By Kathy Wray Coleman, Publisher, Editor-n-Chief, Cleveland Urban News. Com and The Cleveland Urban News.Com Blog, Ohio's Most Read Online Black Newspaper

Cleveland Urban News.Com remembers the following Blacks, known nationally and internationally, that passed away in 2012 and whose contributions will remain a part of America's legacy, and a source of pride to the Black community.

Weekly Address: The president and first lady extend a holiday greeting and thank our troops for their service, click below to watch the 2012 Christmas message video of President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama

WASHINGTON, D.C.-In this week’s address, President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama wished everyone a Merry Christmas and happy holidays, and they thanked America's brave troops and their families for their service. The president and first lady ask the American people to visit Joining Forces.Gov (Click Here To Go There) to find ways to support our veterans and military families and say that we must come together, as we always do, to care for each other during this holiday season.

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

By Kathy Wray Coleman, Publisher, Editor-n-Chief, Cleveland Urban News. Com and The Cleveland Urban News.Com Blog, Ohio's Most Read Online Black Newspaper

CLEVELAND,Ohio- Community activists will discuss gun violence and gun control measures during a segment today, Dec. 23 at 5 pm on the Art McKoy University of Common Sense Show on WERE 1490 AM Talk Radio in Cleveland, a Radio One news station. The show call in phone number is 216-578-1490.

Guests for the show are Black NRA members, including Community Activist Donna Walker Brown.

At 7 pm after the show airs Walker Brown, a motorcycle club member who says she will run for Cleveland mayor next year, said that the Omens Motorcycle Club, based in the Buckeye-Woodland area on Cleveland's predominantly Black east side, will hold a vigil in front of the radio station building at Radio One, that also houses WZAK 93.1 FM,   2510 St. Clair Ave. in Cleveland. The candlelight vigil, said Walker Brown, is to remember the 20 Connecticut first graders at Sandy Hook Elementary School and six educators gunned down at the school last week by suspected shooter Adam Lanza, who then turned the gun on himself.

The shootings have reignited the national debate on gun violence and gun control.

McKoy (pictured in hat), like many Cleveland area community activists, is for gun control and is against the policies of the National Rifle Association, He says he welcomes the community discussion around the controversial issue.

Meanwhile, Ohio State Rep. Bill Patmon (pictured (D-10), a Cleveland Democrat, has introduced a  bill in the Ohio State Legislature around metal detectors in schools to protect public school children in Ohio and wants a state law with criminal penalties for parents and guardians that do not have locks on guns that get into the hands of children only to result in avoidable shooting tragedies of innocent children and other people.

"These bills are designed to protect the children in Ohio as we as state legislators are required to do," said Patmon, a junior state representative and former city council member of Ward 8 who lost a bid for mayor in 2009 against current Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson.

In the wake of the deadly Connecticut shootings, the NRA has called for teachers from across the nation to have a gun for protection in every public school classroom, a radical posture by most standards but not a surprise coming from the conservative gun toting group.

By Kathy Wray Coleman, Publisher, Editor-n-Chief, Cleveland Urban News. Com and The Cleveland Urban News.Com Blog, Ohio's Most Read Online Black Newspaper

WASHINGTON, D.C.-Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives scolded their own leader on Friday, rejecting a proposed compromise by House Speaker John Boehner (pictured) (R-8) of Ohio for an agreement for the wealthiest Americans to give up the current tax cut on the rich in order to tame negotiations with President Obama (pictured) and Congressional Democrats to avert a fiscal cliff,  a financial crisis measure set to go in effect on Jan. 1 if federal lawmakers cannot reach an agreement on deficit reduction goals by the end of the year.

House lawmakers, instead, went home empty handed for Christmas but will return on Wednesday to try to hammer out an agreement, the president said during a press conference with reporters on Friday.

Headed to Hawaii to spend Christmas with First Lady Michelle Obama and their two daughters, Malia,14, and Sasha,11, Obama urged patience by congress, and relaxation as the Christmas holiday nears.

"So as we leave town for a few days to be with our families for the holidays, I hope it gives everybody some perspective," said Obama in a press release to Cleveland Urban News.Com on Friday. "Everybody can cool off, everybody can drink some egg nog, have some Christmas cookies, sing some Christmas carols, enjoy the company of loved ones."

The series of tax increases and spending cuts that would take place if the fiscal cliff materializes has Obama fighting for a resolution, though none is in sight as Dec. 31 looms.

Some 12 types of tax cuts are at issue, including the Bush tax cuts, which include tax cuts for the rich, middle class and others that will expire this year that Congress renewed in 2010 and gives a higher tax cut rate to Americans making in excess of $250 thousand annually. And a payroll tax cut holiday, a 2 percent annual tax cut to working Americans.

After meeting with the president at the White House one-on-one last Sunday morning, Boehner had proposed to both Republican and Democratic House lawmakers on Friday for the Bush tax cuts to be eliminated only for Americans that make $1 million or more annually, an offer shunned from the get go by a majority of House Democrats that also offended his fellow Republicans.

Meanwhile, the Congressional Black Caucus, led by U.S. Rep. Marcia L. Fudge (pictured) (D-11), a Warrenville Hts. Democrat, has balked at any compromise by the president that targets middle class people, the elderly that rely on medicare, medicaid and social security, and the poor, with Fudge issuing a press release against what she called "Boehner's Plan B."

While the debt ceiling compromise is part of the fiscal cliff discussion, Obama, a Democrat who won  a second four-year term as president in November against Republican Presidential Nominee Mitt Romney, has focused more recently on the Bush tax cuts.

President Obama was adamant about eliminating the Bush tax cuts on the rich but wanted them to remain for middle class and poor people. And the pay roll tax cut is likely not to be renewed by Congress, congressional leaders have said.

What compromises America's most passionate first Black president is willing to make to stop a fiscal cliff remains to be seen, critics and supporters alike say.

Both political sides agree that Obama has the edge, coming off of a win in November, and is likely not to give in too easily on wanting the rich to give more rather than bullying America for tax cut after tax cut in the midst of a slowly improving economic decline brought on, say Democrats, by the failed economic policies of the Bush administration.

The Democrats control the Senate, but not the U.S. House of Representatives, with Democrats from both chambers supporting the president on the financial crisis issue.

Eliminating tax cuts for the rich was a cornerstone of the president's reelection campaign.

All but a handful of Republicans, some still reeling from losing the party's bid for president this year, continue to put up stumbling blocks around negotiations to circumvent a fiscal cliff, Democrats complain.