By Kathy Wray Coleman, editor

CLEVELAND, Ohio.- Former President Donald Trump (pictured), the presumptive nominee for the Republican nomination for president, is scheduled to visit Ohio this weekend to stomp for U.S. Senate candidate Bernie Moreno, whom he has endorsed.

The former president is slated to speak Saturday at the Buckeye Values PAC rally at Wright Bros. Aero Inc.in Dayton at 4 p.m., with doors opening at 12 p.m.

Moreno will square off with state Sen. Matt Dolan and Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose for Ohio's March 19 primary, and whether Trump can push him over the finish line remains to be seen. The winner will face current Democratic U.S. Sen Sherrod Brown, a Cleveland Democrat, in November.

Trump, who won Ohio when he ran for president in 2016 and in 2020, the latter of which he ultimately lost to current President Joe Biden, endorsed U.S. Sen J.D. Vance, who won over Democrat Tim Ryan for the Senate  in 2022 with his help.

Trump is also on Ohio's primary ballot this year, as is Biden, among others.

Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, the most read Black digital newspaper and Black blog in Ohio and in the Midwest. Tel: (216) 659-0473. Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. We interviewed former president Barack Obama

Pictured is United States President Joe Biden

Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com

By Kathy Wray Coleman, associate publisher, editor -in-chief, and a political and investigative reporter who trained for 17 years at the Call and Post Newspaper in Cleveland, Ohio

Washington D.C.- A sometimes defiant President Joe Biden (pictured) delivered a fiery State of the Union address Thursday night in Washington, D.C. before a joint chamber of Congress, and he left no stone un-turned as he prepares for reelection and a likely rematch with former President Donald Trump via the upcoming November election.

It was the president's third State of the Union and his last one before the 2024 presidential election, and it, no doubt, silenced some naysayers and put some rumors to rest that he is too old to be president at 81-years-old and does not have the mindset to lead America to prosperity.

Likely one of the most forceful and dynamic speeches of his political career, the former U.S. senator who was vice president under former President Barack Obama, the nation's first Black president, the articulate Biden spoke for 68 min. He received repeated applause and standing ovations from Congressional Democrats and a few boos every now and then from MAGA Republicans like Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Green, a Trump supporter. Democrats chanted "four more years."

At one point in his well-prepared speech the Democratic president began preaching, after mentioning the late Civil Rights icon the Rev Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the Civil Rights Movement that King initiated and led under the auspice of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference

He spoke on a broad range of issues, including immigration, education, gun safety, climate change, foreign and domestic policy, tax cuts for the middle class and the Ukraine and Israeli-Hamas wars. And he took aim at former President Trump not by name but as his "predecessor," whom he called his predecessor some 13 times during his rousing speech.

He complimented First Lady Dr. Jill Biden as an incredible first lady who will lead the charge for women's health research and said that Vice President Kamala Harris, the country's first Black and first female vice president, is a superb vice president and a credible ally who has fought for women's reproductive rights without reservation.

" I thank Vice President Kamala Harris for being an incredible leader and defending Roe v Wade," he said, adding that if he is sent a bill  from Congress he will "restore Roe v Wade as the law of the land again."

The oldest president ever elected to office, the president addressed "Bloody Sunday," the day of March 7, 1965 when  voting rights protesters crossing  the Edmond Pettus Bridge from Selma to Montgomery, Ala were arrested, beaten and attacked by police, an effort led by Dr King  that culminated in the  passage by Congress of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

He discussed how the U.S. Supreme Court has weakened the original Voting Rights Act and called for passage of the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, and he spoke on the Jan 6 insurrection at the Capitol building, saying rioters were not patriots and that they "came to stop the peaceful transition of power but failed."

Biden said that as president he has created 15 million more jobs in three years, and lowered unemployment and inflation, and that America's bridges, roadways and other infrastructure projects will be "made with American products and built by American workers."

Public school teachers, he said, deserve a raise, after he praised unions and United Auto Workers (UAW) leaders for fighting for better working conditions and a decent wage for union members.

"The middle class built the country and unions built the middle class," the president said.

The president spoke at length on Gaza and the hostages in Israel and Gaza, as well as the need for humanitarian aid and a cease-fire in Gaza. He said that he wants a two state solution between Israel and Palestine and that he will not rest until "every  hostage is brought home."

He promised to do everything within his power to protect medicaid, medicare, and social security for aging and other  Americans and promoted the Affordable Care Act, Obama's signature legislation, saying he would fight to keep it in place amid Trump's efforts to do otherwise.

Biden also courted the Black and minority vote during his speech in what he called progress regarding "historic job growth and small business growth for Black, Hispanic, and Asian-Americans."

Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, the most read Black digital newspaper and Black blog 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.

staff article:

CLEVELAND, Ohio-Brittany Watts (pictured),  a 33-year-old Black woman from Warren, Ohio who miscarried at some 22 weeks of pregnancy and was charged by the city with felony corpse abuse but subsequently  escaped an indictment by a Trumbull County grand jury will attend President Biden's State of the Union on Thurs., March 7 in Washington, D.C. Her mother, Annette Watts, will also attend, according to a press release.

Warren is a small city some 59 miles southeast of Cleveland that is roughly 28 percent Black.

Watts is the guest of 11th Congregational District Congresswoman Shontel Brown, a Warrensville Hts Democrat,  and her mother the guest of Congresswoman Joyce Beatty, a Columbus Democrat. Both announced the news in separate press releases.

Rep Brown spoke on the House floor on Wednesday on the need to pass the Women's Health Protection Act, which would establish a nationwide right to the full range of reproductive care: abortion, contraception, family planning, miscarriage management, IVF and more.That proposed legislation has stalled in Congress as Republicans push for a federal law that bans abortion after 15 weeks, all while campaigning for votes from women across the country as the 2024 presidential election nears and Republicans fight to regain control of the U.S. Senate and the White House in November.

The grand jury issued a no bill last year relative to Watts, which meant no criminal charges in the since dismissed case, a case that drew national attention and angered women's rights groups in Ohio like Women's March Cleveland, the largest grassroots women's rights activist group in Northeast, Ohio.

Women's March Cleveland had called for the felony charge to be immediately dismissed, saying the charge at issue was racist and that Watts was purportedly being targeted by police and prosecutors because she is Black, and for political reasons.

"This case has racial implications for sure and we are pleased that the grand jury saw through the racism as we continue to be concerned about racist and malicious prosecutions of Black pregnant women in Ohio," said Women's March Cleveland head organizer Kathy Wray Coleman after a grand jury declined to indict Watts, Coleman a longtime Black Cleveland activist, digital journalist and community organizer.

The so-called facts of the case are murky at best, Coleman said.

Watts went to the hospital before she miscarried and was later released in spite of pregnancy complications determined by doctors, who said the fetus could not survive outside of the womb.

Prosecutors and police said Britanny Watts attempted to plunge the toilet after her miscarriage. A judge ordered a bind-over of the case to felony court and prosecutors submitted the case to a Trumbull, County grand jury, obviously to no avail.

Research reveals that Black women and girls who miscarry in Ohio and elsewhere who discard a fetus are prosecuted at a higher rate than similarly situated White women and girls.

Ohio voters passed Issue 1 in November, a statewide measure pushed by Democrats and activist women's rights groups like Women's March Cleveland and aggressively opposed by key Republican leaders in the state that codified the legal right to abortion and other reproductive rights for Ohio women in the Ohio Constitution.

Dr. George Sterbenz, a forensic pathologist, said in a hearing that  there was no no injury to the fetus and said Watts’ fetus died before going through the birth canal. He added that Watts’ medical records showed she visited the hospital twice before the birth.

“This fetus was going to be non-viable,” said Sterbenz. “It was going to be non-viable because she had premature ruptured membranes — her water had broken early — and the fetus was too young to be delivered.”

Police and prosecutors say Watts was being prosecuted not for miscarrying but for allegedly abusing a corpse after miscarriage, though doctors say that it was a premature fetus.

Watt's' attorney said her Black client was being treated unfairly for something that has become routine.

“This 33-year-old girl, with no criminal record, is demonized for something that goes on every day,” said Traci Timko, Watts’ defense attorney before the case went to the county grand jury.

Tommy's National Centre for Miscarriage Research published research in 2021 showing that Black women had a 43% increased risk of miscarriage compared to White women.

Coleman said that "instead of singling out pregnant Black women in Ohio like Britanny Watts who miscarry due to no fought of their own for malicious and selective  prosecutions authorities should address disparities relative to Black women who face disproportionate complications during pregnancy, including higher miscarriage rates, and even death."

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Black women are three times more likely to die during pregnancy than White women.

Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, the most read Black digital newspaper and Black blog 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.

By Kathy Wray Coleman, editor

SELMA, Alabama– Vice President Kamala Harris (pictured) called for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza on Sun., March 3 during her speech in Selma, Ala on the Edmond Pettus Bridge at an event commemorating the 59th anniversary of the historic "Bloody Sunday" march.