Florida Sentinel Bulletin

ORLANDO, FL — Florida Gov. Rick Scott’s visit to an Orlando-area Walmart to promote the state’s back-to-school tax holiday today was met with a handful of hecklers and protesters, who shouted questions about his attention to education and job creation.

Scott’s promotion of the popular money-saving event included a stop at the retail chain to buy school supplies and donate them to three area schools.

During the visit, protesters wearing PinkSlipRick.com T-shirts walked near the governor as he browsed the aisles purchasing items. The group was created by Florida Watch, a progressive advocacy organization that has criticized the governor.

One member of the group flashed a leaflet in front of Scott as he walked by. They also handed out pink sheets of paper, representing termination slips, to several other spectators.

The leaflet claimed that more than 300,000 jobs had been lost under Scott and asked voters to “Give Rick his pink slip.”

WEST PALM BEACH, FL — A man who authorities say led one of South Florida’s most violent gangs was sentenced to 65 years in prison on racketeering charges Friday.

A Palm Beach County judge sentenced Futo Charles, 30, shortly after a jury convicted him of racketeering, conspiracy to commit racketeering and two other drug charges. The conviction in the heavily guarded courthouse came days after a witness who planned to testify was gunned down in a parking lot.

Charles’ ‘Top 6’ gang was linked to 14 homicides and more than 150 shootings in the past few years, including a fatal Christmas Eve shooting at a busy mall in 2006 — all part of a bloody gang war, authorities said. Estimates eventually put the gang’s membership at more than 400.

Charles’ racketeering charge included multiple counts, including two shootings. His attorney, Marianne Rantala, pointed out that jurors found prosecutors had not linked Charles to the shootings, yet the judge still gave Charles the maximum sentence.

Charles has never hid his affiliation with Top 6, but he has always maintained it is a rap group.

WASHINGTON — The financially strapped U.S. Postal Service is considering cutting as many as 120,000 jobs.

Facing a second year of losses totaling $8 billion or more, the agency also wants to pull its workers out of the retirement and health benefits plans covering federal workers and set up its own benefit systems.

Congressional approval would be needed for either step, and both could be expected to face severe opposition from postal unions which have contracts that ban layoffs.

The post office has cut 110,000 jobs over the last four years and is currently engaged in eliminating 7,500 administrative staff. In its 2010 annual report, the agency said it had 583,908 career employees.

The loss of mail to the Internet and the decline in advertising caused by the recession have rocked the agency.

A South Florida chef wants you to use his new cookbook to live healthy. But here’s the catch he’s only 10 years old. Chazz Darby knows his way around the kitchen, especially when it comes to healthy eating.

At the young age of 10, this elementary school student is creating low calorie meals for himself and all of his peers to enjoy while sneaking in some veggies and fruits.

Helping to create change and awareness, Chazz along with his mother Dorette Darby, created a cookbook “My Own Food” interactive cooking for children of all ages with adult supervision, by Chazz Darby. But like many young people this young man needed a little push. But this creative mom found a way to tantalize her son’s tastebuds.

Ms. Darby says “I had to create a way for him to eat vegetables and fruits by incorporating it into everyday meals.”

Meals like heavenly banana wrap, sweet plantain muffins, island cucumber punch and chicken nuggets and fries that are baked!

JACKSON, MISSISSIPPI –James C. Anderson, 49, was beaten and killed by a group of white teenagers from a predominately white town who had been at an all-night party, but decided to drive to Jackson looking for some African-Americans to “mess with.”

These boys did not simply mess with Mr. Anderson.  They beat him to a pulp while at least one yelled “white power.”  And when they were done beating him they ran him over.

The murder was caught on videotape by a nearby motel.  Witnesses told police that one of the suspects laughed and bragged about the murder.  Two teenagers, Deryl Dedmon and John Rice, both 18, have been charged in the murder.

According to the district attorney both boys have a history of harassing white teens who had black friends and would also harass gay teens.

The attorneys for the boys don’t believe race had anything to do with the attack and friends have started a Facebook page to argue for his innocence.

FT. LAUDERDALE — An elderly man was in custody after police say he shot a young boy in the stomach Sunday evening in Fort Lauderdale.

James McIvery, 79, is facing an aggravated battery with a deadly weapon charge, court records show. Police say the 12-year-old was playing football with friends in the street when McIvery walked out of his house and fired a gun around 5:30 p.m.

Some of the kids had knocked several times on McIvery’s apartment door, said Fort Lauderdale Police Det. Travis Mandell. “Some type of prior altercation took place and the 79-year-old male discharged a firearm,” said Mandell. “Some sort of confrontation ensued.”

LONDON, ENGLAND — London is burning. The pomp and ceremony of the royal wedding long forgotten, for several days London has been under attack from some of its own inhabitants, as violent rioting has spread from North to South, East to West.

The violence — sparked by the killing of Jamaican-British man, Mark Duggan by police last week — has even spread far beyond London as young people have taken to the streets in other major cities like Birmingham and Bristol.

Buildings have been burned down, shopping centers looted, police and firemen attacked. People are afraid for their lives and their livelihoods; Londoners are now angrily calling for the army to step in and a state of emergency to be declared.

The shooting of 29-year-old Mark Duggan on Thursday August 2nd was the catalyst for this violence. Duggan was shot and killed in Tottenham, a deprived part of North London with a large Black population by a specialist unit of London’s police force called Operation Trident.

Operation Trident which was set up in 1998 to specifically deal with gun crime related to drug activity within London’s Black community — is itself controversial among some sections of the Black community. Even though Trident was set up by Black activists to tackle so-called black-on-black killings, few of the police officers within the unit are Black, and some see Trident as being just another way in which the police can oppress young Black men who are already disproportionately targeted for criminal behavior.

Mark Duggan’s death seemed to touch a raw nerve, coming just months after another controversial police-related death of another Black man, a British reggae artist known as Smiley Culture. A peaceful protest about Duggan’s death turned violent. From then on, the violence has escalated.

CLEVELAND, OHIO — The man who killed 11 women and dumped their remains around his property apologized Tuesday in front of relatives of his victims and the jury that will decide whether to recommend the death penalty.

“I’m sorry,” Anthony Sowell, 51, said in a hushed courtroom as he leaned forward during a 30-minute unsworn statement.

The prosecution wasn’t allowed to cross-examine Sowell, leaving unspoken the question of why he killed the victims and attacked three other women who survived and testified against him.

After apologizing in a gravelly voice that grew stronger, Sowell added, “I know that might not sound like a lot.”

Some relatives of victims wiped away tears as Sowell made his first detailed public comments since his arrest nearly two years ago. Jurors heard his voice earlier in the trial when the prosecution played a lengthy videotaped police interrogation.

PALM BEACH, FL — A 28-year-old woman in dire need of a kidney finds renewed hope on Craigslist.

She was on a waiting list for transplants, but was afraid she may not get an organ in time to save her. She did an unique thing, she posted an ad on Craigslist.

“Every now and then I’ll go over to the mailboxes,” said Selina Hodge, the 28-year-old. Life isn’t always easy  for Hodge — spina bifida, arthritis and a thyroid disease. She also has nine hours of dialysis every night since being diagnosed with kidney failure four years ago.

Hodge needs to find a kidney donor. She recently turned to craigslist to find anyone willing to help her.

In just a few weeks, Hodge’s prayers and that craigslist plea are being answered.

“Someone in Africa reached out to me. Two or three people from Africa reached out to me,” said Hodge. Two others who stepped forward, live just miles from Hodge’s Palm Beach Gardens home.