COLUMBUS, Ohio– Today, Assistant Minority Leader Hearcel F. Craig (D-Columbus), Senate Minority Leader Nickie J. Antonio (D-Lakewood), and state Sen. Vernon Sykes(D-Akron) (pictured from right)held a press conference to discuss a new package of legislation introduced and designed to prevent gun deaths and gun violence in Ohio.

"Gun violence is out of control across our state and country, with nearly 80% of all homicides and over half of suicides involving a gun," said Craig. "These situations are preventable, but only if we have the courage to act."

Staff article:

CLEVELAND, Ohio-Women's March Cleveland, one of the largest grassroots women's rights activist groups in Northeast, Ohio, is calling for a criminal charge leveled against a young, Black woman from Warren, Ohio who miscarried at some 22 weeks of pregnancy to be immediately dismissed, saying the charge at issue is racist and that the woman is purportedly being targeted by police and prosecutors because she is Black, and for political reasons.

Prosecutors and police charged Brittany Watts (pictured), 33 and of Warren, Ohio, with felony corpse abuse, accusing her of attempting to plunge the toilet after her miscarriage. A judge ordered a bind-over of the case to felony court as prosecutors prepare to submit the case to a Trumbull, County grand jury.

The city of Warren is roughly 60 miles southeast of Cleveland and is 28 percent Black.

According to Warren police, Watts, who has no criminal record and  miscarried at home, should have wrapped up the lifeless fetus and delivered the remains to police headquarters, which activists say is absurd.

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.

Area women's rights activist groups remain upset over what they say is government mistreatment of Watts.

"We want the criminal charge against Ms. Watts dismissed and we will not tolerate young, Black pregnant women already in distress being misused by  police and prosecutors angry because Ohio women won on Issue 1 in  November," said Women's March Cleveland head organizer Kathy Wray Coleman, a longtime Black Cleveland activist and organizer. She added that "police and prosecutors after Ms. Watts apparently do not know the difference between a corpse and a fetus when they seek to terrorize and prosecute Black women and girls in a disproportionate fashion."

The seasoned Black, female activist and organizer, also a longtime local journalist who writes on Black issues, went on to say that "ignorance is bliss and racism and sexism are still very much alive and well in Ohio and elsewhere, and Black women remain at risk for unfair, selective, and politically-motivated prosecutions by a systemically racist and sexist legal system in Ohio and elsewhere in the country."

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 on Nov 7, a statewide measure pushed by Democrats and women's rights activist 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 is being prosecutor not for miscarrying but for allegedly abusing a corpse after miscarriage, though doctors say it was a premature fetus.

The case has garnered attention from media outlets across the country, including Black venues, as well as the attention of famed Civil Rights attorney Benjamin Crump.

Watt's' attorney said her Black client is 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.

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 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.

Washington, DC – This week, Ohio Congresswoman Shontel Brown (OH-11), a Warrensville Hts. Democrat who's 11th congressional district includes Cleveland, joined 115 House colleagues in requesting increased funding for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP). The letter was led by Congresswoman Lori Trahan (MA-03) and Congressman James P. McGovern (MA-02) and was sent to House and Senate leaders Thursday. The letter requested including $1.6 billion in supplemental funding for LIHEAP in any government funding package, citing significant energy price fluctuations due to global conflicts. A copy of the letter can be found here.

"Here in Northeast Ohio, winters are cold, heating bills can be large, and many of my constituents need assistance," said Congresswoman Brown. "We need to make sure that LIHEAP is fully funded and stable so that those in need can be warm."

"As you know, LIHEAP helps families who are at risk of being unable to afford to heat their homes in the winter or cool them in the summer. Last year, more than six million households across the country relied on critical assistance from the LIHEAP program," the lawmakers wrote in the letter. "For the families who receive LIHEAP, it is a critical lifeline that prevents them from making the impossible choice between staying warm and having enough food or paying for their medications."

In Fiscal Year 2023, the LIHEAP program distributed a total of more than $4.5 billion in home heating assistance to families across the United States, including $100 million in Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funding and an additional $1 billion from the government funding package passed in September 2022. Despite the significant federal investment, LIHEAP continues to be underfunded, with just 20 percent of eligible households currently receiving assistance through the program.

In October, Congresswoman Brown announced that Ohio was awarded a total of $153.6 million in LIHEAP funding for this winter, with $149 million coming from existing formula funding and an additional $4.49 million from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

• 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.

Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com

EAST CLEVELAND, Ohio- East Cleveland Mayor Brandon King (pictured) survived a recall effort on Tuesday with 70 percent of voters voting no.

According to unofficial results from the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections the Black two term mayor, who escaped a previous recall attempt, won over those seeking his ouster 173-73 with all precincts counted, nearly a mandate.

A Democrat who blames Republicans and disgruntled city counsel members for the recall attempt, King survived the previous recall attempt, which was last year in 2022, by 18 votes, far less that the margin for Tuesday's recall election and an indication, said sources, that East Cleveland voters support him overall.

The 99 percent Black and poor city, an impoverished suburb of Cleveland of about 15,000 people, has been under fiscal emergency for the last decade.

Then the vice president of city council, King succeeded former mayor Gary Norton into office in December of 2016 by succession, and after East Cleveland voters recalled Norton and the council president at the time. That successful recall effort was organized by activists who complained that Norton was fiscally irresponsible and was supporting a now defunct merger proposal with East Cleveland and neighboring Cleveland.

Thereafter, he won election in 2017 and reelection as mayor in 2021.

Mayor King, 55, was born and raised in East Cleveland, and he holds an MBA from the Ohio State University.

By Kathy Wray Coleman, associate publisher, editor-in-chief (Coleman is a former biology teacher and a seasoned Black journalist, and an investigative, legal, scientific, and political reporter who trained for 17 years at the Call and Post Newspaper in Cleveland, Ohio).