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Newly confirmed United States Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

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By Kathy Wray Coleman, editor, associate publisher

CLEVELANDURBANNEWS.COM-WASHINGTON, D.C. - Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a member of the famed Kennedy family and an outspoken vaccine skeptic, was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on Thursday as United States Health and Human Services secretary.

The U.S Senate voted 52-48 for confirmation with former minority leader Sen. Mitch Mcconnell of Kentucky the only Senate Republican to vote no, a second no vote after he opposed the nomination of Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, whom the Senate confirmed on Wednesday with widespread Republican support.

An unsuccessful Democratic candidate for president in 2020, Kennedy is a son of U.S. Attorney General and Senator Robert F. Kennedy and a nephew of U.S. President John F. Kennedy and Senator Ted Kennedy.

President Donald Trump tapped Kennedy, 71, to lead the nation's healthcare system amid opposition and a scathing rebuke from Senate Democrats and prominent pro-healthcare organizations from across the country. Republicans, however, control the House of Representatives, the Senate, and the White House, a powerful mechanism.

Democratic federal lawmakers rejected Kennedy's confirmation in unison as their clout continues to wane at the federal level.

RFK Jr. also faced scrutiny from prominent members of the Kennedy family clan, including Caroline Schlossberg Kennedy, a former U.S. ambassador to Australia and the daughter of JFK. She described her first cousin as an anti-vaccine predator who abused animals and she lobbied against his confirmation, with RFK Jr. saying upon confirmation that he is not against anybody getting a vaccine.

Dems in both the House and the Senate remain up in arms over what they say is the president's execution of a sweeping anti-democratic agenda to change Washington politics overnight by firing federal employees who oversee the government and targeting national resources for marginalized groups and foreign aid to countries of color, the Constitution and other authorities be damned.

Trump says he is merely doing what the American voters put him in office to do.

Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com are the most-read Black digital newspaper and blog in Ohio. Tel. 216-659-0473. Email-editor@clevelandurbannews.com

Newly confirmed United States Director of Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard

Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com

By Kathy wray Coleman, editor, associate publisher

WASHINGTON, DC - Following contentious Senate hearings, Tulsi Gabbard was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on Wednesday as United States Director of National Intelligence (DNI).

A former Honolulu councilwoman and former Democratic congresswoman representing Hawaii who ran unsuccessfully for president in 2016 and is now a Republican, Gabbard faced questions during Senate hearings about her views on Russia, ousted Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, and Edward Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor who leaked classified information. But in the end, she was able to sway Republicans who were holding out, winning confirmation 52-48  with all  Senate Republicans but Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky voting yes. Each and every Senate Democrat voted no.

She was sworn in shortly after winning confirmation and was among a handful of Trump nominees, most of them men, whose nomination brought heightened national media scrutiny.

President Donald Trump described Gabbard, 43,  as a committed public servant and "a woman of great common sense."

Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com are the most-read Black digital newspaper and blog in Ohio. Tel. 216-659-0473. Email-editor@clevelandurbannews.com

Gerald C. Henley

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By Kathy Wray Coleman, editor, associate publisher

CLEVELANDURBANNEWS.COM, CLEVELAND, Ohio – Former Cleveland school board member and activist Gerald C. Henley of Cleveland passed away Tues, Feb 4. He was 76.

Henley had a stroke and never recovered. He is survived by his wife Annaliesa, a retired school teacher, and three adult children.

The viewing for Mr. Henley will be on Monday, February 17, 2025, at Lucas Funeral Home, 9010 Garfield Blvd, Garfield Heights, OH 44125. His internment will be in Knoxville, Tennessee, his native town.

Activist Donna Walker Brown said Cleveland activists will celebrate Henley's life at an open-to-the-public event on Thurs., Feb. 13 at 6:30 pm at Black on Black Crime headquarters, 15416 Kipling Ave. in Cleveland.

Henley was a board member when the elected school board was demolished to pave the way for an appointed school board under mayoral control, a controversial state law pushed by Republican state lawmakers that took effect in 1998 when the desegregation court order was eliminated. His criticism, however, continued at school board meetings and he and activist Walker Brown once sued the predominantly Black school district relative to prospective school closures that they say targeted poor Black school children and their families.

"Henley was a warrior," said Walker Brown. "We sometimes argued over community issues but we could count on him when we needed him."

Activist Alfred Porter Jr. of Black on Black Crime Inc. said Henley "cared about Cleveland's public school children and was not afraid to speak out on community issues, " and that he fought with activists in their fight against educational inequalities regarding Black children, murder and other violence against women, and police brutality and police murders in the Black community.

clevelandurbannews.com and www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com the most-read Black digital newspaper and Black blog in Ohio and in the Midwest. Tel: (216) 659-0473. Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. We interviewed former president Barack Obama one-on-one when he was campaigning for president. As to the Obama interview, CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE AT CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM, OHIO'S LEADER IN BLACK DIGITAL NEWS.

Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com

By Kathy Wray Coleman, editor-in-chief, associate publisher. Coleman is a Black Cleveland activist, community organizer and digital and social media journalist who trained at the Call and Post Newspaper in Cleveland, Ohio for 17 years. Tel: (216) 659-0473 Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com

CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM-CLEVELAND, Ohio- February 2025 is Black History Month, so let's talk a little bit about Black history. Do we really know the true history of the plight of African Americans and their African ancestors?

We know without reservation that former president Barack Obama is the first Black president of the United States of America and Michelle Obama is the first Black first lady.  And we know that Former Vice President Kamala Harris is the first Black vice president in the U.S., Loyd Austin is the nation's first Black secretary of defense and Ketanji Brown Jackson,a Biden appointee, is the first Black female U.S. Supreme Court justice.

Closer to home, we recognize and remember some of the true greats that have touched the lives of Clevelanders. They include the late Carl B. Stokes, the first Black mayor of a major American city, whom Cleveland voters elected in 1967. Stokes later held the post under former president Bill Clinton of U.S. Ambassador to Seychelles and was a Cleveland Municipal Court judge. His older brother, the late Louis Stokes, was the first Black congressman from Ohio and led the 11th congressional district until his retirement in 1998.

The late Stephanie Tubbs Jones, of Cleveland, was the first Black Cuyahoga County prosecutor. She followed Stokes to Congress and was the first Black woman in Congress from Ohio.  But how much do we really know about Black history, particularly since eurocentric-curricula dominate teaching in elementary and secondary schools across the country, and in our institutions of higher learning?

History reveals that Black people were enslaved initially by Black people in Africa and then sold to be brought to America for further slavery to work our fields and to perform other subservient measures. But remember that it was White men who brought our ancestors to America in chains.

The aftermath of those chains still plagues the Black community in various ways, including through high unemployment, disproportionate incarcerations of Black men and women, and underfunded public school districts that serve majority Black and poor children, among other systemic problems.

Blacks have long contributed to the greatness of America.

The very first Black killed in a major American war was a Black man named Crispus Attucks, who died in the Revolutionary War. Hundreds of  Black soldiers were among the casualties at Bunker Hill.

Blacks were at one time, if not even now in some situations, counted as 3/5 of a person. And while the slavery of Blacks is not mentioned in the Constitution, it is implicated under the fourth Amendment, which demands equal protection under the law for members of a protected class like Black people, and women.

President Abraham Lincoln’s executive order of the Emancipation Proclamation did not start the American Civil War, but it help to end it. President Lincoln was a Republican, as was Civil Rights activist and historian Frederick Douglas.

Jim Crow laws kept Blacks traditionally enslaved and the Ku Klux Klan was started in part because racist Whites wanted to keep former slaves in line and were angry that slavery had ended in the official sense. The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s served to stop the Jim Crow laws. King gave his life to better America, and the national holiday named in his honor, a holiday celebrated on the third Monday in January of each year, is well deserved.

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was signed by Democratic President Lyndon B. Johnson, with some saying he did so solely under threat of an override veto. Still, Johnson pushed the federal act  through Congress, with help from Dr. King, and a host of others including Civil Rights advocates and protesters, who were routinely beaten by police and brutally murdered.

What will children in our schools be taught this month about Black history? Will it be that Michael Jackson was a great man? How do we define greatness? Do we forgive flaws? Yes we can. Pop singer Michael Jackson knew his craft, and was truly a great musician loved worldwide.

Legendary singer Nat King Cole, boxing legend Muhammad Ali, poet Maya Angelou, Malcolm X, pop icon Michael Jackson, and the Rev Dr Martin Luther King Jr. are also among Black notables, as are the following:

-Native Clevelander Garrett A. Morgan invented the traffic light and gas mask

-George Crum was the inventor of the potato chip

-Frederick McKinley Jones invented the refrigeration unit for trucks

-Dr. Patricia Bath invented laser eye surgery for cataract removal

-Thomas L. Jennings invented dry-cleaning products

-Hiram Revels (R-MS) was the first Black in Congress as a U.S. senator

By Kathy Wray Coleman, editor, associate publisher

CLEVELAND, Ohio-Cleveland City Council and Mayor Justin Bibb introduced a proposed ordinance at the council meeting on Monday that prohibits Cleveland businesses with 15 or more employees from inquiring, screening or relying on the salary history of an applicant in deciding on potential employment.

The legislation would also require that prospective employers provide the salary range of the position. Any person may file a complaint alleging that a violation has occurred with the Fair Employment Wage Board within 180 days of the alleged violation.

The proposed equal pay ordinance comes as newly elected President Donald Trump issues executive orders taking down DEI programs and tampering with the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which has angered progressive Democrats and prominent Civil Rights groups, including the National NAACP and its president and CEO Derrick Johnson. He has promised a vigorous response, according to a press release.

At least 22 states and dozens of other cities, including Cincinnati, Columbus, and Toledo in Ohio, have successfully implemented similar legislation, leading to more equitable compensation practices, proponents say.

Prohibiting employers from asking about a job applicant's salary history is designed to help ensure that worker compensation is based on the qualifications, experience, and responsibilities of the position rather than the applicant's identity or background. (Ord. No. 104-2025), Council President Blaine Griffin said in a press release on Monday.

Ward 7 Councilwoman Stephanie Howse Jones, who heads the city's Black Women's Commission, added that "pay equity is not just a woman's issue but a family issue."

Cleveland is a largely Black major American city with a population of roughly 372,000, according to the 2020 U.S. Census. It, no doubt, has historical significance, including the election in 1967 of the late Carl B. Stokes, the first Black mayor of Cleveland and of a major American city.

The equal pay legislation was officially introduced at Monday’s council meeting by Mayor Justin Bibb and council members Jasmin Santana of Ward 14; Charles Slife of Ward 17, and Howse-Jones, also a former state lawmaker.. They say the legislation will prohibit wage discrimination, increase transparency on pay rates, and establish a city-wide task force to strategize on closing a pay-wage gap that disproportionately impacts the city's Black and Hispanic communities, poor people, single women with children, and women in general.

According to the Center for American Progress, a nonpartisan research institute, women’s wages across broad racial and ethnic categories among full-time, year-round workers, Hispanic women experience the largest pay gap, having earned just 57 cents for every $1 earned by White, non-Hispanic men in 2020. Black women also experience wide pay gaps, with data on Black women alone revealing that—despite consistently having some of the highest labor force participation rates—they earned just 64 cents for every $1 earned by White, non-Hispanic men in 2020. This number dips slightly to 63 cents, reflecting a slightly larger wage gap when data on multiracial Black women—meaning Black women who also identify with another racial category—are included in the analysis.

clevelandurbannews.com and www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com the most-read Black digital newspaper and Black blog in Ohio and in the Midwest. Tel: (216) 659-0473. Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. We interviewed former president Barack Obama one-on-one when he was campaigning for president. As to the Obama interview, CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE AT CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM, OHIO'S LEADER IN BLACK DIGITAL