Friday, April 19, 2024 — Cleveland, Ohio — Food Access Raises Everyone (FARE) is bringing Produce Perks back to West Side Market this weekend, Sat., April 20 and Sun., April 21, in partnership with the City of Cleveland and Produce Perks Midwest.

The program is designed to increase access to fresh food for Cleveland residents and support vendors at the West Side Market.

Due to the success of the Produce Perks Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Coupon program at the West Side Market, which launched in April 2022, the state of Ohio has doubled the funding available for the program for the next two years, city officials said in a statement . The funding will help  provide over 1,000 families with access to healthy, affordable food at West Side Market.

For the past two years, West Side Market had the highest redemption rate in the state for Produce Perks coupons.

Produce Perks provide TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) via $140 in free fruit and vegetable coupons to spend on fresh fruits and vegetables at the West Side Market before June 30, 2024. Families  can receive the booklets twice a year.

FARE will be on-site at the West Side Market Sat., April 20 starting at 8 a.m. and Sunday, April 21 starting at 10 a.m. to assess eligibility and distribute coupon booklets while supplies last. The first 120 eligible families will receive coupon booklets each day. Coupons will be redeemable until June, 30, 2024 only at West Side Market.

Chef Peggi Cruz from Cha'Firo and Chef Carol White Shyne Bright will provide healthy cooking demonstrations, samples and music while families wait to check their eligibility.

All fresh produce vendors at the West Side Market are slated to participate in the program.

The Produce Perks Pilot is supported through a state allocation of TANF funding, a federal program administered through the State of Ohio's Department of Job and Family Services. TANF has established eligibility requirements that include that eligible households have a minors or pregnant woman in the house and meet income requirements based on federal poverty guidelines.

For more information about the Produce Perks event at the West Side Market, please call 216.400.9609 or visit Fruit & Vegetable Coupon Program - Produce Perks Midwest.

FARE | Food Access Raises Everyone is a comprehensive community initiative that supports emergent resident leaders and grassroots organizations working on food access and other determinants of health, building capacity and coordination to improve health in Cleveland's neighborhoods.

Produce Perks Midwest is an Ohio nonprofit that pioneers solutions to address inequities within the food system. Its mission is to increase affordable access to healthy food, support local farmers and strengthen local economies in the most under-served communities.

U.S. Reps. Shontel Brown and Emilia Sykes

Staff article- Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com

Staff article

Washington, DC – Congresswoman Shontel Brown (OH-11) on Wednesday co-led a press conference in Washington, D.C. with colleagues from the New Democrat Coalition and called on House Republican leadership to take immediate action to extend the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) and preserve affordable internet access for 23 million American households.

Brown is a cosponsor of Congresswoman Yvette Clarke's Affordable Connectivity Program Extension Act that would provide seven billion in funding for the ACP.

The press conference also included Reps. Annie Kuster (NH-02), Nikki Budzinski (IL-13), Angie Craig (MN-02), Emilia Sykes (OH-13), and Gabe Vasquez (NM-02).

Rep Brown is a Warrensville Hts Democrat whose 11th congressional district includes Cleveland, and Sykes is an Akron Democrat and the youngest of Ohio's Five-Member Democratic Congressional Delegation. It also includes U.S. Sen Sherrod Brown of Cleveland, Rep, Marcy Kaptur of Toledo and Columbus Democrat Joyce Beatty. Kaptur is the longest serving woman in Congress and Brown, Sykes and Beatty are all three Black women.

According to the White House, over 1.1 million Ohio households are enrolled in the program, including an estimated 46% of all households in Congresswoman Brown's 11th congressional district, the highest percentage in the state and one of the highest nationwide.

The ACP is part of President Joe Biden's Investing in America agenda.

"Republican leadership in the House is content to watch the ACP die – this is unacceptable to me and should be unacceptable to the country," said Rep.Brown in a statement."I am proud to stand with my colleagues in support of this vital program and will continue to fight for my constituents. We cannot cut the cord on connectivity."

Absent congressional action, April will be the last month that participants receive their full ACP benefits, and the program will end entirely after May. The ACP was created by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which Congresswoman Brown says she "proudly voted for."

“In today’s age, access to the internet isn’t a luxury — it’s a critical resource that people in my district depend on for their livelihoods," said Rep. Sykes. "Households from across Ohio’s 13th District rely on the Affordable Connectivity Program for affordable internet, and my office has received thousands of emails from constituents across the political spectrum worried about how they will afford the internet if funding for the Affordable Connectivity Program runs out at the end of the month."

Sykes added that “I promised people in Ohio’s 13th district that I would work to lower their everyday costs, and that’s exactly what I intend to do by fighting to keep the Affordable Connectivity Program funded.”

Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, the most read Black digital newspaper in Ohio and in the Midwest, and the most read independent digital news in Ohio. 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.

By Kathy Wray Coleman, editor

CLEVELAND, Ohio- The Cuyahoga County Democratic Party held its annual fund-raising dinner on Sun.,  April 14, 2024 at the Intercontinental Hotel in Cleveland, with U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown the guest speaker and former U.S. Housing and Urban Development (HUD) secretary Marcia Fudge, who received the group's lifetime achievement award, the honorary guest for the evening.

Cuyahoga County includes the largely Black, major American city of Cleveland and is roughly 29 percent Black. A Democratic stronghold, it is the second largest of Ohio's 88 counties, behind Franklin County, which includes the city of Columbus and is also a Democratic stronghold.

Speakers at the event also included county Democratic Party Chairman David Brock, Congresswoman Shontel  Brown, previously chair of the county Democratic Party, and Cleveland City Council President Blaine Griffin.

Tickets for the well-attended event ranged in price from $100 for a regular ticket to $10,000 for a platinum table of 10.

Sen. Sherrod Brown is a Cleveland Democrat running for re-election this year against Republican Bernie Moreno, whom former President Donald Trump, the Republican nominee for the presidential election in November, endorsed for Ohio's March 19 primary. Democrats hold a slim majority in the U.S. Senate and hope to keep the seasoned and popular senator aboard in Congress.

Republicans hope Moreno can beat him despite his popularity, but are cautiously optimistic about the outcome, particularly given Moreno's repeated stances against abortion, even after the Issue 1 abortion rights referendum passed at the ballot box in Ohio last November.

A Warrensville Hts. Democrat and former congresswoman representing Ohio's 11th congressional district that is now led by her protege', Rep. Shontel Brown, Fudge recently returned home from Washington, D.C. after stepping down last month as HUD secretary with the Biden administration. She was welcomed with warmth by the Dems in attendance, including several of her former constituents of the 11th congressional district. It includes Cleveland and several of its eastern suburbs of Cuyahoga County.

A wealth of city and county politicians like County Executive Chris Ronayne and members of city and county council, and candidates for office, were there, with Ohio the only state in the country where voters, if they so choose, can turn its majority Republican Ohio Supreme Court majority Democratic in November. And that is not an easy thing to do, according to past elections.

Missing from Sunday's Democratic gathering in Cleveland was President Joe Biden, who is in a heated race against Trump for re-election in November and seeks Democratic support as he campaigns across the country. Trump won Ohio over Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in 2016 on his way to becoming president, and again in 2020 when he lost reelection to Biden and the Democrats. Whether Biden will actively campaign in Ohio as the November 2024 presidential election nears remains to be seen, with some pundits saying he has all but written off Ohio.

While Democrats control Cleveland and the heavily Democratic Cuyahoga County, their influence statewide is limited.

In addition to controlling the Ohio Supreme Court, which is led by Chief Justice Sharon Kennedy, Republicans, aside from U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, hold every statewide elective office in Ohio, including the offices of governor, secretary of state, and state attorney general. Republicans also control Ohio's General Assembly and are in the majority in both the Ohio House of Representatives and Ohio Senate.

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

Staff article by Kathy Wray Coleman, editor

CLEVELAND, Ohio– Former NFL star OJ Simpson (pictured in 1990) has died at 76-years-old after a battle with cancer, his family announced Thursday, an announcement that triggered fodder with media outlets across the country and reminds America's Black community of the country's long legacy of systemic racism and its troubles with its fragile and racist legal system.

National cable media hosts had a field day with commentary over whether Simpson murdered ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman, even though he was exonerated in 1995 of criminal charges in the case with lawyer Johnny Cochran leading his "dream team" legal team.

He was  later sent to prison for nine years for convictions for arranging a robbery to retrieve his stolen memorabilia, the latter criminal case of which came under question as possible retaliation for a not guilty verdict in the case of his ex-wife's death. Despite being exonerated in the murder of his ex-wife, who was a White woman, he lost a multi-million dollar wrongful death civil lawsuit filed by the Brown-Goldman families over the killings but never forked over all of the money, sources say, instead living in isolation off of his NFL pension until his death.

The nationally-watched televised murder trial where he was found not guilty as Blacks and Whites alike took sides and millions of others looked on in anticipation of the verdict was in media circles dubbed "The Trial of the Century."

Simpson shot back and wrote a book of satire titled "If I did it," generating more fallout and racial chatter over the celebrated murders. and upsetting the Brown-Goldman families.

The notorious Simpson played in the National Football League (NFL) for 11 seasons, primarily with the Buffalo Bills, and was regarded as one of the greatest running backs of all time. He was the first NFL player to run for more than 2,000 yards in a single season.

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

Staff article by Kathy Wray Coleman, editor

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) (pictured), a Cleveland Democrat and seasoned member of Congress, called for Congress and President Biden to ban Chinese-made electric vehicles to protect Ohio autoworkers, and to combat what he says are economic and national security threats posed by Chinese automakers.

In a letter to President Biden, the popular senator warned that Chinese cars, made by companies controlled and subsidized by the Chinese Communist Party, present an existential threat to the American auto industry, and that tariffs alone are insufficient to stop a government-orchestrated attack on an entire sector of the nation's economy.

“Chinese electric vehicles are an existential threat to the American auto industry. Ohio knows all too well how China illegally subsidizes its companies, putting our workers out of jobs and undermining entire industries, from steel to solar manufacturing, " said Brown in a news release. "We cannot allow China to bring its government-backed cheating to the American auto industry. The U.S. must ban Chinese electric vehicles now, and stop a flood of Chinese government-subsidized cars that threaten Ohio auto jobs, and our national and economic security.”

Brown warned in the letter that the level of government subsidization in the Chinese auto industry would make it impossible for American automakers and autoworkers to compete on a level playing field, and would also decimate the United Autoworkers and the union’s ability to raise wages and benefits for workers across the auto sector. Chinese electric vehicles also pose a national security risk, given the technology involved in EVs and the potential for the Chinese government to gain access to large amounts of data through these cars.

Sen. Brown has long led efforts to boost American auto manufacturing and to counter China’s cheating. Brown introduced the bipartisan Leveling the Playing Field 2.0 Act to strengthen U.S. trade remedy laws and ensure they remain effective tools to fight back against unfair trade practices and protect American workers.

In January Brown called on the Biden Administration to increase tariffs on Chinese solar imports threatening American solar manufacturing jobs, including in Ohio at companies like First Solar in Toledo. In May of 2023, Brown led his Senate colleagues in voting to reinstate duties on illegally dumped Chinese solar panels. Sen Brown also led the successful opposition to the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which had weaker auto rules of origin than NAFTA and would have been devastating for the Ohio industry.

Read Sen Brown's full letter to President Biden here

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