Before Randall Woodfin was elected Mayor of Birmingham, the City of Birmingham paid about $75,000 a year to the Birmingham Times for legal advertising. Now, at the end of 5 years under Woodfin’s watch, the amount spent has been a whopping $1.8 million, skyrocketing from $75,000 to $360,000 a year.
Magician Woodfin
Our investigative post on the expenditures has spurred outrage and grave concern to gadflies and City Hall insiders, and Woodfin finds himself now in the middle of scandal, all tied to Alabama Power’s desire to control the African American media.
Worse, no one can confirm if the Birmingham Times received the $1.8 million.
We, the CDLU, could not reach anyone who can confirm or deny that payments, including a batch payment of $1.14 million in August of 2020, were received.
Who, at the end of the day, received the money? Has the $1.8 million magically disappeared?
More troubling: no contract for “professional services” is available related to the Birmingham Times Media Group on the city’s transparency page.
All other professional fees are tied to a published contract.
The monthly “professional fees” tied to the Birmingham Times Media Group doubled in 2021 to $32,500 a month. Over $228,000 in “professional fees” were paid, but to whom?
A probe to find out whom and to hold those accountable for wasting government funds on so-called “legal advertising” is needed.
Time to bring an end to magic tricks in the Mayor’s Office and close the curtains on corruption.
The Form 8-K filing confirms that a federal probe is moving forward.
As we wrote last Thursday, both Southern Company and Florida Power and Light (FPL) appear to be preparing to negotiate “deferred prosecution agreements” with the U.S. Department of Justice.
On January 27, 2023, a criminal complaint was filed with Mr. Kenneth Polite, Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, that alleged a litany of violations of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act by: (a) Southern Company, Inc., (b) Alabama Power Company, (c) Matrix, LLC, (d) Joseph W. Perkins, Jr., (owner of Matrix), and (e) others RICO participants who worked in concert with them.
The major goals of the alleged racketeering enterprise were to: (a) target, influence, compromise, corrupt, control, and/or destroy individuals and entities that posed a perceived or real threat to Alabama Power’s monopoly in Alabama as an energy producer and provider, (b) perpetuate Alabama Power’s ironclad control of local, state, and federal elected and appointed officials in Alabama, and (c) protect, expand, and solidify its grip on the political affairs in the state of Alabama.
The complaint also alleges that the named offenders engaged in criminal antitrust conduct against certain Watkins-owned biomass-to-energy businesses that competed on a commercial scale against biomass-to-energy businesses owned and/or controlled by the Southern Company in the same U.S. markets.
The complaint was accompanied by a detailed Proffer of Evidence that named the specific offenders and outlined the nature and scope of the RICO and antitrust conduct that adversely impacted the complainants and caused them severe economic harm.
The named complainants are: (a) Donald V. Watkins, Sr., (b) Donald V. Watkins, Jr., (c) Donald V. Watkins, P.C., (d) Watkins-Pencor, LLC, (e) the Donald Watkins Agency, Inc., (f) DNA Centers of Alabama, Inc., and (g) Highland Virtual Suites, LLC, all of which are/were owned by the complainants during the racketeering conspiracy period.
The criminal RICO complaint could help consolidate the numerous criminal allegations against the embattled utility and its highly paid stooges: Balch & Bingham and Matrix, LLC. Drummond Company (and others) may also be viewed as a possible participant in this RICO scheme.
In another bombshell post, DonaldWatkins.com outlines possible indictments against Southern Company, Florida Power & Light, and Matrix, LLC founder “Sloppy Joe” Perkins, the Oompa Loompa of Alabama politics.
On January 25, 2023, NextEra Energy (NEE) and Florida Power & Light Company (FPL) filed a Form 8-K with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission announcing that “Allegations of violations of law by FPL or NEE have the potential to result in fines, penalties, or other sanctions or effects, as well as cause reputational damage for FPL and NEE, and could hamper FPL’s and NEE’s effectiveness in interacting with governmental authorities.”
The Form 8-K stated that “FPL’s and NEE’s business and reputation could be adversely affected by allegations that FPL or NEE has violated laws, by any investigations or proceedings that arise from such allegations, or by ultimate determinations of legal violations.”
The violations of law referenced in the 8-K stem from the clandestine “dirty tricks” work Joe Perkins’ Matrix, LLC, performed for these companies.
On the same day of NEE’s Form 8-K filing, chief executive officer Eric Silagy was ousted as CEO of FPL.
In November 2022, the Southern Company ousted Mark Crosswhite as Alabama Power’s chief executive officer, effective on December 31, 2022.
The Southern Company has not issued a Form 8-K filing yet, but may do so after an internal investigation by the Atlanta-based King & Spalding, LLP, law firm centering on Matrix’s “dirty tricks” work for the Southern Company and Alabama Power is completed.
The Form 8-K filing confirms that a federal probe is moving forward. NEE would never risk writing about potential violations of law in an SEC filing unless there was an ongoing probe.
In October of 2021, we learned that a federal probe of obstruction of justice against Alabama Power and Crosswhite had been launched over the North Birmingham Bribery Trial.
In July, we had both phone and written communication with the U.S. Department of Justice regarding the money laundering of over $50 million using 18 tax-exempt entities as foolishly outlined by Sloppy Joe in a since-deleted post on Yellowhammer News, an Alabama Power controlled “news” website.
In addition to the highly anticipated civil RICO lawsuits to be filed in the next 30 to 60 days, the filed criminal RICO complaint and ongoing federal probes are putting insurmountable pressure on Southern Company, knocked against the ropes as spectators anticipate a technical knock-out.
Copying the same dance moves as disgraced ex-Alabama Power CEO Mark A. Crosswhite, Eric Silagy, the CEO of Florida Power and Light (FPL) resigned abruptly yesterday.
Silagy, like Crosswhite, was embroiled in scandal and alleged criminal probes related to the obscure political consulting firm Matrix, founded by “Sloppy Joe ” Perkins, the OompaLoompa of Alabama politics.
Jace D. Williams, who was hired by Balch & Bingham’s Atlanta office in September of 2021, left the embattled firm 14 months later.
Déjà vu as the pattern repeats itself again and again: Balch hires people of color who then practically flee through the fire escape.
98 percent of Balch partners are white, and the facade of “diversity” is crumbling.
Espy
On top of that, the alleged racist law firm Balch & Bingham celebrated their centennial anniversary last year, on a hilltop, isolated from the world, just days after their former associate, Chase T. Espy, pled guilty to possession of kiddie porn. Espy is now a registered sex offender.
While Balch’s managing partner Stan Blanton has been busy collecting make-believe awards for diversity and inclusion, the rumbling of another exodus is real.
From Jackson, Mississippi to Jacksonville, Florida, Balch partners and associates are reading about and discussing the expected civil RICO lawsuit involving Balch’s sister-wife Alabama Power, parent company Southern Company, the obscure political consulting firm Matrix, and of course Balch.
Balch has refused to apologize for the criminal misconduct of ex-partner Joel I. Gilbert who targeted poor African American residents of North Birmingham in the North Birmingham Bribery Scandal.
In the criminal enterprise funded by Southern Company, the goons targeted and harassed a Hispanic family and their young children in a campaign of terror in 2020 that forced the family to flee for their safety.
As we wrote this in November of 2021, shortly after Jace D. Williams was hired:
The firm has been seen a mass exodus of experienced and money-making partners in the last several years.
The death spiral caused by less revenue and more inexperience appears to help Balch & Bingham’s competitors.
We wish Jace the best of luck and also to those attorneys and staff at Balch contemplating an exodus from what looks like a firm with a self-inflicted death spiral.
We’ve said it before: there is no such thing as a coincidence in Alabama.
And now the connections to the Southern Company criminal enterprise are solidifying on a case of what some would call attempted murder.
In 2019, we, the CDLU, uncovered the fact that the cop that pulled over Burt Newsome in his staged arrest in 2013 was the son of an Alabama Power executive. The executive was also a long-time client of Balch & Bingham.
Now, with a highly anticipated civil RICO lawsuit in the works, the corruption of law enforcement is getting a deep review.
How many other abuses under the authority of color has Southern Company’s criminal enterprise engaged in?
The CDLU, working with investigators, has found stunning evidence in the near-death, head-on car collision of Burt Newsome. The investigation is currently ongoing.
The accident occurred on September 10, 2020, at the height of the aggressive campaign of terror by Southern Company’s criminal enterprise against Newsome and his family.
Two weeks before the head-on accident, Southern Company paid for a smear site that falsely called Newsome a rapist.
Newsome refused to end the Newsome Conspiracy Case and refused to drop ex-Drummond executive David Roberson’s $75 million civil lawsuit.
Even with all the threats and lies, Newsome was not intimidated.
Was the car accident planned as the ultimate way to end both lawsuits? Death?
Highly unusual, a State Trooper arrived on the scene only minutes after the accident, as if he were a fox in waiting.
The accident occurred on a County Road and in Shelby County only Sheriff Deputies can draft up an accident report; State Troopers are called only when a fatality is involved.
Were they expecting Newsome to be dead?
The accident report by the State Trooper is completely inaccurate and photos taken at the scene prove that the accident report was deliberately misleading.
The accident report’s attempts to show that the person who hit Newsome was simply making a left turn and that Newsome hit him straight up. That is false.
Newsome was driving a blue Volkswagen Jetta and the other driver was driving a green Ford Explorer.
Newsome saw the person appearing to come straight at him and Newsome made a defensive move and swerved to his left just beyond a yellow “suicide” lane. However, the driver of the other vehicle then turned to his right and appears to have gunned it towards Newsome.
The other driver’s wheels are turned to the right and appears that he was driving straight, not turning at all to his left.
The accident report attempts to imply that the accident happened as Newsome was entering the intersection. It did not.
A photo taken at the scene clearly shows that the entrance and center of the intersection is clear. You can clearly see the yellow “suicide” lane
Looking westbound, Newsome was driving eastbound (towards the camera).
The side-by-side graphic below shows what the state trooper filed and what would be a more accurate visualization of the accident where the wheels of the Ford Explorer were actually turned to the right. In addition, the accident report attempts to show that Newsome (Car #2) was going straight and then moved to his right, a falsity. The opposite is true.
The State Trooper attempted to prevent photos from being taken. A photo taken from another angle of the accident shows that the Ford Explorer’s left tire is also facing to the right.
When you look at the photos and compare them to the accurate visualization, the state trooper’s report is definitively inaccurate and wrong.
But more troubling than the photos and inaccurate if not false accident report is the narrative provided by the state trooper.
In the narrative, the trooper states that the driver of the green Ford Explorer stated, “as he was going to make his left turn another car in front of him was making a right turn on County Road 11, and he did not see vehicle #2 behind the non-contact vehicle and as the non-contact turned right he was turning left and vehicle #2 entered the intersection and struck him.”
That is absurd and impossible!
You cannot turn right going westbound or you will end up on a mound of dirt.
Even if a car coming in the opposite direction was turning to the right, there is a dedicated right turning lane.
Nothing would be obscured.
Mark White
The ongoing investigation has not only found that the accident report was severely inaccurate and at times false, there is now solid evidence of connections between the state trooper and a known business associate of Mark White, themost trusted advisor of disgraced ex-CEO of Alabama Power, Mark A. Crosswhite.
White is a white-collar criminal attorney who represents Alabama Power and attended the North Birmingham Bribery Trial every day, according to court observers.
The business associate also appears to be linked to the individual(s) who allegedly filed the false police report in 2013 that led to Newsome’s staged arrest in the Newsome Conspiracy Case by the son of an Alabama Power executive.
Investigators are digging deep into the relationships between the state trooper, White’s business associate, and the driver of the green Ford Explorer who allegedly works at Norfolk Southern, a Southern Company transportation provider.
Burt Newsome is an Iron Man and has vigorously fought back against the corrupt judicial system and co-conspirators. After the accident, he rehabilitated himself and has successfully grown a respected law office with more clients, more victories, and precedent-setting decisions.
Investigators are asking, since Newsome would not give-in, did Crosswhite order the final solution? Was Mark White stupid enough “to follow orders?”
This is an ongoing investigation, and we will provide further updates.
Both the Woodfin Administration and executives at the Birmingham Times appear to have taken extreme measures to conceal the flow of money that is reported in this post.
Investigative and independent mainstream journalism is dead in Alabama. Sadly, Southern Company’s criminal enterprise holds the purse and keys.
The article highlighted how Alabama Power funneled money to Alabama Political Reporter (APR) and Yellowhammer News, and in turn, received exclusively positive coveragewhile fiercelyattacking Alabama Power’s critics.
In addition to funding news sites that attack their critics, an affiliate of Alabama Power, the Alabama Power Foundation, funded the acquisition of a black-owned news site in Birmingham, theBirmingham Times.
In 2016, James Lewis sold the newspaper to The Foundation for Progress in Journalism (FPJ), a not-for-profit organization. The Foundation was incorporated on February 20, 2013, with no reported donations that year.
In 2014, the Foundation for Progress in Journalism received $35,000 from the Alabama Power Foundation, its sole donor. In 2015, the Alabama Power Foundation contributed another $100,000 to the Foundation for Progress in Journalism, which was 100% of its income. In 2016, the Alabama Power Foundation contributed another $50,000 to the Foundation for Progress in Journalism, which used its cash on hand to buy the Birmingham Times.
And guess who incorporated the foundation?
Alabama Power’s sister-wife Balch & Bingham.
On August 19, 2020, the Foundation for Progress in Journalism changed its name to the Bronze Valley Foundation. The registered agent’s address is 600 18th Street North, Birmingham, Alabama, the same address for Alabama Power Company.
J. Houston Smith, III
The Bronze Valley Foundation is associated directly with the Bronze Valley Corp. and was formed in Alabama as a 501(c)(4) non-profit corporation in 2015. Its address is the same as Alabama Power Company’s. The registered agent is J. Houston Smith, III, Alabama Power Vice President of Government Affairs and former Balch & Bingham partner.
Bronze Valley Corp. was originally incorporated under the name “Elevate Alabama, Inc.” The name was changed to Bronze Valley Corp. on November 28, 2017, which was shortly after Randall Woodfin was sworn-in to his first term as Mayor of Birmingham.
The current board of directors listed on Bronze Valley Corp. include Jeff Peoples, the new Chairman and CEO of Alabama Power, and Houston Smith.
Bronze Valley Corp. acknowledges in its Impact Report for 2018 to 2020 that it receives principal financial support from Alabama Power Company, the Alabama Power Foundation, Regions Bank, and the U.S. Economic Development Administration.
On August 20, 2020, the City of Birmingham withdrew $1,146,377.76 from a money market account at BBVA Compass Bank. Mayor Randall Woodfin used this money to pay a “batch” of Birmingham Times invoices for “Legal Advertising.” The payment was coded as a “Nondepartmental” expenditure.
This $1,146,377.76 payment came out of the city’s $412.8 million operating budget for 2020-2021. As of December 16, 2022, Woodfin has quietly funneled $1,815,170.84 to the Birmingham Times during his tenure as Mayor of Birmingham.
A breakdown of the city payments to the Birmingham Times Media Group and affiliated entities is available in the city’s Open Checkbook under the “Transactions Report” portal when the vendor name Birmingham Times Media Group is entered.
Included in Mayor Woodfin’s $1,815,170.84 payments to the Birmingham Times entities is a $32,500.00 recurring payment for “Professional Fees,” an amount that doubled from the $16,250 recurring payments on April 26, 2021.
During his tenure as mayor, Woodfin has paid the Birmingham Times entities $228,105.00 in “Professional Fees,” alone.
A search of the Birmingham Times website (as of December 28, 2022) reveals that no classified legal advertisements have appeared on the newspaper’s website since January 12, 2017.
While the Birmingham Times has published a print edition during Woodfin’s tenure as mayor, we have been unable to verify or quantify the volume of “Legal Advertising” the city has placed in the Birmingham Times printed editionduring this five-year period.
According to Gaebler.com, the estimated minimum rate for ads in the Birmingham Times is $23. Gaeber notes that “advertising rate estimates are typically for a column inch of black and white advertising space. Seasonal factors should also be considered.”
Prior to Woodfin becoming mayor, the Birmingham Times received about $75,000 a year from the city for the placement of legal ads.
After the change in ownership at the Birmingham Times in 2016, the newspaper hired a seasoned team of executives and reporters, improved its design, enhanced its online presence, and published a steady stream of “Happy News” for its targeted readership.
“Happy News” features positive stories about community events and uplifting profiles of non-controversial people.
“Happy News” does not include hard-hitting, investigative reporting that exposes known polluters in Alabama; spotlights public corruption within local, state or federal government; or shows the need for transparency and accountability in government operations and campaign financing laws.
Because the Birmingham Times has received $1,815,170.84 from the City of Birmingham during Woodfin’s term in office (through December 31, 2022), “Happy News” does not include any criticism of the Woodfin administration on any issue.
Finally, “Happy News” does not include any kind of negative media coverage of Alabama Power, Southern Company, the North Birmingham Bribery Scandal, or Alabama Power’s networking business partners and political allies.
The Birmingham Times is not required to publicly disclose the names of the individuals and/or entities that have financially benefited from the $1,815,170.84 Mayor Woodfin funneled to Birmingham Times entities between the time he assumed office in 2017 and the end of 2022.
Neither the Foundation for Progress in Journalism, nor the Bronze Valley Foundation, has disclosed this information, either.
Blalock
One of the board members of the Bronze Valley Foundation is Bob Blalock, a public relations spin doctor at Alabama Power Company. Prior to joining Alabama Power, Blalock was a reporter and editorial page editor at The Birmingham News. He is a specialist in molding public opinion on controversial issues.
Beginning on September 4, 2022, the Birmingham Times Media Group and AL.com started collaborating on a series of articles for publication in the Birmingham Times that focus on the sky-high homicide rates in the city. The articles soft peddled the severity of the violent crime in the city and portrayed Woodfin in the best light possible.
AL.com is Alabama’s largest mainstream new media organization. It operates the Huntsville Times, Birmingham News, and Mobile Press Register.
Under the collaboration arrangement, AL.com produced content that was published in the Birmingham Times, as written by AL.com employees John Archibald, Amy Yurkanin, Greg Garrison, Carol Robinson, Ryan Michaels, and Roy Johnson.
Shortly before this collaboration began, Woodfin’s recurring payments to Birmingham Times entities for “Professional Fees” increased from $16,250 to $32,500 for each payment. It is not known what portion of this increase in fees, if any, was funneled to AL.com under the collaboration arrangement.
What is known, however, is the fact that AL.com aligned with the Birmingham Times in showering Woodfin with consistent and favorable news coverage, at taxpayers’ expense.
It is also known that both the Woodfin administration and executives at the Birmingham Times appear to have taken extreme measures to conceal the flow of money that is reported in this post.
Neither the Birmingham Times, nor AL.com, has publicly disclosed their transformation from an independent news reporting role to paid standard bearers for Woodfin’s “marketing and promotions” program funded by Alabama Power.
Mayor Woodfin has never publicly disclosed the fact that taxpayer dollars have been funneled through the Birmingham Times entities to a financially struggling AL.com, which has turned a blind eye to questionable financial practices at City Hall, and the alleged corruption tied to Southern Company’s criminal enterprise and their hired guns at Alabama Power, Balch & Bingham, and Matrix.
Ex-Alabama Power CEO Mark A. Crosswhite appears to have run a criminal enterprise that gives multiple victims of the misconduct standing to sue Southern Company with civil RICO lawsuits.
Civil RICO lawsuits against Southern Company, Matrix, Balch & Bingham, and others offer plaintiffs a solution to the rigged and corrupt system of justice and law enforcement in Alabama.
The acts carried out by Alabama Power, Balch, Matrix and others associated to the criminal enterprise are actionable. And the civil RICO statute provides triple damages to victims.
Now with Monday’s explosive post how Southern Company’s law enforcement stooge and disgraced ex-U.S. Attorney Jay E. Town authorized the subpoena of Alabama Media Group to find out the identity of an innocent, online commentator, the tangled web of law enforcement stooges, compromised judges, and paid-off media demonstrate a horrific enterprise engaged in acts of injustice.
When the Southern Company’s criminal enterprise sent two sets of outfits and travel bags to Newsome’s wife and each of his four children as a threatening message, local law enforcement had the audacity to blame his young twins who couldn’t read of ordering the items, picking correct clothing sizes, and inputting a stolen credit card number and home address on a website.
Fraudulently using a stolen credit card is a Class C Felony in Alabama. Why in the God’s name did local Shelby County Sheriff Deputies ignore this crime and dismiss it as an act of his two young children?
Town’s office was briefed on the Newsome Conspiracy Case, but Town, too, intentionally ignored the serious allegations and deliberately blocked four different FBI investigations.
The four blocked FBI investigations included probing a criminal enterprise, investigating the alleged bribes to the husband of the presiding judge, reviewing the abuse under the color of law by the cop-son of a retired Alabama Power executive, and an overall investigation out of Montgomery’s FBI Office.
As an FBI agent told us, “their hands were tied behind their backs.”
And by whom? Southern Company’s criminal enterprise and their stooge Jay Town.
In January of 2018, Jim Kerr, the Chief Compliance Officer and General Counsel at Southern Company told us unequivocally that Southern Company/Alabama Power was not involved in the Newsome Conspiracy Case.
The anonymous documents we received in November show that Alabama Power paid to have the Newsome family terrorized, paid to tar and feather Newsome falsely as a rapist, and, to add a cherry on top of this cluster of injustice, paid-off the media to attack Newsome.
Southern Company’s paid-off media, the discredited Alabama Political Reporter, wrote a long-winded article in 2021 attacking the merits of the Newsome Conspiracy Case while defending Alabama Power and making disgraced ex-CEO Mark A. Crosswhite sound like a poor victim of this blog. (Cry us a polluted river!)
Alabama Power paid Alabama Political Reporter at least $120,000 a year according to documents we received anonymously.
In 2018, Kerr may have looked the other way and let Alabama Power act like outlaws. Or maybe Kerr was lied to by subordinates.
All that changed in 2022, when news reports revealed that Alabama Power spied on Southern Company Chairman and CEO Tom Fanning and his then-girlfriend in 2017.
The outlaws had fatally shot themselves in the foot.
While Southern Company is cleaning house and restructuring, the corrupt state of affairs and infrastructure in Alabama remains.
Donald V. Watkins, the Newsome Family, the Forbes Family, the CDLU, GASP, and others have one remedy to clean up this Alabama mess and detangle the corruption: a federal civil RICO lawsuit.
During the height of the criminal trial, Jay Town’s office filed a sealed subpoena demanding to know who was making counter arguments and criticalcomments about the prosecution and trial on the AL.com website.
On Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, we expose the appalling lengths to which Southern Company stooges went to go after and destroy an African American leader and his supporters.
Southern Company’s criminal enterprise not only greased andcorrupted the judicial branch in Alabama to protect their wholly owned subsidiaries, but also corrupted the executive branch and law enforcement to silence critics and the media.
From the Newsome Conspiracy Case to the North Birmingham Bribery Scandal, obstruction of justice not only occurred in the court system, but some acts were sadly done by law enforcement officials.
Watkins
The CDLU has anonymously received a bombshell: a sealed court document from the crimimal case against African American businessman and attorney Donald V. Watkins.
And the document is utterly devastating and demonstrates that the office of disgraced and now ex-U.S. Attorney Jay E. Town was indeed in Southern Company/Alabama Power’s pocket.
Town was confirmed as U.S. Attorney in August of 2017.
In October 2017, Town’s office opened a new federal criminal investigation into the same business transactions between Watkins and a handful of investors in his waste-to-energy business that had been probed by federal prosecutors in New Jersey from July 2015 to February 2016. These prosecutors cleared Watkins on all allegations of wrongdoing.
The move came at the same month as Southern Company’s $2 million-a-year consultant “Sloppy Joe” Perkins hand-wrote a detailed outline of an orchestrated smear campaign against Watkins.
Perkins’ notes, at page 3, specifically referenced his knowledge of “federal subpoenas” involving Watkins. At the time, the only federal subpoenas involving Watkins were those issued by Town’s newly empaneled grand jury.
Sloppy Joe’s handwritten notes mentions federal subpoenas (last line)
Watkins did not become aware of any federal grand jury proceedings or subpoenas issued by Town until February of 2018.
Why would Sloppy Joe know about subpoenas coming out of the secret proceedings of a federal grand jury?
Why, one would ask, was Sloppy Joe in the know?
We believe Southern Company’s criminal enterprise took immediate action against Watkins after he published critical stories about Perkins and his firm Matrix in September of 2017.
Eventually, Watkins was indicted and the criminal case went to trial in early 2019.
But the sealed documents from the Watkins case that we received are alarming to First Amendment rights and privacy.
During the height of the criminal trial, Jay Town’s office filed a sealed subpoena demanding to know who was making counter arguments and critical comments about the prosecution and trial on the AL.com website comments area.
TheTruthHurts48 burned up Town and his team. ?
Ripping up First Amendment rights and like mobsters wanting to break one’s legs, Town’s office filed the subpoena on February 25, 2019. Three days later, Alabama Media Group, owners of AL.com, filed a motion to quash. The issue, according to court records, was resolved shortly thereafter but details are unknown.
Because of guaranteed freedom of speech and freedom of the press rights, U.S. Department of Justice guidelines are clear that there are mandatory consultation requirements and Jay Town and his office should have obtained authorization at least 30 days before issuing a subpoena to a media outlet like Alabama Media Group.
We doubt Town’s office did. Town was too busy sipping cocktails?with Alabama Power CEO Mark A. Crosswhite, who resigned in disgrace this past November.
We received the anonymously sent, sealed court documents last spring. As whistleblowers, we have forwarded the documents to the Office of Professional Responsibility and the Office of the Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Justice.
Sipping Town
Recently we learned who TheTruthHurts48 is, and the person told us that they attended the Watkins trial everyday and believe the trial was an absolute miscarriage of justice.
TheTruthHurts48, who works remotely, used an IP address and VPN associated with their employer. After the trial, the person was unexpectedly fired by their employer for no reason. They believe Jay Town caused the abrupt termination.
Exactly one year after Jay Town’s office filed that subpoena, on February 25, 2020, Alabama Media Group published an “End of an Era” story and announced, “Beginning Thursday, Feb. 27, 2020 at 5 a.m. CST, we’ll eliminate website comments…”
Newsome won’t take it on the chin, not for himself or his clients.
Eight years ago embattled law firm Balch & Bingham declared in a pleading in the Newsome Conspiracy Case that they had the legal right to “ruin a rival.”
Instead, Balch ruined themselves losing tens of millions in legal fees, 18 of 18 major lobbying clients, and dozens of seasoned and legacy partners.
Now that disgraced ex-Alabama Power CEO Mark A. Crosswhite was ousted, the once-prestigious, now-egregious law firm has been exposed as part of a criminal enterprise funded by the deep pockets of Southern Company and will be part of a highly anticipated civil RICO lawsuit.
And this week, apparently unable to attract experienced partners from other firms or retain new attorneys, Balch announced the promotion to partner of junior ghost-writer extraordinaire, and spy-vs-spy man Irving Jones, Jr. , a central figure of the North Birmingham Bribery Scandal.
Jones infiltrated meetings of the public charity and environmental group GASP and helped ghost-write “dumbed-down” letters for convicted felon and ex-Balch partner Joel I. Gilbert to be signed by African American residents in the AstroTurf campaign to block EPA testing in North Birmingham, according to court testimony in 2018.
Meanwhile, Burt Newsome, who was viciously targeted by the criminal enterprise and nearly murdered assassinated killed in a mysterious head-on collision in 2020, won a precedent-setting opinion in the 11th Circuit yesterday.
The 11th Circuit three-judge panel unanimously reversed a lower court ruling in Mortgage Corporation vs.Bozeman ( 21-10987).
Law 360 reports:
An Alabama U.S. district court ruling that dissolved the mortgage lien on a bankrupt debtor’s home ran afoul of federal law, the Eleventh Circuit said in a precedent-setting opinion that reaffirms the right of secured creditors to full recovery of mortgage loans.
With outstanding professionalism and legal brilliance, and adding to his enormous victory for a Mexican farmer in May, Newsome has vigorously defended the rights of his clients with tenacity.
The 11th Circuit decision, highly applauded in banking circles, should open more doors for Newsome.
The late Schuyler Allen Baker, Jr., General Counsel at Balch & Bingham, vowed to fight Newsome to the death.
Sadly, Baker died in 2020.
Balch and the criminal enterprise stupidy wasted millions and lost tens of millions in fees to win a slam-dunk and corrupt judgment of $242,000 against Newsome.
Now the judgment and counterfeit order used to trample Newsome will play a leading role in the Civil RICO lawsuit against Balch, Southern Company, Matrix, and others.
Newsome won’t take it on the chin, not for himself or his clients.
Newsome’s determination for justice has not been hindered, not even by a criminal enterprise or a near-death, head-on car wreck.
And we, the CDLU, along with the public in general, energetically applaud Newsome’s perseverance.
Jeff Peoples and Zeke Smith should be immediately fired for hiring an antisemite apologist.
The anonymous financial records and documents that we, the CDLU, received show that Southern Company/Alabama Power paid Frank Matthews thousands of dollars in the summer of 2020 in the campaign of terror and intimidation against the CDLU, the Forbes Family, and Burt Newsome.
The expenditures, paid by Matrix, LLC, were approved by Zeke Smith, Executive Vice President of External Affairs at Alabama Power.
Matthews, who self-proclaimed himself as “God’s Gangster,” defended and praised Louis Farrakhan, the antisemite and anti-white racist who came to Birmingham in June of 2013.
In the summer of 2020, on the seven-year anniversary of the visit, Matthews declared that it was a “Privilege and honor to meet the most regarded! honorable Louis Farrakhan” in a Facebook Post.
Matthews then spouts his own hate, writing, “We don’t care what Jewish Foundation or Federation or no house negroes that didn’t want the minister here.”
And who did Matthews tag in that Facebook post dated June 14, 2020?
Carlos M. Chaverst Jr., the illustrious but easily distracted rabble-rouser.
A little over two weeks later, Chaverst attacked K.B. Forbes, the Chief Executive Officer of the CDLU, as a “racist ass white man” on a Facebook post attached to a Facebook Live video where at the end of the video Chaverst rambles about the “white man” K.B. Forbes and talks about Forbes’ home, while labeling him WYPIPO.
[Note: Chaverst had three Facebook profiles in 2020. The Montez Chaverst profile has since been deleted. ]
Two days later, on July 4th, the self-anointed Apostle Brenda Paige Ward, having rented a large van from Budget Rentals at the Birmingham Airport, showed up in Forbes’ neighborhood and held a two-minute “shoot and scoot” fake protest adjacent to Forbes’ home, terrorizing neighbors and Forbes’ then-eight-year-old daughter who cried thinking they were killing an innocent African American like George Floyd.
The next day, the Apostle posted that she enjoyed going to Jazz at the Park on Independence Day.
And who did the Apostle tag? Carlos M. Chaverst, Jr.
Frank Matthews appears to have utilized Chaverst and the Apostle in the campaign of intimidation and terror, and Southern Company paid him well.
Matthews and others demonstrated total ignorance about Forbes, who lived in Chile as a child, is the son of a Hispanic immigrant, and is fully bilingual.
Forbes and the CDLU were working with the U.S. Department of Justice as informants about the misconduct in Alabama, and the criminal enterprise did not like the fact.
Forbes had dispatched numerous letters and provided hundreds of pages of documents, including the jaw-dropping photos of disgraced ex-U.S. Attorney Jay E. Town and ex-Alabama Power CEO Mark A. Crosswhite chugging cocktails together.
By these acts, Southern Company was trying to silence, intimidate, and threaten Forbes and his family.
The antisemite booster was then paid in late August of 2020 to put up signs for a website that falsely claimed that Burt Newsome was a rapist and that Forbes was defending a rapist.
Southern Company appears to have wanted to discourage and intimidate Newsome from defending or continuing to pursue ex-Drummond Executive David Roberson’s $75 million civil lawsuit against Balch & Bingham and Drummond, while discouraging Forbes and the CDLU from reporting about the Roberson case or defending Newsome in the Newsome Conspiracy Case.
Jeff Peoples and Zeke Smith should be immediately fired for hiring an antisemite apologist, being engaged in nefarious and criminal misconduct, and for contributing to a criminal enterprise that will be held accountable in a much-anticipated civil RICO lawsuit.
Matthews even called the CDLU and left a vulgar message for us.
Southern Company’s Paid Stooge Frank Matthews Verbally Assaults CDLU in a Voicemail
An apostle, a rebel-rouser, and an antisemite booster meet in a bar…
The obscure and embattled political consulting firm Matrix, LLC, has been officiallyterminated by Florida Power & Light (FPL), one of the largest utilities in the United States. The final act was dispatching letters to several entities, including us, the CDLU, in late December.
The OompaLoompa of Alabama politics, “Sloppy Joe” Perkins, founder of Matrix, was embroiled in a nasty legal fight last year with his once-protégé Jeff Pitts, exposing unsavory and nefarious misconduct, including the surveillance of Southern Company CEO and Chairman Tom Fanning and his then-girlfriend in 2017.
In August, an FPL company spokesman said in a statement. “Learning about the surveillance of the CEO of Southern Company further reinforces our decision to have severed all ties with Matrix, a consultant we regret ever having associated ourselves with.”
Sloppy Joe Perkins has become the laughing stock in political circles especially now that Alabama Power CEO Mark A. Crosswhite, “the most powerful man in Alabama,” was ousted in late November.
The letter dispatched by a law firm on behalf of FPL makes a request on entities like the CDLU “to cease any and all disparaging communications or negative publicity involving or relating to the Matrix LLC consulting firm or any of its affiliates.”
Why would FPL dispatch a final letter to non-parties about Matrix and Sloppy Joe’s bruised feelings? We, the CDLU, have mentioned FPL peripherally, so why a letter to us?
Observers state that FPL is solidifying the fact the company was not behind any leaks, attacks, document dumps, or negative publicity regarding the Matrix Meltdown and are attempting to prevent any involvement in potential litigation associated with Perkins and his affiliated companies.
In late November, we, the CDLU, anonymously received documents and financial information about Southern Company’s expenditures through Matrix. The letter from FPL’s lawyers was dispatched a couple weeks later.
With potential civil RICO litigation impacting utilities because of Matrix’s misconduct, Matrix, like Balch & Bingham, has become a third-party risk.
FPL is cleaning up loose ends while Sloppy Joe was cut loose and terminated. A spokesman at FPL confirmed to us yesterday that the relationship was over, definitely over.
When will Southern Company terminate Sloppy Joe, Matrix, and his affiliated companies?
Will King & Spalding’s criminal investigation on behalf of Southern Company cause the same “regret ever having associated” with Sloppy Joe?
A simple case of breach of contract and misrepresention was sealed in its entirety. No minors, or victims of sexual assault or domestic violence were involved.
So why was the case sealed then?
Because the case was tied to Southern Company, its subsidiary Alabama Power, and/or sister-wife Balch & Bingham.
Observers have been stunned by the sheer control that Southern Company has over judges and the judicial branch in Alabama.
The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) provides for extended criminal penalties and a civil cause of action for acts performed as part of an ongoing criminal organization.
With the numerous documents, financial records, and insurmountable evidence of Southern Company’s criminal enterprise, now the greasing and corruption of the judicial branch of Alabama is under scrutiny.
The simple case of breach of contract and misrepresention is ex-Drummond executive David Roberson’s $75 million civil lawsuit against Drummond Company and Balch & Bingham.
No developments in the case are currently available because of the gag order, sealing of the case.
And the motions to seal the case were made shortly after disgraced ex-Alabama Power CEO Mark A. Crosswhite was subpoenaed to testify.
Known as the rebirth of the North Birmingham Bribery Trial, the case caused uncontrolled panic by Alabama Power, Drummond, and Balch before it was sealed.
And why does Southern Company seal a case?
So they can cheat and hide high crimes and misdemeanors.
Look at the Newsome Conspiracy Case where Southern Company’s attorneys at Balch & Bingham sealed the case in its entirety, known as a secret Star Chamber.
The entire case was “won” on a counterfeit order that even Balch admitted was counterfeit.
The counterfeit order was embarrassingly affirmed by the Alabama Supreme Court after contradicting an earlier, split-decision.
Because her husband, Alabama State Senator Roger Smitherman received over $30,000 in legal bribes contributions from Southern Company linked PACs and donors at critical junctures during the case. Senator Smitherman even sat in on the secret Star Chamber hearings of the Newsome case when no one outside of the case was supposed to be in the courtroom.
Crosswhite’s inappropriate relationship with disgraced ex-U.S. Attorney Jay E. Town helped Alabama Power to be “unmentionable” during the North Birmingham Bribery Trial and allegedly prevented a broader investigation after the convictions, that could have led to indictments of Southern Company employees.
Except for Regions Bank in Birmingham, Alabama has no Fortune 500 companies headquartered in the state.
Why?
Because of the high risk of a failed and compromised legal system.
What company CEO would want to deal with a corrupt and bias “system of justice” controlled and manipulated by a corrupt few in Jefferson County and Montgomery?
The rule of law and the people’s court sadly does not exist, but RICO actions against Southern Company and its criminal enterprise can bring an end of an era of uncontrolled corruption and flagrant miscarriages of justice.
King & Spalding is heavily looking at the corruption involving disgraced ex-U.S. Attorney Jay E. Town.
As Southern Company ousted Alabama Power CEO Mark A. Crosswhite in late November, the utility hired King & Spalding to conduct a deep, internal criminal probe of the “massive corruption” surrounding the known and reported misconduct by Alabama Power, Matrix, and embattled law firm Balch & Bingham, the CDLU has exclusively learned.
Paul B. Murphy, (above, left) a former Chief of Staff at the FBI, leads the investigation while David L. Balser, (above, right) who handles the “most sensitive, complex, and enterprise-threatening matters” at King & Spalding, is assisting.
To keep potential bias out of the investigation, Southern Company Chairman and CEO Tom Fanning is not involved with the independent investigation since he was a victim of the alleged misconduct.
Crosswhite (L) sought evidence that Fanning (R) was bisexual. He isn’t.
The criminal investigation comes as Southern Company faces potential civil RICO lawsuits for the criminal enterprise that targeted perceived enemies, and innocent parties, including terrorizing children as young as six years of age, whose parents were enemies of friends or acquaintances of Alabama Power executives.
Authorized by Crosswhite, Alabama Power paid over $2 million a year to Matrix, LLC, and its founder “Sloppy Joe” Perkins which engaged in nefarious misconduct.
No invoicing was required therebyincreasing third-party risk and financial liability to Southern Company.
Perkins was in a nasty lawsuit with his former protégé “Jittery Jeff” Pitts that exposed a web of misconduct including the laundering of $50 million through 18 tax-exempt entities.
Internal documents, financial records, and contracts were delivered anonymously to media outlets, journalists, and us, the CDLU confirming and documenting Southern Company’s criminal enterprise.
Jittery Jeff, Sloppy Joe, and Peeping Crosswhite
The utility also spent millions in fees to embattled law firm Balch & Bingham, which appears to have used its web of political connections and stooges in the judicial branch to assist and protect Alabama Power with slam-dunk decisions, orders, and verdicts.
Sources tell us that King & Spalding is heavily looking at the corruption involving disgraced ex-U.S. Attorney Jay E. Town.
King & Spalding is looking at Crosswhite’s inappropriate contact and relationship with Town that prevented a broader investigation after the North Birmingham convictions in 2018, and protected Alabama Power operatives from being indicted.
Beyond probing how Alabama Power was “unmentionable” and protected during the North Birmingham Bribery Trial, invesigators are scrutinizing a half-baked deposition using an actor during the Newsome Conspiracy Case that was orchestrated by Alabama Power’s criminal enterprise and Town.
The actor impersonated Verizon employee Jason Forman.
The real Jason Forman
As we wrote in 2020, unless he grew five inches in height, gained 150 pounds, suffered dramatic hair loss, and saw his skull double in size, the telephony expert in the Balch’s half-baked deposition in 2017 during the height of the Newsome Conspiracy Case was an actor, a fake, an imposter.
Town resigned and fled in the middle of the night in 2020, but an alleged ongoing U.S. Department of Justice probe of obstruction of justice appears to have forced Federal Judge Abdul K. Kallon, who presided over the North Birmingham Bribery Trial, to resign last April, while two Assistant U.S. Attorneys allegedly submitted their resignations a day later.
King & Spalding is conducting the investigation to rid Southern Company of any and all accomplices.
Plausible deniability simply won’t work. Just ask Peeping Crosswhite who denied involvement in August but was ousted three months later.
2023 marks the deep cleaning of Southern Company’s septic tank and sources tell us that heads will roll.
Just a few minutes ago we were alerted that there were 101 login attempts against this blog BanBalch.com this morning and the number is climbing as hackers attempt to breach our security and firewall.
We have struck a raw nerve, or maybe an inflamed brain.
With the numerous documents we have received anonymously, we have now been able to confirm that the anonymous financial documents we received show Excel spreadsheet meta data that exposes the fact that “special” expenditures by Alabama Power against us, the CDLU, appear to have been authorized and allegedly supervised by Zeke Smith, Alabama Power Executive Vice President of External Affairs.
The Excel workbook titled APC CDLU SPECIAL, lists the report for “Zeke 82520” or in other words, a financial report dated August 25, 2020 for Zeke Smith. The report was allegedly generated by “Sloppy Joe” Perkin’s obscure political consulting firm, Matrix, for their top client, Alabama Power.
The data on the spreadsheets shows numerous line items that were heavy expenditures in the hundreds of thousands to terrorize the Forbes Family and their two young daughters, and to smear Burt Newsome falsely as a rapist.
The data line up chronologically to independent sources and events.
Documents also appear to show that Zeke’s colleague, Jeff Peoples, authorized a five-figure contract with Sloppy Joe to allegedly terrorize the Newsome Family andtheir four young children.
Jeff Peoples
This allegedly included shipping travel bags and outfits for Newsome’s wife and four children, an act implying that Newsome or his family would be headed on a “permanent vacation.”
Two weeks after the Excel workbook was allegedly published for Zeke Smith, Newsome was hit head on in a car accident, gravely injured, and almost murdered, assassinated killed.
This is our eigth installment on the controversies surrounding why Alabama Power CEO Mark A. Crosswhite was ousted, sugar-coated as a retirement, in late November.
Pulitzer-winning columnist John Archibald on Monday wrote a powerful column on how Alabama’s Public Service Commission worships Alabama Power. He described the situation:
It was Alabama Power’s third rate hike of the year, the second in as many months, and it passed without discussion or debate or even the sign of the cross. It took a press release from Alabama Power itself later that day to translate the events of that meeting, to acknowledge the rate increase, effective in January, would add about $6.81 per month for the typical residential customer. After rate increases in July and November, the average customer will pay about $22.81 more per month than at the start of this year. That’s $273.72 more a year.
The Public Service Commission has rubber stamped the Alabama Power rate increases with no debate, no thought whatsoever.
And who are the commissioners? Three of them, all elected. Twinkle Andress Cavanaugh, Chip Beeker, and Jeremy Oden (pictured above).
All three commissioner have received hundreds of thousands of dollars in election support in a web of PACs and independent committees affiliated with or allies of Alabama Power.
Sources claim that Alabama Power was allegedly involved in extensive corruption utilizing a web of shady operatives, obscure consulting firms, and a network of pay-through entities to allegedly compromise elected officials.
Robinson: Bought and paid for by the AJE
Just like the corrupt Alliance for Jobs and the Economy (AJE), the entity that funneled $360,000 in bribes to convicted felon and ex-State Representative Oliver Robinson, how many other front groups and entities were used to compromise elected officials on behalf of Alabama Power?
The financial documents we received anonymously show that several unknown or obscure entities in Birmingham, Montgomery and Auburn were paid hundreds of thousands of dollars by Alabama Power through Matrix.
For what purpose? To what end?
Were they pay throughs? Were they entities set up to help launder money to elected officials?
Were they part of an organized criminal effort to attack perceived enemies and innocent families and their children? Or were they set up to buy a politician or three?
The bottom line is with the three rate increases, Alabama Power will generate $400 million in additional revenue.
Vogtle Nuclear Plant in Georgia
These rate increases were key to help pay down the billion-dollar cost-overruns of the boondoggle Vogtle Nuclear Power Plant.
Crosswhite, we are told, allegedly demanded these rate increases so he could be the “knight in shining armor” that saved Southern Company financially and would be easily promoted to CEO and Chairman of Southern Company.
Instead, Crosswhite is leaving like “a donkey with his tail between his legs.”
The irony is the Vogtle Power plant is named after former Alabama Power and Southern Company Chairman Alvin Vogtle. After 31 years, Vogtle’s grandson Jesse S. Vogtle, Jr. left Alabama Power’s sister-wife Balch & Bingham during an exodus in 2020. Vogtle exit appears to have tarnished Balch’s relationship with the utility and hurt Vogtle’s former colleague Crosswhite, who had previously worked at Balch for 17 years.
Vogtle’s exit ended some of the worshipping, and Crosswhite’s reputation has tumbled ever since.
The named complainants are: (a) Donald V. Watkins, Sr., (b) Donald V. Watkins, Jr., (c) Donald V. Watkins, P.C., (d) Watkins-Pencor, LLC, (e) the Donald Watkins Agency, Inc., (f) DNA Centers of Alabama, Inc., and (g) Highland Virtual Suites, LLC, all of which are/were owned by the complainants during the racketeering conspiracy period.
chief executive officer, effective on December 31, 2022.
