CLEVELAND,Ohio-Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson (pictured) said through a spokesperson yesterday that Black state  legislators representing Cleveland and Cleveland City Council members that have said he crafted his controversial Cleveland schools educational plan unleashed last week that calls for a teacher merit pay system and more charter schools without their knowledge are being disingenuous, at best.

"He would never release something like this without speaking to the appropriate people," said Andrea Taylor, Jackson's press secretary. "They were aware of the proposal before it was made public."

And Taylor said that nothing in the plan suggest that teacher tenure will be touched or that seniority would be eliminated, a posture that Cleveland Teachers Union officials and community activists angry over the proposal say simply is not true.

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BEVERLY HILLS, California-Famed pop singer Whitney Houston, the close cousin of music icon Dionne Warwick and ex wife of bad boy New Edition singer Bobby Brown, is dead at 48.

Houston was reportedly found by her brother in the bath tub of the California Beverly Hilton Hotel room where she was in town for a Grammy party thrown at the hotel by record producer and music industry executive Clive Davis, her longtime mentor who discovered her talent, nurtured it, and molded her into a star. She will be remembered during a special segment sung by Jennifer Hudson at tonight's Grammy Awards.

Police said that Houston was found dead at 3:55 pm Sat. afternoon and could not be revived following a 911 call from hotel security.

According to police, there were no immediate signs of foul play and the only drugs found in Houston's hotel room were reportedly prescription drugs, though an investigation is underway around the propriety of those drugs, including subpoenas to Houston's doctors.

Autopsy  reports are not expected for at least three weeks.

WASHINGTON, D.C.-U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said during an interview on Thurs. that while the Obama administration has waived some No Child Left Behind Act standards to 10 states for developing educational initiatives that include additional resources for at risk children and provisions to enhance educational outcomes for African-American students, teacher merit pay plans like the one proposed by Ohio Gov. John Kasich and Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson in an effort to dismantle teacher tenure are not something required for Ohio and other states to qualify.

"That is not a requirement," said Duncan to the question posed by The Kathy Wray Coleman Online News Blog.Com and Cleveland Urban News.Com.

Jackson and Kasich are working hand in hand as a Democratic mayor and Republican governor to ditch teacher tenure and seniority and institute a merit pay system for Cleveland schools through their request for state legislation to seal the deal, though Black state legislators from Cleveland said that the mayor of the predominantly Black major metropolitan city, who controls the largely Black city schools via state law, had not discussed his plan with them.

CLEVELAND, Ohio- Adding to a growing list of endorsements such as East Cleveland Mayor Gary Norton, Ohio State Sen. Nina Turner (D-25), Cleveland Councilpersons Mamie Mitchell and Terrell Pruitt, The Carl Stokes Brigade, The Imperial Women, and Cuyahoga County Councilmen Julian Rogers (D-10), Pernell Jones (D-8), and Dale Miller (D-2), U.S. Rep. Marcia L. Fudge (D-OH) announced today her support of Subodh Chandra for Cuyahoga County prosecutor.

“Subodh Chandra is the clear choice for county prosecutor,” Fudge said in a press release. “He is honest and committed, and he has the experience and integrity to ensure real reform and change in our justice system.”

Chandra, 44,  said that he is grateful to gain the endorsement from a respected community servant and federal legislator like Fudge, who represents Ohio's 11th Congressional District, a predominantly Black district that includes the east side of Cleveland and its eastern suburbs, and a majority Black pocket of Akron and staggering parts of its Summit County suburbs.