Florida Sentinel Bulletin

WASHINGTON — Former U.S. Rep. Barbara Jordan of Texas now has her own postage stamp. It’s the 34th in the post office’s Black Heritage series.

Jordan served three terms in Congress and in 1976 was the first woman and the first African-American to deliver a keynote address at a Democratic national convention. She described Americans as “a people in search of a national community” and said Americans were attempting to create a society “in which all of us are equal.”

The new forever stamp was issued in Jordan’s hometown of Houston and is on sale nationwide.

BELLEVILLE, Ill. — An Illinois woman accused of gunning down two of her children was denied bail and granted a public defender Friday before being led in shackles back to the jail and isolated confinement under suicide watch.

Yokeia Smith faces two counts of first-degree murder. Associate St. Clair County Judge Julie Katz entered a not guilty plea on the 25-year-old’s behalf during Friday’s brief arraignment. A day earlier, the single mother of three agreed to be returned to Illinois from St. Louis, where she was arrested shortly after the Aug. 31 killings.

Authorities say Smith killed her 5-year-old son and 4-year-old daughter with close-range shotgun blasts to the head in their East St. Louis apartment. Smith’s 8-year-old son escaped unharmed and is in the custody of relatives.

Investigators have offered no details about what may have motivated the killings.

Smith’s relatives have publicly pledged their support for her, saying she was bipolar and on anti-depression medication. Smith’s lengthy criminal background includes a litany of traffic offenses and various instances of assault and battery, most of them misdemeanors that authorities have suggested were not indicators that Smith’s legal troubles would escalate to murder.

OAKLAND PARK, FL — Five sisters face criminal charges after a brawl aboard a school bus in South Florida.

According to the Broward Sheriff’s Office, the fight began when an 11-year-old girl got into a fight with another girl at a bus stop Sept. 7.

Authorities say that the 11-year-old left, but she caught up with the bus later on its route. The sheriff’s office says her four older sisters followed her onto the bus as she attacked the other girl.

Bus surveillance video released Thursday shows a group of women struggle past the bus driver trying to hold them back. Fighting is seen in the back of the bus.

The 11-year-old and two juvenile sisters face charges, along with an 18-year-old sister and a 23-year-old sister.

Maryland State Police have charged a Bowie State University student with murder after they say she fatally stabbed her roommate.

Alexis D. Simpson, 19, has been charged with first-degree murder in the stabbing death of Dominique Frazier at Bowie State University’s Christa McAuliffe Residential Community building.

On Thursday night authorities were called to the dormitory after a reported fight between the two ladies ended with a stabbing.

When they arrived, they found 18-year-old Frazier lying unconscious on a second-floor hallway. They took her to the hospital where she later died.

The scuffle was reportedly over one of the student’s iPod MP3 player.

The University which is currently celebrating homecoming, canceled all Friday classes.

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama is moving at a historic pace to try to diversify the nation’s federal judiciary: Nearly three of every four people he’s gotten confirmed to the federal bench are women or minorities, the first president who hasn’t selected a majority of white males for lifetime judgeships.

More than 70 percent of Pres. Obama’s confirmed judicial nominees during his first two years were “non-traditional,” or nominees who were not white males. That far exceeds the percentages in the two-term administrations of Bill Clinton — 48.1 percent — and George W. Bush — 32.9 percent, according to Sheldon Goldman, author of the authoritative book Picking Federal Judges.

“It is an absolutely remarkable diversity achievement,” said Goldman, a political science professor at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, who is only counting judges once, even if they fit more than one category.

The White House recently has been touting its efforts to diversify the federal bench during Pres. Obama’s tenure, now approaching three years in office.

The president won Senate confirmation of the first Latina to the Supreme Court, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, and with the confirmation of Justice Elena Kagan, there are three women on the high court for the first time. The Obama administration also nominated and won confirmation of the first openly gay man to a federal judgeship — former Clinton administration official J. Paul Oetken to an opening in New York City.

“All of us can be proud of President Obama for taking this critical step to break down another barrier and increase diversity in the federal judiciary,” Sen. Patrick Leahy, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said upon Oetken’s confirmation.

Obama: ‘The Most Important Poverty Program Is A Job’

On September 10, 2011 NBC Nightly News anchor and managing editor Brian Williams sat down with President Barack Obama to discuss the issues of unemployment and poverty.

Williams asked Pres. Obama about African-American sentiment towards the unemployment rate and whether or not he has been negligent about their concerns. Pres. Obama simply responded, “The most important poverty program is a job.”

Pres. Obama also states that he doesn’t think it is his job as president of the United States to target specific segments of the population. His goal is to pull America together to solve its problems. “My job is to be the president of the United States. My job is not to be a pundit or a columnist,” he said.

ATLANTA — The top court in the U.S. state of Georgia on Monday upheld the conviction and life sentence against a vegan couple over the death of their malnourished 6-week-old boy, who was fed a diet largely consisting of soy milk and apple juice.

The Georgia Supreme Court’s unanimous ruling rejected appeals by Jade Sanders and Lamont Thomas, who were convicted and sentenced after a jury found them guilty of malice murder, felony murder, involuntary manslaughter and cruelty to children for the April 2004 death of Crown Shakur.

The two first-time parents rushed the infant to the hospital after he began to have trouble breathing and doctors declared him dead on arrival after failing to resuscitate him.

They found his death was due to extreme malnourishment or starvation, and police then searched the couple’s apartment.

DETROIT — A former aide to ex-Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick has pleaded guilty to criminal charges and agreed to cooperate as federal prosecutors take his old boss to trial next year.

Prosecutors say Derrick Miller admitted Monday that he accepted $115,000 from a real estate broker in connection with the lease or sale of city properties. The government says he also accepted $10,000 from a contractor and passed $10,000 from the same contractor to Kilpatrick when Kilpatrick was running for mayor in 2001.

The government says Miller acknowledged other corrupt acts in his job as Detroit’s chief administrative officer and chief information officer. His plea deal caps any sentence at 10 years in prison.

Educators and officials in Newark, New Jersey are optimistic about the city’s public schools progress since new superintendent Cami Anderson begun; and a year after Facebook Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg donated $100 million to the district.

Already, three new alternative schools have been opened with the Facebook money. At the same time, teachers seem to approve of Anderson’s hands-on approach.

“Every principal I’ve talked to, I’ve never heard them speak so highly of a superintendent, and it’s because they feel they have a direct connection to her,” Newark mayor Cory Booker said.

“Black Man” chocolate-flavored cookies shaped like a man with braids, a wide nose and big lips are being sold in Romania.

The cookies, also available in Turkey and Albania, are the latest in a line of products that profit from racial stereotypes.

Remember Obama Waffles, which were sold by a conservative political forum? And who could forget the Obama Chia Pet?