Florida Sentinel Bulletin

Donald Trump has forsaken his Republican Party affiliation, and President Obama supporters should be thrilled. Trump — the real estate mogul and self-proclaimed billionaire, reality show king, birther and now perennial political interloper — has decided to switch his New York state voter affiliation from Republican to unaffiliated in order to leave his options open for a 2012 presidential run.

The Donald’s entry into the presidential race as an independent candidate is exciting, but not necessarily because he could win more votes than the GOP nominee. Rather, Trump would serve as the wild card in the race, forcing the Republican nominee to tack further right in the general election, and pay respects to the Tea Party and the handful of remaining birthers out there.

The Justice Department on Friday moved to block South Carolina’s voter ID law, saying it unfairly burdens non-white voters.

In blocking the law, the Obama Administration said the state’s law, requiring voters to show specific types of state-issued identification in order to vote, could make it difficult for minorities to cast a ballot.

Under the law, anyone who does not have a photo identification must obtain a new voter registration card that includes a photo. A birth certificate or passport can be used to prove identity.

The Justice Department said the requirement could harm the right to vote of tens of thousands of people, noting that just over one-third of the state’s minorities who are registered voters did not have a driver’s license needed to cast a ballot.

The state can appeal the decision at the Justice Department or in federal court.

Democrats have accused Republican legislators in South Carolina and other states of passing voter ID laws in order to suppress the votes of minorities, young people and others who typically vote Democratic, and who are less likely to have the required types of identification, in an attempt to reduce the votes available to Obama and Democratic lawmakers in 2012.

NEW YORK — A Walmart shopper in upstate New York slugged a 70-year-old store greeter who asked to look at the woman’s receipts as she left, according to authorities.

Jacquetta Simmons, 26, has been arrested and charged with two counts of assault for the attack that fractured the greeter’s face and knocked her to the ground, said police.

Simmons ran from the store but was immediately surrounded by store workers and held for police, according to witnesses.

It wasn’t clear why Simmons attacked the greeter; she had receipts for all of her merchandise, police said.

DETROIT, MI — Police in Detroit believe a killer may be targeting women who advertise adult escort services on backpage.com. Two dead women were found in the trunk of a burning car on Christmas morning, less than a week after the bodies of another two women were found in a car abandoned on the city’s east side.

The Detroit Free Press reports. No cause of death has been determined for the four women, all of whom were in their 20s.

Three of the four women had profiles in the adult section of backpage.com, a classified ad site similar to Craigslist.

Police say the link is “disconcerting,” but they stopped short of saying they believe the deaths are the work of a serial killer.

“We are not passing judgment on any individual who is utilizing this website, yet we felt it was imperative to alert the public that deciding to meet unknown persons via the Internet can be extremely dangerous,” Detroit’s chief of police told reporters.

A contestant on TLC’s “Next Great Baker,” Sgt. Wesley Durden, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound after production wrapped in October.

The 28-year-old’s death was noted after he was eliminated from Monday’s episode, however, TLC failed to mention that Durden committed suicide.

“In Memoriam, Wesley Durden 1982-2011, TLC extends its deepest condolences to Wesley’s family and friends,” the network’s on-air note read.

A United States marine wasn’t shy in asking the First Lady of the United States out on a date.

During a Christmas giveaway to children in need, Marine Lance Cpl. Aaron Leeks was standing near the Matchbox cars when Michelle Obama moved right next to him.

“She said, ‘yes.’ She’d love to go with me,” said Leeks, who is now awaiting White House confirmation that the president’s wife, indeed, will be his date for the Marine Corps Ball in Nov. 2012.

“The reason she’s checking with her husband is to make sure that week is clear,” said Leeks, whose fiancée, another marine, is stationed in Okinawa, Japan.

Within the next 45 days, he heads for Afghanistan where he’ll be assigned to mortuary affairs, the unit he checked off as his first preference when he enlisted in March 2010.

A mystery man in Prince Frederick, Maryland decided that he would give a little bit more than the usual holiday donation this year. If you had items on layaway at the local Kmart, you were in for a treat.

One customer went in to find that her $300 bill was totally paid off. Store associates are calling him an “angel” as he decided to remain anonymous while spreading some Christmas cheer.

Over 150 customers received a phone call letting them know that they had to come into the store to pick up their items before Christmas and that the bill was taken care of.

“We were told to take care of the kids and make sure that they have a very good Christmas,” says one store associate. The “angel” decided that he would pay for Christmas toys and clothing for children and ultimately provided over $20,000 dollars in donations to the store’s Christmas layaway bills.

A Houston man avoided a life sentence on Thursday after a court determined that he was actually imprisoned during the time of the crime in question.

The court overturned a prior conviction against LaDondrell Montgomery, 36, who proved that the Dec. 13, 2009 armed robbery incident he was accused of took place approximately nine hours before authorities released Montgomery from the Harrison County Jail.

Montgomery was in and out of jail so much that he actually forgot that he was in jail at the time of the crime for which he was charged, convicted and sentenced to life in prison.

Montgomery’s father says that some in his neighborhood had vendettas against his son and testified against him.

WASHINGTON — A man accused of trying to kill President Barack Obama by firing several shots at the White House from long range must remain in custody to protect the public and the president, a federal judge said Monday.

U.S. Magistrate Judge John Facciola’s order that Oscar Ramiro Ortega-Hernandez be detained without bond was not unexpected given the seriousness of the charge Ortega faces — attempting to assassinate the president. It followed a two-hour hearing in which Ortega’s public defender aggressively questioned an FBI agent about the strength of the government’s case and apparent contradictions in witness statements.