CLEVELAND, Ohio- Merry Christmas to all and warmest thoughts and best wishes for a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year. May peace, love and prosperity follow you always. The true heart of Christmas is one of wonder and warmth.

Thanks to all who have been in the struggle for human and Civil rights, and women's rights. We continue to advocate for free speech and free expression on issues of public concern.

Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, the most read Black digital newspaper in Ohio and in the www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com

By Kathy Wray Coleman, editor

COLUMBUS – Ohio- Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose announced Thursday in a news release that 21 prospective candidates have met Thursday's deadline in filing petitions to appear on Ohio’s March 19, 2024 statewide primary election ballot, including former President Donald Trump, President Joe Biden, and Ohio Supreme Court Justice Melody Stewart, the first Black and first Black woman elected to the seven-member, largely White, majority Republican court.(See the full list towards the end of this article).

Republicans Chris Christy, Nikki Haley, Gov. Ron DeSantis and Vivek Wamaswamy, Trump's primary election key challengers, also filed petitions by Ohio's deadline, among others. Trump remains the front-runner for the Republican nomination as the Iowa Caucuses.

According to LaRose's news release, nine candidates filed paperwork to seek partisan nominations for president of the United States; five candidates filed to seek partisan nominations for the office of U.S. senator; and, seven candidates filed petitions to run for justice of the Ohio Supreme Court. (Four Democrats and three Republicans).

Republicans have a four-three majority on the Ohio Supreme Court, which is expected to hear hot topics in coming terms such as abortion parameters, redistricting, and gun and property rights.

LaRose's office has until Jan. 9 to certify petitions for the statewide ballot in Ohio, which pundits say is is sure to draw enthusiastic voters to the polls, both Democrats and Republicans alike, particularly because it is a presidential election year.

Trump's prospective candidacy comes as the Colorado Supreme Court earlier this week ruled him off the statewide primary ballot saying he engaged in the Jan 6 insurrection, a closely-watch case now headed to the U.S.  Supreme Court. LaRose joined the secretaries of state from Wyoming and Missouri as the trio filed an amicus brief (friend-of-the-court brief) in the case in support of Trump at the state Supreme Court level.

LaRose himself is on the statewide ballot in Ohio and is seeking the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate with seasoned Sen Sherrod Brown, a popular Cleveland Democrat, seeking reelection as the only Dem to file petitions in that race.

This week Trump endorsed Bernie Moreno for the U.S. Senate seat open in Ohio over LaRose, who had courted his support.Trump won Ohio in 2016 over Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, and again in 2020 when he lost reelection to President Biden.

As of Thursday's deadline, here are the candidates that have submitted paperwork with the office of Ohio's secretary of state for review:

Presidential

• Chris Christie (R)
• Ron DeSantis (R)
• Nikki Haley (R)
• Vivek Ramaswamy (R)
• Donald Trump (R)
• Ryan Binkley (R)
• Joe Biden (D)
• Dean Phillips (D)
• Marianne Williamson (D)

US Senate

• Matt Dolan (R)
• Frank LaRose (R)
• Bernie Moreno (R)
• Doug Stuart (R)
• Sherrod Brown (D)

Supreme Court

• Joseph Deters (R)
• Dan Hawkins (R)
• Megan Shanahan (R)
• Michael Donnelly (D)
• Lisa Forbes (D)
• Terri Jamison (D)
• Melody Stewart (D)

Upon review, the petitions will then be sent to the relevant county boards of elections to verify the accuracy of the signatures. The boards will then return those results to the secretary of state’s office by Jan 2. That office then has until Jan. 9 to certify the official ballots for the March 19 primary election.

Absentee voting for military and overseas citizens casting a ballot in Ohio’s presidential primary election will begin in a little over six weeks on Feb. 2.

Clevelandurbannews.com and 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.

Former President Donald Trump

By Kathy Wray Coleman, editor

DENVER, Colorado-Colorado's Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled that former President Donald Trump's candidacy in the state's primary next year is prohibited on constitutional grounds, a blow to the former president's campaign as he seeks another term in the White House in 2024.

The court then ordered the state's secretary of state to act accordingly and to keep his name off of the Republican primary ballot.

The unprecedented  ruling is in conjunction with a lawsuit that raised an ambiguous provision in the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.  Challenges in other states have proven unsuccessful. A lower court ruled that while Trump participated in insurrection it did not disqualify him from the state ballot but the state's highest court sees otherwise.

"A majority of the court holds that President Trump is disqualified from holding the office of President under Section Three of the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution," the ruling said. "Because he is disqualified, it would be a wrongful act under the Election Code for the Colorado Secretary of State to list him as a candidate on the presidential primary ballot.”

The court's  decision, however, is stayed until Jan. 4 to allow for further appeals.

Steven Cheung, a spokesperson for Trump's campaign, blasted the ruling and suggested that an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court is forthcoming. Trump has never been charged with insurrection relative to the Jan 6 Capitol riot, much less convicted, his supporters say.

“Unsurprisingly, the all-Democrat appointed Colorado Supreme Court has ruled against President Trump, supporting a Soros-funded, left-wing group’s scheme to interfere in an election on behalf of crooked Joe Biden by removing President Trump’s name from the ballot and eliminating the rights of Colorado voters to vote for the candidate of their choice," Cheung said in a statement.

He added that "we have full confidence that the U.S. Supreme Court will quickly rule in our favor and finally put an end to these un-American lawsuits."

How the conservative-leaning U.S. Supreme Court will rule if the case makes it there remains to be seen.

Clevelandurbannews.com and 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.

CLEVELAND, Ohio-Longtime WEWS Cleveland Channel 5 News  anchor Danita Harris, who's latest job was anchoring the morning news and who is also a spiritual leader in Northeast Ohio, is exiting the news station, effective Dec 21, leaving the station with no Black female anchors and raising diversity concerns among area women's rights groups.

Harris began her career at the station in 1998 and leaves News 5 after 24 years on the job. She grew to become a beloved and respected media figure in the Black community especially, and a voice for the Black community in delivering news. And the question remains as to what she will do next.

News five trails behind WJW Fox 8 News in popularity relative to Cleveland mainstream television news.

According to a 2019 Cleveland Scene Magazine story, a Pew Research Center survey of news dynamics in the Cleveland-Elyria Metropolitan Statistical Area  found that Northeast Ohioans get their news, overwhelmingly, from Fox 8 and News 5, WOIO 19 News and WKYC Chanel 3 are not far behind.

Harris and station executives said publicly that  her leaving was her decision alone, though the station is reportedly going through a multi-million dollar restructuring process that saw evening anchor Courtney Gousman, who is Black like Harris, suddenly leave the station this past summer after purportedly getting laid-off, she said on Facebook. And Black anchor Dalaun Dillard, a man, announced late last month that he is leaving too.  Gousman replaced Harris as the evening news anchor in the summer of 2020  and Harris moved to a morning anchor slot. Now they are both gone as anchors, leaving only one Black anchor, Damon Maloney, who joined the news station in late 2019.

Station officials gave no explanation for Gousman's sudden departure.

" We wish Danita and Courtney the best of luck and want to know how News 5 Cleveland expects to remain viable in serving the majority Black city of Cleveland with no Black women anchors," said Women's March Cleveland head organizer Kathy Wray Coleman, a longtime Cleveland activist, organizer and independent digital journalist who is Black.

Coleman said that community activists are  monitoring the local mainstream television media of Cleveland relative to their diversity practices, or the lack thereof, particularly regarding Black women anchors and reporters.

"We fill more comfortable when Blacks who support the Black community are upfront and behind the scenes and demand that all of our local mainstream media news stations also employ Black women as anchors, and we do not want Black women or Blacks in general to always be the first to leave as to any so-called restructuring process," the activist said.

"Too often Blacks are  the first to go from companies and entities when they restructure, particularly when there are no union protections" Coleman said.

About 1 in 6 U.S. journalists at news outlets are in a union, a 2022 Pew Research Center study found, and some 40 percent said they would join a union if given the opportunity.

Coleman added that "Black people want to see people who look like we do and who identify with the Black community when we watch Cleveland's news, and the absence of diversity, including Black women anchors, is nothing to take lightly."

Clevelandurbannews.com and 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.

SS4A program grants go directly to regional, local, and Tribal communities for implementation, planning, and demonstration projects driven at the local level to improve safety and help prevent deaths and serious injuries on the nation’s roadways.

This first-of-its-kind program was created by President Joe Biden's Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and is a part of the more than $14 billion in the law dedicated to roadway safety across the country.

In Cleveland, a majority Black major American city, the grant will fund safety improvements on St. Clair Avenue on the city's east side, as well as an extensive analysis of crash patterns in eight critical one-mile high-crash areas in Cleveland identified through the city's Vision Zero Action Plan and ongoing work.The immediate work in the St. Clair demonstration area will also be evaluated as a model for the other identified high-crash areas.

“We are grateful to our federal partners for this strategic investment in our Vision Zero goal to eliminate traffic crash deaths in Cleveland by 2032,” said Cleveland Mayor Justin M. Bibb in a news release “This grant directly supports our work on clear, measurable strategies that provide safe, healthy, and equitable mobility for our residents.”

The SS4A grant is the latest in a series of investments in safer streets that include ARPA investments in the city’s successful speed table pilot program, a partnership with the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) to improve pedestrian safety through the Pedestrian Safety Improvement Program, and a $1.8 million Federal SMART grant award.

“There are many layers to our efforts around safer streets and safer transportation--and that’s by design,” said Calley Mersmann, the city’s transit and mobility strategist. “Vision Zero re-frames safety in a way that focuses on the system through things like safer street design and speed management to prevent serious crashes. Human error is inevitable, but [some] traffic fatalities can be prevented.”

Mayor Bibb said that the city is also in the process of finalizing a contract with Toole Design Group to develop a citywide mobility plan that makes it easier, safer, more convenient, and more enjoyable to move around the city outside of a car.

Per the 2022 Complete and Green Streets ordinance, Cleveland is required to adopt such a plan at least every five years. city officials say the process is designed to meaningfully engage residents to build on recommendations from past comprehensive planning efforts, including the 2007 Bikeway Master Plan. It is also structured to guide bicycle infrastructure build-out, to identify needed improvements to pedestrian safety and accessibility, and to propose program and policy improvements for people walking and biking.

The citywide mobility plan process complements last year’s $50,000 technical assistance award to the city from City Thread, a national nonprofit mobility consultancy.

Clevelandurbannews.com and 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.