Page 22 - Florida Sentinel 3-9-18

National
Ambushed In Niger: Military Probe Claims Mission Was Not Approved
Will And Jaden Smith Will Donate Water To Flint Monthly Until All The Lead Is Gone
FLINT, MI —Monday marks day 1,411 since the people of Flint, Mich., had (relatively) clean, safe water running through the pipes in their homes.
The city is nearly at the four- year mark, and although there has been some change, it has been slow, and the end is still not here. The city doesn’t get as many headlines in the news, at least not nationally, but despite that—Will and Jaden Smith’s water company cares, if don’t nobody else care.
MLive.com reports that Just Water, an eco-friendly water company started by the celebrity father-son duo, do- nated 9,200 bottles of water to the city and will continue to do so on a monthly basis until lead levels in the water at Flint pub-
Flint, Michigan is not mak- ing headlines now, but that doesn’t mean the lead-contam- inated water problem has been solved. In steps, Will and Jaden Smith who have vowed to donate water from their eco- friendly water company to public schools in Flint on a monthly basis.
lic schools are below the federal threshold.
Staff Sgt. Bryan C. Black, 35, of Puyallup, Wash.; Staff Sgt. Jeremiah W. Johnson, 39, of Spring- boro, Ohio; Sgt. La David Johnson of Miami Gardens, Fla.; and Staff Sgt. Dustin M. Wright, 29, of Lyons, Ga. were all killed. According to reports they were hunting for Doundou Chefou.
WASHINGTON, DC — A military investigation into the Niger attack in early Octo- ber 2017, that killed four American service members claims the team didn’t get re- quired senior command ap- proval for their risky mission to capture a high-level Islamic State militant, according to a source.
Initial information sug- gested the Army Special Forces team set out on its October mission to meet local Nigerien leaders, only to be redirected to assist a second unit hunting for Doundou Chefou, a militant suspected of involvement in the kidnapping of an American aid worker.
Officials say it now appears
the team went after Chefou from the onset, without outlin- ing that intent to higher-level commanders. As a result, com- manders couldn’t accurately assess the mission’s risk, ac- cording to the officials who spoke on condition of anonymity.
During initial reports, ac- counts by Nigerian and Ameri- can officials differed over the mission’s objectives, and whether and how they may have changed.
According to early reports, a senior source said the mission was thought low enough risk that they had no armored vehi- cles or body armor. However, U. S. officials vehemently con- tradict this account.
“The service members in- volved in this unfortunate inci- dent were unequivocally not directed to do a ‘kill or capture mission’. They were on a re- connaissance mission,” the Pentagon said. Now, the blame is shifting to the soldiers.
The one consistent thread is that they appear to have been woefully unprepared for their enemy.
Four U. S. soldiers and four Nigerien troops were killed about 120 miles (200 kilome- ters) north of Niamey, Niger’s capital, when they were at- tacked by as many as 100 Is- lamic State-linked militants traveling by vehicle and carry- ing small arms and rocket-pro- pelled grenade launchers.
Leadership Academy For Young Men Of Color
At Princeton University
Three New Barbie Dolls Honor Sheroes
Kids around the world will soon be able to own a Barbie doll bearing the likeness of Frida Kahlo, Amelia
Earhart Johnson.
or Katherine
All three women made her- story in different industries: Earhart was the first female aviator to fly across the At- lantic Ocean; Mexican artist Kahlo was known for her unique painting style and fem- inist activism; and Johnson, who was highlighted in the 2016 film “Hidden Figures,”
The 3 new dolls are: Amelia Earhart, Frida Kahlo and Kather- ine Johnson — in Barbie form.
broke boundaries for Black women in mathematics and calculated dozens of trajecto-
ries for NASA, including the 1969 Apollo 11 flight to the moon.
Though Philando Castile Died Tragically; Good Memories Live On Through Charity
DELROY LINDO ...Program Chairman
DANNY GLOVER ...Keynote Speaker
NEW YORK, NEW YORK — Leadership development, men- toring, and Rites of Passage are the focuses of the new From the Fire: Leadership Academy for Young Men on July 22-August 3, 2018. Operated by At the Well Conferences, Inc., a provider of events for teens since 2009, the inaugural two- week boarding program at Princeton University is de- signed for young men of color in the ninth, tenth or eleventh grades of high school.
The Program Chair is the actor and director Delroy Lindo. He has provided mem- orable performances in several films. Lindo’s passion for the plight of minority boys is lead- ing the actor to take an active role in the program’s develop- ment.
The keynote speaker is actor, producer, and humani- tarian Danny Glover. Glover has been a command- ing presence on screen, stage, and television for more than 25 years.
Additional speakers in-
clude former NBA stars Char- lie Ward and Jason Richardson, Honorable Ras J. Baraka, Mayor of Newark, New Jersey, artist Hank Willis Thomas, Attor- ney Kevin Harden, and music professor, Aaron Dworkin.
Full scholarships are avail- able based upon need. Toby Sanders is the Co-founder and Director of Curriculum of From the Fire and holds a Mas- ter of Divinity degree from Princeton Theological Semi- nary.
Held simultaneously will be the eighth year of the At the Well Young Women's Leader- ship Academy for current 10th- and 11th-grade girls of color. The actress Nicole Ari Parker will serve as Program Chair.
The application deadline for all programs is March 31, 2018. Partnerships and donors are sought to secure scholar- ships for students of both acad- emies. For more information and to apply, go to
ST. PAUL, MN — Two years after he was fatally shot by a police officer in Minnesota, Philando Castile is still helping students afford lunch.
A charity created in Castile’s honor has paid off the lunch debt for every stu- dent in the 56 schools in the St. Paul Public School District, in- cluding the school where Castile worked as a cafeteria supervisor.
“That means no parent of the 37,000 kids who eat meals at school need worry about how to pay that overdue debt,” a charity organizer wrote on the “Philando Feeds the Chil- dren” fundraising page.
Castile had worked as a cafeteria supervisor at the J. J.
Philando Castile was mur- dered by a police officer in Minnesota in 2016. Called a ‘good guy,’ a fund to help stu- dents afford ‘free lunch’ was created in his memory.
Hill Montessori Magnet School
in St. Paul for two years at the time he was killed.
Families said students at the school took his death especially hard.
In 2017, around the an- niversary of Castile’s death, families of children at J. J. Hill told the Pioneer Press that Castile often high-fived stu- dents and helped them with their lunches.
Pam Fergus, an educator who launched the charity, told CNN she delivered a $35,000 check to the St. Paul Public School District this week. The charity now has more than $117,000 in donations, and will continue to pay for student lunches “for years to come,” Fergus wrote in a fundraising update.
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