Florida Sentinel Bulletin

PHILADELPHIA — Former death row inmate Mumia Abu-Jamal has been moved into the general prison population for the first time since his arrest in a Philadelphia police officer’s murder three decades ago.

Susan McNaughton, a spokeswoman for the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections, told The Philadelphia Inquirer newspaper that Abu-Jamal was moved Friday from the restricted housing unit at the Mahanoy state prison in Frackville, about 80 miles (130 kilometers) northwest of Philadelphia.

Longstanding tension between Republican Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer and President Barack Obama flared into the public spotlight just after Air Force One touched down in Phoenix.

Brewer, who was on the tarmac to greet Obama, hand-delivered a letter before engaging the president “intensely” for several minutes, including pointing her finger directly at him.

Accounts from both camps later said the terse talk focused on Brewer’s book — “Scorpions for Breakfast: My Fight Against Special Interests, Liberal Media and Cynical Politicos to Secure America’s Border.”

The book, which was released in November, describes a June 2010 Oval Office meeting between Pres. Obama and Brewer aimed at diffusing conflicts surrounding Arizona’s controversial state immigration law and the administration’s immigration policy.

At the time, the White House called it a “good meeting,” while Brewer’s staff said it was “cordial.”

But Brewer paints a much different picture in her book.

Brewer complains in “Scorpions for Breakfast” that she and her staff were treated coldly by White House aides, prevented from taking pictures in the holding room outside the Oval Office and that their cell phones and cameras were  “confiscated” by Secret Service.

“Too bad we weren’t illegal aliens, or we could have sued them,” she writes.

During her meeting with the president, Brewer said Pres. Obama was “condescending” and professorial, “lecturing” on his efforts to promote comprehensive immigration reform.

WASHINGTON  — In a rare defeat for law enforcement, the Supreme Court unanimously agreed on Monday to bar police from installing GPS technology to track suspects without first getting a judge’s approval.

The justices made clear it wouldn’t be their final word on increasingly advanced high-tech surveillance of Americans.

Indicating they will be monitoring the growing use of such technology, five justices said they could see constitutional and privacy problems with police using many kinds of electronic surveillance for long-term tracking of citizens’ movements without warrants.

DETROIT — The federal government now says a 101-year-old Detroit woman it promised could move back into her foreclosed home four months ago can’t return because the building’s unsanitary and unsafe.

Texana Hollis was evicted Sept. 12 and her belongings placed outside after her 65-year-old son failed to pay property taxes linked to a reverse mortgage and the U. S. Department of Housing and Urban Development foreclosed on the home.

Two days later, the department said she could return. But now, HUD said it won’t let Hollis move back in because of the house’s condition. She had lived there about 60 years.

“Here I am, 100 years old, and don’t have a home,” Hollis said, rounding off her age. “Oh Lord, help me.”

Department spokesman Brian Sullivan said that an inspection determined the house “was completely unsuitable for a person to live in.”

HUD doesn’t want to pay to fix up the house, but Sullivan said the department’s seeking other agencies that might help with the work and get Hollis back into her home.

Several times a week, a group of six women and one man pray for their city as they drive through their gang-infested neighborhood in New Orleans.

Millie Campbell, 76, and Betty Minor, 69, are a part of the group who has been blessing the city for the past six weeks. As Campbell drives with Minor in her blue Chevrolet through the 7th Ward, Campbell says: Oh, God, we thank you for the blood of Jesus. Touch this block in the name of Jesus.

When Minor isn’t punctuating Campbell’s prayers with a number of “Hallelujahs” and “Glorys,” she adds: Cover your children, Father God. In the name of Jesus.

A number of clergy, organizations, and youth ministries are all involved in the effort to stem the murder and mayhem that continues day by day in New Orleans, this small group believes that when a situation becomes too heavy to bear, one must take it to the Lord.

Rick Santorum says President Barack Obama is a “big boy” who can defend himself against people like the woman at a Santorum town hall Monday, who called Pres. Obama an “avowed Muslim” who has no legal right to call himself president.

The woman made the statement during a Santorum event in Lady Lake, FL, Santorum took a question from an unidentified woman who said, “I never refer to Pres. Obama as president because legally he is not, and well, he constantly says that our constitution is passé, and he totally ignores it. As you know, he does what he darn well pleases. He is an avowed Muslim, and my question is why isn’t something being done to get him out of our government. He has no legal right to be calling himself president.”

Santorum did not correct the woman who brought up this false claim. Instead, he responded that indeed, he was trying to get Pres. Obama out of government.

When asked by a reporter why he didn’t correct the woman for calling President Obama a Muslim, Senator Santorum said, “Why do you guys ask these ‘gotcha’ questions like it’s my job to go out and correct everybody who says something I don’t agree with?

TALLAHASSEE, FL — The four students charged last week with hazing pledges of a Florida A&M University marching band club known as the Clones have been dismissed from the school.

The move was announced Monday during a FAMU board of trustees meeting. The students will have a chance to appeal their dismissal before a student judicial committee.

The four band members face misdemeanor hazing charges after reports that other students were punched and paddled during initiation meetings that began in early September. Last week’s arrests are the latest in a scandal that has rocked the university and its famed Marching 100 band.

In November, FAMU drum major Robert Champion died hours after a football game in Orlando in what authorities said was a hazing ritual. His death has been ruled a homicide, but no charges have been brought.

TALLAHASSEE – The parents of Florida A&M University drum major, Robert Champion, Jr. who police believe died after a violent hazing, said Tuesday that their son may have been hazed more severely than other students because of his opposition to the practice.

“Robert Champion, Jr. was the poster child of anti-hazing. He threatened the very institution of hazing in this band,” said Attorney Christopher Chestnut, a lawyer for Champion’s family.

During the family’s investigation into what happened to their son they discovered that Champion was gay, but also concluded that was not a reason for his alleged hazing.

“This is not a hate crime,” Chestnut said during a news conference Tuesday. “This is a hazing crime. That is what we are here to say today.”

“We don’t have all the answers and all the details,” Pam Champion said Tuesday. “My son, he loved his music. He loved the band. His demeanor was more like following all the rules, doing what you should do as a band member. He was a perfectionist… He expected everybody to do the same.”

Robert Champion, Jr., 26, was a member of the college’s “Marching 100” band when he collapsed and died Nov. 19, 2011, on a bus parked outside an Orlando, FL, hotel after a football game. Authorities said they believed that hazing was involved.

Sources told ABC News on Tuesday that Chestnut had been interviewing witnesses for a legal case when he discovered that Champion way gay. Champion’s parents were vaguely aware of his sexuality, but did not know that there were rumors of a connection to his death.

“Robert did have an alternative lifestyle,” Chestnut said Tuesday. He said witnesses said that was not a primary factor in the hazing, however. “It’s difficult to know the true motives of every person.”

The school fired band director, Julian White and suspended all performance and engagements of any bands and ensembles. White was later reinstated and put on administrative leave. Four band members also were dismissed from FAMU, but then reinstated.

During the news conference on Tuesday, Champion’s parents said they planned to sue Fabulous Coach Lines, the company that owns the bus on which the hazing allegedly took place, claiming negligence and wrongful death.

A Toronto man who went to his native Grenada over the holidays to visit family was beaten to death by police officers over a mistaken hug.

Oscar Bartholomew’s family is outraged that the officers accused of killing the 39-year-old are only facing manslaughter charges. “Everybody is upset,” Anastasia Bartholomew said.

Oscar Bartholomew reportedly stopped at a police station with his wife so she could use the restroom. While his wife was in the restroom, Oscar saw a female police officer who he thought was an old friend. He ran up to her and grabbed her from behind, hugging her while he lifted her in the air.

Unfortunately for him, the person he lifted in the air wasn’t his old friend, who his family claims was also a cop.

Once fellow officers saw this, they attacked him and allegedly bound his hands and feet with duct tape. A few hours later he was taken to a hospital, where he died the next day from multiple head injuries.

Five Royal Grenada Police Force officers are now accused of manslaughter.