Pictured are Cleveland Urban News.Com Sportswriter Karl Kimbrough and Cleveland Cavaliers forward LeBron James

(www.clevelandurbannews.com) / (www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com)

BOSTON, Massachusetts-The Cleveland Cavaliers closed out their best of seven series 4-0 in their first round of the Eastern Conference playoffs with the Boston Celtics with a 101 to 93 victory at the TD Garden arena in Boston, Massachusetts on Sunday, April 26.

The Cavaliers will now be idle until the winner of the Chicago Bulls vs Milwaukee Bucks series is determined. The Bulls currently lead that series three games to one, and might likely play the Cavs for round two of the Eastern Conference playoffs. The winner of that series plays in the Eastern Conference finals, and the winner of that show down, also the best of seven games, will fight against the Western conference winner for the NBA championship.

Cleveland took control of game four almost from the start. They led 17 to eight at the seven minute mark of the first quarter.

LeBron James led the Cavs in scoring with 27 points on Sunday. The Akron, Ohio native also had 10 rebounds and eight assists.

Cavaliers guard Kyrie Irving had a strong game as well with 24 points and 11 rebounds.

Isaiah Thomas led Boston with 21 points.

So the Cavaliers win the series four games to zero, a no doubt sweep, and a credit to rookie head coach David Blatt, and to general manager David Griffin.

Cleveland has come alive, again, both the Cavs, and the city, a major American city. And James, 30, again leads the Cavaliers franchise to the playoffs, a repeat of what he did for the first time since in 2007, losing to the Antonio Spurs.

James returned home to his beloved Ohio last year after a stint from 2010 to 2014 with the Miami Heat, in which he brought them two of their three NBA titles. Can he bring that kind of magic to Cleveland this year?

Pictured are U.S. President Barck Obama (wearing green tie), U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch (in Black suit), Congresswoman Marcia L. Fudge of Ohio (D-11) (in bluish-green suit), Congressman and Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) Chairman G.K. Butterfield of North Carolina (D-1) (in red tie),  NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund President and Director-counsel Sherrilyn Ifill (in red suit with long hairdo), National Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc. President Dr. Paulette Walker (in red suit with short hairdo), and GOP  Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky (R-KY) (in blue tie).

By Kathy Wray Coleman, editor-in-chief, Cleveland Urban News.Com, and the Kathy Wray Coleman Online News Blog.com, Ohio's most read digital Black newspaper and newspaper blog. Tel: (216) 659-0473.

Coleman, who is Black, is a 22-year investigative journalist and political and legal reporter who trained for 17 years at the Call and Post Newspaper in Cleveland, Ohio.

(www.clevelandurbannews.com) / (www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com)

WASHINGTON, D.C.-Following the longest confirmation delay for U.S. attorney general since Edwin Meese in 1985, Loretta Lynch, formerly the United States attorney for the eastern district of New York, was confirmed by the Senate on April 23 as the nation's first Black female attorney general.

The Senate voted 56-43 to confirm Lynch, with 10 Republican senators  supporting the measure.  Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) of Kentucky was not among them, and was among 43 Republicans senators that opposed the nomination.

U.S. Rep Marcia L. Fudge of Ohio, Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) Chairman G.K. Butterfield of North Carolina, National Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc. President Dr. Paulette Walker, and Sherrilyn Ifill, president and director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, told Cleveland Urban News.Com (www.clevelandurbannews.com)earlier this month during a press conference call that they had had enough of GOP  Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's harassment of Lynch relative to the confirmation delay.

Fudge, Butterfield, IfIll and Walker, all of whom are Black,  accused McConnell, of Kentucky, of stalling a vote by the U.S. Senate on Lynch and had said that the conservative White Republican, a senior member of Congress, is anti-Black, anti-female, and against President Barack Obama, America's first Black president.

On Thursday, Fudge said that she is pleased with Lynch's confirmation.

"I am elated Attorney Loretta Lynch now has the opportunity to lead the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), and will continue her outstanding service to our nation," said Fudge, a Warrensville Heights Democrat whose largely Black 11th congressional district includes suburban territories and parts of the cities of Cleveland and Akron, a city some 35 miles south of Cleveland. "Her confirmation is historic."

Fudge said that Lynch, a New York chief federal prosecutor until her confirmation and the country's 83rd attorney general, "is as qualified today as she was 166 days ago, bringing preeminent skills and experience to the position."

President Barack Obama nominated Lynch, 55, last November to succeed Attorney General Eric Holder, the country's first Black attorney general.

"Today, the Senate finally confirmed Loretta Lynch to be America's next attorney general, and America will be better off for it," Obama said in a a press statement issued shortly after the Senate, on yesterday, confirmed the nomination of Lynch.

The U.S. attorney general, as the nation's chief law enforcement official, leads the Department of Justice (DOJ), is nominated by the president, and must subsequently be confirmed by the Senate.

Republicans control both the Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives, and only gained control of the Senate in  elections last November.

McConnell had said that he would delay a vote on Lynch until the Senate completes consideration of an unrelated bill to fight human trafficking, proposed legislation that Democrats will not support because it contains an anti-abortion provision. He was also angry over Obama's executive actions on immigration reform. But he softened, and Lynch has made history as the nation's first Black female attorney general.

Lynch's roughly five months confirmation delay is second in more than three decades among 82 prior attorney generals confirmed, only to Regan nominee Edwin Meese in 1985.

Meese's confirmation took 13 months as he battled questions from Senate Democrats, led by then Sen. Howard Metzenbaum of Ohio, that as a White House official he failed to disclose that he handed out federal jobs to people he had financial relationships with, among other allegations of ethical violations that were ultimately disregarded.

(www.clevelandurbannews.com) / (www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com)

CLEVELAND, Ohio-After winning game one on Sunday, the Cleveland Cavaliers were able to hold serve at home and come out on top in game two of their playoff series with Boston by beating the Celtics Tuesday night, April 21, at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, but just barely. It took almost the entire 48 minutes for the home town Cavaliers to put a hustling, scrappy, youthful Celtic team away, 99-91.  (Editor's note: The Cavs also won game three against the Celtics on Thursday, April 23, winning 103-95. This article addresses game two of the NBA Eastern Conference playoffs because game two is where the analogy of winning, or barely winning, can be seen more objectively. An eight point spread in wins two and three for the Cavs is not an indication of howwell they will do in the playoffs in the long run. The playoffs competition will get tougher, if the Cavs beat the Celtics by winning the best of a possible seven games to qualify for additional playoffs series).

Game two was much closer down the stretch than the final score indicated. Just as they did in game one of this best of seven series with the Cavs, the Celtics attacked aggressively from the outset, both offensively and defensively. After game one Celtic forward Jae Crowder said that “ they have holes in their defense and we need to find them” Early on in game two they did just that. With 5:38 left in the first quarter Boston led 16 to eight .

The Celtics were able to penetrate into the heart of the Cleveland defense early and often by passing or driving into the lane for easy shots. Boston's center, former Cavalier Tyler Zeller had eight points in the first quarter that were all close to the basket. Careless passes and sloppy dribbling by LeBron James and Kyrie Irving led to steals and turnovers, which Boston took advantage of by turning those turnovers into early offense.

The first quarter ended with Boston leading 26 to 25. The Celtics took a nine point lead early in the second quarter as the Cavs went cold shooting from the field, especially from three point range. Some of the missed pointers led to easy baskets by Boston scoring often in transition. The Cavaliers responded after going down by nine and put 26 points on the score board in the second quarter to take the slimmest lead at 51 to 50 at the half. The Cavs were able to go inside to Timofey Mozgov in the first half when their three point shooting went cold. Mozgov proved to be a load for Zeller to handle, scoring 10 points in the first half and finishing with 16 points, seven rebounds, and five blocked shots.

Mozgov's scoring inside helped, but could not make up for all of the three pointers that were missed. Three point scoring had been a major part of the Cavaliers success during the second half of the regular season when they went 34 and nine. Tuesday night, the three point shots were clanging off the rim frequently as the Cavs made only seven out of 29. Kevin Love and JR Smith, who have been counted on to give the Cavs three point shooting and floor spacing, were a combined two out of 13 from three point range.

In addition, the Cavaliers bench contributed only seven points compared to the 51 scored by Boston's bench. Matthew Dellavedova chipped in five of those points and Iman Shumpert scored the other two. This put a lot of pressure on James and Irving to score, and score they did. James tallied 30 points and Irving had 26 for the game.

The Celtics kept coming back in the second half and cut the Cleveland lead to two, 82-80 in the fourth quarter, then James and Irving took over. No one else scored for Cleveland in the fourth quarter except Irving and James. Irving and James scored nine and 15 points respectively in the fourth. In fact Love and Smith were the only other Cavaliers who took a shot in the fourth quarter and they both took only one shot. In contrast nine of the 10 Celtics that played scored before the end of the first half.

Although they were under sized, the Celtics stayed in the game by collecting 13 second chance shots with 13 offensive rebounds. Now this series moves to Boston for games three and four on Thursday, April 23, and Sunday, April 26, at 1 pm Eastern Standard Time on ABC local television.

Constitutional Attorney Shahid Buttar (pictured above), executive director of the national Bill of Rights Defense Committee

By Kathy Wray Coleman, editor-in-chief, Cleveland Urban News.Com, and the Kathy Wray Coleman Online News Blog.com, Ohio's most read digital Black newspaper and newspaper blog. Tel: (216) 659-0473.  Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com.

Coleman is a community activist, legal and political reporter, and a 22-year investigative journalist who trained at the Call and Post Newspaper in Cleveland, Ohio for 17 years.

(www.clevelandurbannews.com) / (www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com)

CLEVELAND, Ohio - The Greater Cleveland Civil and Human Rights Coalition, together with the national Bill of Rights Defense Committee (www.bordc.org) and local greater Cleveland activists,  will co-host a open-to-the-public forum on police body-worn cameras, police accountability, and Civil Rights beginning at 11 am on Saturday, April 18 at the MLK Jr. Branch Public Library in Cleveland Ward 9 at 1962 Stokes Blvd. The media and others should contact CAIR-Cleveland Executive Director Julia Shearson, a Harvard University educated greater Cleveland community activist, at 216.830.2247 for more information.

Also at issue are privacy concerns pertaining to the body cameras, including in rape cases, and cases of police harassment through heightened surveillance.

Uncensored questions from the community are welcome during the questions and answers part of the forum, organizers told Cleveland Urban News.Com, Ohio's leader in Black digital news.

Cleveland Ward 9 Councilman Kevin Conwell will give remarks at the event.

The keynote speaker is  Shahid Buttar,  a constitutional attorney and executive director of the Bill of Rights Defense Committee, a think tank and activists training organization which is headquartered in Northampton, Massachusetts and trains community activists across the country, including in the city of Cleveland.  Its primary mission though, is to promote the Bill of Rights, namely the first 10 amendments of the U.S. Constitution, including the free speech clause of the First Amendment.

Buttar is a constitutional scholar and a national activist, also on immigration reform, who was arrested  in February after protesting on the the U.S. Senate floor over what he says are illegal wire taps by the CIA, and other federal government intrusions.

In addition to Buttar, other panelists are Shakyra Diaz of the Ohio ACLU, Cleveland Police Patrolmen's Association President Steve Loomis, Cleveland City Councilman and Safety Committee Chairman Matt Zone, college student Alyce Ragland,  Criminal and Juvenile Justice Policy Consultant Ed Little, and Cleveland State University Professor Dr. Ronnie Dunn.

The forum is in response to the deployment of the body-worn cameras by the Cleveland Division of Police in its efforts to build  community trust in the wake of the U.S. Department of Justice's December 4, 2014 finding that the police department engages in a pattern and practice of violating the U.S. Constitution, including illegal excessive force shootings and harassment of innocent women and Black people.

Cleveland police killings of unarmed people in recent years, mainly Blacks, are escalating, and include 12-year-old Tamir Rice, Brandon Jones, Tanisha Anderson, Daniel Ficker , Malissa Williams, Timothy Russell and rapper Kenneth Smith.

Cleveland police body cameras took effect earlier this year pursuant to a city law passed by Cleveland City Council.

Loomis said that his union and police officers oppose the body cameras. Most in the Black community, including Black leaders, want them.