CLEVELAND, Ohio-The Rev. Charles "C.J." Matthews, senior pastor at Mt. Sinai Baptist Church in Cleveland, was sentenced to 15 months in prison yesterday for failing to pay $90 thousand in IRS income taxes collected by the mega church between Oct. 2005 and Jan. 2007 on the wages of church employees.
And the sentence, which was handed down by Federal District Court Judge Patricia Gaughan, came in spite of a plethora of support from members of the Black community, many of whom wrote letters on his behalf.
COLUMBUS, Ohio-The Ohio Supreme Court last week rejected a request by Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Bill Mason to hear an appeal of a state appellate court's decision for a retrial of Joaquin Hicks, sending the case back to the courtroom of Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas Judge Daniel Gaul for another trial in the tragic case of a robbery of two young Cleveland Clinic employees that turned to murder.
CLEVELAND, Ohio-Representatives of the grassroots groups dubbed the Imperial Women, Goddesses Blessing Goddesses, Black on Black Crime, Stop Targeting Ohio's Poor, the Cleveland Chapter of the New Black Panther Party, the Oppressed People's Nation, the Greater Cleveland Immigrant Support Network, the Carl Stokes Brigade, ESOP, Occupy Cleveland, the Lucasville Uprising Freedom Network, the People's Forum, the People's Fightback Center, Bailout The People Movement, People For The Imperial Act, the Committee To Bring Home Jamela And Jamyla, and a host of other community affiliates will hold a prayer vigil and forum tomorrow, Dec. 6, at 7:00 am next to Serial Killer Anthony Sowell's Home to support it being torn down. Demolition crews will begin the process in conjunction with an order from Cleveland Housing Court Judge Ray Pianca.
WASHINGTON, D.C.-State Sen. Nina Turner (D-25) , a Cleveland Democrat, sent shock waves through Cleveland's political rank and file this week when she filed petitions to take on U.S. Rep. Marcia L. Fudge (D-11) in next year's Democratic Primary election, a decision that has rocked Cleveland's Old Black Political Guard and has upset Black leaders with the prospective that the vote could be split by the two prominent Black women and a White could slide in.
