By Cleveland Urban News. Com and the Cleveland Urban News.Com Blog, Ohio's Most Read Online Black Newspaper and Newspaper Blog. Tel: 216-659-0473. Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. (www.clevelandurbannews.com) / (www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com).

WASHINGTON, DC – Congresswoman Marcia L. Fudge (OH-11) (pictured), a Warrensville Heights Democrat who leads Ohio's largely Black 11th congressional district, which includes the city of Cleveland and several of its eastern suburbs, will host a closed-door session on violence with some 300 high school students across her congressional district on Friday, October 16 from 10:30 am -noon at  the Cleveland Public Library Nottingham Branch Auditorium, 17109 Lakeshore Blvd, in Cleveland, according to a press statement issued yesterday.

Fudge will discuss pervasive violence in Northeast Ohio,  and will announce a new initiative aimed at providing area youth a voice in legislative activities, community programming, and other local prevention initiatives.

She will ultimately choose 12 students from her congressional district to serve on a youth council on violence.

The gathering is closed to the media, said  Fudge, an effort on her part to give young people an opportunity to express their views freely.

Fudge said that the prevalence of violent crime, including, gun violence, domestic violence,

and rape and sexual violence, has reached an all-time high in cities like Cleveland.

This violence, she said, is affecting every faction of our community, especially the youth,

The federal lawmaker said that conversations are needed to help develop effective solutions for those greatly affected by the prevailing issue.

Media , however, can interview Fudge on the issue prior to the meeting beginning at

9:30 am.

While violence against women and children is escalating in greater Cleveland, including drive-by shootings in Cleveland in recent months that have claimed the lives of three children under the age of six-year-old, and police murders in Cleveland of unarmed Blacks, including 12-year-old Tamir Rice, young people have not been called to the forum to give their viewpoints.

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

By Kathy Wray Coleman, editor-in-chief, Cleveland Urban News. Com and the Cleveland Urban News.Com Blog, Ohio's Most Read Online Black Newspaper and Newspaper Blog. Tel: 216-659-0473. Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. Coleman is a 22-year political, legal and investigative journalist who trained for 17 years, and under six different editors, at the Call and Post Newspaper in Cleveland, Ohio. (www.clevelandurbannews.com) / (www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com)

LAS VEGAS, NEVADA-Poised, confident, and on point, Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton (pictured) won the first Democratic presidential debate held Tuesday night in Las Vegas Nevada,  say political pundits, and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders (pictured) held his own.

Both were, by many accounts, a breath a fresh air from the Republicans, and they showed the depth of intellect and sensitivity to issues,  from poverty, to racism, to women's rights and voting rights, that have traditionally drawn Blacks to the Democratic party.

Clinton was the most aggressive against the Republicans and said that when Democrats stay home and do not vote, Republicans win the White House. And she said that the thought of a Republican succeeding Obama, a Democrat and America's first Black president,  is unnerving.

But she also said that while she supports the president, she will build upon his mistakes, and will embrace his efforts to bridge the partisan divide.

CNN analyst David Alelrod, the chief strategist for President Obama's successful run for president in 2008 and his reelection campaign in 2012,  told reporters that Clinton, who lost a bid for president in 2008, was at her best, and was "poised and in command."

Less known candidates of former Virginia senator Jim Webb, former Maryland governor Martin O’Malley,  and Lincoln Chafee, a  former U.S. and senator and former governor of Rhode Island, also shared the debate stage, one of substance,  and nothing that remotely resembled the bickering and name calling that have overshadowed the three Republican debates thus far.

O'Malley said that he was pleased that none of the candidates, unlike the Republican presidential candidates, denigrated women, and that they did not make what he referred to as racist comments against immigrants.

The former first lady and prior secretary of state under the Obama administration, Clinton was ready for the questions that came her way, a two and a half hour debate hosted by CNN and moderated by seasoned anchor Anderson Cooper.

Asked by the talented Cooper why voters would want a Washington insider like herself, Clinton said that she is an outsider by virtue of possibly becoming America's first woman president.

"I can't think of anything more outsider than being the first woman president," said Clinton.

She said that her record as first lady and  U.S. senator speaks for itself, and that she has backbone, experience, stamina, and patience.

"I know how to find common ground, and I know how to stand my ground," she said, also saying that the attack on Planned Parenthood is unwarranted.

On Benghazi, she said that as long as the United States sends diplomats abroad, there are risk that come with it, and that America's presence there was, to some extent, liberating for its people.

The congressional committee investigating the Benghazi incident, and for which she is prepared to testify before, is pushing an anti-Democratic political agenda, a self-serving strategy by congressional Republicans, she said, that is designed to reduce her poll ratings.

As to the email controversy that has dogged her campaign, Clinton made no excuses, though she did say that the Obama administration approved the private email server when she was secretary of state.

Sanders preached his massage  of equality and criminal justice reform that has made him popular on the campaign trail, and said that "today we have  people in jail than another county on earth."

He supported Clinton on the email fiasco, and called it a deterrent from the real issues that voters want to discuss.

"The American people are sick and tired of hearing about your emails," said Sanders.

A former lawyer turned politician, Clinton took on Sanders, saying he is soft on gun control, and Sanders said basically that Clinton needs to move more to the left, politically.

All five candidates courted the Black vote, each saying how much they love Black people, and that Black lives do, in fact  matter.

Former senator Webb explained how, as senator, he help to clear a Black man accused of murder that had since died.

"I have done the hard job, I have taken the risk," said Webb.

Clinton's answer on the heightened attention in the country relative to police killings of unarmed Black people, and the nation's broken legal system in general, had more substance, and she said that racial discrimination, poverty, and public policy measures that enhance the rich and subordinate America's poor, are at the heart of the problem

Sanders said on the subject that "we need to combat institutional racism from top to bottom."

On legalizing recreational marijuana, Clinton said that while she supports the use of medical marijuana she would leave it to the individual states to decide, while Sanders said that he supports it due to  disparities across racial lines that work for the- haves, and hinder the- have- nots.

Voters in Ohio will decide the issue at the ballot box in November.

Voters in Ohio will decide the issue at the ballot box on Nov. 3, and measure that will follow Colorado's legalization of weed for recreational use and sale if it passes .

"Too may lives are being destroyed for non-violent offenses," said Sanders, on the controversial issue. "We need to rethink our criminal justice system."

Russian President Vladimir Putin and the conflict in Syria were also hot topics of debate.

The candidates agreed on a a broad agenda common to the Democratic party and want to tax  the wealthy and protect the middle-class, expand social security, lower the cost of college education, reduce mass incarceration, tackle Wall-street greed and corruption, and reform the nation's legal system.

Paid family leave was also a consensus, as was health care, income equality, fighting climate change, and dealing with the threat of ISIS and middle eastern terrorists in general.

Former senator Chafee said that one of his  biggest assets is that he has high ethical standards, and that he has "had no scandals," a reference obviously to Clinton, the wife of former Democratic president Bill Clinton, a Rhode's Scholar whose personal life has often been one of political intrigue.

The candidates differed on what is the most severe security threat to the United States, Clinton saying that she supports the Iran Nuclear deal, and former senator Webb, a long-shot presidential candidate like Chafee and O'Malley, all three of whom helped to make Tuesday's debates more well-rounded, saying that "the greatest security threat is resolving our relationship with China."

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

By Field Reporter Johnette Jernigan and Kathy Wray Coleman, editor-in-chief, Cleveland Urban News. Com and the Cleveland Urban News.Com Blog, Ohio's Most Read Online Black Newspaper and Newspaper Blog. Tel: 216-659-0473. Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. Jernigan has been a staff and field reporter for Cleveland Urban News.Com since 2012. Coleman is a 22-year political, legal and investigative journalist who trained for 17 years, and under six different editors, at the Call and Post Newspaper in Cleveland, Ohio. (www.clevelandurbannews.com) / (www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com).

CLEVELAND, Ohio- The Cleveland-based Northeast Ohio Chapter of the Ohio Young Black Democrats (NEO-OYBD), Cuyahoga Democratic Women’s Caucus, Cleveland Stonewall Democrats, and the Lakewood Democratic Club will host a watch party on Oct. 13 in Cleveland, Ohio as to the first Democratic presidential debate, Democratic Party Chairman (ODP) David Pepper said yesterday. (Editor's note: The debate will be moderated by Anderson Cooper and airs live only on CNN (Cable News Network). It will officially begin at 8:30 pm ET).

The Cleveland watch party is at P.J. McIntre's Irish Pub at 17119 Lorain Avenue and begins at 7 pm. For more information contact NEO-OYBD President Billy Sharp by phone at (216) 673-4408 or by email at BillyL.Sharp2015@gmail.com .

The ODP is sponsoring watch parties across the swing state of Ohio, including in Columbus, Dayton, Toledo, Cincinnati, and the largely Black major American city of Cleveland, which is led by three term Democratic Black Mayor Frank Jackson.

To Jackson's credit, Cleveland will host host the 2016 Republican National Convention, and city officials, this summer, welcomed the first Republican presidential debate, which is also credited, primarily, to efforts by the mayor and former city council president. (See the list of other debate watch parties in major cities of Ohio other than Cleveland at the end of this article).

Former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, also a former first lady and U.S. senator representing New York, is the clear front-runner for the Democratic nomination for president, followed by longtime U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who has strong support from Democratic socialists, among others. They will share the debate stage with less known candidates of former Virginia senator Jim Webb, former Maryland governor Martin O’Malley,  and Lincoln Chafee, the former governor of Rhode Island.

Pepper said that regardless, he would not bet a dime on any of the Republican presidential candidates ultimately advancing to the White House next year, including front-runner Donald Trump.

"I would not bet money on any of them right now,'"Pepper said of the crowded GOP field of presidential hopefuls, 15 of them now, including Ohio Gov. John Kasich, a two term governor who, in 2010, ousted then Democratic governor Ted Strickland, now a candidate, among others, for a bid for the Democratic nomination for U.S senator in 2016.

Mayor Jackson has not said publicly whether he will join his fellow Democrats at the ODP sponsored watch party in Cleveland, an impoverished yet progressive city that struggles like other big cities with police killings of unarmed Black people, underfunded public schools, poverty, gun violence, and heightened violence against innocent women and children.

Key debate topics include the economy, gun control, Planned Parenthood, Immigration reform, Obamacare, education, foreign and domestic policy, and Vice President Joe Biden, a potential presidential candidate who is not among the five people debating, an indication, say political pundits, that he will likely not run president.

COLUMBUS -- Hosted by Clintonville for Change

Studio 35

3055 Indianola Ave.

Columbus

On-site contact: Russ Childers, clintonville4change@gmail.com

CINCINNATI -- Hosted by Hamilton County Democratic Party

Mr. Pitiful's

1323 Main St.

Cincinnati

On-site contact: Tim Burke, tburke@manleyburke.com

DAYTON -- Hosted by Wright State University College Democrats

Wright State University

Student Union, Room 103

Dayton

On-site contact: Baxter Foskuhl, foskuhl.14@outlook.com

TOLEDO -- Hosted by Lucas County Democratic Party

The Attic On Adams

1701 Adams St.

Toledo

On-site contact: Joshua Hughes, atty.jmartinhughes@gmail.com

Contact the Ohio Democratic Party for additional debate watch parties.

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

Pictured are the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, the national leader of the religious group the Nation of Islam, and 12-year-old Tamir Rice, who was killed last November by Cleveland police.

By Kathy Wray Coleman, editor-in-chief, Cleveland Urban News. Com and the Cleveland Urban News.Com Blog, Ohio's Most Read Online Black Newspaper and Newspaper Blog. Tel: 216-659-0473. Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. Coleman is a 22-year political, legal and investigative journalist who trained for 17 years, and under six different editors, at the Call and Post Newspaper in Cleveland, Ohio.

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

WASHINGTON, D.C.- Thousands gathered on Saturday on Mall A in Washington D.C. at the nation's capital to commemorate the 20th Anniversary of the Million Man March, an event centered around on  police killings and civil and human rights, and spearheaded by Nation of Islam leader Minister Louis Farrakhan (pictured), the architect of  the original march that reportedly drew some 800,000 people in 1995. (Editor's note; The original march occurred on October 16, 1995).

“We are fighting for Michael Brown, Jr. and demanding justice for all families who have lost loved ones to police killings," Farrakhan said earlier this week on Facebook as a prelude to today's historical meeting of Black and other activists, religious and Civil Rights leaders, attorneys and academicians from across the country.

The historical anniversary celebration comes on the heels of national unrest relative to arbitrary police killings nationwide of unarmed Black people, including 18-year-old Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, Eric Garner in New York City, Freddie Gray in Baltimore, Maryland, and Tanisha Anderson and 12-year-old Tamir Rice, both killed by anxious and poorly trained Cleveland police officers. (Editor's note: Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Tim McGinty, who is White, pro-cop,  and a former county judge,  is accused by community activists of racism and of allegedly manipulating expert witness reports designed to deter a county grand jury from indicting Cleveland police in the Rice shooting. A grand jury will determine if any felony charges come as a result of the tragic shooting per state law in Ohio).

In addition to Farrakhan, who gave the keynote address at today's 'Justice or Else' rally, other high profile speakers include Akousa Ali, president of the Washington D.C.  branch NAACP,  Chicago State University President Dr. Wayne D. Watson, National Newspaper Publishers Association President and CEO the Rev. Dr. Ben Chavis, the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright, who is senior pastor at Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, and Florida Civil Rights attorney Benjamin Crump, the newly elected president of the National Bar Association. (Editor's note: Crump represents the family of slain Ferguson, Missouri teen Michael Brown and did represent the family of 12-year-old Tamir Rice (pictured), until he was fired this summer by Samaria Rice, the younger Rice's mother).

Farrakhan, 82, told the tentative crowd that without equality, freedom and justice are inevitable. And he said that Blacks lives do, in fact, matter.

The Nation of Islam leader called the Black Lives Matter activists the Civil Rights leaders of the future, and said that the old guard must make way for the new guard of leaders.

"What good are we if we do not prepare young people to carry the torch of liberation to the next step," said Farrakhan, who also touched on his opposition to abortion, and said that he urges every pregnant woman to "bring her child to a full term."

But the religious leader, who practices the Muslim faith, also took on rape and human trafficking,  and said that people that "traffic in girls are worthy of death itself."

He said that Civil Rights icon the Rev Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was, in his view, not a dreamer.

"He [Dr. King] was not a dreamer, he was a revolutionary thinker," said Farrakhan.