By Kathy Wray Coleman, Executive Publisher, Editor, Cleveland Urban News. Com and The Cleveland Urban News.Com Blog

CLEVELAND,Ohio- A press conference by some Black elected officials and a protest, both covered locally and  nationally by CNN and MSNBC, were held on Oct 11 by The Imperial Women, Organize Ohio, Black on Black Crime, Peace in the Hood and Stop Targeting Ohio's Poor under a racist voter suppression billboard in the city of Cleveland that threatens residents with a  felony, prison and a $10,000 fine for voting.

The organized effort has caused the company that owns the unconstitutional billboard, Clear Channel Holdings Inc.,  to take it down, and 29 others like it around Cleveland, elsewhere in cities in Ohio, including Columbus and Cincinnati, and in the swing state of Wisconsin.

Watch the video below by Fox 8 News Channel in Cleveland of the Oct 11. voter suppression billboard protest led by Community Activists Kathy Wray Coleman and Khalid Samad.  . CLICK HERE ON THIS LINK TO GO TO FOX 8 NEWS TO SEE THE VIDEO OF THE PROTEST AND THE STATION'S NEWS STORY ON IT

Coleman leads the Imperial Women, a community activist group founded around the murders of 11 Black women on Imperial Ave in Cleveland by since convicted serial killer Anthony Sowell. Go to Cleveland Urban News.Com (www.clevelandurbannews.com) to read about the third anniversary rally and vigil on Oct 27, 5 pm, at E. 123rd St and Imperial Ave in Cleveland. For more information call 216-659-0473.

An advertising division of  of Clear Channel Holdings Inc., which also owns radio stations throughout the country, including seven in greater Cleveland like WTAM that carries the Rush Limbaugh Show, Clear Channel  Outdoor had used the billboards to intimidate majority Black communities in the key battleground states of Oho and Wisconsin, both key battleground states for presidential elections.

A spokesperson for the company said yesterday that all 145 billboards in both Ohio and Wisconsin are coming down. And, that Clear Channel would put up billboards that are to say "Voting Is A Right Not A Crime," though the number of billboards that will go up with the new slogan is in controversy. (Editor's note: The billboard at E. 35th St and Community College Ave was taken down on Oct. 22 and was replaced with a billboard that reads "Voting Is A Right Not A Crime).

Once connected in a business fashion to Bain Capital and Republican Presidential Nominee Mitt Romney, if not still affiliated, Clear Channel had originally refused to take down the billboards, calling them "free speech and factually correct."

Joining the community activists midway into their organized rally on Oct 11 for a press conference over the billboards were Cleveland Ward 5 Councilwomen Phyllis Cleveland, who also led the charge around the billboards, Ward 6 Councilwoman Mamie Mitchell, and state Sen. Nina Turner (D-25), all of whom are Democratic Obama supporters.

In addition to Coleman and Samad, other activists that spoke at the rally of some 80 people last Thursday include Griot Y-Von, Dr, Stewart Robinson, Valerie Robinson, Al Porter, Jean Whitte and Larry Bresler.

A group of Civil Rights attorneys commissioned out of Washington D.C was also the impetus for the decision for Clear Channel to take the controversial billboards down.

Reach Cleveland Urban News.Com by telephone at 216-659-0473 and by email at editor@clevelandurbannews.com.

By Kathy Wray Coleman ad Johnette Jernigan, Cleveland Urban News. Com and The Cleveland Urban News.Com Blog

CLEVELAND, Ohio – A greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority (RTA) bus driver has been suspended after a video, now on YouTube.com and generating more than 3 million review clicks, goes viral and catches him sucker punching a 25 -year- old female passenger in the face that allegedly hit and spat on him in a dispute that unraveled after the woman got on the bus on Sept 18 at the borderline of the Ohio cities of Cleveland and Beachwood.

RTA officials have identified the bus driver as Artis Hughes (pictured), 59, and the young woman he punched to the floor like a man and then threw off the bus as Shi'Dea N. Lane (pictured). (Editor's note: Hughes has since been fired for violating  RTA  departmental rules and policies relative to his brutal and outrageous attack on Lane).

Unlike Hughes, of East Cleveland, RTA police have charged Lane with misdemeanor disorderly conduct, a position that is raising eyebrows on whether sexism has reared its ugly head since Hughes has not been charged by the entity.

Both Hughes and Lane are Black and RTA police have received complaints of harassment of Black teens and girls by RTA police and bus drivers, claims area womens' groups, such as The Imperial Women,  are now investigating.

City of Beachwood Prosecutor Thomas Greve and Law Director Margaret Ann Cannon said last week that the City of Beachwood will charge Lane with fourth degree misdemeanor disorderly conduct, which carries a fine and up to 30 days in jail, and Hughes will be charged with first degree misdemeanor assault,  an offense that, if convicted of, could bring him a fine and up to sixth months in  jail.

Some  say that Hughes' attack on Lane should be prosecuted as felonious assault and that he should be indicted by a Cuyahoga County grand jury, though since Cannon is allegedly anti-Black and anti-female she will not recommend such to Interim Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Tim McGinty, a Democrat.

Cannon, who was also the law director for Shaker Hts. until recently let go, has been accused of maliciously prosecuting Blacks and women for her political friends on behalf of the municipalities of Shaker Hts and Beachwood, with Greve's help in Beachwood.

Cannon and her law firm of  Walter and Haverfield, LLP, where she is a partner, also represent the Cleveland Municipal School District and Cleveland Board of Education against racial discrimination lawsuits filed by Black students, parents, teachers and administrators, and others.

Beachwood misdemeanor criminal cases are by state law heard in the Shaker Heights Municipal Court.

Hughes, a 22 year employee and a member of the Amalgamated Transit Authority Union Local 268/AFL-CIO, is also seen on the video throwing Lane off the bus and commenting that “you going to jail. I don’t care. She wanna be a man, I’m a treat you like a man.”

Cleveland and Beachwood police were both called to the scene but no initial arrest took place.

(Watch the RTA bus fight  video here).

By Johnette Jernigan and Kathy Wray Coleman, Cleveland Urban News. Com and The Cleveland Urban News.Com Blog

CLEVELAND,Ohio- President Obama won on two ends this week. The president out did Mitt Romney during Tuesday night's debate, polls and people said. And earlier that day he out did Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted and the Republicans.

Obama gained bragging rights in Ohio for a win on Tuesday on his early voting lawsuit as the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear a decision affirmed by the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals last Friday that upheld Federal District Judge Peter Economus' ruling to strike down an unconstitutional state law that precluded early voting the weekend before the November 6 election.

Opposition to that voter suppression federal lawsuit had become Husted's baby, and ultimately his loss.

Economus, in August, restored early voting three days before the November election by supporting the Obama campaign lawsuit and  striking down the state law passed last year by the Republican controlled Ohio State Legislature that precluded it.

In his ruling, the federal district court judge out of Youngstown, Oh., an urban city between Cleveland and Pittsburgh, Pa., said that because the since defunct statute or state law gave privilege to military personnel to vote and not others, it is therefore unconstitutional.

And the rejection by the nation's high court to hear an appeal of the Sixth Circuit decision that supports Economus' ruling just made the Democrats even more enthusiastic at debate watch parties held later that Tuesday evening in Cleveland metropolitan areas for the second of three scheduled presidential debates.

"The president stood on his record and he won the debate,"said, Democratic state Rep. Nickie Antonio (D-13) during a debate watch party in Lakewood, Oh at the home of prominent Cleveland trial lawyer E. John Brzytwa and his wife Ellen,  both lifelong Democrats whose seven-bedroom mini-mansion on Lake Erie overlooks downtown Cleveland.

About 40 Obama supporters, mostly White loyal Democrats, nibbled on cheese and crackers and drank fine wine at the community watch party as Obama and Romney sparred over their tax plans , domestic and foreign policy issues, and Libya.

Moderated by CNN Chief Political Correspondent Candy Crawley, Obama did better the second time around, and he was aggressive when needed, political pundits said. (Editor's note: The third and final U.S. presidential debate is Monday at  9 pm Eastern Time at Lynn University in Boca Raton, Fl).

The president said that Romney's proposal to cut taxes for the rich on the backs of middle class and poor Americans is merely a reflection of his disrespect for fair play and equal treatment for all Americans.

"We haven't heard anything from the governor beyond big bird," said the Democrat Obama of Romney, a former Massachusetts governor and the nominee for president for the Republican Party.

Rebecca Patton, president of the American Nurses Association, agreed, and said that the election is about either selecting Romney to further the agendas of rich Americans, or reelecting President Obama for the betterment of all Americans.

"It's about a candidate such as Mitt Romney who wants to continue to take care of people who are well off or a president  whose first initiative when taking office was to sign the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 into law, said Patton, who was among a cadre of Cleveland area nurses that joined other Obama supporters at the debate watch party in Lakewood Tuesday night.

From the Metro Desk of Cleveland Urban News.Com (www.clevelandurbannews.com)

CLEVELAND, Ohio- The Imperial Women Coalition, other community activist groups, Imperial Avenue residents, Black elected officials, and others will hold The Third Anniversary of The Imperial Ave Murders And Stop The Violence Rally In Cooperation With Domestic Violence Month And Purplelight Vigil on Saturday, Oct 27, 2012 at 5:00  pm on the corner of  E. 123rd St and  Imperial Ave., next to the since demolished home of serial killer Anthony Sowell (pictured). (From downtown Cleveland take Kinsman Ave to E. 123rd St, turn left, and proceed two blocks to Imperial Ave with the home next to the corner).