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Cuyahoga County GOP party takes on Kasich for endorsing Joe Biden, the former Ohio GOP governor to speak at the 2020 Democratic National Convention in support of Biden....A county GOP spokesman comments

20 July 2020

Kathy

By Kathy Wray Coleman, associate publisher, editor in chief. Coleman trained for 17 years as a reporter with the Call and Post Newspaper and is an investigative and political reporter with a background in legal and scientific reporting. She is also a former 15-year public school biology teacher.

CLEVELANDURBANNEWS.COM, CLEVELAND, Ohio –Former Ohio governor John Kasich, who served as governor from 2011-2019 and ran unsuccessfully for president in 2016, the year President Trump won for president over Hillary Clinton, will speak at the Democratic National Convention this year in support of Democratic nominee Joe Biden, Kasich an outspoken critic of the president.

The Democratic National Committee has set its national convention for the week of Aug. 17 in Milwaukee.

Trump and Biden, a former vice president under former president Barack Obama, the nation's first Black president, will square off on Nov. 3 for the 2020 presidential election, the controversial president losing in practically every poll but not totally out of the game, pundits have said.

It is not at all uncommon for politicians to endorse candidates of opposite parties, but for a former Republican governor to literally campaign against a sitting president of the same political party during an election year for president is almost, if not literally, unprecedented.

Colin Jackson, a spokesman for the Cuyahoga County Republican Party and its director of minority engagement, said he is not at all surprised that Kasich is endorsing Biden.

"He [Kasich] held out during the primary when it was clear he was not going to win, he skipped the 2016 Republican convention, and he seemingly tried to encourage the entire Ohio Republican Delegation to go against Donald Trump," said Jackson, who is Black.

Cuyahoga County includes Cleveland and is Ohio's second largest county of 88 counties statewide.

It is a Democratic stronghold.

The county GOP party is led by county party chair Lisa Stickan and Black Cleveland activist Donna Walker-Brown, chair of the executive committee, both of them elected this year and Stickan ousting longtime county party chair Rob Frost.

An attorney, Stickan is the first woman elected to the powerful post.

Jackson said that Kasich's support of Biden could very well "push Republicans who are on the fence or undecided to support President Trump for reelection."

Others say it spells trouble for the Trump campaign.

Also a CNN contributor and political analyst, Kasich cannot stand Trump and has dogged him since the 2016 Republican primary.

He joins a cadre of prominent Republicans, including ex-Ohio GOP chair Matt Borges, who are out to get the president out of office.

As governor, Kasich opposed policies promoted by statehouse Democrats on issues from abortion to gun control and voting rights, and relative to labor rights, collective bargaining, and right-to-work legislation.

He has political friends and supporters across partisan lines.

Black leaders and elected officials who are traditionally Democrats were sometimes in his corner.

They say that as governor Kasich was easy to get along with and that he allocated and pushed for economic stimulus monies for impoverished urban communities like Cleveland, and often, they claim, more frequently than some of his Democratic gubernatorial predecessors.

Kasich was succeeded into office by current GOP Governor Mike DeWine, a Trump ally.

Last Updated on Tuesday, 21 July 2020 20:19

Civil Rights icon Congressman John Lewis is dead at 80, Lewis the recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom from then president Barack Obama and the son of sharecroppers who rose to become one of the most distinguished members of Congress

18 July 2020

Kathy

The John Lewis Story

ATLANTA, Georgia –Rep. John Lewis, the son of sharecroppers who was beaten and brutalized as a young Black community activist during now historic voting rights protests in Selma and was one of the most respected and distinguished members of Congress, has died at 80-years-old following a six-month battle with pancreatic cancer.

Lewis' passing is a tremendous loss to the Black community and the fight for democracy and equal opportunity across the board, pundits and admirers said Friday.

His family members are grieving the loss too.

"It is with inconsolable grief and enduring sadness that we announce the passing of U.S. Rep. John Lewis," the Lewis family said in a statement. "He was honored and respected as the conscience of the U.S. Congress and an icon of American history, but we knew him as a loving father and brother."

Funeral arrangements are pending.

Former Atlanta mayor Andrew Young, also a former ambassador to the United Nations, described his friend and political colleague as fearless and "always available until his death."

Though it was announced a few months ago that the activist and community organizer-turned federal lawmaker who marched with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma to push for passage of the Voting Rights Act and was later elected to Congresshad metastasis cancer, the news of his death Friday night stunned America as it struggles with a New Civil Rights Movement that has resurrected itself in the midst of a crippling pandemic.

A former Georgia state legislator out of Atlanta and 17-term Democratic Congressman who represented Georgia's 5th congressional district, Lewis was a native of Troy Alabama.

His great grandfather was born into slavery.

He lost his first bid for Congress and later won the seat in 1986 against his Republican challenger, and following a contentious and now infamous fight against Julian Bond during the Democratic primary he later won, Bond a prominent Black Georgia state senator at the time.

During that primary campaign contest against Bond Lewis said then that "if you know anything about be my vote is not up for sale and my vote cannot be bought," a reference against Bond, whose campaign was dogged with accusations of drug use, accusations Lewis highlighted during the campaign.

Lewis said later that if given the choice again he would have approached the campaign differently, he and Bond, who died in 2015, later reconciling.

One of 10 siblings, he was 16-years-old when he fought to desegregate public libraries in Troy and against Jim Crow Laws.

While in college in Nashville studying theology on a scholarship he was a member of the activist student group the Freedom Riders that fought against racial segregation and to desegregate lunch counters in the city and became a symbol of the student movement for racial equality.

He said that that his true activism was inspired by the Montgomery Bus Boycotts that took place when he was 18-years-old, and the sermons of Dr King on the radio.

He fought with King and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference that King led during the height of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s and spoke at the March on Washington in 1963 in spite of fears by then president John F. Kennedy that his speech might be too radical.

At 23-years-old he was the youngest speaker at the event in Washington, and gave a dynamic speech, pundits said, a speech overshadowed by Dr. King's historic "I Have a A Dream Speech."

He was arrested for civil disobedience more that 44 times, 40 of those arrests occurring before he was elected to Congress.

He would return to Selma each year for anniversary festivities and to remember "Bloody Sunday."

A recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2011 from former president Barack Obama, the nation's first Black president, and a minster of the gospel whose legacy will remain of an unmatched stature, Lewis never stopped fighting for justice for the underprivileged and the disenfranchised.

One of his last public appearances was a town hall with Obama.

A husband and father, Lewis loved Black people, unequivocally.

He was married to his wife Lillian for nearly 50 years, and until her death in 2012.

Whether fighting for public policy changes for his constituents in particular, or for the country as a whole, overtime he drew the love and respect of his fellow lawmakers.

He was a biblical figure on a mission, and in spite of his stubbornness at times he had friends and enemies across partisan lines.

But he was also a staunch Democrat who despised the policies of President Donald Trump, Trump a Republican who faces former president Joe Biden for a Nov. 3 presidential election showdown.

He was one of the first members of Congress to aggressively stand up against the Trump presidency, and he never backed down.

Considered a hard- core liberal in Congress by some accounts, Lewis opposed the U.S waging of the 1991 Gulf War, and the Clinton Administration on NAFTA and welfare reform.

The federal lawmaker fought against the reversal of decades of Civil Rights gains and spoke out against the U.S. Supreme Court's 2013 decision in Shelby County vs Holder, a decision in which the high court invalidated key provision of the Voting Rights Act, thereby lessening government over watch of state voting rules and making it easier for state officials to make it harder for Black and other racio- ethic minority voters to vote.

During his 30-plus years in Congress representing a district in the seep South Lewis opposed the Iraq War and also fought in Congress for public policies in support of voting rights, reproductive rights for women, affirmative action, gun control, human and Civil, universal healthcare and the gamete of issues embraced by the liberal wing of the Democratic Party.

He backed same sex marriage, which became legal across all 50 states and the District of Columbia in 2015.

His legacy, however, transcends the Democratic Party that he had no problem challenging on matters he deemed necessary to address.

The National Museum of African American History opened on the National Mall in Washington D.C. in 2016 during Obama's tenure, Lewis the impetus for the congressional bill that led to funding for the historical monument.

Lewis ultimately supported Obama for the Democratic primary in 2008 that Obama won over Hillary Clinton, and he backed him again in 2012 for his successful reelection campaign for president.

Obama praised the congressman when he was on his deathbed.

If there’s one thing I love about @RepJohnLewis, it’s his incomparable will to fight," Obama tweeted after learning that Lewis had terminal cancer. "I know he’s got a lot more of that left in him. Praying for you, my friend."

Last Updated on Sunday, 26 July 2020 17:08

Congresswoman Fudge fights President Trump's efforts to stop food stamps to the able-bodied without dependents as the U.S. House supports the states' lawsuit against the measure...Fudge's largely Black 11th congressional district includes Cleveland

16 July 2020

Kathy

Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, the most read Black digital newspaper in Ohio and in the Midwest. Tel: (216) 659-0473. Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com.

WASHINGTON, D.C. –Rep. Marcia L. Fudge (OH-11) (pictured), chair of the House Agriculture Subcommittee on Nutrition, Oversight, and Department Operations, has announced the House’s filing of an amicus brief in support of a lawsuit filed by 18 states, the District of Columbia, and the City of New York that seeks to reverse the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s rule to strip Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP (food stamps) benefits away from able-bodied adults without dependents (ABAWDs).

In March, the House filed a similar amicus brief to temporarily block the same rule.

The Trump administration is tightening work requirements for some food stamp recipients, a move that comes as more than 40 million Americans are unemployed as a result of the pandemic and a measure that impacts benefits for some 688,000 adults.

The new rule makes it more difficult for states to waive a requirement that able-bodied adults without children work at least 20 hours a week or else lose their benefits.

President Trump says able-bodied adults without dependents should be stripped of SNAP benefits even if they cannot find work during a pandemic that, by all accounts, has crippled the nation.

A Warrensville Heights Democrat whose largely Black 11th congressional district includes Cleveland and a trained lawyer, Congresswoman Fudge said that now is not the time for the Trump administration to make it harder for poor people and the hungry to get access to food.

“Despite countless reports showing hunger and unemployment rising together, pointing to a long and tough economic recovery from the pandemic, the Trump administration has decided now is a good time to make it harder for people to buy food if they can’t find a job," said Fudge.

House Democrats, and even some Republicans, oppose the measure.

The congresswoman said that even though the rule has been stayed by the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia while the lawsuit makes its way through the courts, the Trump administration is hellbent on going forward with stripping these affected SNAP recipients of benefits during a public health crisis.

"As tens of millions of Americans are without work, the administration, with equal parts arrogance and ignorance, continues its ideological crackdown on SNAP recipients,” said Rep. Fudge. “And while House Democrats passed legislation to freeze these callous rules for the duration of the public health emergency—and a U.S. District Court wisely stayed the rule nationwide—the White House is intent on pursuing implementation of this bogus rule. "

Fudge said that Trump's actions on the issue are ludicrous at best.

"It is frankly despicable and something my colleagues and I simply will not tolerate," said Fudge, also a former chair of the Congressional Black Caucus.

Last Updated on Thursday, 16 July 2020 21:46

Courtney Gousman replaces Danita Harris as Cleveland Channel 5 News anchor for the evening and nightly news, Harris now a morning news anchor at the news station, and both of them are Black women....By Clevelandurbannews.com

14 July 2020

Kathy

Pictured is Cleveland Channel 5 News new evening and nightly news anchor Courtney Gousman

CLEVELANDURBANEWS.COM, CLEVELAND, OHIO— Cleveland Channel 5 news has named its replacement for anchorwoman and reporter Danita Harris, who is Black and was reassigned from anchoring the evening and nightly news to anchor Good Morning Cleveland in March, station officials announcing this week that Courtney Gousman who is also Black, will anchor the 5, 6, and 11 p.m. newscasts in place of Harris.

Gousman’s first day will be Sept 8 and she will join Frank Wiley and meteorologist Mark Johnson on the 5 p.m. newscast.

Anchor Rob Powers will be her co-anchor at 6 and 11 p.m.

“Courtney will be an outstanding addition to our team,” said Steve Weinstein, VP and General Manager at News 5 in a statement.

Gousman is an Emmy-nominated journalist who joined the WGN/ CLTV family in July of 2014 and was was a former CLTV intern.

Prior to working at WGN/CLTV, Courtney worked for WBBM-TV in her native town of Chicago as a reporter and earned the 2014 Illinois Associated Press Award.

She previously served as the sole Midday Anchor for CLTV News, delivering live coverage of breaking events happening in Chicago and and around the world, throughout the day.

Weinstein also praised Harris as a stellar anchorwoman and reporter upon her being reassigned earlier this year.

“Our viewers have had a relationship with Danita that runs 20-plus years, and her community roots and community service run deep,” said Weinstein. “She’s not only a terrific anchor and award-winning journalist but a strong community leader and advocate as well. We’re excited that our morning viewers can start their day with Danita, Katie, and Trent.”

In response to her new assignment in March, Harris, married to a Black preacher and mother to a four-year-old, said at the time that she could not "wait to rise and shine with Northeast Ohioans at a new time.”

Cleveland activists were watching to see whether another Black woman would replace Danita Harris as evening and nightly anchor given that Cleveland is a largely Black major American city and most of the anchors and reporters at local mainstream media news stations in the city are White.

"We look forward to watching Danita Harris on the morning news and are watching to see who will replace this Black woman as evening and nightly news anchor at Channel 5 in Cleveland," said community activist Kathy Wray Coleman, a Black woman and former public school biology teacher who leads Imperial Women Coalition, Women's March Cleveland and International Women's Day March Cleveland, when Harris was reassigned as a morning news anchor. "And we call for more Black female anchors at mainstream television stations that serve Cleveland, a largely Black major American city."

Harris co-anchored Good Morning Cleveland from 2000-2006 before she joined the 6 pm forecast with Ted Henry, also at News 5.

She later anchored the 5, 6, and 11 p.m. News 5 newscasts and after 15 years as a daily newscaster and some twenty years with TV she joined co-anchor Katie Ussin and Power of 5 Meteorologist Trent Magill as co-anchor of the morning news at the station.

Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, Ohio's most read Black digital newspaper and Black blog, which are also top in the Midwest in Black digital news.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.

Last Updated on Tuesday, 14 July 2020 20:45

Russia announces first human-tested COVID-19 vaccine, beating the U.S. to the punch like it did with Sputnik in which Russia sent the first human to space...By Clevelandurbannews.com, Ohio's leader in Black digital news

14 July 2020

Kathy

Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, the most read Black digital newspaper 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. Kathy Wray Coleman, associate publisher, editor in chief. Coleman is an investigative and political reporter, with a background in legal and scientific reporting. She is also a former 15-year public school biology teacher.

RUSSIA-Outdoing Brazille, which got the first test drive of the Oxford University coronavirus vaccine, Russia is the first country to purportedly complete human trials of the COVID-19 vaccine as the United States is expected to introduce a vaccine by the end of the year.

Developed by the Gamaleya National Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology, Russian scientists and doctors utilized two different types of clinical trials using 20 people who volunteered for the injection, one clinical trial carried out at the Burdenko Military Hospital and the other at the Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University.

"The research has been completed and it proved that the vaccine is safe," said Elena Smolyarchuk, chief researcher for the Russian Center for Clinical Research on Medications at Sechenov University in a news wire issued Sunday. "The volunteers will be discharged on July 15 and July 20," Smolyarchuk was quoted as saying in the report.

Once again Russia has outdone the United States relative to science and technology, this COVID-19 vaccine of which follows the 20th century space race competition between the U.S. and Russia where the Soviet Union achieved the first successful launch with the October 4, 1957 orbiting of Sputnik 1 and, on April 12, 1961, sent the first human to space with the orbital flight of Yuri Gagarin.

The USSR also sent the first woman, Valentina Tereshkova, to space on June 16, 1963, with numerous other firsts taking place over the next few years with regards to flight duration, spacewalks and related activities.

The United States, however, can brag of being the first to have a human to walk on the moon as the Apollo Lunar Module Eagle, commanded by astronaut Neil Armstrong, stepped onto the moon's lunar surface on July 20, 1969, some 49 years ago.

According to the World Health Organization, there are at least 21 potential vaccines currently under trial worldwide.

Worldwide there are 13 million confirmed coronavirus cases and more than 573,000 deaths.

After months of decline, the coronavirus pandemic, which began re-spiking late last month in the U.S. and elsewhere worldwide, broke another record Friday with nearly 60,000 cases in single day nationwide, a figure that brings the total in the U.S. since the pandemic broke in early March to 3.4 million confirmed or probable cases countrywide and some 138,000 deaths.

Russia has reported some 740,000 cases of the new SARS coronavirus and 11,614 deaths caused by complications from Covid-19, the disease caused by the new SARS.

Data show that COVID-19 is affecting 213 countries and territories around the world and two international conveyances, the U.S. leading all of the countries in both reported cases and affiliated deaths, followed by Brazil, India Russia and Peru respectively, and to round off the top five countries.

Last Updated on Wednesday, 15 July 2020 03:50

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Example of Section Blog layout (FAQ section)

Cuyahoga County GOP party takes on Kasich for endorsing Joe Biden, the former Ohio GOP governor to speak at the 2020 Democratic National Convention in support of Biden....A county GOP spokesman comments

Civil Rights icon Congressman John Lewis is dead at 80, Lewis the recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom from then president Barack Obama and the son of sharecroppers who rose to become one of the most distinguished members of Congress

Congresswoman Fudge fights President Trump's efforts to stop food stamps to the able-bodied without dependents as the U.S. House supports the states' lawsuit against the measure...Fudge's largely Black 11th congressional district includes Cleveland

Courtney Gousman replaces Danita Harris as Cleveland Channel 5 News anchor for the evening and nightly news, Harris now a morning news anchor at the news station, and both of them are Black women....By Clevelandurbannews.com

Russia announces first human-tested COVID-19 vaccine, beating the U.S. to the punch like it did with Sputnik in which Russia sent the first human to space...By Clevelandurbannews.com, Ohio's leader in Black digital news

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