Florida Sentinel Bulletin

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama’s approval rating has hit its highest point in two years — 60 percent — and more than half of Americans now say he deserves to be re-elected, according to an Associated Press-GfK poll taken after U.S. forces killed al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.

In worrisome signs for Republicans, the president’s standing improved not just on foreign policy but also on the economy, and independent Americans — a key voting bloc in the November 2012 presidential election — caused the overall uptick in support by sliding back to Pres. Obama after fleeing for much of the past two years.

Comfortable majorities of the public now call Pres. Obama a strong leader who will keep America safe. Nearly three-fourths — 73 percent — also now say they are confident that Obama can effectively handle terrorist threats. And he improved his standing on Afghanistan, Iraq and the United States’ relationships with other countries.

Pictured: President Obama greets well wishers after stepping off Air Force One at Austin Bergstrom International Airport in Austin, Texas, Tuesday, May 10, 2011, for Democratic National Committee campaign fundraising events.

An 83-year-old man who was badly hurt during an assault and robbery inside his Greenwich Village home battled for two weeks in the hospital before succumbing to his injuries, police said.

Joseph Sibilla was pronounced dead Tuesday evening as a result of the injuries he suffered during the April 29 attack at his home on West 12th Street. On that April day, police responded to a 911 call of a man assaulted and found Sibilla, beaten and in serious condition. His wallet had been stolen.

Emergency personnel rushed Sibilla to Beth Israel Hospital, but he would ultimately not survive. No arrests have been made and the investigation is ongoing.

Neighbors of the beloved Sibilla, affectionately known as “Joe” in his Greenwich Village neighborhood, hope the attacker is caught soon.

Pictured: This is a surveillance street camera image showing the suspect in the murder of Joseph Sibilla wearing a dark coat, blue jeans and a blue and green baseball cap as he exits Sibilla’s building.

A Delaware mother has been arrested on assault charges when police discovered that she beat her 9-year-old son with an extension cord for taking a check from her checkbook so that he could buy a book from his school’s book fair.

Serena Wardlaw, 42, of Briarcliff Drive in the New Castle, Del. community of Overview Gardens was arrested on four counts of assault and five counts of endangering the welfare of a child, police say.

Police were called to the 9-year-old boy’s elementary school after a school nurse discovered wounds on the boy’s arms, police say.

An investigation revealed that Wardlaw was enraged when she found out that her son took one of her checks and she beat him with an extension cord all over his body, police say.

Five Denver, Colorado sheriff’s deputies won’t be disciplined for their involvement in the death of a street preacher at Denver’s jail, even though the coroner ruled it a homicide.

Safety Manager Charles Garcia says an investigation concluded that the deputies didn’t violate the department’s use-of-force policy or any other department rules related to use of force in the death of 56-year-old Marvin Booker.

“After a thorough review of the investigation and after considering the recommendations of the city’s Independent Monitor, this office concludes that the deputies did not violate the department’s use-of-force policies or any other department rules related to use of force,” Garcia said. “Therefore, no disciplinary sanctions will be ordered.”

There are claims from the family of Booker that sheriff’s officials covered up details of his death on July 9, 2010.

On Monday, police released a 40-page report regarding Booker’s death and the surveillance video of the incident. Booker died after deputies tried to subdue him by getting on top of him, placing him in a “sleeper” hold and shocking him with a stun gun.

An attorney for the family says the 5-foot-5, 135-pound Booker had 1,000 pounds of law enforcement on top of him.

The deputies believe Booker was alive when they put him in a holding cell, but cannot say for certain.

Mrs. Obama made her first public remarks about bin Laden’s death during the commencement address at University of Northern Iowa. U.S. officials have said Navy SEALs shot and killed bin Laden and four others Monday at his luxury compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan.

“Just imagine, a small group of brave men, dropped by helicopter, half a world away in the dead of night into unknown danger inside the lair of the most wanted man in the world,” Mrs. Obama told the graduating class at the UNI Dome in Cedar Falls. “They did not hesitate, risking everything for us, for our freedom and security.

And they did it not just as Navy SEALs. They did it as husbands, as fathers, as sons. Their families were back here, with no idea of their mission or whether their loved one would ever come home.”

The first lady evoked the SEALs actions as part of a call for the graduating class to engage in public service after they leave the university.

“Now, that’s the very essence of the word ‘service,'” she said of the military action. “And the least we can do is give something back to these troops and their families who have given us so much.”

NEWARK, NJ — The Department of Justice announced Monday an investigation into allegations of excessive force, discriminatory policing and other violations by the police department of New Jersey’s largest city.

The move comes eight months after the state American Civil Liberties Union complained of rampant misconduct and lax internal oversight in the Newark Police Department, though federal and city officials said the ACLU’s petition wasn’t the main reason for the probe.

The city laid off more than 160 police officers at the end of last year to close a budget gap, marking the city’s largest force reduction in 32 years. Last week, incoming Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced that Newark Police Director Garry McCarthy was his pick to be police superintendent of Chicago.

The organization said that out of 261 complaints filed with the police department’s internal affairs division from 2008 to 2009, only one complaint, alleging an improper search, was found credible. It said the city had paid $4.8 million over 2 1/2 years to settle 38 cases brought against police by residents or department employees, with at least three dozen lawsuits pending.

Newark police and city officials, including Mayor Cory Booker, who is Black, had called some of the ACLU’s allegations frivolous and inaccurate when the petition was filed, arguing that the group skewed the data and exaggerated problems.

McCarthy said he had implemented several reforms in the department since taking over in 2006, including an agencywide performance monitoring system, new compliance and integrity tests to ensure that complaints were properly received and processed by the department, and revamping the internal affairs division.

Of 26 civilian lawsuits against the police that were cited by the ACLU in its petition, more than two-thirds of the incidents predated McCarthy’s tenure.

Deputy Chief Samuel DeMaio, a longtime law enforcement officer in the city, has been named acting police director in Newark as McCarthy announced he was stepping down after being selected by Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel to be the new police superintendent in the nation’s third-largest city.

A shocking study by the Detroit Regional Workforce Fund, may explain a root problem to the struggles within the Motor City.

According to reports, 47 percent of Detroit residents were found to be functionally illiterate.

This means, nearly half of Detroit residents can’t do simple things like read a book, fill out a job application.

TALLAHASSEE — Two historic bills enacting sweeping changes to Florida’s Medicaid program won Senate and House approval Friday, placing the care of nearly 3 million beneficiaries in the hands of private companies and hospital networks.

The plan’s detractors say for-profit providers are making money scrimping on patient care. Patients have complained they couldn’t get appointments with specialists. Several providers pulled out of the program, causing lapses in care as patients were bounced among plans.

Sen. Joe Negron, who spearheaded the overhaul, said leaders have learned from the pilot program’s shortcomings and includes increased oversight and more stringent penalties, including fining providers up to $500,000 if they drop out.

Gov. Rick Scott, a Republican who made millions as a health care CEO before his election, is expected to sign the bill. Federal health officials still have to sign off before the state can proceed.

ORANGEBURG, SC  — Colin Powell told graduates of South Carolina’s premier historically Black university that they were graduating during a tumultuous time that saw a royal wedding, a pope’s beatification and a U.S. military assault that killed Osama bin Laden, “the worst person on earth.”

But the former secretary of state and Joint Chiefs chairman told South Carolina State University’s 400 graduates on Friday that he particularly enjoyed another recent event:”That was when President Obama took out his birth certificate and blew away Donald Trump and all the birthers!”

The stadium roared in approval of Powell’s comments on the president’s move last week to quell the doubts of those who don’t believe he was born in Hawaii. The retired Army four-star general endorsed Pres. Obama’s 2008 presidential bid.

Earlier Friday, Powell was made an honorary member of the school’s ROTC Hall of Fame.