CLEVELAND, Ohio-Rainbow Push Coalition leader the Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr. and members of the Congressional Black Caucus did not disappoint at a town hall forum at Cleveland State University on Monday spearheaded by U.S. Rep. Marcia Fudge (D-OH).

The event drew a discussion on the Budget Control Act of 2011, the Republican Tea Party, and an Ohio voter suppression bill that Jackson and the legislators visiting Cleveland said is designed to silence Ohio's Black vote and harm the Democratic Party during the upcoming 2012 presidential election year.

"We need the attorney generals of the 34 states to convene and protect the right to vote," said Jackson, referencing states efforts, including Ohio's House Bill 194, in passing and seeking to pass laws slashing early voting and demanding identification to vote, Republican pushed legislation that has labor unions and Civil Rights organizations like the Cleveland NAACP upset.

CLEVELAND, Ohio-Rainbow Push Coalition leader the Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr. and members of the Congressional Black Caucus did not disappoint at a town hall forum at Cleveland State University on Monday spearheaded by U.S. Rep. Marcia Fudge (D-OH) that drew a discussion on the Budget Control Act of 2011, the Republican Tea Party, and an Ohio voter suppression bill that Jackson and the legislators visiting Cleveland said is designed to silence Ohio's Black vote and harm the Democratic Party during the upcoming 2012 presidential election year.

"We need the attorney generals of the 34 states to convene and protect the right to vote," said Jackson, referencing states efforts, including Ohio's House Bill 194, in passing and seeking to pass laws slashing early voting and demanding identification to vote, Republican pushed legislation that has labor unions and Civil Rights organizations like the Cleveland NAACP upset.

Cleveland NAACP Executive Director Stanley Miller has resigned after serving six years in the post, and amid controversy from a Black contractors group that says that Miller and Cleveland NAACP President George Forbes have done in struggling Black contractors by not speaking up about a dearth of minority contractors on the lucrative Medical Mart Project, though the major-metropolitan City of Cleveland is majority Black and roughly 67 percent minority.

Miller played his departure as a new opportunity to lead Cleveland's struggling Marcus Garvey Charter School of some 175 students, but others say he resigned under pressure and because of ongoing conflict with Forbes, including a scathing letter last week from Norman Edwards, executive director of The Black Contractors Group, a letter sent to Forbes and Miller that was copied to community leaders, Gov. John Kasich and U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown.

CLEVELAND, Ohio-As grassroots factions such as The Imperial Women Coalition, in cooperation with the Audacity of H.O.P.E Foundation , The Cleveland African-American Museum Cleveland City Council members, and other community affiliates, prepare for a candidate's debate for Cuyahoga County prosecutor on Thurs. Jan. 5 from 5:30 pm. to 8:00 pm at Lil Africa Party Center at 6816 Superior Ave in Cleveland, the Cleveland Plain Dealer, Ohio's Largest Newspaper, is fighting with county prosecutor Bill Mason and the Cleveland Call and Post Newspaper on whether the county prosecutor should be appointed rather than elected.