CLEVELAND, Ohio-The Cleveland Chapter NAACP is under scrutiny because its officials cannot confirm whether its 81-year-old president or former president, semi- retired Cleveland Attorney George Forbes (pictured), is still  the president of the local chapter of the nation's most prominent Civil Rights institution. And he can't either, apparently, though he said last week that he has called it quits. (Editor's note: Read the complete article for the potential candidates for the November election for Cleveland NAACP President and see the end of the article as to the harassment of state Sen. Nina Turner by Forbes because he could not control her like some other Cleveland area Black elected officials that allegedly fear him and what he might do to them if they do not cooperate when he says so on community and political issues).

The legal counsel for the Call and Post Newspaper, Cleveland's Black press that is owned by internationally known boxing promoter Don King, and a former Cleveland City Council president famous for throwing a chair at Cleveland Ward 8 Councilman Jeff Johnson and for losing a bid for mayor against former protege Michael R. White in 1989, Forbes is one of Cleveland's most colorful Black leaders, and one that has been a power broker on political and community issues affecting the Black community for more than four decades beginning when he was first elected to city council in 1963.

He and Cleveland NAACP officials have come under fire in recent months by community activists and others for ignoring Black issues of public concern, including malfeasance around the Imperial Avenue Murders, harassment of Blacks by the common pleas and municipal courts in Cuyahoga County, illegal foreclosures and the denial of construction and other work to a representative number of Black contractors on lucrative projects such as the Cleveland Medical Mart and Horseshoe Casino Cleveland, which opens in downtown Cleveland next month.

But the article says also that he allegedly acknowledged that just this month he sent out a support letter on Cleveland NAACP stationary championing gay marriage saying he is still president, and this happened even though the online encyclopedia dubbed Wikipedia says that he is the former president.

And longtime investigative reporter Carl Monday of Cleveland 19 Action News revealed in a television news expose last week that he reportedly spoke with Forbes, organization First Vice President James Hardiman and others, and that confusion over Forbes' status was obvious, with Monday reporting that Forbes purportedly said, in fact, that he had quit the organization.

WASHINGTON, D.C-President Barack Obama will officially kick off his reelection campaign with First Lady Michelle Obama by his side at a public rally on Sat. morning May 5 at The Ohio State University in Columbus, Oh., his campaign team told Cleveland Urban News.Com in a conference call with reporters Weds. evening.

The Democratic president will then go to Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, VA that same day for an afternoon rally.

And Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney is campaigning Ohio today, touring the state with Gov. John Kacish, also a Republican.

Asked by Cleveland Urban News.Com if the Obama campaign is threatened in anyway with the prospect that U.S. Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio, a former congressman and budget director for the Bush administration,  will be Romney's vice presidential running mate on the Republican ticket, the president's campaign said that "the contest is about the two men at the top of the ticket and their competing philosophies."

CLEVELAND, Ohio-The Imperial Women, a majority female grassroots group founded around the unprecedented murders of 11 Black women by since convicted serial killer Anthony Sowell (pictured) on Imperial Ave. in Cleveland, Oh., are voicing opposition to efforts by City of Cleveland officials to change the name of the street where the women were raped, strangled and murdered, asking if all streets of Cleveland where women were raped, strangled and murdered partly because of malfeasance by city officials and police will be changed to different names, and why Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson chose two Black male prominent area ministers to lead the project.

CLEVELAND, Ohio-The Carl Stokes Brigade will hold its 16th Annual Grave Site Commemoration services for the late Carl B. Stokes (pictured), the first Black mayor of a major metropolitan city, on Sun. April 22 from 3:00-5:00 pm at  Lakeview Cemetery in Cleveland, 12316 Euclid Ave.

The event is free and open to the public, and the contact for the ceremony is Marva Patterson at 216-334-7013.

Led by David Patterson with other long term affiliates such as former Brigade president and prior Cleveland School Board Member Genevieve Mitchell, Bert Jennings, Donnie Pastard, Terri Tolefree, George Edwards and opera singer Clarence Marshall, the Brigade is a grassroots entity that says its mission is to fight for the little people of Cuyahoga County and elsewhere, and for changes in public policy for the betterment of the greater Cleveland community.