Editorial lBy Karl Kimbrough (pictured), Cleveland Urban News.Com Sports Writer

CLEVELAND, Ohio-After a losing 2011 NFL football season where the Cleveland Browns won only four out of 16 games, the coaches identified the offense as priority in building a winning team.

By using their first three picks in the 2011 NFL draft on offensive players and fourth and second round supplemental draft picks on wide receivers, the Browns began to reshape their offense. The first two draft picks in the first round were used to acquire a top rated running back and quarterback. So, after one quarter of the 2012 season has been played, have these picks helped the Browns?

If wins is the barometer, then the answer is a resounding no as the Browns have begun the season with four losses in a row. Last year the Browns averaged 13.6 points per game for the entire season: This year, through four games, they have averaged 18 points.  So, Browns fans should be happy with this improvement right? Not so fast. Even though they average more points and even more yards passing, there is an alarming imbalance in rushing and passing attempts, making the team’s offense one dimensional. The Browns have been inconsistent in making first downs and maintaining drives. Trent Richardson, the Browns all American running back, only attempted three rushing plays in the second half of the game against the Baltimore Ravens and four times against the Buffalo Bills. In both games, the Browns trailed by seven points or less going into the second half.

By Kathy Wray Coleman, Executive Publisher, Editor, Cleveland Urban News. Com and The ClevelandUrban News.Com Blog

CLEVELAND,Ohio-First Lady Michelle Obama will speak on Monday, Oct 15, 2012, at 5 pm at Cuyahoga County Community College Metro Campus in Cleveland, 2900 Community College Ave., with doors opening at 3 pm.

The visit is the First Lady's second one to the Cleveland area since her visit to Progressive Field in May to thank supporters and for a fundraising event for the Obama for America Campaign later that evening.

Tickets, which campaign officials say are nearly gone,are on a  first come, first serve basis and

can be picked up one per person at the following  locations:

-OFA-OH Shaker Square Office ,13100 Shaker Square, Cleveland, OH 44120 (Tel:216-416-2017)

-OFA-OH Parma Office, 5734 Ridge Rd., Parma, OH 44129

-OFA-OH Euclid Avenue Office, 3740 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, OH 44115

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

CLEVELAND, Ohio-(Editor's note: Cleveland Urban News.Com introduces Karl Kimbrough (pictured) as its  new sports writer. Previously a writer with Our Voice, a Lorain, Oh. community newspaper, Kimbrough is an asset to the news team at Cleveland Urban News.Com, Ohio's most read Black and urban online newspaper).

By Karl Kimbrough, Sports Writer, Cleveland Urban News.Com

The first 4:57 seconds of the Browns game against the New York Giants on Sunday seemed too surreal to be true with the Browns having a commanding 12-0 lead over the 2011 Super Bowl Champion Giants.

Unfortunately for the Cleveland Browns and their fans it was too real to be true. In their four previous games, the Browns' scored a total of six points in the first quarter. Could the Browns be turning their fortunes around?  Before the end of the first half, the Giants would outscore the Browns 27 to 3 and go into the half with a 27 to 17 lead. The Giants would not be challenged further winning the game 41 to 27.

By Kathy Wray Coleman, Executive Publisher, Editor, Cleveland Urban News. Com and The Cleveland Urban News.Com Blog

CLEVELAND,Ohio- Community activists, elected officials and others will picket on Thursday, Oct. 11 at 10: 30 am at E. 35th and Community College Ave. in Ward 5 in Cleveland  over a billboard owned by Clear Channel in that area that the activists and some Black leaders say is voter intimidation and suppression that targets poor people, Blacks and other minorities by threatening voters in a key presidential election year with a felony conviction, 3 and a half years in prison,  and a $10,000 fine.

Cleveland Ward 5 Councilwoman Phyllis Cleveland said that she will hold a press conference at 11:00 with community activists under the controversial billboard. State Sen. Nina Turner (D-25) and  State Rep. Sandra Williams (D-11) are expected to join her, among others.

The billboard at issue, which is near the Cuyahoga Community College Metro Campus, is purportedly by a private corporation approved by Clear Channel, but community activists believe that the Tea Party and Republican Presidential Nominee Mitt Romney are aware of it since similar billboards are popping up in minority and poor communities all over the nation, including Milwaukee, WI.  It is in the Central Neighborhood where Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson lives, one of the country's poorest communities, data show.

"It is beyond insensitivity and is voter intimidation," said State Rep. Bill Patmon  (D-10), a Cleveland Democrat who argues that the billboards, also of which are up on the west side of Cleveland and in poor and  minority communities in Lorain, Oh., may be unconstitutional.

Groups associated with the protest include Cleveland City Council members, Ohio state legislators, The Imperial Women, The Carl Stokes Brigade, Cleveland Jobs With Justice, Stop Targeting Ohio's Poor, Black on Black Crime, The Oppressed People's Nation, Organize Ohio, The Northeast Ohio Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign, Peace in the Hood, The Family Connection Center, The Underground Railroad and the Cleveland Chapter of the New Black Panther Party.