By Kathy Wray Coleman, editor-in-chief

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

CLEVELAND, Ohio- The Playhouse Square theater venue in downtown Cleveland lit up Friday night as part of the 'Dazzle the District' extravaganza, an event that drew over 20,000 people to the center of the city at 14th and Euclid Avenue. It featured song, dance, a fireworks display,  and the lighting of the world's largest outdoor chandelier, a celebration to highlight a  $16 million renovation project funded by some private donors and with $4 million in Cuyahoga County grants from casino revenues.

Also on hand was a group of protesters led by Black on Black Crime founder Art McKoy, who picketed to bring focus to the tragedy in 2012 where 13 all non Black Cleveland police officers gunned down unarmed Blacks Malissa Williams (pictured), 30, and Tim Russell, 43, following a high speed car chase that began in downtown Cleveland and ended at Heritage Middle School in neighboring East Cleveland.

The protesters want a Cuyahoga County Grand Jury currently reviewing the case to issue an indictment on criminal charges of the police officers at issue, all of whom are still on the job.

"We will be there to protest," McKoy, a longtime Cleveland area community activist, told Cleveland Urban News.Com during an interview Friday afternoon.

That chandelier though, is beautiful, said some people that came out Friday to Playhouse Square.

It stands 48 ft. tall, and has some 4, 200 crystals, designers said yesterday.

The majority Black major metropolitan city of Cleveland,

led by Mayor Frank Jackson, a Black mayor elected last year to a third four-year term, may have high crime rates, poverty and struggling public schools, but it can brag about Playhouse Square and its Broadway shows, opera, comedy, concerts and children's programming, replete with the Palace, State, Allen and Ohio theater houses. It is one of the country's largest performing arts centers,  second only to the Lincoln Center in New York city.

Jackson spoke briefly and area marching bands , including Shaw High School in East Cleveland, were among the performers, which also include the popular American rock band Hot Chelle Rae.

Many Clevelanders were excited about the gathering, while activists and some other residents said that the monies could have been put to better use, including to fill street pot holes, to address citywide poverty that disproportionately impacts the Black community, and to deal with the epidemic of rape and murder of greater Cleveland women across racial lines.(www.clevelandurbannews.com) / (www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com)

By Kathy Wray Coleman, editor-in-chief

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

LOS ANGELES, California —Commissioner Adam Silver on Tuesday,  just hours before a playoff game victory, banned Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling (pictured) from the NBA for life and fined him $2.5 million following alleged racist remarks by the married billionaire that were recorded by a girlfriend and made public last week. The punishment, which the NBA hopes will quell slated protests by some NBA players, is the harshest in NBA history.

"The world will think certain things if you're seen with black people, so you should not be seen with them in public, and under no circumstances should you bring them to Clippers' games," Sterling tells his alleged mistress, the now infamous 10 min audio recording reveals in part. He also made racially insensitive remarks about retired former LA Lakers ball player Magic Johnson.

In spite of the unprecedented ban against Sterling the Clippers pulled off a 113-103 victory over the Golden State Warriors in game 5 at Staples Center Stadium in LA to open a 3-2 lead in the best-of-seven series.

The purported racist comments that Sterling admits he made, have unnerved people across America from President Obama and Oprah nationally, to NBA ball players and team owners, including Miami Heat power forward LeBron James and Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert.

"There's no room in the NBA for Donald Sterling, there's no room for him," said James, who played for the Cavaliers for seven years before joining the Miami Heat in 2010 and subsequently leading the team to two NBA championships, the  first in 2012,  and for a  second time in 2013.

“I don’t have any advice but all I have to say is we’re off the plantation," Oprah responded to reporters yesterday when asked her opinion on the racially hostile controversy.

Obama's comments were even more deeply rooted.

"The United States continues to wrestle with a legacy of race, slavery and segregation," the president said shortly before the punishment came down.

"That’s still there, the vestiges of discrimination," said Obama " I suspect the NBA is going to be deeply concerned in resolving this."

Gilbert, whose Cavaliers' team did not make the playoffs this year, told reporters yesterday that he is shocked aT Sterling's behavior on the matter and urged zero tolerance by the NBA on racial bigotry.

Pictured are Cleveland Urban News.Com Sportswriter Karl Kimbrough (in maroon attire with yellow t-shirt) and Cleveland Cavaliers Head Coach Mike Brown (in black suit)

By Cleveland Urban News.Com Sportswriter Karl Kimbrough

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

CLEVELAND, Ohio-Now that the Cleveland Cavaliers' 2013-2014 season has come to an end and once again with them out of the playoffs everyone, including the players and Cavalier management, must be wondering where do we go from here?

Before the season began then new head Coach Mike Brown said on a number of occasions that he felt his team would be in the playoffs this year. But after concluding the season, Brown admitted that he under estimated how much his team needed to grow to be a playoff team. As he made that statement Brown could have been thinking about the most important game of the season. This would be the April 4, 2014, game against the Atlanta Hawks. Why would he be thinking of this game?

By Kathy Wray Coleman, Publisher, Editor-n-Chief,

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

BREAKING NEWS: JUDGES AND LAWYERS BEHAVING BADLY, AN EPIDEMIC (A CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM ONGOING COMPREHENSIVE INVESTIGATION)

Bedford, Ohio- In spite of a suspension of disqualification from the bench last year by the Ohio Supreme Court of former Bedford Municipal Court Judge Harry Jacob (pictured) due to a Cuyahoga County Grand Jury indictment on charges of bribery, tampering with evidence and a host of other felonies, and in spite of other embarrassing charges, including that he boldly pimped Black and other women through a prostitution ring and that he fixed cases, the court's website describes pimp Jacob as an upstanding citizen and community advocate (Editor's note: Bedford law director and prosecutor Ken Schuman this week resigned. He took paid leave in November, some two months before an indictment on soliciting, bribery and theft in office).

In fact, his court website curriculum vita, if you will, says also that Jacob "has been appointed by the Ohio Supreme Court to the commission on continuing legal education and his peers have elected him secretary-treasurer of the Northern Ohio Judges Association."

Asked yesterday by Cleveland Urban News.Com, Ohio's leading digital Black newspaper, why Jacob is still put out as a judge though he has been suspended for pimping women and other alleged crimes, court personnel directed questions to Clerk of Court Tom Day, also allegedly involved in criminal activity, data show, but still on the job doing in Blacks and others too.

Jacob has pleaded not guilty to all charges and hired prominent Cleveland lawyer Kevin Spellacy to represent him.

The other judge on the Bedford Municipal Court, Brian Melling, is still hanging around too, doing in Blacks and others also, an investigation reveals, and as a White man, like Day, that is accused of thinking that he too, like Jacob, is above the law.

Melling and Day have harassed Blacks that come before the Bedford court, data show,  denying some of them counsel though deeming them indigent, and unless they go along with the program, both bragging that they have the support of area Black leaders and politicians and the Cleveland NAACP. specifically criminal defense attorneys Michael Nelson Sr. and James Hardiman, relative to their anti-Black and anti-Democratic malfeasance.

Jacob, 57,  did the same thing, data also show, but to a more heightened level.

A recent raid by law enforcement authorities at the former judge's house where he lives  in Solon, Ohio brought more incriminating evidence, data show, and monies allegedly stashed in vents and throughout the Jacob family home.

The city of Bedford is a suburb of Cleveland and has a population of some 13,000 people, and is roughly 44 percent Black.

The Bedford court handles cases from 14 different diverse locations including Bedford itself, neighboring Bedford Heights, and Chagrin Falls, Bentleyville, Chagrin Township, Cleveland Metro Parks, Glen Willow, Highland Hills, Moreland Hills, North Randall, Oakwood Village, Orange, Solon and Warrensville Heights. They are all among the 59 municipalities, villages and townships of Cuyahoga County, Ohio's largest of 88 counties, and of which is roughly 29 percent Black.