CLEVELAND, Ohio-(Editor's note: Cleveland Urban News.Com introduces Karl Kimbrough (pictured) as its  new sports writer. Previously a writer with Our Voice, a Lorain, Oh. community newspaper, Kimbrough is an asset to the news team at Cleveland Urban News.Com, Ohio's most read Black and urban online newspaper).

By Karl Kimbrough, Sports Writer, Cleveland Urban News.Com

The first 4:57 seconds of the Browns game against the New York Giants on Sunday seemed too surreal to be true with the Browns having a commanding 12-0 lead over the 2011 Super Bowl Champion Giants.

Unfortunately for the Cleveland Browns and their fans it was too real to be true. In their four previous games, the Browns' scored a total of six points in the first quarter. Could the Browns be turning their fortunes around?  Before the end of the first half, the Giants would outscore the Browns 27 to 3 and go into the half with a 27 to 17 lead. The Giants would not be challenged further winning the game 41 to 27.

By Kathy Wray Coleman, Executive Publisher, Editor, Cleveland Urban News. Com and The Cleveland Urban News.Com Blog

CLEVELAND,Ohio- Community activists, elected officials and others will picket on Thursday, Oct. 11 at 10: 30 am at E. 35th and Community College Ave. in Ward 5 in Cleveland  over a billboard owned by Clear Channel in that area that the activists and some Black leaders say is voter intimidation and suppression that targets poor people, Blacks and other minorities by threatening voters in a key presidential election year with a felony conviction, 3 and a half years in prison,  and a $10,000 fine.

Cleveland Ward 5 Councilwoman Phyllis Cleveland said that she will hold a press conference at 11:00 with community activists under the controversial billboard. State Sen. Nina Turner (D-25) and  State Rep. Sandra Williams (D-11) are expected to join her, among others.

The billboard at issue, which is near the Cuyahoga Community College Metro Campus, is purportedly by a private corporation approved by Clear Channel, but community activists believe that the Tea Party and Republican Presidential Nominee Mitt Romney are aware of it since similar billboards are popping up in minority and poor communities all over the nation, including Milwaukee, WI.  It is in the Central Neighborhood where Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson lives, one of the country's poorest communities, data show.

"It is beyond insensitivity and is voter intimidation," said State Rep. Bill Patmon  (D-10), a Cleveland Democrat who argues that the billboards, also of which are up on the west side of Cleveland and in poor and  minority communities in Lorain, Oh., may be unconstitutional.

Groups associated with the protest include Cleveland City Council members, Ohio state legislators, The Imperial Women, The Carl Stokes Brigade, Cleveland Jobs With Justice, Stop Targeting Ohio's Poor, Black on Black Crime, The Oppressed People's Nation, Organize Ohio, The Northeast Ohio Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign, Peace in the Hood, The Family Connection Center, The Underground Railroad and the Cleveland Chapter of the New Black Panther Party.

By Kathy Wray Coleman, Executive Publisher, Editor, Cleveland Urban News. Com and The Cleveland Urban News.Com Blog (www.clevelandurbannews.com) (nod42)

CLEVELAND,Ohio- Former WOIO 19 Action News Anchor Sharon Reed (pictured), whose contract with the Cleveland television news station was non-renewed last year, has joined KNOV Channel 4 in St Louis, Mo. as a news anchor.

Reed will co-anchor the 4 and 10 pm news with Larry Connors and anchor along side of Jasmine Huda at 5 pm, station officials said.

Like 19 Action News, KNOV Channel 4 is also a CBS affiliate.

This summer rumors circulated the Internet linking Reed's  pregnancy, the non-renewal of contract at 19 Action News,  and her subsequent new born baby to NBA basketball star and Miami Heat star player LeBron James, coupled with claims that she was living in Miami, Fl.  Her lawyer quickly denied the rumors and threatened to sue.

James, 27 and a native of Akron, Oh., played for the Cleveland Cavaliers before leaving the team amid a fallout with Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert in 2010 . He is roughly six years younger than Reed, whose low cut blouses and sex appeal drew people to watch her as an anchor.

Reed had covered the Cavaliers games during James' tenure there, which prompted rumors that the rich mega star is her baby's daddy.

Both Reed and James are single, though James has two out-of-wedlock children with high school sweetheart Savannah Brinson.

By Johnette Jernigan and Kathy Wray Coleman, Cleveland Urban News. Com and The Cleveland Urban News.Com Blog

CLEVELAND,Ohio-In Cleveland, Oh., where Ohio is a pivotal state that will likely decide the upcoming election, presidential debate watchers that gathered Wednesday night to capacity at the Ward 8 community office of Cleveland Councilman Jeff Johnson in the predominantly Black city's Glenville neighborhood said President Barack Obama was a winner over Mitt Romney.

That posture, no doubt, is contrary to mainstream America and a CNN poll that found that Romney beat Obama 67 percent to 35 percent,  a poll that  political pundits said was admittedly skewed with Republicans.

Held in Denver, Colo at the University of Denver, the first presidential debate of the 2012 election was moderated by Jim Lehrer, 78, a prominent journalist and frequent debate moderator who  is accused of letting it go off course with Obama and Romney making long speeches rather than timed responses in a continual fashion.

It covered domestic policy issues such as tax platforms, green energy, and education, and the federal budget and deficit.

"The president was the winner," said Councilman Johnson, a Clevelander and one of 13 all Black Obama delegates from Ohio's majority Black 11th congressional district to the since done Democratic National Convention held last month in Charlotte, NC.

Johnson did not give Obama a slam dunk but he said that his incumbency in a close debate took him over the edge to win it.

State Rep. Bill Patmon (D-10), a Cleveland Democrat, agrees.

"If we base the debate on facts, truths, and informative data," the president won," said Patmon.

Those at Johnson's debate watch party ate fried chicken, potato salad, and collard greens, compliments of the councilman and his ward club.

At times you could hear a pin drop in the room.