“After [the CDLU] pointed this out, Kerr took a long pause before going full Sarah Huckabee Sanders: ‘We reviewed the information. I have no concerns about anything inappropriate.'” The Root In our call with Jim Kerr, the General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer at Southern Company, after he said that Southern would do nothing about holding Balch & Bingham accountable for alleged unscrupulous and racist conduct, we asked him directly about the Jeffrey H. Wood matter. Jeffrey H. Wood was a lobbyist for Balch & Bingham and was lobbying on Capitol Hill in 2016 about the North Birmingham EPA matter…

“…Should [Balch & Bingham] have the right to suppress African-Americans? You think that’s okay? I’m asking you point blank, do you think it’s okay? Do you find it morally repugnant or not Jim? Come on take a stand!“— CDLU to Southern Company’s Chief Compliance Officer Jim Kerr on phone call. With an annual shareholders meeting less than a month away, will Southern Company CEO Tom Fanning remain silent or show true leadership? When Jim Kerr, General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer at Southern, called us in mid-January to say Southern would do nothing to hold Balch & Bingham accountable for…

With the Vogtle Nuclear Plant cost overruns in Georgia, Kemper Natural Gas Plant debacle in Mississippi, and the Atlanta airport transformer explosion fresh in people’s minds, Southern Company CEO Tom Fanning just added one more problem that could haunt him at the annual shareholders meeting next month. Racism. Institutional racism. Racial-bias. Sheer ugliness. As Starbucks CEO Kevin Johnson has shown the business world how to deal with the ugliness swiftly and promptly, he went a step further yesterday: on May 29, 2018, Starbucks will shut down 8,000 stores to train 175,000 employees about racial bias. For over a year, we…

Polar opposites? Starbucks CEO Kevin Johnson not only had a prompt and heartfelt apology to the two African-Americans that were falsely arrested at a Starbucks in Philadelphia, the store manager who called the police was let go, and Johnson met with the two victims on Tuesday. When Southern Company was told of the alleged racist and unscrupulous acts of their alter-ego, sister-wife, and most trusted law firm Balch & Bingham, Southern Company took over four weeks to say they would do nothing. Starbucks confronts racism while Southern Company does nothing. Southern Company CEO Tom Fanning has remained silent and to…

Starbucks CEO Kevin Johnson swiftly and courageously apologized for and condemned the racist and false arrest of two-African-Americans waiting for a colleague at a Starbucks in Philadelphia. For months now, we, the CDLU, have asked Southern Company to take similar actions against their “vendor,” alter-ego, or as The Root labeled, sister-wife Balch & Bingham, the embattled law firm that engaged in alleged racist and unsavory conduct. In January, Jim Kerr, the General Counsel of Southern Company told us they were not going to get involved in the alleged racist and unsavory conduct of their sister-wife. [Read our update: Starbucks CEO Confronts…

“Southern may not have been indicted, but the company could be doing more to distance itself from a firm whose web of cash sticks to every facet of a conspiracy to disenfranchise poor blacks.” — The Root The bombshell report by The Root is slowly causing the African-American community to percolate with outrage that their utility bills are subsidizing Southern Company’s sister-wife and alter-ego Balch & Bingham, the embattled law firm that engaged in alleged racist and unscrupulous actions. The allegations include: Suppressing the North Birmingham African-American community from having their toxic and contaminated property tested by the EPA. The…

“Both entities [Southern Company and its subsidiary Alabama Power] share more relations with Balch than sister-wives. Executives at Southern and Balch swap out like Pokémon cards. Their little black book of political donees is Old Testament-thick.”— The Root Balch & Bingham’s alleged acts of institutional racism have begun to deteriorate their number one client: Southern Company. Today’s brilliant expose’ on The Root, a popular online website for African-Americans, rips the Good Ole Boy shenanigans that allegedly suppressed African-Americans in North Birmingham, an area that is 92.5 percent African-American. On November 30, 2017, Southern Company’s CEO Tom Fanning personally called CDLU’s…

As we reviewed the Robinson Bribery Case, which involves a bribery scheme surrounding the North Birmingham CERCLA/Superfund site, we found an interesting fact that we believe may cause another Balch client, Alabama Power, to scream foul. Former Balch lobbyist Jeffrey H. Wood, the current acting Assistant U.S. Attorney General for the Environment and Natural Resources whose nomination we successfully blocked, met with congressional staff or members on Capitol Hill in 2016, around the time of the alleged bribery scheme. According to lobbying disclosure reports, Wood met on Capitol Hill to discuss CERCLA/Superfund laws and policies in the second quarter and third quarters of 2016.…

Southern Company is a publicly-traded company and they don’t need Balch & Bingham or economic racism as a national sideshow, especially in this post-Charlottesville era. Economic Racism? Environmental Injustice? How did we get here? When we started our investigation into the Burt Newsome Conspiracy case, we never thought this would lead to questioning the moral compass of  Southern Company or their subsidiary, Alabama’s most powerful corporate institution, Alabama Power. In an early morning news release today, the Black Warrior Riverkeeper organzation called on Alabama Power to “remove their coal ash from these unlined impoundments by the river and place it…

With the explosive and deadly events in Charlottesville, hate and racism are vividly alive  in the United States. Southern Company, the large and innovative utility company based in Atlanta,  should take a strong and unequivocal stand against racism, against unscrupulous behavior, and dump Balch & Bingham as their outside counsel and lobbyists. On June 23, 2017, the day after corrupt politician Oliver Robinson made a plea agreement in the $360,000 bribery scheme involving Balch & Bingham in which Robinson suppressed and discouraged poor African-Americans in North Birmingham from having their toxic and contaminated property tested, we wrote to Southern Company…