• Does not favor or disfavor any political party or its incumbents.
• Models districts from statewide voter preference of the past 10 years.
• Does not unfairly pit any incumbents against one another.
• Creates three separate districts that are wholly contained within counties.
• Does not illegally split municipalities or townships in any district.
• Is rated as more compact than the state's existing map.
• Maximizes compliance with all provisions of the Ohio Constitution and U.S. Constitution, as well as federal laws, including those that protect racial minorities and voting rights.
• And importantly, it keeps communities together.

• Districts in the map include 786,630 people.
• 74 counties are left whole;
• 14 counties are split once, while no counties are split twice; and
• All districts are contiguous.

Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com

Staff article

CLEVELAND, Ohio- The Cleveland Browns lost their season opener and the first game of the 2025-26 regular season on Sunday afternoon at the Hunting Bank Field Stadium in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, 17-16, with Browns Quarterback Joe Flacco at the helm. Lead Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson remains on the injured list and is out for at least the first five games of the season, reports say.

The game was neck-and-neck, with the Bengals leading 17-16 in the fourth quarter. But Flacco threw an interception, and the Browns never recovered, falling to the Bengals, who had not won a season-opener since 2021.

Flacco finished with 186 passing yards and a rushing touchdown for the Browns and Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow completed 14 of 23 passes for 113 yards and a touchdown.

The Browns will play the Baltimore Ravens next Sunday, Sept. 14, in Baltimore, their second game of the regular season.

Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, the most-read Black digital newspaper and Black blog in Ohio and in the Midwest. Tel: (216) 659-0473. Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. We interviewed former president Barack Obama one-on-one when he was campaigning for president. As to the Obama inteview. CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE AT CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM

Cleveland Ward 1 Councilman Joe Jones

Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com

By Kathy Wray Coleman, editor, associate publisher

Cleveland, Ohio- Cleveland Ward 1 Councilman Joe Jones

won the endorsement of the Cuyahoga County Democratic Party again Saturday morning, thwarting an attempt by Party Chairman David Brock to get the party's executive committee to reverse its original endorsement of Aug. 6.

Cuyahoga County is a Democratic stronghold that includes Cleveland and is Ohio's second largest county, behind Franklin County, which includes Columbus, the state capital and the state's largest city, in front of Cleveland.

The endorsement meeting was held on Zoom, and Jones won it hands down.

Though Jones has not publicly raised the issue of race relative to the controversy, his supporters have said that potential racism could not be ruled out, and that White elected officials have not been treated like Jones, including a previously indicted White common pleas judge who won the party endorsement and was later convicted of public corruption charges, removed from the bench, and sentenced to prison.

Ward 1 is Cleveland's second largest voting bloc of its 17 wards with its staunch middle-class segment of east side Black voters, and it is the city's largest Black voting bloc.

The primary is Sept. 9 and Jones is up for reelection via the 2025 nonpartisan election for mayor and city council members. The general election is Nov 4.

Jones, 56 years old and Black, had originally won the county Democratic Party endorsement for re-election earlier this month.

The executive committee bylaws do forbid a member of the executive committee from endorsing the opponent of an endorsed candidate and executive committee members can be removed for doing so.

Jones insisted in a letter sent Wednesday that Brock was violating the party bylaws by arbitrarily holding a second endorsement session.

"I am writing to formally object to the Cuyahoga County Democratic Party's decision to schedule a second endorsement meeting for Ward 1," Jones wrote in his letter to Brock," a copy of which was secured by Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, Ohio's Black digital news leader.

Jones accused Brock of violating party bylaws and said he was acting in the best interest of one of his opponents, state Rep. Juanita Brent, vice chair of the county Democratic Party and a Cleveland Democrat and lifelong resident of Ward 1 like Jones. Brent is also Black.

The councilman said Brock is acting more like a Republican than a Democrat.

"As one of my opponents is a party officer [Brent], it seems to me that the party is employing unprecedented tactics to support her in this race. If you do this Mr. chairman, the Democratic Party will become just like the Republicans, showing no regard for the rule of law or history," Jones wrote.

Jones is currently serving his second stint as Ward 1 councilman after being elected in 2017, and again in 2021. He was previously the Ward 1 councilman from 1998-2005.

Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, the most-read Black digital newspaper and blog in Ohio and the Midwest.Tel.216-659-0473. Email-editor@clevelandurbannews.com