Florida Sentinel Bulletin

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama said Friday Congress has a “unique opportunity to do something big” and stabilize the economy by cutting deficits even as it raises the national debt limit to avert an unprecedented U. S. default.

Saying he was ready to make tough decisions and challenging Republicans to do the same, Pres. Obama attempted to turn the Republicans’ opposition to any tax increases back against them, warning that failure to raise the debt ceiling would mean “effectively a tax increase for everybody.”

Administration officials and private economists say that if the U. S. fails to raise its borrowing limit by Aug. 2 and begins to stop paying its bills as a result, the fragile U. S. economy could be cast into a crisis that would reverberate around the globe.

The United States hit its current $14.3 trillion debt ceiling in May and has been juggling its books since then. Republicans, who control the House of Representatives, say they won’t raise the debt limit unless Democrats agree to major spending cuts to reduce the spiraling U. S. deficit.

ATLANTA — Atlanta police released information on the arrest of a security guard charged with killing a woman and wounding two other women in Midtown.

Police announced the arrest of 22-year-old Nkosi Thandiwe shortly after 6 p.m. Police said Thandiwe worked as a security guard in the same building where the three women worked.

Thandiwe is being held at the Fulton County Jail on one count of murder and two counts of aggravated assault.

Investigators say Thandiwe ambushed 26-year-old Brittney Watts by opening fire and killing her. One of the surviving victims was shot in the back and the other was shot in the ankle.

Thandiwe fled the scene, but later turned himself in after learning police had identified him as the shooter. No motive for the shooting has been released at this time.

NEW ORLEANS — One can only imagine what might have been going through the mind of a 29-year-old mother of three, when she raised her gun and pulled the trigger on her six month old, her one year old and her 12-year-old daughters, and then turning the gun on herself.

Before the New Orleans native Nadia Braxton killed her children and herself, her preacher says she reached out for help.

Kenneth Taylor of Elysian Fields Avenue Baptist Church in New Orleans told police last week “She felt hopeless, full of anxiety, she didn’t know what to do. She needed God to tell her whether she belongs here.”

Taylor offered his advice, prayers, inspirational readings and a suggested Braxton call him for help. The mother called the pastor Tuesday morning, hours before she killed herself and her children.

Pastor Taylor was busy with the church’s day camp, and decided to return the call later that afternoon. “I tried back Tuesday about 4 o’clock,” Taylor said. “There was no answer.”

Later that evening, Braxton’s long time companion and father to the three murdered children, Ronald Peters, came home to a gruesome discovery. All three girls, Kayla, 12, Nayah, 1 and Nyla, 6 months, laid in Kayla’s bed with a bullet hole in their head and Braxton laid on top of Kayla, also with a bullet hole to the head. Peters called 911 in shock, telling them that his entire family was dead in bed.

Pictured: 12-year-old Kayla Peters and her 1-year-old sister Nayah were found murdered with their 6-month-old sister Nyla.

TENNESSEE — The 6-month-old child of Stephanie McCarley and Devin Jay Davis weighed only nine pounds at the time of his death this past April. Both parents are currently being held in jail in Henderson Tennessee on charges of first degree murder and child abuse. They were recently arrested due to the fact that the autopsy originally left the reason of death unclear.

Friends and acquaintances were shocked by the revelation. One man claimed that Davis worked multiple jobs, and was rarely home. Davis himself says that when he was home and able to feed the baby, his son ate a healthy amount.

A vigil for little Dominicue Andrews was held Thursday night, just hours after his family said they’d file a lawsuit against the Homestead Daycare where he was found dead.

Hours after it was learned that the family of Dominicue Andrews would be suing the Homestead daycare center where he died, nearly 100 people flocked to Jomiba Learning Center Thursday night to sing, cry and remember the 22-month-old boy known as “Paw-Paw” who died there earlier in the week.

“I loved my baby to death, he was my pride and joy, he was my everything,” mother Porsha Andrews said. Department of Children and Families officials say the boy likely died after he was left inside the hot van, but police are still investigating the death.

NEW YORK — An employee of a Long Island cerebral palsy center has been accused of taunting a blind, wheelchair bound man by tilting and twisting his chair.

Gregory Richard, Jr., of Roosevelt, surrendered to police on a charge of endangering the welfare of an incompetent person.

Police say the 21-year-old defendant worked as a staff member at the United Cerebral Palsy Association of Nassau County. They say he put the 31-year-old victim in “fear of his safety” on June 21 when he twisted the chair while making reference to a roller-coaster ride.

Police say he had taunted the man in a similar fashion at least once before.

The victim was not injured.

TENNESSEE — A 48-year-old Black woman was found dead in Memphis, Tennessee last night.

The incident is now under investigation. Authorities are also investigating a house fire on the same block. The call came in just after 3:30am this morning, however, no one was believed to be inside. An investigation for this incident is also underway.

Residents of the neighborhood are outraged at the incident and a recent wave of crime to hit the area. Earlier this week there was a drive-by shooting on the block that left two women wounded.

WASHINGTON, DC – “With much generous support from the Mayor and Council of the District of Columbia and hard work by the staff and volunteers, it is finally finished, a great new 5,000 sq. ft. African American Civil War Museum at 1925 Vermont Avenue, N.W in Washington, DC.” said Dr. Frank Smith, Founder/Director.

2011 ushered in the beginning of a four-year celebration as America remembers the 150th Anniversary of the American Civil War and the 50th Anniversary of the Civil Rights Movement. The 3-Day Celebration theme is “Civil War to Civil Rights, Pathway to Racial Healing.”

WASHINGTON — Ikenna Njoku of Auburn, WA tried to deposit a check for $8,463.21 at Chase Bank, and ended up spending five days in jail instead of getting his money. Even though the check was issued by Chase and had his correct name and address on it, the institution regarded Njoku as suspicious. Refusing to believe the document was authentic, the teller who received it reported him to the authorities based on her assumptions. Njoku recently recounted this humiliation.

“I was embarrassed,” Njoku said. “She asked me what I did for a living. Asked me where I got the check from, looked me up and down—like ‘you just bought a house in Auburn, really?’ She didn’t believe that,” he said.

The Customer Banker said the check looked fake, so she took it, along with Njoku’s driver license and credit card, and called Bank Support.

After waiting for about 15 minutes, Njoku said he got impatient and told Chase he was leaving to do an important errand. By the time he got back, the bank was closed. Njoku said he called customer service and asked them what he should do. He says they told him to go back to the bank the next day to get his money.

When Njoku returned the next day seeking his funds, Chase had the police waiting for him. “They just threw me in jail; they called the police and said this guy has a fraudulent check.” He was charged with the felony crime of forgery on a Thursday, and left in jail overnight.

When Chase realized that the check was real the next day, an investigator from Bank Support called the detective on the case, but she had Friday off. The result? Njoku had to spend the weekend in jail. By the time he was released on Monday, he had been fired from his job for not showing up.

In addition, the check was taken into custody for evidence. Although it was returned two weeks later, by that time Njoku’s car had been repossessed and sold at auction because he needed that money to make car payments.

In response to pressure about his treatment, Chase has just sent a letter to Njoku apologizing for his ordeal over a year later. The car he lost was a prized possession, and Njoku was understandably depressed by the injustice of the incident, but there has been no attempt to compensate him for his financial losses or emotional duress.

Njoku is working with a lawyer now, and hopefully will recoup damages for what he experienced by trying to do business with Chase. It is clear that the teller saw him as a black man, not a customer, and was blinded by stereotypes from fulfilling his request. The racial profiling in this case is evident. Chase certainly has a PR nightmare on its hands.