CLEVELAND, Ohio- Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas Judge Michael Russo sentenced Ariel Castro to life in prison without the possibility of parole on August 1 for kidnapping and raping Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight and holding the three women captive for 10 years at his west side home on Seymour Ave in Cleveland, Oh., a celebrated case that has captured the nation's attention.

"Nobody should have to go through what I went through," said Knight in a prepared statement.

Knight said that her bond with DeJesus helped her make it through the unprecedented ordeal that she dubbed "11 years in hell."

Addressing Castro in the packed courtroom, Knight said that "I will live on, you will die a little every day."

From the Metro Desk of Cleveland Urban News.Com, Ohio's most read online Black newspaper. (www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com) and (www.clevelandurbannews.com). Reach Cleveland Urban News.Com by phone at 216-659-0473 and by email at editor@clevelandurbannews.com

CLEVELAND, Ohio- The United Pastors in Mission, East Cleveland Concerned Pastors for Progress, and the Baptist Ministers Conference will hold a press conference, balloon launch and rally with Cleveland NAACP officials, community activists and Black elected officials on Friday August 2, 2013 at the southwest corner of the intersection of Shaw and Hayden Avenues in East Cleveland near where the bodies of 3 Black women were found two weeks ago by police in a fetal position and in plastic bags.

Greater Cleveland's Black clergy, led by Bishop Tony Minor of Lutheran Metropolitan Ministry in Cleveland, Pastor David Hunter of Bright Star Missionary Baptist Church in East Cleveland,  Pastor Shawn Braxton of New Life Cathedral Church in East Cleveland and Bishop Eugene Ward of Greater Love Missionary Baptist Church in Cleveland will join Imperial Women, Black on Black Crime Inc., the Oppressed People's Nation, Peace in the Hood,  the Carl Stokes Brigade, the Task Force for Community Mobilization, the Women's Federation  the Greater Cleveland Immigrant Support Network, Revolution Books, Survivors/Victims of Tragedy, the Audacity of Hope Foundation, Stop Targeting Ohio's Poor, other activists groups, Black women and victims family members to call  on President Obama and Ohio Gov. John Kasich to declare a state of emergency on missing women and violence against women in the majority Black cities of Cleveland and East Cleveland

They also want the president and governor to to send in resources, including the national guard to find missing women in vacant and abandoned  buildings in those cities. But they caution that it should be done legally and without violating privacy rights or the rights of law abiding landlords.

The groups also want a countywide missing persons database and a missing persons center.

The community groups are upset about the epidemic of violence against women in greater Cleveland and said that they will rally also to support either victims or victims families as to the aforementioned East Cleveland killings of Angela Deskins, Shirellda Terry and Shetisha Sheeley by accused serial killer Michael Madsion, and Cleveland west side rape victims Gina DeJesus, Amanda Berry and Michelle Knight. Other women for whom the groups are rallying for include Cleveland ease side rape and murder victims Jazmine Trotter, Christine Malone and Ashley Leszyeski, whose bodies were found earlier this year, and the 11 Black women strangled and murdered on Imperial Ave., also in Cleveland, between 2008 and 2009 and by convicted serial killer Anthony Sowell.

East Cleveland is an impoverished suburb of Cleveland, a major American city.

For contacts for the rally, vigil, and march call United Pastor's in Mission Executive DirectorRev. Tony Minor at 216-696-2715, Baptist Ministers Conference President The Rev David Hunter. East Cleveland Concerned Pastors for Progress President Shawn Braxton at 216-851-2777, the Cleveland NAACP at 216-231-6260, Imperial Women Leader Kathy Wray Coleman at 216-659-0473, Oppressed People's Nation Chairman Ernest Smith at 216-682-5268, Black on Black Crime Founder Art McKoy at 216-253-4070, Peace in the Hood President Khalid Samad 216-538-4043.

By Kathy Wray Coleman, Editor-n-Chief, Cleveland Urban News. Com and The Cleveland Urban News.Com Blog, Ohio's Most Read Online Black Newspaper(www.clevelandurbannews.com)

CLEVELAND, Ohio- Shidea N. Lane (pictured), 29, the young Black woman who made national news last year for getting uppercut, choked, and thrown from a Regional Transit Authority (RTA) bus by since fired bus driver Artis Hughes who pleaded no contest on to misdemeanor disorderly conduct before Shaker Hts Municipal Court Judge K. J Montgomery and was found guilty was sentenced on July 30 to three days in jail.  And Hughes, who pleaded no contest to misdemeanor assault relative to the ordeal, got the same sentence from the judge.

Hughes (pictured) , 59, attacked Lane following a bus altercation on Sept. 18 .

The incident at issue, a divisive one to say the least, occurred on the border of Cleveland and Beachwood, Oh. and  went viral because of a cell phone video that hit Youtube.com

Attorney Dale Friedland, Lane's attorney, said that Hughes repeatedly called Lane a bitch during  the argument that led to Hughes ultimately punching Lane in the face before he literally tossed her off the bus on to the curb.

CLEVELAND, Ohio- Serial rapist and kidnapper Ariel Castro, 52, who held Gina DeJesus, Amanda Berry and Michelle Knight captive at his west side home on Seymour Avenue in Cleveland, Oh. for more than nine years. will be sentenced to life in prison plus one thousand years without the possibility of parole on August 1. He is expected to speak as is one of his victims, all three of whom were fed only one meal a day and allowed two to three showers a week, court documents reveal.

DeJesus was 14 when Castro kidnapped her, Berry's was nearly 17 and Knight, who is disabled, was 21. All three were lured into his van and DeJesus was a friend of Castro's daughter, who has disowned him. Her mother died during the captivity period and was allegedly a victim of his domestic violence.

Berry has a daughter by Castro, who has asked to see her as part of his life-in-prison plea deal.

DeJesus was held captive for nine years, Berry 10 and Knight 11 years.

A next door neighbor, Charles Ramsey, who is Black and now dubbed a hero,  said he heard women screaming at the home. He then broke in the house with another man and freed at least Berry who went with him to his home and called 911.

"'I heard this girl screaming and she's going nuts," Ramsey told reporters." I came to the front door and looked at her and she said my name is Amanda Berry, please get me out of the house. And she said that there were two more."