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Screwing and Polluting North Birmingham for $2,000?
In March, the Birmingham City Council denied a license to a scrap metal business in North Birmingham because of health, public safety and environmental concerns. A rare victory for the poor, African-American residents of North Birmingham, Jordan Scrap Yard fought back in April filing a lawsuit against the city. Yesterday, we visited the residents of North Birmingham and we learned a troubling fact: the community, which has fought vigorously against the Jordan Scrap Yard, was outraged and angered by a judge who ordered, adjudged, and decreed the city to grant the scrap yard a license on November 13, 2018 in…
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What will Southern Company do in December?
A year ago today, Tom Fanning, CEO of Southern Company, personally called us and spoke about their commitment to “listening to the community” and wanting to hear our concerns about Balch & Bingham, the Newsome Conspiracy Case, and the North Birmingham Bribery Scandal. A year later, the entanglement of Southern Company in the Newsome Conspiracy Case has been solidly linked, and the civil RICO action and possible U.S. Congressional hearings to come in 2019 could only spell for further headaches and embarrassments for Fanning and friends. Tom Fanning, who we believe is an inherently good man, could pick up the…
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Balch & Bingham Caves; Finally Admits Re-hiring Irving Jones, Jr.
Over three weeks of silence after we broke the story, Balch & Bingham has caved and finally admitted to re-hiring Irving Jones, Jr. with a news release posted yesterday evening. Jones will forever be known as the junior ghost-writer of the ghost-writer extraordinaire, convicted felon and ex-Balch partner Joel I. Gilbert. Of course, Balch’s fluff has no mention of Jones’ testimony during the criminal trial or how Gilbert told Jones to “dumb down” the ghost-written letters that Jones had written for African-American residents of North Birmingham. Jones, who boasts of having served as a counter-intelligence agent for the NSA, had…
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Southern Company, Balch and an Alleged $50 Hate Crime
The “free coat drives” were not warm jackets or comfortable winter coats. Yesterday, U.S. Congressman Jerrold Nadler announced a probe is coming in 2019 looking at hate crimes. The Washington Post reports, “The expected incoming chairman of the House Judiciary Committee sent a letter to top Trump administration officials Tuesday warning that when Democrats take over the chamber, they will investigate the rise in hate crimes.” The CDLU has spoken to and briefed Nadler’s office while we were in New York City and Washington, D.C. two weeks ago. Will ex-Balch partner and former Southern Company lobbyist Jeffrey H. Wood or…
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Newsome Conspiracy Case, North Birmingham Bribery Case, Secret Star Chamber, Southern Company, Spotlight on Balch & Bingham
Corrupt State of Affairs in Alabama
We returned late Friday from a very insightful and productive trip to New York City and Washington, D.C. Our high-level sources tell us that with the local Jefferson County indictment of Balch & Bingham stooges Scott Phillips and Trey Glenn, pressure on the U.S. Department of Justice to take a deeper look at the corrupt state of affairs in Alabama has escalated—especially now that Jeff Sessions was ousted. The reporting to prison of bought-and-paid-for politician and former Alabama State Representative Oliver Robinson is scheduled for next week and shows how a Balch & Bingham partner corrupted the legislative branch in…
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Next: U.S. Congressional Hearings
Having allegedly manipulated the legislative and executive branches of Alabama’s state government in the North Birmingham Bribery Case, Balch & Bingham’s alleged manipulation of the Alabama judicial branch in the Newsome Conspiracy Case is now also in the cross-hairs. The mugshots of Balch stooges Scott Phillips and Trey Glenn posted by AL.com are more symbolic than that of two paid consultants. They symbolize that the fight for justice and inherent goodness are not over. Actually, this is the start of the next, new beginning. As the Associated Press reported yesterday: “Trey Glenn should have never made it through any serious vetting process,” said…
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Balch Stooges Indicted
And Balch & Bingham thought it was all behind them. Pulitzer prize-winning journalist John Archibald writes: Trey Glenn, the head of the EPA for the Southeast region and a shill for polluters from way back, was just charged with crimes for his role in the toxic north Birmingham bribery scandal. And Scott Phillips, a former member of the Alabama Environmental Management Commission who took a contract from Balch & Bingham to help discourage cleanup of north Birmingham and prevent EPA expansion into Tarrant, was charged on the same day for related crimes. Phillips and Glenn were charged last week —…
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Balch Boasts of New Hires, Except Irving Jones, Jr.
As an insider told us: you can measure when you are beating Balch & Bingham not by their correcting a wrong but how much money and resources Balch and their unknown allies waste to allegedly avoid or attempt to derail the truth. AstroTurf efforts. A paid digital campaign. Public relations fluff. Orchestrated sabotages. Paid-in-full stooges and actors. Yesterday, Balch launched another salvo on the heels of their Chicken Legs Palooza public relations fluff. Trying to counter the reality that a dozen (known publicly) money-making partners have left the firm, the firm dispatched a news release that six new associates have…
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UPDATE: Gilbert May or May Not Go to Prison while Awaiting Appeal
[UPDATE: This post originally appeared yesterday. AL.com found that court records were wrong writing, “An entry in the federal court docket…indicates Gilbert had been granted the bond, but that was entered in error, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office and Gilbert’s attorneys.” Changes to our original post are in purple.] With election night coverage obscuring so much of the news, no one picked up that Balch-made millionaire and ex-partner Joel I. Gilbert was in federal court Tuesday night at 5:30 p.m. Gilbert and Drummond Coal Company executive David Roberson have asked to remain free on bond while they await a ruling…
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Balch’s Mess at the U.S. Department of Justice
From protests across the country demanding that Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller III not be fired to revelations from The Wall Street Journal that Acting U.S. Attorney General Matthew Whitaker was “a paid advisory-board member of an invention-promotion company shut down by federal regulators last year as an alleged scam,” controversy has engulfed the U.S. Department of Justice after Jeff Sessions was fired on Wednesday. But an even bigger mess has rattled the U.S. Department of Justice. Jeffrey H. Wood, the former Balch & Bingham lobbyist, who we victoriously blocked as a nominee for the Assistant Attorney General of the…
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Balch & Bingham Doesn’t Give a Damn; Re-hires Irving Jones, Jr.
“Lord have mercy!” declared one of the residents in North Birmingham when we told her the news. On Monday, our sources at Balch & Bingham gave us a heads up that Balch & Bingham had re-hired Irving Jones, Jr. the attorney who helped ghost-write letters for convicted felon and Balch-made millionaire Joel I. Gilbert. Jones also infiltrated GASP meetings and monitored the environmental group’s social media feeds. We wrote about his court testimony as reported by Pulitzer prize-winning journalist John Archibald: Gilbert also asked Jones to draft a confidentiality agreement relating to Oliver Robinson. Four days before Oliver Robinson was to speak to…
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Ex-Balch Partner Gilbert Sentenced to 5 Years in Federal Prison
The overwhelming interest was evident. Lines of people formed on the fourth floor before the courtroom opened for the hearing. Once inside, the courtroom was so extremely packed this morning, we, the CDLU, sat in the jury box. After the tedious back and forth over motions and sentencing guidelines, silence dominated as Balch-made millionaire Joel I. Gilbert was sentence to 5 years (60 months) in federal prison, fined $25,000 and ordered to do 100 hours of community service a year for two years upon supervised release. Gilbert’s best college friend, Gilbert’s brother, an ex-wife of a Gilbert childhood friend, and…
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Sentencing of Balch-Made Millionaire Tomorrow
[Update: Gilbert was sentenced to 60 months. Read more by clicking here.] While federal prosecutors seek an 8-year prison term for convicted felon Joel I. Gilbert, lawyers for Gilbert are asking for a one-year plus one-day prison sentence, 6 months of that as home detention, according to Kyle Whitmire of AL.com. Showing the same smug arrogance as before, during, and now after the trial, Gilbert and his defenders won’t even apologize for the criminal conduct that suppressed African-Americans in North Birmingham from having their toxic property tested by the EPA. In fact, his defenders are still running a pathetic “Get…
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Tarrant Elementary School Soil to be Tested
Balch & Bingham’s unsavory conduct in the North Birmingham Bribery Case was strongly rebuked today. Pressure from the Alabama Media Group has spurred the Tarrant City Schools to finally agree to test the soil at Tarrant Elementary School, according to Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist John Archibald. Balch-made millionaire and convicted felon Joel I. Gilbert spearheaded an effort that targeted poor black children in North Birmingham with free coat drives and other efforts. Ex-Balch partner Gilbert also worked behind the scenes to have Tarrant City Schools rescind permission for the EPA to test the soil at Tarrant Elementary, as disclosed in the…
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Federal Prosecutors Seek 8-Year Prison Sentence for Balch’s Ex-Partner
[Update: Gilbert was sentenced to 60 months. Read more by clicking here.] Joel I. Gilbert, the once-esteemed Balch & Bingham partner and Balch-made millionaire, faces a requested 8-year prison sentence from federal prosecutors according to Stephen Quinn of ABC3340. Early last week, we, the CDLU, spoke to and then sent a formal letter to Assistant U.S. Attorney George Martin about the insidious and foolish digital ad campaign that is attempting to justify the actions by Gilbert and Balch & Bingham. The campaign by unknown individuals and entities has backfired and become a mockery. We told Martin in our letter: You,…
