Ohio's five-member Democratic Congressional Delegation is majority Black as of the Nov 8 midterm elections and includes U.S. Rep-Elect Emilia Sykes, of Akron (top left), U. S. Reps Shontel Brown of Warrensville Hts. (top right), Joyce Beatty of Columbus (bottom left), and Marcy Kaptur of Toledo (bottom right), and U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown of Cleveland

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

Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com

CLEVELAND, Ohio-Ohio's five member majority female Democratic Congressional Delegation is now largely Black following the Nov. 8 midterm elections that added newly elected U.S. Rep. Emilia Sykes alongside Reps Marcy Kaptur of Toledo, Joyce Beatty of Columbus, who is Black like Sykes, and Shontel Brown, also Black and of Warrensville Hts, the fifth member of whom is U.S Sen Sherrod Brown of Cleveland, Ohio's most prominent elected Democrat and a senior member of Congress. And the three Blacks are women, two of them from Northeast Ohio, which includes the cities of Cleveland and Akron, the hometown of NBA megastar LeBron James of the Los Angeles Lakers. With Sen Sherrod Brown included, three of five Democratic delegation members will be from Northeast Ohio beginning in January when a new Congress begins.

Beatty also leads the Congressional Black Caucus, an activist  group of some 58 Demo members of Congress.

Missing from the delegation beginning next year is outgoing congressman Tim Ryan, a Youngstown area Democrat and a 20-year congressman who did not seek election to the House of Representatives and instead ran a hard fought yet unsuccessful campaign against Republican J.D. Vance in a high-priced election to replace retiring U.S. Sen Rob Portman, also a Republican. In fact, Republicans won all of the statewide offices in Ohio in last month's election, including the reelection of Gov Mike Dewine, Secretary of State Frank LaRose and state attorney general Dave Yost, and three seats up for grabs on the seven-member on the largely Republican and majority female Ohio Supreme Court This includes the Ohio Supreme Court seat open due to the impending retirement of age-limited Chief Justice Maureen O'Connor, her open seat won by sitting Justice Sharon Kennedy, also a Republican, and a former cop.

In helping to turn Ohio's five-member Democratic Congressional delegation majority Black, which is historical in Ohio, and in keeping it largely female Sykes, a state representative and former minority leader out of Akron, and the daughter of state Sen Dr. Vernon Sykes and his wife Barbara Sykes, a former state representative, defeated Republican Madison Gesiotto Gilbert in Ohio U.S. House District 13, a newly created district formed via Ohio's new congressional map, a controversial redistricting map that was gerrymandered but still remains intact in conjunction with an Ohio Supreme Court ruling issued earlier this year.

"It was my name on the ballot, but we are all going to Congress," said Sykes during an election night victory party speech that drew a round of applause from supporters in attendance.

Shontel Brown's 11th congressional district included Akron and Cleveland before redistricting but the new map moves Akron into the new 13th congressional district that Sykes won. The Republican-drawn map is in place for the next four years instead of 10 because it passed without Democratic support.

Ohio lost one of its 16 House seats relative to the redistricting process that occurs every 10 years in cooperation with the U.S. census and population dynamics and the new boundaries eliminate its only Black-majority seat, the 11th congressional district, which includes Cleveland and has been led by Rep Brown since 2021, Brown a former congresswoman Marcia L. Fudge's successor, Fudge now secretary of Housing and Urban Development with the Biden administration.

Ohio went from 12-4 Republican-to-Democrat in the U.S. House of Representatives  to 10-5 Republican-to-Democrat via the Nov 8 midterm elections. Hence, Republicans technically lost two seats from Ohio and Democrats maintained the four seats they had in the U.S. House prior to redistricting.

In other closely watch races in Ohio for the U.S. House of Representatives, Toledo Democratic U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur, the longest serving woman in the U.S. House and whose ninth congressional district stretched to Cleveland and Lorain county before redistricting won election on Nov 8 over Republican J.R. Majewski after Kaptur's district was redrawn to include more moderate voters or constituents, and Republican Max Miller,a former Trump aid, won over Democrat Matthew Diemer for the seat in Ohio's seventh congressional district.

Rep Brown, also a former chair of the Cuyahoga County Democratic Party and former county councilwoman, will now represent the parts of Cleveland, including west side areas that Kaptur represented. More specifically, Brown's 11th congressional district now includes all of Cleveland and several of the eastern suburbs of Cuyahoga County that she already represented.

Cuyahoga County is a 29 percent Black county and the second largest of Ohio's 88 counties, behind Franklin County, which includes the capital city of Columbus, a city of nearly a million people compared to the 372,000 that the largely Black major american city of Cleveland has as residents. Both Cuyahoga County and Franklin County are Democratic strongholds that a Democratic candidate must heavily carry to win statewide in Ohio, something that cannot seem to do since the Republicans won the governor's office in 2010 with now former governor John Kasich, other than a few seats on the Ohio Supreme Court and the continual reelections of the seasoned U.S. Sen Sherrod Brown.

Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com the most read Black digital newspaper and 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.

Pictured are 137 shots unarmed Cleveland police fatal shooting victim Malissa Williams  and 137 shots unarmed Cleveland police fatal shooting victim Timothy Russell

.Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, Ohio's most read Black digital newspaper and Black blog with some 5 million views on Google Plus alone.Tel: (216) 659-0473 and Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. Kathy Wray Coleman, editor-in-chief, and who trained for 17 years at the Call and Post Newspaper in Cleveland, Ohio. 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- Tuesday, Nov 29, 2022 marks the 10-year anniversary of the  "137 shots" Cleveland police shooting deaths of unarmed Blacks Malissa Williams and Timothy Russell, which occurred the deadly night of Nov. 29, 2012  when Cleveland police chased the duo via the car Williams was driving from downtown Cleveland to neighboring East Cleveland and gunned them down execution style, a celebrated car chase and police shooting shooting that still haunts the two largely Black impoverished cities to this day.

Community activists and other community members, led by activist groups Black on Black Crime Inc, Imperial Women Coalition and Oppressed People's Nation, will remember Malissa Williams and Timothy Russell, and all like them who have been erroneously gunned down by police, at 5:15 pm on Tuesday, Nov 29 in the parking lot of Heritage Middle School in East Cleveland where the killings of Russell and Williams occurred (Editor's note: The name Heritage Middle school has since beeen changed by the school board to Kirk Middle School).

The annual rally event each November is commonly known as "137 shots" for the number of shots Cleveland police took in unceremoniously gunning down the unarmed Black couple that was not wanted by the law.

Speakers at the upcoming 10-year anniversary rally include residents of Cleveland and East Cleveland, community activists, Black elected officials, educators, and family members of Black people shot and killed by Cleveland and greater Cleveland cops and other area law enforcement types.

Black on Black Crime President Alfred Porter Jr, an annual co-organizer of the event along with Kathy Wray  Coleman of Imperial Women Coalition and seasoned activist Art McKoy of Black on Black Crime, say excessive force cases in the  community, whether it'ss East Cleveland, a poor, Black Cleveland suburb, or Cleveland itself, still merit attention.

"We will rally and march on the 10 year anniversary of the 137 shots beginning in the parking lot at Heritage Middle School where unarmed Blacks Malissa Williams and Timothy Russell were gunned down as we continue the fight for police reforms in Cleveland and East Cleveland," said activist Alfred porter Jr.

Other activists agree with Porter as to the importance of keeping police reform and excessive force issues before the public during a time of national outcry and growing distrust by Black America in the nation's troubled and intrinsically racist legal system.

"The annual anniversary event is needed to remember the "137 shots" atrocity and to continue our push against excessive force killings by Cleveland police of defenseless Black people and for comprehensive police reforms across the board in Cleveland, neighboring East Cleveland, and elsewhere in Cuyahoga County,"  said  Coleman, a seasoned Black Cleveland activist who also leads Women's March Cleveland.

Like Porter, Coleman has been a key "137 shots" anniversary organizer since 2013 and she says that activists will continue to call for police reforms and changes in the legal system, including "changes under state law and the Rules of Criminal Procedure in Ohio as to a grand jury and indictment process that favors police and the wealthy, and disenfranchises Black people and  poor people, among others."

Last year's anniversary rally at Heritage Middle School came on the heels of passage of Issue 24, a Cleveland police reform initiative overwhelmingly approved by voters in November of 2021 that changed the city's office of professional standards and established a 13 member community review commission appointed by the mayor and Cleveland City Council that has public policy making authority.

Also at the upcoming rally and vigil, activists say they will discuss former Cleveland mayor Frank Jackson's no chase police, which among other mandates, precludes Cleveland police car chases of people absent a suspected felony, a mandate Jackson put in place following several reckless police chases and after Williams and Russell were chased by police by car from downtown Cleveland to neighboring East Cleveland and gunned down execution -style. A former four-term Black mayor and Cleveland's longest serving mayor, Jackson retired last year.

Newly elected Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb and city council president Blaine Griffin, both Black,  have both said publicly that they will support such a no chase policy to remain in place and activists said that they intend to hold them to their promises.

Community activists say they will never forget the night nearly 10 years ago when Cleveland police chased Williams, 30 at the time of her death, and Russell, 43, from Cleveland to East Cleveland and gunned them down with 137 bullets in a  car in the Heritage Middle School parking lot.

On that deadly November 29th night a White Cleveland cop, according to public records, claims he mistook Russell's 1979 Chevy Malibu Classic backfiring near the Justice Center in downtown Cleveland and began pursuit of the homeless couple, also radioing the dispatch to call for backup, which came in droves, precautionary measures be damned.

Some 276 patrol officers were working the night of the high speed 22 min. chase that ended in the Heritage Middle School parking lot in neighboring  and impoverished East Cleveland, a Cleveland suburb, Williams and Russell chased by some 64 patrol cars, and literally fleeing for their lives.

The city of Cleveland later settled a wrongful death lawsuit for $3 million that was split between the families of the two victims, Russell leaving behind a grown disabled son. Williams' parents have both since died.

Of the 13 Cleveland officers that fired the combined 137 shots at Russell and Williams, 12 White and one Hispanic, six were fired, including Michael Brelo, who jumped on the hood of Russell's car and shot 49 times through the front windshield, both Russell and Williams dying at the scene

Five of the six officers fired for their roles in the shooting had their jobs reinstated in 2017 by an arbitrator and are Michael Farley, Erin O'Donnell, Christopher Ereg, Wilfredo Diaz, and Brian Sabolik.

The  sixth officer, officer Brelo, was not reinstated after he was fired following his acquittal in May of 2015 on two counts of voluntary manslaughter in a bench trial before Democratic Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas Judge John O'Donnell, an acquittal that brought about community protests and some 71 arrests, mainly for minor infractions with police, though a few protesters were charged with felonies.

Activists and some Black leaders, led by some Black members of 17-member Cleveland City Council such as Ward 9 Councilman Kevin Conwell, all of them Democrats like O'Donnell, later blocked the common pleas judge as to his 2016 bid for a seat on the Ohio Supreme Court, a race he lost by less than 24,000 votes.

A bid by the judge in 2020 for a Supreme Court seat met the same opposition, O'Donnell, in turn, losing to incumbent Justice Sharon Kennedy, a Republican elected chief justice of the court via the Nov 8 general election.

Cleveland police supervisors Patricia Coleman and Randolph Dailey, Michael Donegan, Jason Edens and Paul Wilson all initially faced  misdemeanor dereliction of duty charges regarding their roles in the celebrated shooting.

But charges were dismissed against Edens, Wilson and Donegan, and  Sgt. Coleman subsequently won an acquittal by an East Cleveland jury.

Sgt. Dailey's case never got duly prosecuted after Coleman won her case.

Former county prosecutor Tim McGinty, criticized for scheming and preventing felony indictments against the cops at issue, and also protecting the rookie cop that, in 2014, shot and killed 12-year-old Tamir Rice, was voted out of office in 2016 in favor of fellow Democrat and current county prosecutor Mike O'Malley.

The "137 shots" shooting fiasco is the impetus for a  court-monitored consent decree for police reforms with the city of Cleveland and the U.S. Department of Justice, It, along with so many other excessive force police killings in Cleveland of unarmed Blacks including 12-year-old Tamir Rice, Brandon Jones, rapper Kenneth Smith, and Tanisha Anderson, of which underscores the necessity for true police reform in the city. .

Other than Anderson 38, whom police slammed to the concrete and killed at the family home on Cleveland's east side in November 2014, the year Tamir was shot and killed, all were killed by gun fire from anxious, trigger-happy cops.

United States Vice President Kamala Harris in the Philippines

Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com

By Kathy Wray Coleman, associate publisher, editorPUERTO PRINCES, Philippines — After meeting on Monday with Philippines President Bongbong Marcos in Manila to discuss ways to strengthen the economic and security relationship between the United States and the Philippines, Vice President Kamala Harris on Tuesday gave an assertive speech from the Southeast China Sea in the Philippine island against over-fishing and heightened threats to local fishing communities that have increased already existing tensions between China and the United States and Southeast Asian countries like the Philippines.

“As an ally, the United States stands with the Philippines in the face of intimidation and coercion in the South China Sea,” the vice president said atop of the Philippines Coast Guard ship Teresa Magbanua at Puerto Princesa Port in the Philippines.

Pundits called the vice president's highly publicized visit abroad "highly symbolic." Harris, however, called it a humanitarian gesture of necessity and a chance for the United States to strengthen its relationship with the Philippines.

The nation's first woman and first Black vice president, who is also of Southeast Asian descent, the vice president spoke aboard a Philippine coast guard patrol ship docked in Puerto Princesa in the western island province of Palawan by design, and partly because it lies at the edge of the disputed waters. And she said that America stands with the Philippines  “in the face of intimidation and coercion in the South China Sea.”

At issue is China's aggressiveness and intimidation against some 12 countries .

China, which has the largest  deep-water fishing fleet in the world,  stands accused of bullying the 12 or so countries by  trespassing along privileged waters and respectively destroying livestock.

A former California attorney general and U.S. senator-turned vice president, Harris was flanked on the coastguard ship by coast guardsmen in uniform with mainstream media from Japan, China, the U.S. and across the globe also in attendance.

She alluded to China and said that the deep sea fishing fiasco is a matter of territorial integrity and  that the freedom of navigation is under attack, though the vice president did not specifically mention China by name. More than five million Filipinos make a living from fishing and millions more rely on it for  food and other resources.  Research also reveals that roughly 90 percent of fish caught in the Philippines is consumed locally but 10 of the country's 13 major fishing grounds are over-fished, according to the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF)

While the U.S. continues to conduct billion dollar trade operations in China, Beijing claims complete sovereignty and has vehemently opposed U.S. Navy and Air Force patrols in the South China Sea , an arm of the western Pacific Ocean in Southeast Asia, south of China, east and south of Vietnam, west of the Philippines and north of the island of Borneo. A highly contested body of water, the South China Sea is bounded by the east coast of the Malay Peninsula and the southern part of the Gulf of Thailand. It is also bordered by the People's Republic of China and the Republic of China (Taiwan), among other countries.

Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, the most read Black digital newspaper and 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.

Pictured is United States President Joe Biden

Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com

WASHINGTON, D.C.-President Joe Biden turned 80-years-old today, Sunday, Nov 20, and became the oldest person to assume the presidency of the United State of America when he was inaugurated in January of 2021.

According to  statement from White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, the White Houses' first Black female press secretary, the president is celebrating his birthday in Washington with a brunch hosted by first lady Jill Biden as his  family is already in town and celebrated his granddaughter's wedding at the White House on Saturday.

Below is the Wikipedia background on the nation's oldest president in American history, a Democrat who took office nearly two years ago.

Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. (born November 20, 1942) is the 46th and current president of the United States. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously served as the 47th vice president from 2009 to 2017 under President Barack Obama, and represented Delaware in the United States Senate from 1973 to 2009.

President Biden was born and raised in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and moved with his family to Delaware in 1953 when he was ten years old. He studied at the University of Delaware before earning his law degree from Syracuse University. He was elected to the New Castle County Council in 1970 and became the sixth-youngest senator in U.S. history after he was elected to the United States Senate from Delaware in 1972, at age 29. Biden was the chair or ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for 12 years. He also chaired the Senate Judiciary Committee from 1987 to 1995; led the effort to pass the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act and the Violence Against Women Act; and oversaw six U.S. Supreme Court confirmation hearings, including the contentious hearings for Robert Bork and Clarence Thomas.

Biden ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1988 and 2008. He was the fourth-most senior sitting senator when he became Obama's vice president after they won the 2008 presidential election. Obama and Biden were reelected in 2012. During his two terms as vice president, Biden leaned on his Senate experience and frequently represented the administration in negotiations with congressional Republicans. He also oversaw infrastructure spending in 2009 to counteract the Great Recession. On foreign policy, Biden was a close counselor to President Obama and took a leading role in designing the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq in 2011.

Biden and his running mate, Kamala Harris, defeated incumbent Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election. Upon inauguration, he became the oldest president in U.S. history and the first to have a female vice president. Biden signed the American Rescue Plan Act to help the U.S. recover from the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent recession. He proposed the American Jobs Plan, aspects of which were incorporated into the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. He proposed the American Families Plan, which was merged with other aspects of the American Jobs Plan into the proposed Build Back Better Act.

After facing opposition in the Senate, the Build Back Better Act's size was reduced and it was comprehensively reworked into the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, covering deficit reduction, climate change, healthcare, and tax reform. Biden appointed Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court. In foreign policy, he restored the U.S. into the Paris Agreement on climate change. He completed the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan, during which the Afghan government collapsed and the Taliban seized control. He responded to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine by imposing sanctions on Russia and authorizing foreign aid and weapons shipments to Ukraine.

Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, the most read Black digital newspaper and 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.