(Editor's Note: The press conference and rally have been changed to Thursday, May 9 at 5 pm at The Chateau Mansion in East Cleveland, 13124 Euclid Ave, Contact 216-659-0473 for more information. Women are asked to wear Black to the rally. The rally begins at 5 pm with a 5:30 pm press conference)

By Kathy Wray Coleman, editor-in-chief,  Cleveland Urban News.Com and The Kathy Wray Coleman Online News Blog.Com, Ohio's No 1 and No 2 online Black news venue

Reach Cleveland Urban News.Com by email at editor@clevelandurbannews.com and by phone at 216-659-0473

CLEVELAND, Ohio- In the wake of the release from captivity of Amanda Berry, 27, Gina DeJesus, 23, and Michelle Knight 32, alive and safe, from a residential home on Cleveland's west side on Monday after more that nine years missing, and the rape and murders earlier this year of Jazmine Trotter, 20, and Christine Malone, 43, on the city's east side , to the 11 Black women whose remains were uncovered in late 2009 at the Imperial Ave home of since convicted serial killer Anthony Sowell, community activists are speaking out. The Imperial Women, The Federation of Women, The Carl Stokes Brigade, Black on Black Crime Inc., The Greater Cleveland Immigrant Support Network, Ohio Family Rights, Stop Targeting Ohio's Poor, The Oppressed People's Nation and other community activists groups will hold a press conference and support rally for women. The event is open to the public and will be held Thursday, May 9 at 5:00 pm at the Chateau Mansion in East Cleveland, 13124  Euclid Ave. Police are not invited, organizers said. For more information contact The Imperial Women at 216-659-0473.

The purpose of the gathering, organizers said, is to bring awareness to the abduction, rape and murders of women and children in Cleveland from the abductions of DeJesus, Berry and Knight, to the 11 Black women strangled and murdered by Sowell, who is now on death row, to the recent unsolved rape and murders of Trotter and Malone. Activists will also assess whether Cleveland police and other authorities have done as much as possible to protect women and children from abduction, rape and murder, and have complied with new city and police policies adopted in 2009 in conjunction with The Imperial Avenue Murders relative to missing persons reports and a host of other requirements. Those requirements are  set forth in 27 recommendations issued by a 3-member commission appointed by Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackso

Speakers or attendees for the May 8 meeting include family members of Christine Malone, who was found rapped and murdered in Cleveland earlier this year,  Cleveland Attorney Edele Passalacquala, Cleveland Ward 6 Councilwoman Mamie Mitchell,  Chateau Mansion Owner Betty Mahone of the Federation of Women, East Cleveland Senior Spokesman Charles E. Bibb Sr., Art McKoy of Black on Black Crime Inc., Denise Taylor of Black on Black Crime Inc.  and The Cleveland Chapter of The New Black Panther Party, Kathy Wray Coleman of The Imperial Women, Don Bryant of The Greater Ceveland Immigrant Support Network,  Frances Caldwell of The Cleveland African-American Museum and The Imperial Women,  Al Porter of Black on Black Crime Inc.,  Mary Keith of Ohio Communities United, Amy Hurd, Dionne Thomas Carmichael, Donnie Pastard, Ada Averyhart (all four of the Carl Stokes Brigade), A Representative of The Cleveland Black Contractor's Group, Roz McAllister of Ohio Family Rights, The Imperial Women, and The National Organization for Parental Equality, Betty Simpson of The Imperial Women, Mary Seawright of the Imperial Women, Willie Stokes of The Imperial Women,  Valerie Robinson of Stop Targeting Ohio's Poor and The Imperial Women, Dr. Stewart Robinson of Stop Targeting Ohio's Poor and The Imperial Women, Ernest Smith of The Oppressed People's Nation, and Community Activist Donna Walker Brown, who is also a candidate this year for Cleveland City Council in Ward 10.

By Kathy Wray Coleman, editor-in-chief,  Cleveland Urban News.Com and The Kathy Wray Coleman Online News Blog.Com, Ohio's No 1 and No 2 online Black news venues

Pictured above are Amanda Berry (left) and Gina DeJesus

Reach Cleveland Urban News.Com by email at editor@clevelandurbannews.com and by phone at 216-659-0473

CLEVELAND,Ohio-After being reported missing from the largely White west side of the majority Black city of Cleveland for more that nine years, Amanda Berry and Gina DeJesus, teens at the time they were last seen by family members who are both now adults, were found alive Monday afternoon in a residential home on Seymore Ave, two miles from were they were last seen. A third woman, Michelle Knight, went missing in 2002, was also found with them, and is alive as well. (Editor's Note: Cleveland Urban News.Com was unable to secure a picture of Knight)

Community activists and women's advocacy groups are saying that more should have been done by Cleveland police to find them and other women.

"Police everywhere and especially in Cleveland do not do enough to find missing children and women," said Roz McAllister of the grassroots group Imperial Women, a group founded in 2009 after the remains of 11 Black women were uncovered on Imperial Ave. on Cleveland's majority Black east side at the home of since convicted serial killer Anthony Sowell. "I can't wait to find out how bad they screwed up on Amanda, Gina and Michelle."

The murdered women on Imperial Ave were also strangled and allegedly raped by Sowell, 52, who sits on death rowl while his murder, rape, and other convictions are on appeal before the Ohio Eighth District Court of Appeals.

McAllister, a community activist who is Native- American and lives on the east side of Cleveland, added that Knight was completely ignored by police.

"Cleveland police admit that they did not even look for Michelle Knight, " said McAllister. "This shows at least an 11- year pattern that goes both east and west of Cleveland from Michelle Knight, to Amanda and Gina, and to the 11 women found murdered on Imperial Avenue"

Berry went missing in 2003 at age 16 after leaving her job at Burger King at West 110th St and Loraine Ave. and DeJesus disappeared five blocks away a year later on her way home from school. She was 14 at the time.

Their families kept the teens disappearance before the public and never stop looking for them. They would rally all across Cleveland and stood with community activists fighting for justice for slain Florida teen Trayvon Martin. They had protests and annual vigils with community activist groups including Survivors/Victims of Tragedy, which is led by Community Activist Judy Martin, Black on Black Crime, Peace in the Hood and Imperial Women.

Just last year Community Activist Art McKoy, who founded Black on Black Crime, led a rally for Berry at the Burger King where she was last seen, a gathering that drew Imperial Women members, other activists groups and family members of both Berry and and DeJesus.

By Kathy Wray Coleman, editor-in-chief,  Cleveland Urban News.Com and The Kathy Wray Coleman Online News Blog.Com, Ohio's No 1 and No 2 online Black news venues

Reach Cleveland Urban News.Com by email at editor@clevelandurbannews.com and by phone at 216-659-0473

CLEVELAND, Ohio- Ohio state Sen. Shirley Smith (D-21) is the first Black to announce that she might run for Cuyahoga County executive next year in the wake of a formal announcement late last month by County Executive Ed FitzGerald, a Democrat like Smith and former FBI agent and Lakewood mayor, that he will not seek reelection and will instead run as the likely Democratic nominee against Republican John Kasich in the 2014 gubernatorial election.

A prior state representative and state senator since 2007, Smith would not go into detail with Cleveland Urban News.Com on her proposed run for one of the most powerful offices in the county, a job that pays more than $200, 000 annually and oversees hundreds of employees and county contracts.

She said that she is establishing an exploratory committee.

"I am announcing that I am establishing an exploratory committee for a possible run for county executive" said Smith to Cleveland Urban News.Com, Ohio's most read online Black newspaper. "Part of that process is speaking with people."

The lawmaker's 21st state legislative district includes most of the majority Black east side wards of Cleveland, some on the west side, and a more than 300,000 constituents' voting base.

The term limited Smith has sponsored legislation beneficial to women, like cancer awareness bills, and to poor people, Blacks and others like a new state law (Senate Bill 337) supported by Kasich that took effect this year that permits the expunging of Ohio criminal records of either a felony and a misdemeanor together, two misdemeanors, or either a single felony or single misdemeanor. Not all criminal records, whether a felony or misdemeanor, can be expunged under the law.

Smith will hold an information forum and free expungement clinic open to the public on Thursday, May 23 at the Wolstein Center at Cleveland State University, 4th Floor, 2000 Prospect Ave in Cleveland, beginning at 4 pm. Law enforcement officials and affiliates of the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation and Identification will be on hand to assist. For more information contact Smith's Columbus office at 614-466-4857 People with criminal warrants should consult an attorney first, community activists said.

A Cleveland NAACP study reveals that Black defendants in the general division of the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas, which is led by Democratic Chief Judge Nancy Fuerst, are disproportionately prosecuted and receive harsher sentences than their White counterparts, and nothing is being done about it, data show.

Cuyahoga County is the largest of 88 counties statewide and has a Black population that harbors at 29 percent. It is a Democratic stronghold and includes the majority Black major metropolitan city  of Cleveland and its eastern suburbs, among other cities of Northeast Ohio.

Other  perspective candidates for next year's Democratic primary for county executive include state Rep. Armond Budish (D-8) of Beachwood, also minority caucus leader in the Ohio House of Representatives, and county council president C. Ellen Connally, who is Black and a retired Cleveland Municipal Court judge.

From the Metro Desk of Cleveland Urban News.Com and The Kathy Wray Coleman Online News Blog.Com, Ohio's No 1 and No 2 online Black news venues

Reach Cleveland Urban News.Com by email at editor@clevelandurbannews.com and by phone at 216-659-0473

WASHINGTON, D.C.-President Obama on Thursday announced his nomination of philanthropist Penny Pritzker for U.S. commerce secretary, and it just happen to be Pritzker's birthday on that day of May 2. The president also announced that he will perform the keynote address for commencement ceremonies at The Ohio University in Columbus on May 5.

Both announcements make it clear that Obama knows that women, through his nomination of Pritzker, and Ohio, a pivotal state, matter in presidential elections.

A fundraising strategist and heir to the Hyatt Hotel fortune Pritzker, 54, has 25 years of managerial experience in industry, and is a real estate and financial expert. She is rich, smart, and a woman.

"Penny understands that just as great companies strengthen the community around them, strong communities and skilled workers also help communities strive," said Obama in a press release to Cleveland Urban News.Com. "Penny is one of our country's most distinguished business leaders."

The president called Pritzker a skilled and respected entrepreneur that he takes pride in nominating as a member of his cabinet.

Pritzker is a member of the prestigious Pritzker family and co-founder and chairman of Artemis Real Estates Partners and PSP Capital Partners. She made the 2011 list of Forbes 400 wealthiest Americans as the 26th richest person in the nation, with an estimated U.S. worth of 1.7 billion.

From the Metro Desk of Cleveland Urban News.Com and The Kathy Wray Coleman Online News Blog.Com, Ohio's No 1 and No 2 online Black news venues) Reach Cleveland Urban News.Com by email at editor@clevelandurbannews.com and by phone at 216-659-0473

CLEVELAND,Ohio- In the midst of community fallout about his slowness in disciplining police responsible for gunning down unarmed Blacks Malissa Williams and Timothy Russell with 137 bullets following a high speed car chase from downtown Cleveland on Nov. 29 that ended in neighboring East Cleveland, Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson (pictured) has drawn a formidable challenger for this year's mayoral race in Democratic millionaire businessman Ken Lanci (pictured). And race is inevitably at play too where the two term biracial Jackson, also a Democrat and former Cleveland City Council president who grew up with his two siblings in the poverty stricken Ward 5 where he still lives and still enjoys staunch support from The Old Black Political Guard, is technically Black, and Lanci is White.

The 63-year-old Lanci, who owns and runs Consolidated Graphics Group Inc., will announce at a press conference on Monday that he will take on Jackson, first for a non-partisan primary election on September 10, and thereafter in the general election if voters select him among the top two candidates. He lost a partisan primary race for Cuyahoga County executive in 2010, then as a Independent, a race that Democrat Ed FitzGerald went on to win after beating Terri Hamilton Brown in the Democratic primary.

A candidate for The Old Black Political Guard supported also by Jackson, Hamilton Brown got a late start in the county executive race and, like Lanci, she has never held public office.

But Lanci has his own money to wage a mayoral election fight against the still popular Jackson, 67, whose political war chest is no joke either.

The largely Black City of Cleveland, which has some 400,000 people and is roughly 58 percent Black, is divided along racial lines by the Cuyahoga River with Whites primarily residing on the west side of it, and Blacks dominating the east side. It is the second most segregated major American city in the nation next to Boston and was ripe for a now defunct desegregation court order in the late 1970s after the late Federal District Court Judge Frank Battisti found the Cleveland School District and the state guilty of running a dual school system in violation of the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment, and to the unconstitutional detriment of Black children and their families. That court order, called the remedial orders,  and which included crosstown busing, was completely lifted by the federal court's granting of unitary status in 1998 and a state law that gives the city mayor control of Cleveland schools simultaneously took effect.

The 18- member Cleveland City council, which had 19 members until west side councilman Jay Westbrook retired in March, is now half and half by race and has no Hispanic council person as it once had, though the west side council persons are all White and a majority of the councilpersons on the east side are Black.

How racial demographics will impact the election, if at all, remains to be seen.

Jackson is also supported by Black clergy and the business and educational communities, and even some community activists. And he is a  brilliant political strategist, and is good at getting city council to vote his way on public policy matters. He is also an ally of Council President Martin Sweeney.

But some west side councilmen say he is aloof and a redistricting map voted in by city council late last month that drops council seats from 19  to 17 next year and after this year's city council elections has some Black council members who believe Jackson influenced it upset.

Ward 8 Councilman Jeff Johnson and Ward 9 Councilman Kevin Conwell were among the four council members that voted against the redistricting map. Johnson will take on Ward 10 Councilman Eugene Miller this year after the new map saw his and Conwell's wards merged into a new Ward 9 to get rid of one a council seat  relative to the two seat city council reduction for next year, a population reduction mandate required by a city charter amendment previously adopted by voters. The other ousted  seat went with Westbrook's March retirement that got rid of his Ward 16.

Others that have taken out petitions to run in Ward 10 are Community Activist Donna Walker Brown and Ward 10 Democratic Ward Leader Anthony Hairston.

The last time a White led Cleveland was former Mayor Jane Campbell. She lost a heated reelection bid in 2005 to Jackson, after falling out with The Old Black Political Guard and the powerful Cleveland Police Patrolmen's Association, the rank and file of Cleveland police.