East Cleveland Mayor Gary Norton  and East Cleveland City Council President Dr. Joy Jordan

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

EAST CLEVELAND, Ohio-East Cleveland voters will decide in a primary election today, Tuesday, Oct. 1,  whether to keep incumbent Mayor Gary Norton, who ousted Eric Brewer four years ago as the then city council president, or to install East Cleveland City Council President Dr. Joy Jordan as the new mayor, also a popular figure in the majority Black impoverished suburb of Cleveland. Also in the race, which is a partisan primary of three Democrats with no Republican opponent for the November 5 general election, is Vernon Robinson.

Polls open at 6:30 am, and close at 7:30 pm.

"It is going to be a dogfight to the very end between Gary and Joy," said Community Activist Al Porter, vice president of Black on Black Crime Inc."

With no Republican running for mayor the winner of the Democratic primary becomes mayor.

Both Norton and Jordan have allies.

Norton is backed by Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Tim McGinty, whose daddy is rich, some community clergy and police, and by the Call and Post Newspaper, among others. And Jordan, the daughter of dentist and community activist Dr. Eugene Jordan, enjoys support from a cadre of community activists, all sitting members of the five-seat city council, and Una H.R Keenon, a retired East Cleveland judge who is president of the East Cleveland Board of Education and of the Black Women's Political Action Committee of greater Cleveland.

Three council seats are up for grabs, but in November since in East Cleveland there is no primary for city council races per the municipal charter. The city of some 18,000 people was once a majority White affluent city with some homes dubbed "Millionaire's Row along its Euclid Ave, a segment of homes with 18 of the original of them left and which included a home owned by Standard Oil founder and billionaire John D. Rockefeller.This was before the Great Depression.

It is also the home of General Electric's Nela Park, the world's first industrial park, one that lights up at Christmas time as an international draw to the city.

Norton and Joy Jordan have residential support too, and in a town that is one of the state's poorest city's as the public schools struggle, crime is rampant, unemployment soars  and poverty is exorbitant during what is still a national recession that hits America's struggling Black communities the hardest, data show.

Today's election in East Cleveland, simply put, is of one city, 18 precincts, and one mayoral election.

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

CLEVELAND, Ohio- Former Cleveland Browns quarterback Bernie Kosar was arrested on suspicion of OVI early Sunday morning in Solon, Ohio, an upper middle class suburb of Cleveland.

Police said that Kosar was speeding on U.S. Route 422 in Solon and allegedly smelled of alcohol. He also allegedly failed sobriety tests. He posted a $500 bond and was released. He is scheduled to appear in Bedford Municipal Court on Tuesday at 1:30 pm.

Bedford court is plagued with documented corruption where data show that Blacks deemed indigent are repeatedly harassed and denied representative counsel by White Democratic judges Harry Jacob and Brian Melling in criminal cases in blatant violation of the Ohio Rules of Criminal Procedure and other authorities. Melling, Jacob and Bedford Clerk of Court Tom Day have allegedly bragged that they can illegally deny indigent Blacks counsel with support from the Cleveland Chapter NAACP and some Black, White and other elected officials.

Also at issue, say community activists, is an attempt by the Bedford court to allegedly cover up documented foreclosure fraud by harassing Blacks that complain with malicious criminal charges and then denying them attorneys in the cases after rendering them indigent. Fired Cuyahoga County Sheriff Bob Reid, now a candidate next year for the Democratic primary for county executive, was the police chief in  Bedford prior to becoming sheriff. He is accused of gross mortgage fraud, documented claims issued prior to his firing by Cuyahoga County Executive Ed FitzGerald.

Kosar has already been subjected to bias with some media deeming him

drunk before a court or jury determination has been had. He has admittedly struggled with alleged brain injuries from his football years, a controversial subject that team owners resent, partly because of negligence claims against national football league proprietors by players and their lawyers.

Bedford Heights, whose traffic and misdemeanor criminal cases are heard in neighboring Bedford's court, is where Jimmy Dimora, who is serving a 28-year federal sentence for racketeering, was once mayor, before he became the chairman of the Cuyahoga County Democratic Party, and later a county commissioner.

Kosar has been retired from the football field for 17 years, and is divorced.

CLEVELAND, Ohio-Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson and Mayoral Candidate Ken Lanci, and Cleveland City Council candidates, will attend a forum today, Sept. 26 beginning at 6 pm at the Club at Key Center, 127 Public Square in Cleveland. Jackson and Lanci will square off there for a community discussion at 7:30 pm, organizers said. The event is sponsored by the Young Professionals. Contact the Key Center for more information at 216-271-1272.

Lanci told Cleveland Urban News.Com that he is elated to have a community discussion with Jackson and that the more forums the pair can participate in before the November  general election, the better. Their first official debate was on Sept. 18 at the City Club in Cleveland.

"Anytime we can debate on community issues, I look forward to it," said Lanci. "The community needs a series of debates and discussions before the  November 5 election."