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By Kathy Wray Coleman (Cleveland, Ohio Area News) Posted Wednesday, September 9, 2009 The Sept. 8 non-partisan primary race for the 19 Cleveland City Council seats up for grabs brought no surprising outcomes, though the neck and neck race between Ward 5 Councilwoman Phyllis Cleveland and Pernel Jones Jr., an owner an operator of Pernel Jones Funeral Home in Cleveland, is being closely watched. Cleveland, council's majority leader, finished with 674 votes, and Jones with 575. Like the others council races, Cleveland and Jones, as the two top vote getters, will square off for the Nov. 3 general election, though as Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson's hand picked successor to Ward 5 few would rule out Jackson's active role in campaigning for Cleveland in the general election. He sailed to victory with 72 percent of the vote and will face former Cleveland Ward 8 Councilman Bill Patmon, hoping to retain his job as mayor of the predominantly Black major metropolitan city. War

By Kathy Wray Coleman (National and Cleveland, Ohio Area News) Posted September 6, 2009 (Originally published in the Call & Post Newspaper, Ohio's Black Press with distributions in Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati, Oh, where Coleman served in the capacity of a freelance journalist. It is being reprinted below for a closer look since the issues that the president promoted when campaigning in Cleveland last year during the Democratic Primary are now a part of the president's controversial push for universal health care for all Americans) Illinois Sen. Barack Obama spoke with the Call & Post last Thursday about his health care plan and its impact on the American community, the Black community in particular. Obama said that he would finance the comprehensive plan by rolling back Bush tax cuts on families making $250,000 or more annually and keeping the estate tax at its 2009 level. The first Black presidential nominee of a major American political party has made

By Kathy Wray Coleman (Cleveland, Ohio Area News) Posted September 6, 2009 The Deuteronomy Bookstore and Cafe in Cleveland, which is owned and operated by Mitti Imani Jordon, sponsored a rally and vigil on Wednesday at its headquarters at Wadepark and 105th streets to push President Obama's health care plan and to pay tribute to the late U.S. Sen. Edward "Ted" Kennedy Jr., who died Aug 25 after a battle with brain cancer. A Massachusetts senator for 42 years and the third longest serving, Kennedy was the patriarch of the famous Kennedy clan. Younger brother to former president John F. Kennedy and Sen. Robert Kennedy, both assassinated, uncle to news anchor Maria Shriver Schwarzenegger, and father to U.S. Rep. Patrick Kennedy, the elder Kennedy was a Democratic liberal who fought for equal opportunity on and off the senate floor, especially those issues that impacted poor people, minorities, and the elderly. When he arrived in Cleveland, Oh. in February 2008 to stomp for P

Posted September 6, 2009 (National and Cleveland,Ohio Area News) A Black freelance journalist from the Cleveland, Oh. area has sued a former county Sheriff, a jail warden, and a host of others after she was allegedly jailed last year over her writings in the Black press, held naked, given a knockout drug, supervised by a disgruntled male employee, and released four days later without charges. Freelance journalist Kathy Wray Coleman, who covered the Democratic primary and general elections last year for the Call & Post Newspaper, a weekly distributed in Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati, Oh. that targets the African-American community, filed the 49 page lawsuit Aug. 11 in the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas. In the suit Coleman's attorney, Wayne Kerek, names 28 defendants including former Cuyahoga County Sheriff Gerald McFaul, who retired earlier this year amid an ensuing criminal investigation, the Cuyahoga County Board of Commissioners, Jail Warden Kevin McDonoug

Posted September 5, 2009 (Cleveland,Ohio Area News) Cleveland Municipal Court Judge Kathleen Ann Keough was sued on July 16 in the Ohio Eighth District Court of Appeals, where journalist Kathy Wray Coleman has asked the court to issue a decision that orders the judge to vacate orders she issued while under investigation for alleged bias in a case before her involving Coleman. The non-monetary lawsuit, filed by Coleman's attorney, Wayne Kerek, says in part that Keough issued the orders to allegedly harass Coleman, an outspoken Black journalist in the Cleveland, Oh. area. Ohio state law prevents a judge from issuing rulings impacting the substantial rights of a party, including defendants in criminal cases, when a judge is under investigation for potential bias. If the appellate court rules against her Coleman says that she shall appeal the decision to the Ohio Supreme Court which, by law, must hear the case because it originated in the appellate court. Generally, the high court of O

By Kathy Wray Coleman (Cleveland, Ohio Area News) Posted September 5, 2009 A Civil Rights attorney from Cleveland Heights, Oh. who represented Blacks in race discrimination lawsuits filed against Cuyahoga County and county officials recently had her law license suspended indefinitely by the Ohio Supreme Court for leveling charges of racism against Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Bill Mason, Cuyahoga Common Pleas Judges William Coyne and Timothy McCormick, and a federal district court judge. “The Cuyahoga County Prosecutor had information that government employees were engaging in race discrimination and illegal conduct, including crimes of forgery, fraud, and falsification of public documents, yet failed to investigate,” attorney Merrie Maurine Frost claimed in the affidavits of prejudice previously filed against McCormick and Coyne,” according to excerpts from the Ohio Supreme Court suspension decision issued June 24. Mason said through a spokesperson that he had no comment. The

Posted August 23, 2009 (Originally published on November 6, 2008 in the Call & Post Newspaper, Ohio's Black Press, with distributions in Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati) After wining Ohio by 5 percentage points Illinois Sen. Barack Obama became the first Black president of the United States of America Tue. night following a euphoric election that represents the height of Black intellect and achievement in American history. The first Black presidential nominee of a major American political party, whose oratory brilliance and message of hope and change reinvigorated Americans nationwide, swiftly won the Electoral College to take the presidency over Republican nominee Arizona Sen. John McCain. He also won the national popular vote, making his election a slam dunk. At press time Obama had 364 electoral votes to McCain's 164. Obama's election night victory came on the eve of the death of his maternal grandmother, who reared him along with his late mother and materna