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Former Cleveland councilman Basheer Jones Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com   By Kathy Wray Coleman, associate publisher, editor CLEVELAND, Ohio — Former Cleveland Councilman Basheer Jones, who is Black, has been released from prison ahead of his scheduled release date. After pleading guilty to wire fraud and honest services fraud, he was sentenced in April 2025 to 28 months in federal prison by U.S. District Court Judge J. Phillip Calabrese, a Republican appointed to the federal bench in the Northern District of Ohio in 2020 by President Donald Trump during his first term in office. The judge also ordered the former councilman, a Democrat, to pay more than $148,000 in restitution and to serve three years' probation after completing his sentence. Jones' attorney, Fernando Mack, and some Greater Cleveland Black leaders, such as former congresswoman and former HUD secretary Marcia L. Fudge, as well as some Black community activists, sought leniency...

Clevelandurbannews.com and   Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.co m WASHINGTON, D.C.-  President Donald Trump and Iranian officials have reached an initial agreement intended to end more than three months of war in Iran and to reopen the Strait of Hormuz,  a narrow, strategically vital waterway connecting the Persian Gulf with the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea.  The US-Iran Deal to end the war, scheduled to be formally signed on Friday in Switzerland, marks a major breakthrough in the conflict that set the Middle East ablaze and shook the global economy. Many of the deal's provisions, including a promise not to develop or seek a nuclear weapon, are similar to those negotiated by President Barack Obama when he was in office, a deal that Trump quickly eliminated when he took office for his first term in 2017.  "The Deal with the Islamic Republic of Iran is now complete. Congratulations to all!" Trump wrote on social media . Meeting with French President Emmanuel...

Ohio Democratic Congresswomen Emilia Sykes, Shontel Brown and Joyce Beatty Clevelandurbannews.com and   Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Representative Emilia Sykes (OH-13), an Akron Democrat and vice chair of the Democratic Women’s Caucus, joined DWC Executive Steering Committee Member Debbie Dingell (MI-06), Co-Vice Chair Hillary Scholten (MI-03), and Chair Teresa Leger Fernández (NM-03) in leading 128 members of the DWC and House Democratic Caucus in a letter sent Wednesday to House Speaker Mike Johnson urging him to remove a dangerous provision in the BUILD America 250 Act . That provision shields rideshare companies such as Uber and Lyft from liability when passengers are sexually assaulted, injured, or killed during rides. 11th Congressional District Congresswoman Shontel Brown, a Warrensville Heights Democrat, and Third Congressional District Congresswoman Joyce Beatty of Columbus, who are also Black like Sykes, and from Ohio, were among the lawma...

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Clevelandurbannews.com and   Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com CLEVELAND, Ohio-Former Cuyahoga County Domestic Relations Court Judge Leslie Ann Celebrezze (pictured) , a Democrat on the bench since 2009 and a former administrative judge of the court who resigned from the bench late last year after being charged in Common Pleas Court with third-degree felony tampering with records, was sentenced Monday to 60 days in jail and handed a $10,000 fine. She faced up to three years in prison. Under Ohio law, a judge is automatically disqualified from acting in his or her official capacity while a felony charge is pending. Celebrezze's current term ends in January 2027. Her law license has been suspended by the Ohio Supreme Court for two years, with one year stayed. County Prosecutor Mike O' Malley bragged about the prosecution to the mainstream media, an indication, said sources, that it might have been politically motivated, although Celebreezze and O'Malley are both Democrats...