Using the stock-in-trade excuse like his drinking buddy, ousted Alabama Power CEO and ex-Balch partner Mark A. Crosswhite claims he needs to “spend more time with his family,” echoing disgraced ex-U.S. Attorney Jay E. Town’s same line of bull.

Over a year ago, we reported that Crosswhite was “allegedly telling bourgeois insiders that he has the lock and key to the C-Suite at Southern Company, Alabama Power’s parent company.”

The current CEO of Southern Company Tom Fanning made over $21 million last year.

Crosswhite did not give that opportunity up to spend more time with his family and you, our dear reader, know his excuse is a crock.

As we wrote just last week, Crosswhite’s abrupt demise was caused by his unwavering loyalty to alleged racist law firm Balch & Bingham and absolute confidence in “Sloppy Joe ” Perkins, the founder of obscure political consulting firm Matrix.

So furious at the collapse of his career, sources claim, Crosswhite allegedly refuses to even talk to his ex-law partners at Balch.

Rocked by Crosswhite’s ouster, Balch, sources claim, is allegedly in utter turmoil, near collapse as Balch’s lifeline may come to an end this year.

Just like Balch arrogantly thought they could make millions when their stooge ex-U.S. Senator Jeff Sessions was made U.S. Attorney General in 2017, Balch appears to have bet the farm on Crosswhite’s eventual coronation as CEO of Southern Company.

The anticipated coronation instead became a resounding condemnation.

A fluff piece on Crosswhite’s ouster in Yellowhammer News affirms Crosswhite’s alleged anger at Balch & Bingham, by omitting Balch’s name, writing, “Crosswhite represented the company in private practice for 17 years before serving Southern Company in an official capacity.”

17 years at Balch as a partner forgotten down an Orwellian memory hole!

No wonder Balch celebrated their centennial anniversary in secret, hidden on a hilltop, last month.

Current Southern Company CEO Tom Fanning will have more horse stalls to clean up next week as we reveal more bombshells that could lead to possible criminal indictments.

The stench of horse manure is intense and overwhelming.

To our dear readers (including our friends at Balch, Drummond Company, and Alabama Power), we wish you and yours a Happy Thanksgiving!

It’s a chorus line indeed!

“Behind the Mask,” a video production from 2013, was originally a “smear and fear” piece but now it is irrefutable evidence that the Three Stooges (Alabama Power, Balch, and Drummond Company) appear to have utilized Matrix’s alleged dirty deeds, paid actors, and questionable mouthpieces to attack perceived enemies.

Four years ago, we wrote about paid actors and controversies circling electric utilities at the time. While Alabama Power denied they used actors to attend public meetings, their half-answer at the time raised two critical questions:

1. Were actors ever hired for any other purpose on behalf of Alabama Power?
2. Has any other “third-party” vendor of Alabama Power ever engaged in conduct to create AstroTurf campaigns and bogus testimonials?

Now in 2022, the answers appear to be “yes” and “yes.”

Sources state the video was allegedly produced and created by Matrix, the obscure political consulting firm, on behalf of PACE, Partnership for Affordable Energy, an alleged AstroTurf entity that media called “in effect a subsidiary of Matrix.”

And the cast of characters is stunning.

Alabama Power Chairman and CEO Mark A. Crosswhite’s most-trusted advisor, white-collar criminal defense attorney Mark White is in the video talking about utility rates and the controversy surrounding the “return on equity” perspective.

Really? A criminal attorney spinning yarn about utility rates?

Then there is Catrena Norris Carter, who comes out as an alleged “outraged” board member of the League of Women Voters in Alabama for the League calling for more transparency regarding utility rates and billing. She has the foolish audacity to say on the video that it is “unfortunate that once again the poor and underprivileged gets preyed upon.”

During the North Birmingham Bribery Scandal, Norris Carter was the operative who was paid monthly while “unknowingly” providing Drummond Company with intelligence reports on the poor African-American community that was targeted and “preyed upon.”

So now, who is preying on whom?

Last year, on a Vice News podcast about the North Birmingham Bribery Scandal and Drummond Company, Norris Carter, after the FBI came knocking on her door, declared, “I felt naive. I felt like, ok Catrena, this is what your folks be talking about with dealing with big companies. So you know that’s one of the lessons that I learned sometimes the hard way.“

Learning the hard way or “unknowingly” spinning yarn?

Then there is the group of fake environmental protestors, the paid actors and smear campaigns that we wrote about in 2018. These actors are all wearing face masks years before COVID-19 became a global pandemic to obscure their identities.

The video scoffs at the fake environmentalists, with the narrator saying, “And then you have these people…”

These people were staged actors that were falsely but intentionally portrayed as environmental activists.

In 2018, we gave background on the fake environmentalists:

Eddie Curran, an investigative journalist who formerly worked at the Mobile Register for two-decades, wrote a post about the bogus environmentalists that appear to have been thespian and dance students from Birmingham that showed up outside the Alabama Public Service Commission in Montgomery after the meeting began, and left before the meeting was over. Joining them was a video camera crew.

Curran, who provided us with detailed notes of the incident and identities of some of the “actors,” said the staged protest of “arty liberal” phonies was done to simply smear a Public Service Commissioner named Terry Dunn.

The fake environmentalists were simply actors.

Actors who were fraudulently portraying liberal environmentalists in support of Terry Dunn, a conservative Republican politician.

All that was missing were some tambourines and a bong.

This video production includes a Balch & Bingham partner, Dan McCrary, who was representing Alabama Power at the time.

McCrary, a now 42-year legacy partner at Balch, is seen skewering public participants over rate comparisons with Mississippi.

The alleged Matrix video called “Behind the Mask” is a wonderful piece of evidence that has Alabama Power attorneys, alleged Drummond agents, and Balch partners all tied together, arm-in-arm, in a chorus line.

And who were the targets of this high-end “smear and fear” production?

Nelson Brooke, the Black Warrior Riverkeeper who co-founded the tiny environmental group known as GASP, and the Southern Environmental Law Center.

Ironically, last month Brooke and the Southern Environmental Law Center won a major federal consent decree against Drummond Company.

A news release reported:

In a major victory for the health of the lower Locust Fork and the Black Warrior River, a federal judge in Birmingham has granted the request by Black Warrior Riverkeeper to approve a consent decree requiring Drummond Company to clean up its abandoned Maxine Mine site. The approval was finalized after a May filing. The mine, which was the largest underground mine in the state, produced tons of coal per year after opening in the 1930s but has sat abandoned since operations stopped in the 1980s.

Now grab a bag of popcorn, and watch and enjoy the “smear and fear” propaganda that is helping investigators connect the dots.

And who is behind the bigger and smellier mask? Matrix and the Three Stooges of course.

Former Federal Judge Abdul K. Kallon has fled Birmingham and gone to one of the farthest places away from the cesspool of Jefferson County, Alabama: Seattle, Washington.

Kallon joins Perkins Coie as a partner, according to a news release.

In April, he announced his abrupt resignation; Kallon cited the usual “family time” excuse. According to media at the time, his wife obtained a job out of state but no one has been able to verify the fact.

As we asked in June:

Did Federal Judge Abdul K. Kallon agree to a secret deal to keep Alabama Power “unmentionable” during the North Birmingham Bribery Trial because of his past financial agreements and possible embarrassing personal behavior?

On June 23rd, DonaldWatkins.com published an indepth report on Kallon’s alleged financial and personal behavior that was a bombshell, causing shockwaves in the legal community.

Why would a young federal judge, on the cusp of earning senior status, resign and demote himself to become a partner at a law firm in a state where he has yet to be licensed to practice law?

Did any or none of The Three Stooges (Alabama Power, Balch, and Drummond Company) have damaging information on Kallon and controlled him by figuratively squeezing his testicles?

Or was Kallon offered a deal in the alleged ongoing federal probe of obstruction of justice involving Alabama Power Chairman and CEO Mark A. Crosswhite?

Resign and cooperate sounds a lot better than refuse and be prosecuted.

Kallon may be sleepless in Seattle, having possibly tossed a future U.S. Supreme Court appointment down the toilet because of his alleged interactions with The Three Stooges.

Now he is far away. Farther away. Farthest away.

“Thanks be to God,” he says, he thinks, he prays.

The fat lady hasn’t sung yet.

The Matrix Meltdown is over in civil court according to a court filing yesterday afternoon.

The Matrix Meltdown was an embarrassing fight that spilled raw sewage and, the alleged criminal and unethical behind-the-scenes details of the obscure political consulting firm and their agents.

The explosive deposition with Jittery Jeff won’t happen.

The civil war between Sloppy Joe Perkins and his once-protégé Jittery Jeff Pitts may be over for now and the Three Stooges (Alabama Power, Balch, and Drummond) can breathe a momentary sigh of relief.

But the irreparable damage is done.

The criminal probes related to the Matrix Meltdown are only heating up.

Florida investigators allegedly are working with federal authorities on possible civil rights and money laundering violations involving ghost candidates, tax-exempt entities, and intentional voter confusion and suppression efforts.

At the same time, federal investigators are allegedly looking at the secret million dollar contracts given to Sloppy Joe by Alabama Power that do not require an invoice.

The U.S. Department of Justice is allegedly probing the 18 tax-exempt entities that laundered over $50 million that Sloppy Joe outlined in a now deleted post on yellowhammernews.com.

And they’re all losers because of this fight that caught them with their panties down.

But the biggest loser is Alabama Power Chairman and CEO Mark A. Crosswhite.

He may have forced Sloppy Joe to settle after embarrassing allegations were published that Crosswhite allegedly spied on his boss and his then-girlfriend.

But the North Birmingham Bribery Scandal isn’t over. The rebirth is alive. And Crosswhite knows it.

As we correctly stated, national media are digging deep into Alabama and North Birmingham with a lengthy exposé published just this morning by Propublica.org.

David Roberson’s $75 million civil lawsuit continues in the dark, in a secret Star Chamber.

And federal investigators are allegedly looking into obstruction of justice allegations involving Alabama Power and Crosswhite during the North Birmingham Bribery Trial, where Alabama Power was “unmentionable.”

The baggage is still there and more has been learned these past 90 days than what was known these last 5 years.

Crosswhite should be furious at Sloppy Joe, Balch and even his most trusted advisor, Mark White.

Crosswhite’s problems appear to have expanded exponentially because of those closest to him.

And all of Crosswhite’s entanglements started in 2014. When will they end?

2027?

The stench from the North Birmingham Bribery Scandal still stinks and those involved are dropping like flies. The carcasses are piling up.

Presiding Judge Abdul K. Kallon officially resigns today citing the usual stock-in-trade b.s. excuse of “spending more time with family.”

Disgraced ex-U.S. Attorney Jay E. Town was forced to resign and fled in the middle of the night after inappropriate photos of him drinking libations with the embattled CEO of Alabama Power Mark A. Crosswhite were published. Town, too, left to “spend more time with family.”

Two Assistant U.S. Attorneys allegedly turned in their resignations in April, a day after Kallon announced his resignation.

Mike Tracy, CEO of Drummond Company, abruptly retired a year after the trial. Tracy was facing criticism for firing ex-Drummond executive David Roberson and ending Drummond’s funding of Roberson’s favorite charity, an organization that helps children with autism, six-months after Roberson was found guilty.

William “Bo” Lineberry, the Balch partner who set up the money laundering entity in the North Birmingham Bribery Scandal known as the Alliance for Jobs and the Economy (AJE), committed suicide days after Kallon’s retirement announcement.

Balch & Bingham, Alabama Power’s sister-wife, appears to have lost millions of dollars in fees as money-making partners exit the firm and clients terminate the embattled firm.

Trey Glenn was forced to resign as an EPA Administrator after being exposed as a Balch stooge.

Matrix, which dropped a reprehensible mailer that discouraged poor African-American residents from having their toxic and contaminated property tested by the EPA, appears to have collapsed. Matrix founder Sloppy Joe Perkins is involved in a horrific and ugly legal fight with once-protégé Jittery Jeff Pitts, exposing dark if not criminal secrets.

Alabama Power’s CEO Mark A. Crosswhite allegedly spied on his boss and his boss’ then-girlfriend. With baggage accumulating, Crosswhite is allegedly on his way out and sources claim he is under federal investigation for alleged obstruction of justice.

With ex-Drummond executive David Roberson and Ex-Balch partner Joel I. Gilbert sitting in the federal big house, how many more could join them?

Will Southern Company step in and mop up this mess or is it too late?

Did Crosswhite find out if his boss Tom Fanning wears boxers or tighty whities?

When the news story broke in June that Matrix agents allegedly spied on a journalist in Florida, our first reaction was, what’s the big deal? This is nothing compared to what happens in Alabama.

Less than three weeks from today, Federal District Judge Abdul K. Kallon will step down.

The presiding judge of the North Birmingham Bribery Trial appears to be another carcass in the long history of “use, abuse, and dispose of” mentality of Alabama powerbrokers.

Kallon will join the elite ranks of disgraced ex-U.S. Attorney Jay E. Town, former U.S. Senator Luther Strange, former U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, disgraced ex-EPA administrator Trey Glenn, ex-Probate Judge Alan L. King, ex-State Representative Oliver Robinson, along with numerous other carcasses of agents and stooges that have stacked up over the past five years for having allegedly danced tango with one or more of the Three Stooges (Alabama Power, Balch and Drummond).

Like the slasher movie franchise Friday the 13th, how many more idiots will drive up to Crystal Lake just to be murdered? How many more idiots will “bow down and kiss the ring” of one or more of the Three Stooges just to eventually be turned into burnt toast?

“Sloppy Joe” Perkins created a living purgatory when he published a rambling statement on yellowhammernews.com in late June outlining a criminal enterprise involving 18 tax-exempt entities that allegedly laundered over $50 million, only to have it deleted 8 days later

Then the bombshell revelation exploded last week that Alabama Power executives were spying on Southern Company CEO and Chairman Tom Fanning and his then-girlfriend.

Alabama Power denied the allegation, but why would the esteemed attorneys for “Jittery Jeff” Pitts, Perkins’ ex-CEO and once-protégé, put that in a pleading?

Sources tell us that Pitts allegedly has irrefutable and rock solid evidence of Alabama Power Chairman and CEO Mark A. Crosswhite’s alleged involvement in the surveillance of Fanning who is to retire this year.

AL.com reported more details of the surveillance:

The listed “target” of the surveillance was Kimberly Tanaka, a fitness club owner and then-girlfriend of Fanning, but private investigator Derek Uman surveilled Tanaka and Fanning at her work and at his home.

Tanaka said she was in a serious and public relationship with Fanning that ended abruptly in 2017. She was unaware of the surveillance until recently.

“This was all news to me and I still don’t know why,” she told AL.com…. “It’s a little unnerving.”

She said she had no idea why anyone would think following her would put pressure on Fanning.

Uman, founder of Clear Capture Investigations of Gainesville, Fla., staked out Fanning’s Atlanta home and photographed him running on a wooded hill on a cul-de-sac leading to his secluded house. Uman followed and videoed Tanaka, gathered photos and billed then-Matrix CEO Pitts $6,881.55 for surveillance, travel, meals and more. 

Unbelievable!

So if true, did Crosswhite find out if his boss Tom Fanning wears boxers or tighty whities? Did the surveillance cause the relationship in any way “to end abruptly?” 

Although the media has not mentioned this, the spying on Fanning occurred in 2017,  at the time of the  anticipated and eventual indictments in the North Birmingham Bribery Trial. Was Crosswhite concerned Fanning was going to cooperate with federal authorities? 

Perkins’ Purgatory could also  seriously impact Drummond Company and their “confused” general counsel Blake Andrews. 

What revelations does Pitts know about the coal company?

Will Pitts’ deposition in the Matrix Meltdown bring to light secret operations, an orchestrated campaign, and the alleged set-up of “Fall Guy” and ex-Drummond executive David Roberson?

All this to consider as federal investigators quietly probe the alleged misconduct stirred by “Sloppy Joe’s” big mouth, big ego, and big mistake.

Utterly shocking!

Southern Company Chairman and CEO Tom Fanning (and others) were allegedly under clandestine surveillance by Matrix operatives on behalf of Alabama Power executives, according to new court filing from “Jittery Jeff” Pitts in the ongoing Matrix Meltdown, a two-state, mudslinging legal battle.

Pitts’ stunning court pleading (as a defendant against Matrix founder “Sloppy Joe” Perkins) states:

This afternoon Pulitzer-winning journalist John Archibald reported:

Records obtained by AL.com reveal that in May 2017 Matrix hired a Florida private investigator to gather information on associates of Tom Fanning, the CEO of The Southern Company, the nation’s second-largest utility, which owns Alabama Power. That investigator also surveilled Fanning near his home in Atlanta.

Last October we reported about the entangled succession allegations, writing:

Rumors are flying that Southern Company Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Tom Fanning is retiring next year.

And Alabama Power CEO and Chairman Mark A. Crosswhite is allegedly telling bourgeois insiders that he has the lock and key to the C-Suite at Southern Company, Alabama Power’s parent company.

Crosswhite is unfit to serve.

He worked as a top partner for alleged racist and embattled law firm Balch & Bingham before taking the revolving door to Alabama Power.

Instead of distancing himself from Balch, Crosswhite appears to be embracing his former employer, even allegedly subsidizing the firm with lucrative business as Balch is hemorrhaging from alleged unsavory and criminal scandals engulfing the 99 year-old firm.

Now unsubstantiated rumors say Alabama Power and unknown related entities have indemnified Balch and others for their alleged criminal, racist, and egregious misconduct.

Hiding behind non-disclosure agreements and now allegedly million-dollar indemnity deals, the Crosswhite scandal smells like raw sewage.

Two months after our post, secret, multi-million dollar contracts with “Sloppy Joe” were exposed on the investigative news site DonaldWatkins.com.

Sources since late 2021 have consistently told us that there is an alleged federal investigation of obstruction of justice involving Crosswhite. We believe the obstruction may have occurred when Alabama Power was “unmentionable” during the North Birmingham Bribery Trial.

The probe was provoked allegedly due to the inappropriate photos of disgraced ex-U.S. Attorney Jay E. Town drinking cocktails with Crosswhite.

In April, federal judge Abdul K. Kallon (who presided over the North Birmingham case) abruptly announced his resignation, two Assistant U.S. Attorneys allegedly resigned the following day, and the following week, a top Balch partner (limitedly involved with the North Birmingham scheme) brutally committed suicide by hanging himself.

We have consistently stated, even with our harshest criticism, that we believe Tom Fanning is a man of inherent goodness. He may be a showman at times, but Fanning appears to give a damn more than others. He even called us, the CDLU, directly in November of 2017

Getting back to Pitts, we believe strongly now that he resigned after decades of service to “Sloppy Joe” Perkins because he saw alleged criminal misconduct. His mentor was letting him take over, but instead Pitts left, because, as his court pleading states, he saw “inappropriate and unethical business practices.”

Now Pitts could be planning to sing about “high crimes and misdemeanors” at his deposition with Perkins’ lawyers.

Are the Three Stooges (Alabama Power, Drummond, and Balch) vulnerable?

Now, before federal investigators come knocking, Fanning needs to make some tough executive decisions and

1. Fire Crosswhite.
2. Disengage Matrix and “Sloppy Joe” Perkins.
3. Terminate Balch and Bingham.

For now, all of this still smells like raw sewage, shaken or stirred.

U.S. Congresswoman Kathy Castor dispatched a letter to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland yesterday demanding a probe of Alabama Power’s alleged go-to political fixer, Matrix, the obscure political consulting firm engaged in alleged influence peddling and alleged criminal acts.

WINK News reports:

U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor, D-Fla., said in a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland on Thursday that recent press reports in Florida had “exposed apparent corruption, influence peddling and breaches of the public trust by Florida’s largest electric utility Florida Power & Light and its officers.”

“Numerous public corruption scandals involving electric utilities across the country have resulted in federal public corruption criminal and civil probes, and it appears that such oversight is needed in Florida now,” the letter said.

Her letter comes on the heels of our direct contact with federal investigators about Matrix’s alleged criminal misconduct involving 18 tax-exempt entities and over $50 million in money laundering.

Although Florida Power & Light has terminated their contracts with entities and individuals tied to the Matrix Meltdown, Alabama Power  allegedly is STILL paying Matrix and Matrix founder “Sloppy Joe” Perkins  over $2 million a year without the need for invoicing.

Although news reporting has been focused primarily on Florida, reliable sources tell us there are numerous investigative efforts now looking at Alabama and the Three Stooges (Alabama Power, Drummond, and Balch).

With ex-Matrix CEO “Jittery Jeff” Pitts’ deposition ready to open the filthy treasure chest of alleged dirty deeds wide open, the Congresswoman’s letter has caught the perfect wave.

Hang ten!

Alabama Power has secretly paid millions to the embattled political consulting firm Matrix, LLC and its founder “Sloppy Joe” Perkins who sloppily outlined alleged criminal misconduct spanning over a decade in a since-deleted post on Yellowhammernews.com on June 30th.

We, the CDLU, have briefed federal investigators on the alleged money laundering of over $50 million using 18 tax-exempt 501 (c) 4 entities. These tax-exempt entities are designed to be “social welfare organizations” and must operate primarily to further the common good and general welfare of the people of the community.

We are sure that funneling money to “ghost candidates” in Florida and other alleged dirty deeds do not further the common good.

“Sloppy Joe” Perkins, who appears to suffer from bruised feelings and little-man syndrome, apparently let his ego get the best of him. Perkins, the Oompa Loompa of Alabama politics, is in the middle of a brutal and ugly two-state legal battle with his once-protégé “Jittery Jeff” Pitts.

A much-needed federal probe of this matter could enhance the alleged ongoing obstruction of justice probe of Alabama Power CEO and Chairman (and former Balch partner) Mark A. Crosswhite.

The North Birmingham Bribery Scandal involved less than $400,000 in money laundering. What will the feds find in the over $50 million in transactions since 2010?

Balch & Bingham and sister-wife Alabama Power appear to have relied on the “strategic” services of Matrix and Joe Perkins for decades.

Will the latest developments engulf the Three Stooges (Alabama Power, Balch, and Drummond Company) and bring to light the alleged “don’t ask, just cut the check” bribery ring?

Who will be the first to sing? Billy Canary? Trey Glenn? Lance Brown?