Florida Sentinel Bulletin

It’s 2012, and racism is still standing tall. Beaver Ridge Elementary school in Norcross, GA is facing heat for some interesting math problems that teachers decided to send home for homework.

These Math problems included:

“Each tree had 56 oranges. If 8 slaves pick them equally, then how much would each slave pick?” and

“If Frederick got two beatings per day, how many beatings did he get in 1 week?”

The school is comprised mostly of minorities and has about 1,200 students. 62% of the students are Hispanic, 24% are Black and 5% are White.

Obviously parents were outraged and some refused to let their children complete the assignments.

Not only did Ron Paul (R-Texas) produce newsletters spewing hate and ignorance toward minorities, he also voted against MLK Day.

Paul’s voting record in the House was scrutinized during this weekend’s GOP presidential debates in New Hampshire. (Mainly for his unsuccessful attempts to pass any meaningful legislation) But what was not discussed was his refusal to support the upcoming Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday.

While his supports link to a file claiming he did vote for MLK Day, the facts say otherwise.

NEW ORLEANS – A new ordinance passed last Thursday in New Orleans places a curfew on the popular, tourist-attracting French Quarter section of the city.

The law, which applies to youths 16 and under, creates an 8 p.m. curfew on Fridays and Saturdays, from its long-standing 11 p.m. curfew. It also applies to the nearby Faubourg Marigny neighborhood.

The main backer of the law, Councilwoman Kristen Gisleson Palmer, whose district includes the French Quarter, said this was to protect children from violence and liquor. The popular open-air nightlife zone has more than 350 places to buy liquor and an abundance of strip clubs. “If we can, in any way, protect children from that, I think it’s very reasonable,” Palmer said.

But many African Americans in the city believe that this new law isn’t about protecting children from liquor and violence but about protecting tourists from them.

HONOLULU  — With an eye on the 2012 campaign, President Barack Obama is wrapping up a Hawaiian vacation and planning to jump back into his re-election campaign.

The president left Monday evening after a 10-day vacation. He arrived in Washington on Tuesday morning, just hours before Republican presidential candidates squared off in the Iowa caucuses, the first nominating contest of the 2012 campaign.

Pres. Obama plans to make his presence in the campaign known quickly.

He hosted a live web chat with supporters in Iowa on Tuesday. The next day, he traveled to Cleveland to talk about the economy, the top issue in the race so far.
Aides said Pres. Obama spent time on vacation brainstorming ideas for his Jan. 24 State of the Union address, where he will lay out an agenda that will serve as the basis for his campaign message.

On the first day of the New Year, Indiana will receive its first ever African-American woman mayor. Karen Freeman-Wilson, 51, was sworn in on December 31st to lead one of the nation’s most depressed cities from the grip of stagnation towards genuine progress: Gary, Indiana.

It’s a tough job, but as a native of the city, the new mayor is more than willing to take it on, “In many ways, I feel like Dorothy from Oz — there’s no place like home,” Freeman-Wilson said. Her official inauguration is January 7th.

Once a thriving city boasting some 200,000 inhabitants, Gary has dwindled down to about 80,000, resembling a ghost town, rife with blight, crime, poverty and unemployment. Gary’s deterioration coincides with the decline of the auto industry and its largest employer, U.S. Steel. But Freeman-Wilson is hopeful she can turn things around for her hometown. Plans for revitalization include transportation development in the city’s downtown region, senior housing, attracting commerce, and tackling ever-present issue of crime.

GOP Presidential candidate, Rick Santorum spoke to Republicans in Iowa before the Iowa caucuses. Santorum told his audience that he would eliminate welfare.

Santorum told the GOP crowd, ”I don’t want to make Black people’s lives better by giving them other people’s money, I want to give them the opportunity to go out and earn their money and provide for themselves and their families. The best way to do that is to get the manufacturing sector of the economy rolling.”

SAN FRANCISCO — A black Navy veteran credited with saving the lives of some of his shipmates during a World War II battle will be getting a long-awaited medal for his heroism, a Northern California congresswoman said.

Carl Clark, 95, will be awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal with the Combat Distinguished Device on Jan. 17, U. S. Rep. Anna Eshoo announced Thursday.

Clark was serving as an E-6 Steward First Class aboard the USS Aaron Ward when Japanese kamikazes attacked the destroyer near Okinawa in May 1945.

Pictured: This 2009 photo provided by the office of U.S. Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Palo Alto, shows Menlo Park resident Carl Clark, left, given a proclamation and a flag flown over the U.S. Capitol by U.S. Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Palo Alto.

Canada’s Vancouver Eastside, where drug dealing, prostitution, and homelessness reign supreme, is known as Vancouver’s “square mile of vice.” This area also houses the city’s sole residential black community, and 70 percent of its residents are aboriginal.  According to the UK’s Daily Mail, the dumping ground for the city’s problems has now become part of a controversial program aimed at providing free crack pipes to its drug-addicted population in an effort to stop the spread of HIV and Hepatitis B.

The Vancouver Coastal Health Harm Reduction program, which is running for eight months as a trial, has five centers that distribute thousands of kits that include heat-resistant/shatterproof glass pipes, filters, alcohol, swabs, mouthpieces, screens and push sticks — everything a crack addict needs to make his crack-smoking habit sanitary. The majority of users are males between the ages of 20 to 60.

HONOLULU  — President Barack Obama blended his roles as a father and commander-in-chief this Christmas, exchanging presents and singing carols with his family, then greeting U.S. service members stationed at a Marine base in Hawaii.

The president and his family woke up early Sunday to open gifts, the White House said, then had breakfast and sang Christmas carols.

President Obama made two trips on Christmas to nearby Marine Corps Base Hawaii, first to attend church services at the base chapel. The president dressed casually in dark khaki pants and a short-sleeve blue shirt, and his wife and daughters donned sundresses for Christmas services on a bright, breezy day on the island of Oahu.

After spending a few hours at their rental home, the president and Michelle Obama returned to the base to visit with several hundred service members and their families, as they have done in past years.

The Obamas posed for posed for photos, signed autographs and stopped to chat with the military families gathered in the dining hall, where roast beef, salad and apple pie were on the Christmas Day menu.

Many of the service members stationed at Marine Corps Base Hawaii have deployed to Afghanistan, as well as Iraq, where the last American troops were withdrawn earlier this month.