Florida Sentinel Bulletin

Eddie Long’s accusers are in the news again.

This time three of the Bishop Eddie Long’s accusers have been dropped by their lawyer for violating the confidentiality clause of their settlement.

According to reports, Attorney Brenda Bernstein dumped Jamal Parris, Spencer LaGrande and Centino Kemp as her clients after the three accusers did not remain quiet and were recently challenged by Long’s attorneys, who say that they plan to collect roughly $900,000 for violations in the settlement.

The accusers broke the clause by participating in interviews with the Atlanta Journal Constitution, WSB-TV and CNN, as well as releasing statements on Twitter.

Long’s attorneys are looking to collect $300,000 per violation.

An Alabama civil rights group has filed a lawsuit in federal court, claiming a district attorney barred Blacks from serving on juries.

The Equal Justice Initiative based in Montgomery, Ala., filed the suit on behalf of five African-Americans who state courts found were illegally excluded from jury service because they are Black.

The lawsuit asks the court to declare District Attorney Douglas Valeska’s conduct as discriminatory and unconstitutional and to monitor jury selection in the two south Alabama counties, where he prosecutes cases.

“When you exclude people from jury service on the basis of race, in the courthouse, the very institution designed to protect people from discrimination and violation of their rights, you undermine the integrity of the entire judicial system,” said Bryan Stevenson, executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative and lead attorney for the plaintiffs.

When he addresses crowds, the president often uses a teleprompter and a podium adorned with the presidential seal.

“A truck filled with President Obama’s podiums and $200,000 worth of audio equipment,” including a teleprompter from which he reads prepared remarks and the presidential seal he stands behind, was stolen from a hotel parking lot in Henrico, Va., on Monday, local WWBT-TV reports.

The vehicle was discovered a short time later outside another local hotel. The TV station says it isn’t yet known whether everything inside was recovered.

An unnamed “Defense Information Systems Agency” spokesperson tells the station that “no classified or sensitive information was in the vehicle.”

We’ll leave it to others to speculate about how going without his teleprompter might affect the president. It’s safe to say, though, that a backup teleprompter is probably always available.

The president is in the middle of a bus tour through North Carolina and Virginia.

WASHINGTON — Army Sgt. Johnny Agbi’s narrow three-story rowhouse doesn’t look ideal for a disabled veteran. It’s perched on a small hill along a busy thoroughfare just blocks from the U. S. Capitol. There are steps leading to the front and rear doors.

Thanks to a $100,000 renovation, the first floor has been transformed, with wide entrances, a spacious kitchen with new appliances and a large, accessible bathroom.

First Lady Michelle Obama and Jill Biden, the wife of Vice President Joe Biden, visited Monday to help finish off the renovation, which was retrofitted through a charitable venture called Heroes at Home.

Agbi, 32, was the 1,000th veteran whose home was renovated under the program, which began in 2007 and is a joint venture between the nonprofit Rebuilding Together and Sears Holding Corp.

WASHINGTON – Author and civil rights activist Cornel West and 18 others arrested with him for protesting at the U.S. Supreme Court will not be prosecuted.

Prosecutors on Monday decided not to press charges against the group. They were arrested Sunday.

Demonstrating on the grounds of the court with signs is prohibited.

West was in Washington to attend Sunday’s dedication of the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial on the National Mall. He is the author of “Race Matters” and “Democracy Matters.”

A New York police officer faces civil rights charges after he allegedly falsely arrested a Black Staten Island man and then used racial slurs to brag about it.

“I fried another nigger, ” NYPD officer Michael Daragjati, 32, can be heard saying in a phone conversation  intercepted by federal authorities.

“The power to arrest…must be used fairly, responsibly and without bias,” said Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch. “Motivated by racial aniumus, the defendant allegedly abused this power and responsibility.”

PHOENIX — Police looking for a 5-year-old Arizona girl who has been missing six days said Monday they now believe she was most likely kidnapped, because otherwise they would have found her.

Jahessye Shockley was last seen by her three older siblings last Tuesday at her Glendale home while their mother was running an errand. Police believe she left their apartment through the front door but don’t know anything about what happened next.

“If it was just her walking away, we would have found her by now,” Coombs said. “Obviously she’s not with us. Somebody knows something or somebody has interacted with her and put her in a place, and we just haven’t found her yet.”

Police have no suspects, evidence or promising leads.

Coombs said the girl’s mother is not a suspect despite comments she made to reporters.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. — They came for new teeth mostly, but also for blood pressure checks, mammograms, immunizations and acupuncture for pain. Neighboring South Los Angeles is a place where health care is scarce, and so when it was offered nearby, word got around.

Doctors On Call For the second day in a row, thousands of people lined up on Wednesday — starting after midnight and snaking into the early hours — for free dental, medical and vision services, courtesy of a nonprofit group that more typically provides mobile health care for the rural poor.

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama is targeting vital North Carolina and Virginia this week, as he kicks off a three-day bus tour that is as much about campaigning for his jobs bill as it is shoring up support in two southern states he wrested from Republican control four years ago.

Pres. Obama’s 2008 victories in North Carolina and Virginia were due in large part to the states’ changing demographics and his campaign’s ability to boost voter turnout among young people and African-Americans. But nearly three years after his historic election, the president’s approval ratings in both states are sagging, in line with the national trend.

A Quinnipiac University poll out earlier this month put Pres. Obama’s approval rating in Virginia at 45 percent, with 52 percent disapproving.

The president’s bus tour comes as the battle in Washington over his jobs plan enters a new phase. While Pres. Obama had demanded lawmakers pass the $447 billion jobs measure in its entirety, Senate Republicans have blocked those efforts, leaving the president and his Democratic allies to fight for the bill’s proposals piece by piece.

Since announcing his plan for putting Americans back to work last month, Pres. Obama has been traveling the country trying to build public support for his initiatives.