Clevelandurbannews.com, Ohio's Black digital news leader

WASHINGTON, D.C.-On Tues. First Lady Michelle Obama (pictured) held a conference call with Cleveland Urban News.Com and  reporters and bloggers from across the nation to announce the celebration of  the first-year anniversary of an organization dubbed Joining Forces that she and Dr. Jill Biden created that has brought jobs to military spouses across the country, and to recognize 11 new corporate and other private sector companies that have joined the initiative and will bring 15,000 more job opportunities this year alone."

"Since we started Joining Forces one of our biggest goals has been to address employment issues for not just our veterans but also for our spouses," the First Lady said."Arise Virtual Solutions, Alpine Access -- those are just a few, but there are so many other companies who have stepped forward on behalf of our families to lead the way.

A major highlight of the Joining Forces initiative is the reciprocity agreement for seniority on those jobs to transfer from participating companies in different U.S. cities, something that had not traditionally occurred for America's military spouses, mainly working class women, who would sometimes have trouble finding employment at all.

COLUMBUS, Ohio-Cleveland area Black leaders like U.S. Rep. Marcia Fudge (D-11) (pictured), a Warrensville Hts. Democrat, and state Rep. Bill Patmon (D-10) (pictured 2nd), a Cleveland Democrat, say that a bill dubbed Senate Bill 295 that passed the Ohio Senate last week that repeals or replaces House Bill 194, the voter suppression bill, will work to silence the Black vote in Ohio in November and is designed to circumvent a voter's referendum on HB 194.

"The rush by the Republican led Ohio Senate to repeal H.B. 194 will most certainly lead to voter confusion," said Fudge, whose 11th Congressional District includes Cleveland's east side and Black pockets of Akron, a city some 35 miles south of Cleveland. "Ultimately, I welcome a roll back of any measure that suppresses voting disproportionately for specific groups of voters, but the deliberate inclusion of a ban on in-person early voting three days prior to an election speaks volumes about the intent of the Ohio Senate, and it is my fear that they will repeal and replace the law with similarly restrictive provisions on voting, without an opportunity for Ohioans to again voice their opinion through a referendum."

SB 295, which Senate Democrats unanimously opposed, must pass the Ohio House and escape a veto not expected by Republican Gov John Kasich to become law.

And it is likely that it will become a state law subject also to a voters referendum like HB 194 if the Democrats get enough signatures to put it on the ballot next year after the presidential election is over, though lawmakers are confused on the legalities of attempts by the Republican controlled state legislature to stop a voter referendum on the November ballot of HB 194 through the substitute SB 295.

The Ohio Democratic Party collected enough signatures last year to let voters decide if HB 194 should stand or be repealed as a state law that, among other requirements, slashes early voting and requires Ohioans to jump hurdles through identification mandates to vote in November when President Barack Obama will square off with Mitt Romney, the likely nominee for the Republican Party for president of the United States of America.

Angry over the upcoming ballot initiative relative to HB 194, the Ohio Senate watered down the voter suppression agendas that were in HB 194 and passed SB 295 , making a voter referendum on HB 194 essentially null and void, maybe.

Though the Ohio Constitution allows voters to decide if HB 194 should stand or be repealed because enough signatures were secured to put the issue on the ballot through what is called a referendum vote, it is unclear what happens when the state legislature repeals the law before voters can decide themselves whether to dump it or not.

Ohio State Rep. Bill Patmon (D-Cleveland)

"When you have an argument between the legislature or the executive branch and the people, the courts usually decide the outcome," said Patmon, one of five Cleveland area Black state legislators, and a former Cleveland councilman who ran unsuccessfully for mayor against current Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson in 2009. "It's all designed to undermine the people that are fighting for the right to vote."

The Rev Jesse Jackson Sr.

Civil Rights activists such as the Rev. Al Sharpton and the Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr. (pictured 3rd) are upset too.

"We need the attorney generals of the 34 states to convene and protect the right to vote," said Jackson in referencing HB 194 and similar bills pushed by the Republicans in other states during a visit to Cleveland last year.

Reach Journalist Kathy Wray Coleman at editor@clevelandurbannews.com and phone number: 216-932-3114.

NEW ORLEANS, LA-The University of Kentucky beat the University of Kansas Mon. night 67 to 59 to win its eighth NCAA men's basketball championship.

The Kansas Jayhawks have won three NCAA championships and the Kentucky Wildcats had won seven before their anticipated victory in New Orleans this week .

According to a White House press release to Cleveland Urban News.Com, President Barack Obama congratulated Uof K coach John Calipari, his team, and player Anthony Davis, who won the Final Four most outstanding player award.

"The President told Coach Calipari that his team played with class and dignity, and that it was a great game to watch," the press release said. "Coach Calipari passed the phone to Anthony Davis, and the president congratulated the Chicago native on earning the Final Four most outstanding player award."

A predominantly White university in Lexington, Ky., the school's athletic venue has come along way since Blacks were not allowed to play basketball under then U of K basketball coach  Adolph Rupp in the 1960s.

Reach Journalist Kathy Wray Coleman at editor@clevelandurbannews.com and phone number: 216-932-3114.

INDEPENDENCE, Ohio-Cleveland Ward 8 Councilman Jeff Johnson (pictured) will guest co-host "The Councilman Zack Reed Show" tonight, April 1, from 8-10 pm on WTAM AM Radio 1100 and will discuss the Trayvon Martin case. Reed, who leads Cleveland's Ward 2, will also host the show on April 1.

Call in numbers for WTAM are 216-578-1100 and 216-578-1111.

Reach Journalist Kathy Wray Coleman at editor@clevelandurbannews.com and phone number: 216-932-3114.

CLEVELAND, Ohio-Over 200 people, including prominent area Civil Rights attorneys, elected officials, Cleveland NAACP officials and leaders of grassroots groups such as the Imperial Women, Black on Black Crime, Occupy Cleveland, Revolution Books, the Oppressed People's Nation, the Carl Stokes Brigade, Peace in the Hood, Occupy the Hood Cleveland, the Committee to Bring Home Jamela and Jamyla, the Cleveland Chapter of the New Black Panther Party, the Cleveland African American Museum, Organize Ohio, the Northeast Ohio Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign, People for the Imperial Act, the Joaquin Hicks Real People's Movement,  and the Underground Railroad participated in a rally on Fri., March 30 at Public Square in Cleveland to demand the repeal of Florida's "Stand Your Ground" law and in support of slain unarmed Florida teen Trayvon Martin.

"Gunning somebody down is not standing your ground," said famed Cleveland Civil Rights Attorney Avery Friedman, who produces and stars in a cable television show on constitutional  issues and other legal matters at noon weekly on CNN.

"I am over six feet tall and weigh 250 pounds and if somebody feels threatened by me in a shopping mall and shoots me is that Stand Your Ground?" asked state Rep. Bill Patmon (D-10), a Cleveland Democrat. "Elected officials have got to stand up in Cleveland and elsewhere on what is happening to Black people in Cleveland and around this country."

Florida's Stand Your Ground law, which is duplicated in other states but not in Ohio, a state that does have a recently passed law that allows concealed weapons carry in bars and sports stadiums, is being tested as unconstitutional, though some people confuse it with self defense, which has a higher standard of justification.

Bill Swain of Revolution Books had harsher words than both Friedman and Patmon on the circumstances surrounding Martin's unprecedented murder.

"It is nothing but a modern day lynching," said Swain, a White community activist.