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Retired Cleveland Plain Dealer Newspaper Reporter and Community Activist Richard Peery Cleveland Ward 6 Precinct Committeeman John Boyd Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson By Kathy Wray Coleman, Associate Publisher, Editor, Cleveland Urban News.Com and the Kathy Wray Coleman Online Newsblog.Com www.clevelandur bannews.com 0 CLEVELAND, Ohio-The newly found relationship between Republican Ohio Gov. John Kasich and a select group of Cleveland area Democratic Black elected officials and civic leaders has some other Black people in a quandary. The Black state legislators from Cleveland, at least two Blacks on Cuyahoga County Council, controversial Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson, some Cleveland councilpersons, and Black civic leaders such as Cleveland NAACP former president George Forbes, its current president James Hardiman, and Cleveland Chapter Southern Christian Leadership Conference Executive Director the Rev. E.T. Caviness are being called out by Black men upset with the Kasich-Black -lea

Ohio State Senator Shirley Smith (D-Cleveland) speaks before fellow lawmakers. Smith is one of two Black state senators, along with state Senator Nina Turner (D-25), and among five Black state lawmakers with constituents in the Cleveland Metropolitan area. By Kathy Wray Coleman, Associate Publisher, Editor, Cleveland Urban News.Com and the Kathy Wray Coleman Online Newsblog .Com www.clevelandurbannews.com 0 CLEVELAND, Ohio-Politics makes strange bed fellows. And Republican Ohio Gov. John Kasich knows that all too well as he was in Cleveland last week for a second time this month to meet with Black people, this time for the ceremonial signing of a criminal records sealing law recently passed by the Republican controlled state legislature and sponsored by state senators Shirley Smith (D-Cleveland) and Bill Seitz (R-Cincinnati). Ohio Governor John Kasich (R-OH) The law, an amendment to a state law already on the books that permitted the sealing of only one non-violent criminal reco

Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson (D-Cleveland) Kimberly Brown CLEVELAND, Ohio- (Editor's note: Below is a response by Kim berly Brown to the guest editorial of Larry Woods, who called Brown a hater for her guest editorial to Cleveland Urban News.Com opposing Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson's education plan and the 15 mill Cleveland Municipal School District operating levy on the ballot for November. Among other provisions, Jackson's plan, which is now state law with Republican Gov. John Kasich's support, replaces teacher seniority with merit pay and hands public funds slated for the majority Black district for charter schools. The Cleveland Teachers Union leadership team, all nine Blacks on Cleveland City Council, Congresswoman Marcia Fudge (D-11), all of the Black state legislators from Cleveland but state Sen. Shirley Smith (D-22), and the Cleveland Plain Dealer and Call and Post Newspapers support the mayor's controversial plan. Community activists generally opp

By Larry Woods, Guest Columnist CLEVELAND, Ohio-I am a high school drop out named Larry Woods. I saw Kim Brown's comments to the mayor's education proposal and was struck by the brevity and the negativity. (Editor's note: This is an editorial by Larry Woods in response to the one that ran in Cleveland Urban News.Com on July 4 by Kimberly Brown, a former Cleveland mayor candidate and unsuccessful candidate for Cuyahoga County Council who opposes Cleveland Mayor Jackson's education plan that is now a state law that strips Cleveland schools teachers of seniority in exchange for merit pay and hands public monies slated for the school district to charter schools, among other provisions. Signed into law two weeks ago by Republican Gov. John Kasich, the education plan also calls for a levy on the November ballot, something Brown also criticized. Read Brown's editorial at Cleveland Urban News.Com and also here at the Kathy Wray Coleman Online News Blog.Com at http://www.

By Karl Kimbrough, Guest Sports Columnist, Cleveland Urban News.Com www.clevelandurbannews.com ) CLEVELAND, Ohio-The NFL draft has become such a huge theatrical event that in most cities across the country, including Cleveland where the Cleveland Browns are center stage, football fans are glued to their television sets to see who gets the potential star players. But should more focus be given to mid-round draft players since a team can not function on first and second round draftees alone? Fans are mainly interested in those players who are projected to be drafted in the first round. From February until draft day in April there is so much talk about the potential top 10 players that we feel as though we must have one. If we do not get one for our team then we have missed out on a prized talent that could take our team to another level. A lot of the attention that is given to the draft is based on hype from the media and high grades or ratings given by draft gurus. However, this

Ashley Allison (right) and United States Vice President Joe Biden, at an Obama for America campaign event in Ohio. A native of Youngstown, Oh., Allison is the 'Get Out The Vote' African-America n Vote Director f or Ohio for the Obama for Am erica Campaign Ashley Allison United States President Barack Obama, who says that the female and Black vote do matter, and that he is courting both, and others relative to his re-election campaign this year By Johnette Jernigan, Cleveland Urban New s.Com Staff Reporter www.clevelandurbannews.com ) CLEVELAND, Ohio-Cleveland Urban News.Com Reporter Johnette Jernigan had the opportunity to speak one-on-one with Ashley Allison, a native of Youngstown, Oh., and now the 'Get Out The Vote’ African-American Vote director for Ohio for the Obama for America Campaign. The deadline to register to vote in Cuyahoga County, Oh. for the November general election is Oct. 9. United States President Barack Obama wil