Florida Sentinel Bulletin

DETROIT — Police say a 3-year-old girl has been fatally shot by a stray bullet in Detroit following an apparent dispute between neighbors.

Police say the girl was shot about 9:40 p.m. Sunday while inside a home. Police say the gunfire came from outside.

A bullet went through a wall of the home before striking the girl.

Police say no arrests have been made as of Monday morning.

BALTIMORE — Growing up black in the segregated 1960s, Deborah Goldring slept two to a bed, got evicted from apartment after apartment, and watched her stepfather climb utility poles to turn their disconnected lights back on. Yet Goldring pulled herself out of poverty and earned a middle-class life — until the Great Recession.

First, Goldring’s husband fell ill, and they drained savings to pay for nursing homes before he died. Then Goldring lost her executive assistant job in the Baltimore hospital where she had worked for 17 years. The cruelest blow was a letter from the bank, intending to foreclose on her home of almost three decades.

Millions of Americans endured similar financial calamities in the recession. But for Goldring and many others in the black community, where unemployment has risen since the end of the recession, job loss has knocked them out of the middle class and back into poverty. Some even see a historic reversal of hard-won economic gains that took black people decades to achieve.

Now, after finding herself poor again, “the only word I can say is devastated,” says Goldring, 58.

CHICAGO — The former director of a historic Black cemetery south of Chicago was convicted Friday in a money-making scheme that involved digging up bodies and reselling plots, a development that left still-bitter relatives reliving the grief of not knowing their loved ones’ final resting place.

Carolyn Towns, 51, of Blue Island, pleaded guilty Friday and was sentenced to 12 years in prison, according to the Cook County state’s attorney’s office.

Towns was director of Burr Oak Cemetery in Alsip — the burial site of lynching victim Emmett Till and blues singers Willie Dixon and Dinah Washington — when prosecutors say she and three workers desecrated hundreds of graves.

Till’s grave wasn’t harmed, but his original glass-topped casket — a symbol of the civil rights movement because it was designed to show the world his mutilated body — was discovered in a garbage-strewn storage shed during the investigation. It has since been donated to the Smithsonian Institution.

LONGVIEW, TX  — A Texas mom expected a big baby, but nothing like this: 16 pounds, 1 ounce (7.3 kilograms).

Janet Johnson on Monday remained in an East Texas hospital after giving birth to what her doctors called one of the biggest newborns they’ve ever seen. She was awaiting word on whether her son, JaMichael Brown, ranked among the biggest births in state history.

“Everybody was amazed that he was so big,” Johnson, 39, said. “I don’t think too many people have heard of having a 16-pound baby.”

JaMichael was born Friday at Good Shepherd Medical Center in Longview. Johnson has gestational diabetes, which results in bigger newborns for many mothers. Doctors had estimated JaMichael would be around 12 pounds (5.44 kilograms) prior to the cesarean birth.

WASHINGTON — Facing a dismal jobs report, President Barack Obama called on Congress Friday to end uncertainty over their debt standoff and pass a litany of administration-backed proposals, including a payroll tax cut extension and three free trade agreements. Pres. Obama’s top economist said implementing those policies would reduce the jobless rate a full point by the time he faces re-election in the fall of 2012.

But Republican opposition and Washington’s heated partisan atmosphere would likely make passing the full slate of administration proposals a political pipe dream.

Pres. Obama spoke from the Rose Garden shortly after the release of fresh figures that showed employers added just 18,000 jobs in June, the fewest in nine months, and the unemployment rate rose to 9.2 percent. The president said the numbers were yet another sign that a full economic recovery is still elusive.

LAS VEGAS — The wife of a Florida high school football coach being held on a murder charge said Friday her husband was defending himself when he threw a single punch that authorities say killed a Utah man in a Las Vegas Strip casino.

Benjamin Hawkins, 37, pleaded not guilty Friday during a brief appearance before a Las Vegas judge. The judge scheduled a Tuesday bail hearing and set a July 21 date to hear evidence in the early Wednesday slaying of John Massie, 46, of Roy, Utah.

Defense attorney Jack Buchanan said he wanted to review security videotapes that police say clearly show the confrontation between Benjamin Hawkins and Massey after the two exited a men’s restroom at O’Sheas Las Vegas Casino, along with the single punch that felled Massie.

Benjamin Hawkins told police that Massie made a comment about a “black man in a yellow shirt” in the restroom. He also said he told Massie to shut up before the two men squared off.

Massie’s actions were aggressive, and he feared that if he turned his back on Massie, he’d be attacked from behind. Benjamin Hawkins whirled and punched Massie once in the jaw, according to a police report.

NEW YORK — A New York teen will need a cornea transplant after a defective pair of colored contacts bought from a beauty supply store gave her a sight threatening eye infection.

After falling asleep with the contacts in, Erica Barnes says she woke up in intense pain.

The faulty contacts had led to a serious eye infection, causing cornea scarring that will require a cornea transplants to save the girls sight. Federal law requires all contacts to be purchased by prescription only.

SEATTLE — A woman filed a complaint against a Seattle Airport after she says she was discriminated against during a pre-flight pat down because of her “poofy” hair.

Laura Adiele, who is African American, was singled out of a security checkpoint line after passing through the Advance Imaging System and told she would need to be patted down.

“When I first heard her say, ‘We’re going to have to pat you down,’ I thought she was talking about my body. I was turning around and putting my arms out and she said, ‘no, we’re going to have to examine your hair,’ and I said, ‘no, we’re not going to do that today and you’re going to have to get security or your supervisor,’” said Adiele.

Adiele says she was angered further after looking in line and noticing women whose hair stuck out more than hers.

‘Why am I the only one being singled out here for poofy hair?” Adiele said.

Adiele eventually relented to the search and says she was notified by a supervisor that airport policy requires them to check anything that “poofs” from the body.

“It’s just totally a violation of my personal space and my biggest question is if I’m going through a full body X-ray what more do you need to find, after that?” Adiele said.

She has since filed a complaint about what she feels was a discriminatory search.

PHILADELPHIA — The parents of an 11-year-old girl who fell to her death from near the top of a New Jersey shore Ferris wheel are suing the ride’s operator.

Twanda and Byron Jones filed suit Thursday in Philadelphia Common Pleas Court.

Their 11-year-old daughter, Abiah (ah-BEYE’-ah), was on a school trip when she fell about 150 feet from the Giant Wheel at Morey’s Mariner’s Landing Pier in Wildwood on June 3. Investigators have not been able to determine how the girl got out of the gondola.

A lawyer for the family says the Pleasantville, N.J., couple is suing in Pennsylvania because Morey’s Pier does extensive marketing there. The suit does not ask for specific damages.

A Morey’s spokeswoman says the company won’t comment.