By Kathy Wray Coleman, Publisher, Editor-n-Chief, Cleveland Urban News. Com and The Cleveland Urban News.Com Blog, Ohio's Most Read Online Black Newspaper(www.clevelandurbannews.com)

CLEVELAND, Ohio- The Cleveland Chapter NAACP, led now by corporate execute Hilton Smith, also an associate minister of Greater Abyssinia Baptist Church in Cleveland, and interim executive director Arlene Anderson, released a press statement earlier this week condemning the 137 bullets-shooting-deaths of Black unarmed victims Malissa Williams and Timothy Ray Russell by a group of White Cleveland police officers last week.

Cleveland Police Union President Jeffrey Follmer has called the unprecedented shootings "a good shooting," a comment that has outraged both community activists and Cleveland NAACP officials.

"The recent high speed chase that started in downtown Cleveland and ended in a hail of deadly gun fire in East Cleveland was unfortunate, unacceptable and appears to have been avoidable," the press release from Anderson reads in part. "Conversely, the police union in a transparent and unnecessary attempt to vilify the victims and fan the flames of discord has issued statements that, at best, are irresponsible and at worst, unnecessarily inflammatory."

The press release says that the NAACP has a long and storied history of opposing police misconduct, especially in cases involving high speed police chases and deadly force. It seeks policy change by the city of Cleveland s in "high speed chases, use of deadly force, and the interdepartmental participation by law enforcement agencies."

Reach Cleveland Urban News.Com by email at editor@clevelandurbannews.com and by phone at 216-659-0473.

By Kathy Wray Coleman, Publisher, Editor-n-chief, Cleveland Urban News.Com, Ohio's Most Read Online Black Newspaper

CLEVELAND,Ohio- The memorial service for Grace Waite- Jones (pictured), a community activist and former reporter for The Call and Post Newspaper who also fought against apartheid in South Africa,  will be held on Saturday, Dec. 8, at 1 pm at Lucas Memorial Chapel, 9010 Garfield Blvd in Garfield Hts, a suburb of Cleveland.

Waite- Jones, 65, died suddenly at her home in Cleveland on Nov. 27.  The cause of her death was unknown at press time.

Waite- Jones and her twin sister Gloria were the youngest of 10 children.  In 1967 Waite Jones wed Richard E. Jones. The couple divorced in 1970.

Waite- Jones was employed in different capacities including as a Call and Post reporter in the 1970s and 1990s and briefly as its editor in the late 1990s. As a reporter for the Black press she  interviewed notables such as singer Stevie Wonder, Earth Wind and Fire group members, and the Harlem Globe Trotters. She is also a former secretary of internationally renowned boxing promoter Don King, publisher of the Call and Post which has distributions in Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati.

A graduate of John Adams High School in Cleveland, Waite- Jones was a community organizer on the streets of the  majority Black east side of Cleveland during the 1980s and 1990s who fought against racial injustice and bigotry against the Black community and others. In 1994 she traveled to South Africa as then the local president of TransAfrica and as a delegate for The Africa Fund to help monitor the elections process and to assist Nelson Mandela in his appointment as South African president.

Community activists said that she will be sorely missed.

By Karl Kimbrough, Cleveland Urban News.Com Sportswriter

CLEVELAND,Ohio-Are the Cavaliers getting better or worst as an NBA basketball team serving the major metropolitan city of Cleveland since temporarily losing Kyrie Irving (pictured) to an injury last month? Is Irving's replacement, Jeremy Pargo (pictured), effectively stepping up to the plate?

Before Kyrie Irving's finger fracture that sideline the point guard who was drafted by Cleveland as a first all around pick in 2011, a year after Lebron James left the team and joined The Miami Heat, the Cavs had won two games and lost eight.Since then, in eight games, they are two and six. After Kyrie's injury most observers probably looked at the Cavs as a definite high lottery team this year and thought they would be almost unteachable.

Let's face it, entering this season Irving was the only star quality player on the team. So if anyone on the roster thought they deserved more attention this was their opportunity. He has done so much for the team offensively, creating his own shot and facilitating for others. Even more, Irving would be the go to player in crunch time, at the end of games. What would they do without him?

Coach Byron Scott decided to insert little used Jeremy Pargo at Irving's position. Pargo was acquired in a trade this summer and had only appeared in two games this season before starting in place of the injured Irving.

When asked why he chose Pargo, Scott told reporters that he chose him because  in comparison to other considered "he plays better defense."

By Kathy Wray Coleman, Publisher, Editor-n-Chief, Cleveland Urban News. Com and The Cleveland Urban News.Com Blog, Ohio's Most Read Online Black Newspaper

CLEVELAND, Ohio-The Cleveland Plain Dealer, Ohio's largest newspaper, will layoff a third of its 168 newsroom staff next year Guild President Harlan Spector told union members in an email today.

Spector said that management had notified him that some 58 union positions of the Northeast Ohio Guild Local One are subject to either layoff or an offer at Cleveland.com, the newspaper's online news venue which brings in a fraction of the revenue the print newspaper gets.

The Guild includes reporters, columnists, photographers, designers and some editors.

On Sunday Spector and former Guild president and retired Plain Dealer Reporter Richard Peery met with a group of Cleveland area majority Black community activist leaders and some Black elected officials at Lil Africa on Cleveland's largely Black east side of town and those in attendance voted 2-to-1 to  back the union on the issue before them, and called for Advance Publishing, the newspaper's owner,  to keep the Plain Dealer a daily print publication instead of going to three-days-a-week as contemplated.

But the activists said that their support is contingent upon the promise that Guild members will push for fair play for the Black community, something Spector promised community activists.

"Yes," said Spector to the question posed by community activists at the forum on whether he would push the union to demand fair coverage in the Black community if supported.