By Kathy Wray Coleman, editor-in-chief

WASHINGTON, D.C.-Protesters angry over a breakdown in discussions between President Obama and Democratic and Republican Congressional Leaders that resulted in a presidential sequester order on Friday for massive across-the-board- spending cuts picketed the Capital Hill office of Republican House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio (pictured in red tie) three days before the debacle and allegedly attacked a staffer, a Capital Hill source told Cleveland Urban News.Com Friday evening.

“On Tuesday morning 50 protesters were banging on the Capital Hill office door of Rep. Boehner demanding the he stop what was about to become a sequester, and when one of his female staffers stepped in the hallway to try to calm the crowd she was pushed and shoved and another staffer had to rescue her,” the source said. “At mid morning 25 more protesters appeared and by 1:30 pm protesters were banging on the door demanding to see the House Speaker.”

The source said that the issue became so heated that a group that was meeting with staff members for support from Boehner on a community project issue had to be ushered out of his office.

Boehner was not in his office at the time and held a press conference the day before and accused the president and Congressional Democrats of demanding higher taxes and thus causing the sequester, another name for massive across-the-board spending cuts

"You know the president proposed the sequester, yet he's far more interested in holding campaign rallies than he is in urging his Senate Democrats to actually pass a plan," said Boehner.

Obama and Congressional Democrats argue that the spending  cuts to programs to education, unemployment benefits, and other federal programs with no increase in revenue are ludicrous and will hurt vulnerable Americans and the middle class.

On Thursday, a day before the president was forced to sign the sequester order after negotiations fell through and the March 1 sequester deadline came to fruition, Ohio Democratic  congresspersons Rep. Joyce Beatty (pictured in White attire), Tim Ryan (pictured in light blue tie), and Marcia L. Fudge (pictured in dark blue attire), who is also chairperson of the Congressional Black Caucus, sent a letter to Republican Governor John Kasich (pictured in dark blue tie)demanding that he urge Congressional Republicans to come back to the sequester bargaining table.

"As governor of Ohio, we trust you understand the significance the sequester will have on our economy, and how we must all join together to work in a bi-partisan fashion to do everything we can to avoid the  self-inflicted wound from partisan bickering," the letter reads in part.

By Kathy Wray Coleman, publisher, editor-n-chief, Cleveland Urban News. Com and The Cleveland Urban News.Com Blog, Ohio's Most Read Online Black Newspaper

WASHINGTON, D.C.-President Barack Obama on Friday called Republican congressional leaders "dumb, arbitrary" Republicans after negotiations to stop automatic spending cuts, also dubbed a sequester, fail through. And America's first Black president also signed the sequester order later that day that calls for massive spending cuts and could result in a government shut down, according to a White House press release to Cleveland Urban News.Com.

"It dumb and it's gonna hurt," said Obama.

Republicans shot back saying the responsibility lies on the heels of Congressional Democrats and the Obama administration and that President Obama caused the dilemma by demanding increased taxes as part of the negotiation equation.

Obama, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid met Friday morning with House Speaker John Boehner for Ohio and Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell for Kentucky in hopes of ironing out a deal, but the two sides remain at an impasse.

Republican lawmakers claim that they want any agreed upon bill to operate to close tax loop holes without raising taxes while Obama and his fellow Democrats say they want an agreement that includes more federal funding to help tackle a troubling economy, to continue necessary programs and benefits to qualifying Americans, and to get more Americans back to work.

The 2013 sequester, which will not be felt immediately and will be funneled in over a period of months, includes spending cuts including reduced unemployment benefits, and cuts to education, and programs to help struggling urban cities across America.

U.S. Rep. Marcia L. Fudge for Ohio, who is also chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, said in a press statement that the caucus supports Obama on the sequester issue.

"We already made deep cuts to programs that build and sustain our communities in the Budget Control Act of 2011, yet we're preparing to do it again," said Fudge. "Across the board cuts with no increases in revenue place the deficit reduction on vulnerable communities and on the middle class and that is not what this country is about."

Sen. McConnell was the most adamant, telling reporters on Friday they he will not support any tax increase whatsoever while the president made it clear that he believes in give and take and consensus building for the betterment of the American people.

“I am not a dictator, I am the president,” Obama said.

Both sides agreed to fund the government through March on what to date is neither a government shut down or a government show down they say.

The federal deficit has peaked at some $16.5 biillion.

CLEVELAND,Ohio- Cleveland Urban News.Com News Brief

By Kathy Wray Coleman, publisher, editor-in-chief

CLEVELAND,Ohio-The Task Force for Community Mobilization and the Oppressed People's Nation (OPN) will lead two separate rallies today, Friday, March 1, around the 137 bullets deadly shooting late last year of unarmed Blacks Malissa Williams and Timothy Ray Russell by a group of  White Cleveland police officers.

Community Activist Khalid Samad, who also leads Peace in the Hood, will lead the task force rally at 4:30 pm on Public Square in downtown Cleveland and Ernest Smith, chairman of OPN, will lead his group in a rally and candlelight vigil beginning at 5 pm near Heritage Middle School in East Cleveland at Lee and Terrace Roads.

"We urge everybody to come and stand with us and to speak out about this injustice," said Smith, ,whose followers are young Blacks in theirs 20s and 30s and whose group fights against injustices and for the immobilization of young people

Samad is a longtime community activist and former assistant safety director for the city of Cleveland. His group of strong Black men and women, some of whom are also members of the Cleveland Chapter of the New Black Panther Party, are angry  over the Russell  Williams shooting too.

"137 shots and no Black police involved," the task force press release says in part.

Russell, 43, was gunned down late last year by a group of Cleveland police officers along with Williams, 30. Neither was armed and police shot at the pair with an unprecedented 137 rounds of ammunition following a car chase that began in downtown Cleveland and ended near Heritage Middle School in the neighboring largely Black city of East Cleveland.

Cleveland Urban News.Com News

By Kathy Wray Coleman, publisher, editor-in-chief

CLEVELAND,Ohio- Cleveland Police Chief Michael McGrath (pictured), who is under fire by community activists and victims family members to resign in the wake of senseless deadly shootings of unarmed Blacks by Cleveland police, will address the Black community at the Harvard Community Center in Cleveland Ward 1 today at 7 pm.

The gathering has been called by Cleveland Ward 1 Councilman Terrell Pruitt.

McGrath will be joined by Fourth District Police Commander Deon McCaulley and Daryl W. McGinnis, the city's new fire chief, who was sworn in last month.

Last week a group of some 100 community activists leaders and family members of victims of deadly police shootings called for McGraft, Safety Director Martin Flask, Law Director Barbara Langhenry and Chief Prosecutor Victor Perez to step down at a forum sponsored by The Imperial Women at Lil Africa on Cleveland's majority Black east side.

The family of Daniel Ficker, whom police killed in 2011, and the mother of 20-year-old aspiring rapper Kenneth Smith, whom police pulled from a car last year and shot in the head, were there and also voted for Flask, McGrath, Langhenry and Perez, none of whom are Black, and all of whom are at will appointees of Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson, to be replaced.

Activists have also turned down an invitation to speak with McGrath today saying that there is nothing else to talk about.

"Since we have called for Police Chief Michael McGrath to resign, we have nothing more to say," said Al Porter, vice president of Black on Black Crime, one of several activists groups that joined The Imperial Women, Stop Targeting Ohio's Poor, Peace in the Hood, The Oppressed People's Nation, Ohio Family Rights and other area grassroots organizations in seeking the resignation of the police chief.

At that meeting at Lil Africa on Feb 11,  which was moderated by Minister Robert "Brother Bob" Saffold, the activists did not entertain the request for Jackson, who is Black, to resign.

"This is not the forum to decide if the mayor should resign and let's be smart and not get the issues confused, " said Imperial  Women Kathy Wray Coleman at the meeting, which also included Famed Criminal Defense and Civil Rights Attorney Terry Gilbert, who represents the estate of 137 bullets unarmed Cleveland police shooting victim Timothy Ray Russell.

Russell, 43, was gunned down late last year by a group of Cleveland police officers along with Malissa Williams, 30. Neither was armed and police shot at the pair with an unprecedented 137 rounds of ammunition following a car chase that began in downtown Cleveland and ended near Heritage Middle School in the neighboring largely Black city of East Cleveland.

Jackson would be invited to address the grassroots factions before they consider asking for his resignation, activists said.

Editorial By Cleveland Criminal Defense Attorney Michael Nelson Sr. (pictured in red tie)

CLEVELAND,Ohio-It's been [nearly three months] since an unarmed [Black]couple died in a hail of bullets with at least 137 shots fired by at least 13 Cleveland police officers. State and local officials continue to investigate while community leaders, some less than enthusiastically, call for federal intervention.

Yet in spite of the tension that exists between the Black community and the police, [Mayor Frank] Jackson (pictured) has systematically excluded Blacks from leadership positions of law director, police chief, safety director and city prosecutor. Out of the last six Cleveland mayors since 1967, [including Carl B. Stokes, Michael R. White and Jane Campbell, all of  whom had Blacks], he is the only mayor to have this dubious distinction. I have to check the administration of Ralph Perk to be sure on whether he had any Blacks. It is therefore no surprise that Blacks are more likely to be victims of police brutality and subject to a higher degree of profiling than any other group in Cleveland.

Shame on you Mayor Jackson, and a greater shame on those who have given him "a Black pass." A White mayor would have been crucified for this type of racism. (Even when committed by a Black man, it's still racism).

Oh and I can't wait for the next person to attempt to justify the mayor's failure in this area by telling me how many Blacks work at the airport or finance or community development, etc..

While these investigations follow what seems to be a very leisurely pace, an unwelcome spot light has been shone on the administration of Mayor Frank Jackson, and his stewardship of the police and law departments.

Unfortunately, while this incident is getting the attention it deserves, it is not the first outrage committed against citizens by this administration. Thousands of brutality complaints have been filed against the department and yet under this administration none have been found in favor of the complainants. The only relief has been secured in lawsuits filed against the city.

Michael L. Nelson, Sr., Attorney and Counselor At Law, 55 Public Square, Suite 1500