Pictured are 11th Congressional District Congresswoman Marcia L.Fudge, who also chairs the Congressional Black Caucus of Blacks in Congress, and Robert Saffold

From the Metro Desk of Cleveland Urban News.Com and the Kathy Wray Coleman Online News Blog.Com, Ohio's leaders in Black digital news (www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com) and (www.clevelandurbannews.com)

The Cleveland Chapter of the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists commemorates the “Father of Labor Day in Ohio,” the Honorable John Patterson Green. As we get ready to celebrate Labor Day in the Ohio and the U.S.A. on September 1, 2014, it is without a doubt that most Americans, especially union folks, will remember the deeds and exploits of such giants of organized labor such as A. Philip Randolph of the Sleeping Car Porters, John L. Lewis of the United Mine Workers, Philip Murray of the United Steal Workers, Jimmy Hoffa of the Teamsters, Walter Reuther of the United Auto Workers, and Cesar Chaves, of the United Farm Workers.

As a student of history and a former elected union official I have overtime witnessed these great icons of the trade labor movement and current labor leaders being recognized and commemorated for their many outstanding contributions to their constituents and the community at large.

Pictured are former Cuyahoga County Commissioner Peter Lawson Jones (in light grey suit and red tie), state Rep. Armond Budish (in dark grey suit and maroon colored tie), the Democratic candidate for Cuyahoga County executive, Congresswoman Marcia L. Fudge (in dark blue suit), who is also chair of the Congressional Black Caucus of Blacks in Congress, State Senator Nina Turner, the Democratic nominee for Ohio Secretary of State, and Cuyahoga County Executive Ed FitzGerald (in blue suit with blue shirt and red tie with a design), the Democratic candidate for Ohio governor

By Kathy Wray Coleman, editor-in-chief, Cleveland Urban News. Com and The Cleveland Urban News.Com Blog, Ohio's Most Read Online Black Newspaper and Newspaper Blog Kathy Wray Coleman is  a community activist and 20 year investigative journalist who trained for 17 years at the Call and Post Newspaper in Cleveland, Ohio. (www.clevelandurbannews.com) / (www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com)

CLEVELAND, Ohio- Former Cuyahoga County Commissioner Peter Lawson Jones will emcee at a political forum announcing the opening of state Rep. Armond Budish's chief campaign headquarters for his bid for county executive at noon on Saturday, August 30 at the campaign site at Shaker Square in Cleveland, 13210 Shaker Boulevard.  CLICK HERE TO READ THE ARTICLE AT CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM ON THE MEETING WITH REP BUDISH AND COMMUNITY ACTIVISTS ON HIS CANDIDACY FOR COUNTY EXECUTIVE AND WHAT HE WOULD BRING FOR THE BETTERMENT OF THE COMMUNITY, THE BLACK COMMUNITY IN PARTICULAR, AND WHAT HE WILL DO TO ADDRESS STILL EXISTING CUYAHOGA COUNTY CORRUPTION IF ELECTED. Budish told community activists groups in that meeting, including members of the Carl Stokes Brigade, the Imperial Women Coalition, Peace in the Hood, Black on Black Crime Inc., and the Greater Cleveland Immigrant Support Network, that if elected, Blacks will be a viable part of his administrative leadership team and that Blacks and other minorities will get a fair amount of county jobs. He said simply that he supports fair hiring practices and diversity, and activists have said that they intend to hold him to that pledge if he wins election to the county's top job.

Congresswoman Marcia L. Fudge, a Warrensville Heights Democrat and chair of the Congressional Black Caucus of Blacks in Congress, is expected to attend Saturday's event as are at least three of the Democratic candidates for statewide office, namely Ohio Sen Nina Turner, a Cleveland Democrat and candidate for secretary of state, state Rep. John Patrick Carney, who is running for state auditor, and Attorney General Candidate David Pepper.

Democrats running statewide face an uphill battle as the Republican ticket, led by incumbent Gov John Kasich, is leading in the polls and, unlike competing Democrats, those on the ticket have a boatload of more money. No Black Democrat has ever won statewide office in Ohio and Turner would be the first if she wins in November against incumbent secretary of state Jon Husted. She and state Rep Connie Pillich, a Montgomery Democrat seeking to oust incumbent Republican State Treasurer Josh Mandel,  have the best chances of winning of the Democratic statewide candidates, polls say.

A Beachwood Democrat, Budish is  likely the next county executive in the heavily Democratic Cuyahoga County, and faces Republican nominee and Cuyahoga County Councilman Jack Schron.

Jones is now an actor. CLICK HERE TO VISIT PETER LAWSON JONES.COM FOR HIS ACTING WEBSITE His county commissioner's job and others at issue were eliminated and he left office in 2011 pursuant to Issue 6, a voter adopted  charter amendment that scrapped the nine non-judicial elected county offices, including the three-member Board of Commissioners, county sheriff, treasurer, coroner, auditor, recorder, and clerk of courts, for a subsequently elected 11 member county council and an elected county executive. Those pre Issue 6 elected positions, besides the now defunct county commissioners offices, are now jobs appointed by the county executive, including the sheriff.

Issue 6 won with 66 percent of the vote against a competing ballot proposal labeled Issue 5 , which was proposed by Jones and former county commissioner Tim Hagan.  Issue 5 lost with 72 percent of  county voters rejecting it. Had it won voter approval, it would have given a 15-member elected committee authority to study county reform and make revision recommendations to voters in 2010.

Black leaders, including Fudge, Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson, the Cleveland NAACP, and the Call and Post Newspaper, a Cleveland weekly that targets the Black community and also has distributions in Columbus and Cincinnati, Ohio, opposed Issue 6, though not with much venom, voting results revealed.

County Executive Ed FitzGerald, the Democratic nominee for governor, took the helm as the first county executive under the new governance structure in 2011. He is not expected to attend Saturday's Shaker Square gathering in Cleveland due to a scheduling conflict, organizers said yesterday.

Jones told Cleveland Urban News.Com and The Kathy Wray Coleman Online New Blog.Com in an exclusive interview shortly before he left office in 2011 that he is finished with politics and was, at the time, upset with Issue 6. CLICK HERE TO READ THE EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW AT THE KATHY WRAY COLEMAN ONLINE NEWS BLOG.COM He said then that the new county governance structure gives too much power to one person, the county executive, and is not good for the Black community. At that time he and then county recorder Lillian Greene, a former common pleas judge, were the only two Black elected county elected officials aside from a few of the county  judges, though all of them, excluding some Republican judges, were Democrats.

County Council, a separate entity from Cleveland City Council, consists of eight Democrats, four of them Black,  and three Republicans.

Most that were previously against Issue 6, including Black leaders, have come to accept it, particularly since the Democrats still have the balance of power. But some Black elected officials have griped to Cleveland Urban News.Com, Ohio's leading Black digital newspaper,  that not enough Black people that got jobs under the old governance regime are getting employed with the county under the new format.

Cuyahoga County includes the largely Black city of Cleveland and 58 other municipalities, villages and townships. It is the largest of 88 counties statewide and is roughly 29 percent Black.

A Harvard University Law School graduate who also practices law, and a former Lt Gov candidate, Jones is a Shaker Heights Democrat and lives there with his wife Lisa. The couple has three children, all of them over 18. and two of them grown.

Jones has been virtually absent from the political arena since leaving politics, and has said that he is focusing more on his acting career.  His acting credits include performances at the Karmu House in Cleveland and television and motion picture roles as a homeless man on Detroit 1-8-7, and a minister in the 2013 Tyler Perry movie "Alex Cross"

Pictured are slain Ferguson, Missouri teen Michael Brown, and the Rev Al Sharpton

By Kathy Wray Coleman, editor-in-chief, Cleveland Urban News. Com and The Cleveland Urban News.Com Blog, Ohio's Most Read Online Black Newspaper and Newspaper Blog

Kathy Wray Coleman is  a community activist and 20 year investigative journalist who trained for 17 years at the Call and Post Newspaper in Cleveland, Ohio. (www.clevelandurbannews.com) / (www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com)

ST LOUIS, Missouri- Funeral services were held on Monday for Michael Brown, the Black teen slain two and a half weeks ago in Ferguson, Missouri by police officer Darren Wilson, whom witnesses say gunned him down when he was surrendering with his hands up. The case is currently before a county grand jury on whether to charge Wilson, who is White, with crimes relative to the unprecedented shooting.

Some 4,500 people packed Friendly Temple Missionary Baptist Church in St Louis, Missouri for Brown's home going celebration, including the teen's parents and other family members, some  area and state dignitaries , Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA), Martin Luther King III, Bernice King, and the Rev. Jesse Jackson.

It was a day of peace and tranquility where protesters took a break, after Brown's father, Michael Brown Sr., had asked that the family be respected for the upcoming funeral. What happens next, since Brown Jr has been ceremoniously laid to rest, remains to be seen. All indications suggest that it ain't over yet.

Family members of some other young unarmed Black men from across the country killed by White people or White cops,  including the parents of Trayvon Martin, and the mother of Sean Bell, were there too.

Celebrities in attendance include Snoop Dog, P. Diddy and Spike Lee.

The articulate Rev Al Sharpton delivered the eulogy and said that Brown's death represents a young Black life gone too soon.

Sharpton said that the Black community has been victimized by police not only in Ferguson, a suburb of St. Louis, but also across America.

"America, it's time to deal with policing, we are not the haters, we are the healers,"' said Sharpton

Brown family attorney Benjamin Crump, who also represented the Trayvon Martin family, told the audience that Black men gunned down by police are treated as second class citizens.

"We will not accept three-fourths justice," said Crump, "We demand equal justice for Michael Brown Jr."

The fatal shooting has unleashed riots in the majority Black city of Ferguson, and protests in over 50 cities across the country including in New York, Washington D.C. and Cleveland, Ohio, a largely Black major American city also dealing with the deadly shooting of two unarmed Blacks by 13-non-Black police officers slinging 137 bullets.

From the Metro Desk of Cleveland Urban News. Com and The Cleveland Urban News.Com Blog, Ohio's Most Read Online Black Newspaper and Newspaper Blog

(www.clevelandurbannews.com) / (www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com)

ROCHESTER,  New Hampshire-A memorial mass that drew hundreds was held for beheaded U.S. freelance photo journalist James Foley Sunday afternoon in  Rochester, NH , his hometown where friends, family and journalists from across the country gathered to mourn his death and salute his life accomplishments.

A video was released on Tuesday showing Foley's beheading by a masked executioner with a British accent.

President Obama said in a statement Friday that the execution of the well-regarded journalist "shocks the conscience of an entire world."

The president also said that "the U.S. will do what is necessary to see that justice is done."

A well-paid journalist, Foley was abducted in northern Syria in 2012 at 40-years-old by Islamic State militants while on assignment to cover the war in Syria for Agence France-Presse and the Boston-based media company.

His slaying came after U.S. officials refused to pay a ransom and would not agree to what Islamic militants referred to as a hostage exchange.

British Intelligence has reportedly identified his killer, though the alleged killer's name has not been publicly released.

Hours after Sunday's memorial Foley's parents released a letter from the slain journalist that was posted on the "Free James Foley" Facebook page.

Foley says in the letter that he was being held with 17 other hostages.