Florida Sentinel Bulletin

RIO DE JANEIRO — More than 3,000 police and soldiers backed by armored personnel carriers raced into Brazil’s biggest slum before dawn Sunday, quickly gaining control of a shantytown ruled for decades by a heavily armed drug gang.

The takeover of the Rocinha neighborhood was the most ambitious operation yet in an effort to increase security before Rio hosts the final matches of the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympics.

The action in Rocinha is part of a campaign to drive the drug gangs out of the city’s slums, where traffickers often ruled unchallenged. The city of Rio de Janeiro has more than 1,000 shantytowns where about one-third of its 6 million people live.

Government aid helped cut the poverty rate nearly in half, according to a study conducted by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

The Census Bureau estimates that last year a record 46 million people lived below the poverty line, and revised figures released this week suggest that the number may in fact be more than that.

But without government programs aimed at helping citizens most in need, the poverty rate would be almost twice that, with more than a quarter of all Americans being classified as poor, according to a new study.

SAN DIEGO –  The widow of Medgar Evers broke a bottle of champagne against the hull of a new Navy ship that has been named in honor of the slain civil rights leader.

Myrlie Evers was among a thousand people who attended the christening of the USNS Medgar Evers in San Diego on Saturday. The 689-foot cargo ship will deliver food, ammunition, fuel and other provisions to Navy combat ships at sea.

Medgar Evers, a World War II veteran and field secretary for the NAACP, was shot to death in 1963.

Pictured: Myrlie Evers-Williams, widow of African American activist Medgar Evers, christened the ship.

MARYLAND — A Black waitress in Maryland is making headlines after filing several complaints claiming that she was only allowed to serve Black patrons at a local Applebees.

Courtney Haywood, 27, of Towson, Maryland, filed a discrimination lawsuit against the restaurant after being fired earlier this year.

Haywood, a single mother and Towson University student, says new management took over the restaurant this year and the establishment was “shot to hell.”

According to her, Black customers predominantly occupied the tables she was assigned to serve and she noticed several of her fellow employees asking that Black patrons not be sat in their sections.

Haywood’s racial discrimination complaint was filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

A Ugandan man has been sentenced to 30 years in prison for the killing of a gay rights activist in Ugandan.

A high court judge on Thursday handed down the sentence to 22-year-old Sidney Nsubuga Enoch, who admitted that he bludgeoned David Kato to death with a hammer in January.

Kato’s slaying came only months after his picture was published in an anti-gay newspaper next to the words “Hang Them.”

Enoch says he was provoked by Kato, who he claims made sexual advances toward him.

Homophobia in Uganda has been on the raise, in which gay rights activists have blamed on evangelical preachers. Also, in May of 2011, the Ugandan parliament adjourned without discussing a controversial bill that proposed the death penalty for some homosexual acts.

A New York City police detective has been found guilty of official misconduct after it was concluded that he planted crack cocaine on an unsuspecting couple in 2007.

Detective Jason Arbeeny, a 14-year police veteran, was found guilty by Brooklyn State Supreme Court Justice Gustin Reichbach of falsifying business records, submitting a false instrument for filing and official misconduct.

Prosecutors say, Arbeeny, who worked the NYPD’s Brooklyn South unit, planted a small bag of rock cocaine on a man and women during a search four years ago.

He faces up to four years in prison when sentenced.

The state of Texas has decided not to allow drivers to order special edition license plates featuring the confederate flag.

A board at the Department of Motor Vehicles voted against the proposed plates Thursday.

The board was appointed by Rick Perry, who’s vying for the GOP’s Presidential nomination and recently said about the plates, “We don’t need to be opening old wounds.”

The Confederate flag has a history of carrying racist undertones.

WASHINGTON — A conservative-leaning appeals court panel on Tuesday upheld the constitutionality of President Barack Obama’s health care law, as the Supreme Court prepares to consider this week whether to resolve conflicting rulings over the law’s requirement that all Americans buy health care insurance.

A panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia issued a split opinion upholding the lower court’s ruling that found Congress did not overstep its authority in requiring people to have insurance or pay a penalty on their taxes, beginning in 2014.

NEW YORK — A fourth woman accused Republican presidential contender Herman Cain on Monday of making an unwanted sexual advance against her, saying she wanted to provide “a face and a voice” to support other accusers who have so far remained anonymous.

“Come clean,” Sharon Bialek, pictured right, challenged Cain, demanding he confess to any inappropriate behavior with her or other women. She is the first to go public with her allegations.

Cain’s campaign instantly issued a denial. “All allegations of harassment against Mr. Cain are false,” it said.

Fifth Woman Raises Questions About Cain’s Behavior

A former employee of the United States Agency for International Development says Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain asked her to help arrange a dinner date for him with a female audience member following a speech he delivered nine years ago.

Donna Donella, 40, of Arlington, said the USAID paid Cain to deliver a speech to businessmen and women in Egypt in 2002, during which an Egyptian businesswoman in her 30s asked Cain a question.

“And after the seminar was over,” Donella told The Washington Examiner, “Cain came over to me and a colleague and said, ‘Could you put me in touch with that lovely young lady who asked the question, so I can give her a more thorough answer over dinner?'”

Donella, who no longer works for USAID, said they were suspicious of Cain’s motives and declined to set up the date. Cain responded, “Then you and I can have dinner.” That’s when two female colleagues intervened and suggested they all go to dinner together, Donella said.

Cain exhibited no inappropriate sexual behavior during the dinner, though he did order two $400 bottles of wine and stuck the women with the bill, she said.