School on Monday.

Demetrius Hewlin passed away this morning.

His family made the following statement:
“We are very saddened by the loss of our son and others in our Chardon community. Demetrius was a happy young man who loved life and his family and friends. We will miss him very much but we are proud that he will be able to help others through organ donation. We ask that you respect our privacy during this difficult time.”

Five students were shot at Chardon High early Monday morning by a student gunman, who witnesses have identified as 17-year-old TJ Lane.

The shootings occurred just before the start of classes Monday morning around 7:40AM in the area of the school’s cafeteria. Lane reportedly opened fire, shooting five students.

Three of the shooting victims, 17-year-old Russell King, Jr., 16-year-old Daniel Parmertor and Demetrius Hewlin, all died at MetroHealth Medical Center.

Aaron Brantley, an 86-year-old African-American World War II veteran, is resting in Detroit, after a daylight carjacking attack left him with a broken leg. What’s worse? As Brantley writhed in pain, people walked by and ignored the elderly man.

Brantley, a retired Chrysler plant worker and Air Corps veteran, was pumping gas into his new car at a BP gas station.

According to Brantley, all of a sudden, he was pushed to the ground from behind and robbed of his new Chrysler sedan, a replacement for a previously stolen vehicle.

The fall broke Brantley’s leg, forcing him to crawl across the gas station’s lot until an attendant helped him.

“I noticed when I was crawling to the gas station, people were walking past me like I wasn’t there,” Brantley said. “I said, Lord, have mercy.

Authorities were alerted but were late in arriving to the scene, so a customer drove Brantley home. Ambulances met Brantley at his residence and took him to a nearby hospital for treatment. Hours later, a man found Brantley’s car and Bible, which had his phone number inscribed on the inside. The car was left abandoned on the city’s East Side, missing its wheels and radio.

Even though his children have urged him to move from his beloved city, Brantley has refused.

Dr. Velma Scantlebury is working to increase the number of minorities who are organ donors and to bring more minorities into the field of organ transplant surgery.

Scantlebury, the first Black woman to become a transplant surgeon in this country, was headed in to surgery with a patient whom she had never met. Because of the emergency nature of transplant surgery, a patient’s regular doctor may not be the one performing the transplant. The patient first noted that Scantlebury was a woman. Next, he noted that she was Black.

“Please, please, please don’t kill me!” The frightened patient said, “I have a young daughter,” Scantlebury recounted to a group of young women during a summer program.

As the first Black female transplant surgeon, Scantlebury is used to odd questions. Still, she has also been incredibly successful in her career, performing more than 200 live donor kidney transplants. Now, Scantlebury is out to bring more minorities to the field, but also looks to increase the number of minorities who are organ donors.

Minorities make up 54 percent of those on the organ transplant list but [are] only 33 percent of those who receive transplant surgery.

The police department in Tyler, Texas is asking for help in tracking down a beauty shop owner for allegedly giving a client an illegal breast augmentation.

Investigators have issued two arrest warrants for the salon’s owner, Carmel Mitchelle Foster-Alexander, whom they are accusing of performing the potentially dangerous plastic surgery procedure.

A 26-year-old unidentified woman is currently hospitalized with severe chest pains and in critical condition after undergoing the enhancing procedure one week ago in the back room of Foster-Alexander’s Queen Divas Hair Salon and Spa. The victim’s family told police that she had received injections of an augmentation substance the day before she was admitted to the hospital on February 16.

Police are also investigating whether Foster-Alexander is the culprit behind another illegal breast augmentation that took place two weeks ago on the hospitalized woman’s 27-year-old cousin.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama Monday urged the nation’s governors to invest more state resources in education, saying a highly skilled workforce is crucial for the U.S. to remain competitive with other countries.

Pres. Obama made his pitch at a White House meeting with governors in Washington as part of the annual winter meeting of the National Governors Association. The president and First Lady Michelle Obama hosted a black tie dinner with the governors Sunday night.

Pres. Obama said at Monday’s session that he sympathized with governors whose state budgets have been badly squeezed during the economic downturn. But he said that was no reason to trim resources from schools.

“The fact is that too many states are making cuts in education that I think are simply too big,” Pres. Obama said. “Nothing more clearly signals what you value as a state than the decisions you make about where to invest. Budgets are about choices.”

Pres. Obama asked governors to hire more teachers and to restore funding to public colleges and universities. He also reaffirmed his view that decisions about education should be left to states and not the federal government.

“I believe education is an issue that is best addressed at the state level,” the president said, “and governors are in the best position to have the biggest impact.”

Pres. Obama said other countries have been “doubling down” on education funding while the U.S. has cut back.

JOHANNESBURG — Former South African President Nelson Mandela was hospitalized Saturday for a test to determine what is behind an undisclosed stomach ailment, and the country’s current leader said the much beloved 93-year-old icon was in no danger.

Mandela, a Nobel peace laureate who spent 27 years in prison for fighting racist white rule, has officially retired and last appeared in public in July 2010. He became South Africa’s first black president in 1994 and served one five-year term.

Mandela “has had a long-standing abdominal complaint and doctors feel it needs proper specialist medical attention,” President Jacob Zuma said in a statement Saturday morning, asking that Mandela’s privacy be respected.

WASHINGTON — Stephen Colbert may not support the idea of super PACs, but fellow political satirist Bill Maher is buying into the system — literally.

During a performance of his comedy special “CrazyStupidPolitics” Thursday night, Maher announced a gift of $1 million to Priorities USA Action, an Obama-supporting super PAC.

While he mocked the group’s clunky name, saying it was “named by Borat,” his publicist said that Maher was deadly serious about the donation and believed a second term for Pres. Obama was “worth a million dollars.”