CLEVELAND, Ohio- Former Ohio state senator C.J. (Carolyn Jean) Prentiss (pictured) died Tuesday afternoon with her husband Michael Charney and other family members by her side, her family said Tuesday. She was 82-years-old.

Funeral arrangements are pending.

An educator in her younger years and a former state representative and state school board member, Prentiss served in the Ohio Senate from 1999-2007 and was minority leader for the 126th General Assembly. She could not run for reelection due to a state law that sets term limits for state lawmakers. She and her husband Michael Charney were both active in the Cleveland community, particularly during the pendency of the longstanding schools desegregation case,  Charney a former labor organizer and retired Cleveland schools history teacher.

A Democrat, Prentiss received both a B.A. in education and M.Ed. from Cleveland State University. While in the Ohio State Senate, Prentiss represented constituents of Cleveland, Bratenahl, Brooklyn Heights, Cleveland Heights, Cuyahoga Heights, East Cleveland, Newburgh Heights and University Heights.

She served as minority whip during the 125th General Assembly and was the first female president of the Ohio Legislative Black Caucus. Prentiss was also on the founding board of directors for the nonpartisan economic policy group Policy Matters Ohio. She was a delegate to the Democratic Convention for Jesse Jackson in 1984, and then became co-chair of the Cleveland Rainbow Coalition.She was also chosen to be the special education adviser to then Gov. Ted Strickland in 2007.

Prentiss grew up in Cleveland and  attended the March on Washington led by Civil Rights icon the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr in 1963 . She was a community activist-turned politician. She was on numerous committees and consistently advocated for those most under-served.

As a state lawmaker she spearheaded significant legislation aimed at decreasing the Black-White academic achievement gap in Cleveland's public schools and obtained funding for all-day kindergarten and reduced class sizes.

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.

Women's March Cleveland at one of its marches in Cleveland, led by Black women. Photo by Cleveland Plain Dealer/Cleveland.com Photojournalist David Petkiewicz

Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com

Staff article

WASHINGTON, D.C.-The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday heard oral arguments in a case that reached the country's highest court that could end the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) longtime approval of mifepristone, the nation's most widely used abortion bill.

Primarily at issue is whether the FDA's two-decades approval of the pill is safe with justices seemingly skeptical of such assertion during Tuesday's proceedings in Washington, D.C., pundits said afterwards. And whether the justices can step in for federal agencies to determine the safety of the pill is at issue too, lawyers for proponents of the pill argued to the nine-member , 6-3 conservative-leaning court comprised of three former President Donald Trump appointees.

The justices focused on whether the group of anti-abortion doctors who brought the lawsuit even had legal standing to bring the claim, with the  plaintiffs represented by the Alliance Defending Freedombarguing that the FDA failed to adequately access the drug’s safety risks.

Whether the doctors could show that they were directly injured merely because they object to abortion also raised skepticism among the justices.

The case is being watched nationwide, particularly by women's rights activists in key states.

Abortion rights groups in Ohio where voters enshrined the legal right to abortion and other reproductive measures into the Ohio coalition via the passage of an Issue 1 referendum at the ballot box  in November, say they are fed up and intend to further voice their displeasure at the ballot box in November.

"After this same anti-female U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June of 2022 and handed authority over the issue to the states, women won at the ballot box on  Issue 1 in Ohio only to continue to face continual attacks on our constitutional right to abortion access at the state and national levels by the GOP," said Women's March Cleveland head organizer Kathy Wray Coleman, a seasoned Black Cleveland activist, organizer and local journalist. "Northeast Ohio women and women across this land must rise up before the November presidential election and take to the streets to protest the attack on choice and our reproductive freedoms in general."

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.

Picture:Women's March Cleveland at one of its reproductive rights marches in Cleveland, led by Black women. Photo by Cleveland Plain Dealer/Cleveland.com Photojournalist David Petkiewicz

Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com

Staff article

WASHINGTON, D.C.-The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday heard oral arguments in a case that reached the country's highest court that could end the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) longtime approval of mifepristone, the nation's most widely used abortion bill.

Primarily at issue is whether the FDA's two-decades long approval of the pill is safe with justices seemingly skeptical of such assertion during Tuesday's proceedings in Washington, D.C., pundits said afterwards. And whether the justices can step in for federal agencies to determine the safety of the pill is at issue too, lawyers for proponents of the pill argued to the nine-member, 6-3 conservative-leaning court comprised of three former President Donald Trump appointees.

The justices focused on whether the group of anti-abortion doctors who brought the lawsuit even had legal standing to bring the claim, with the  plaintiffs represented by the Alliance Defending Freedom arguing that the FDA failed to adequately evaluate the drug’s alleged safety risks.

Whether the doctors could show that they were directly injured merely because they object to abortion also raised skepticism among the justices.

The case is being watched nationwide, particularly by women's rights activists in key states.

Abortion rights groups in Ohio where voters enshrined the legal right to abortion and other reproductive measures into the Ohio Constitution via the passage of an Issue 1 referendum at the ballot box  last November say they are fed up and intend to further voice their displeasure at the ballot box this November.

"After this same anti-female U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June of 2022 and handed authority over the issue to the states, women won at the ballot box on Issue 1 in Ohio only to continue to face continual attacks on our constitutional right to abortion access at the state and national levels by the GOP," said Women's March Cleveland head organizer Kathy Wray Coleman, a seasoned Black Cleveland activist, organizer and local journalist. "Northeast Ohio women and women across this land must rise up before the November presidential election and take to the streets to protest the attack on choice and our reproductive freedoms in general."

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.