Not a peep about the numerous victims who have lodged criminal RICO complaints against Southern Company with the U.S. Department of Justice.
Not a cheep about the demand for evidentiary hearings by RICO victims and the possible license revocation of Southern Company by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Not a chirp about the Matrix Meltdown and hiring of King & Spalding last year to conduct a deep internal criminal probe and secure a deferred prosecution agreement.
Not a chitter about the coming civil RICO lawsuits or law enforcement investigations including the $8.4 million settlement in December with the U.S. Department of Justice for alleged fraud and false claims in Puerto Rico by a wholly owned subsidiary of Southern Company.
The earnings call yesterday was a spectacle of concealment.
Strangely, the Southern Company’s pattern and practice of concealing adverse information of a material nature from its shareholders and Wall Street analysts paves the way for the company to join the ranks of Enron, Worldcom, HealthSouth, and other publicly trade companies that engaged in similar corporate concealment conduct since 2003.
Nothing good ever comes out of corporate concealment conduct where there is a duty to timely disclose material events of an adverse nature.
Besides the concealment, the earnings call revealed that yet again the Vogtle Nuclear Power Plant will be delayed a couple more months at an estimated cost of $200 million.
And who will pay for the boondoggle delays?
Rate payers of course.
The Associated Press reports:
Ratepayers at Georgia Power and some cooperatives served by Oglethorpe are already paying for Vogtle, and most electric customers in Georgia, as well as in parts of Alabama and Florida, will eventually be charged.
Last year, the Alabama Public Service Commission rubber stamped three Alabama Power rate increases with no debate, no thought whatsoever.
The $400 million generated annually by the rate increases in Alabama will easily pay for Vogtle’s cost overruns and the estimated $345 million in litigation settlement costs with two co-operators of Vogtle (Oglethorpe Power and Dalton Utilities) who have sued Southern Company.
The public is outraged by higher utility bills, and will now clearly see the facade, the concealment, and the deception.
Yesterday before Southern Company’s earnings call, CDLU Chairman Ernesto Pichardo called on the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to revoke and suspend all licenses granted to Southern Company, including those tied to the Vogtle Nuclear Power Plant, calling the company’s racketeer influenced and criminal organization a “national security threat.”
Possessed Kiddie Porn
“At a minimum, the NRC should hold evidentiary hearings. Ironically or intentionally, Southern Company is represented by Balch & Bingham before the NRC. A former Balch partner who represented Southern is sitting in federal prison for money laundering and bribery, while another ex-Balch attorney who represented Southern will be sentenced next month for possession of graphic and repulsive kiddie porn,” noted Pichardo.
Randall Woodfin, the embattled Mayor of the City of Birmingham, who made $1.8 million magically disappear in “legal advertising,” had an emergency crisis meeting with his most trusted advisors to allegedly try to cover up and block a federal investigation into corruption and embezzlement, sources claim.
Sources also claim Woodfin advisors approached Alabama Power to see if the utility could intervene and use their high level contacts to block or slow down the probe.
Alabama Power allegedly refused, due to the fact that their parent company (Southern Company) is attempting to secure a federal deferred prosecution agreement and is under intense scrutiny at the moment, in addition to a quarterly earnings call to take place tomorrow.
Where’s my wand?
Magician Woodfin appears to be another political puppet who was propped up by Alabama Power, Balch & Bingham, and the entire Southern Company criminal RICO enterprise.
The largest transaction in the alleged theft was for $1.14 million on August 20, 2020 for a batch of past due invoices for “legal advertising.”
The money was deposited with JJ Lewis Investments, LLC and not with the Birmingham Times Media Group.
Sources claim that Woodfin and team are allegedly attempting to cover-up the theft by blaming a now-former JJ Lewis Investments employee, who was abruptly let go after our report, and other sources claim has since become a federal witness.
Scrutiny of Southern Company and their criminal RICO enterprise has increased as multiple victims have lodged formal criminal complaints and provided damning evidence to the U.S. Department of Justice in recent weeks.
The criminal RICO enterprise, involving Southern Company (and its subsidiaries), Balch & Bingham, Matrix LLC, and others, has made the operation of the Vogtle Nuclear Power Plant by Southern Company a liability and risk to national security.
In a letter dispatched to the three other joint operators of Vogtle Nuclear Reactors 3 and 4, Civil Rights champion Ernesto Pichardo, the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the CDLU, wrote, “Frankly speaking, we are not against nuclear energy, nor are we opposed to the Vogtle Nuclear Power Plant. Our opposition is to Southern Company, a racketeer influenced and criminal organization, that should have no business running nuclear power plants in the United States.”
The three other joint operators are Oglethorpe Power, MEAG Power and Dalton Utilities. Pichardo also let the trio know that Southern Company had hired King & Spalding last year to conduct a deep internal criminal probe.
The reception to the Pichardo’s letter insiders tell us was warmly received. The other joint operators appear to despise Southern Company whose mismanagement has delayed the project by six years with cost overruns of $16 billion.
Registered Sex Offender
Pichardo’s letter included attached articles about the ouster of Alabama Power CEO Mark A. Crosswhite, the abrupt resignation of disgraced ex-U.S. Attorney Jay E. Town, and the guilty plea of registered sex offender and ex-Balch attorney Chase T. Espy for possession of kiddie porn.
Pichardo closed his letter, saying, “There is a lot to read but the facts speak for themselves: Southern Company is unfit to run Vogtle.“
The letter comes on the heels on multiple complaints to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the U.S. Department of Justice about Southern Company’s criminal RICO enterprise and misconduct.
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission is currently reviewing the misconduct and criminal acts affiliated with the criminal enterprise.
While Southern Company attempts to obtain a deferred prosecution agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice, Southern Company could be removed or ousted as operator of Vogtle.
Some cannot believe this scenario and they are the same ones who couldn’t believe that the “most powerful man in Alabama” Mark A. Crosswhite would ever be ousted.
In 2017, Hurricane Maria, a Category 5 hurricane with winds of up to 174 mph, devastated Puerto Rico, killing over 3,000 individuals in its path, and costing $91 billion in damage.
But Southern Company’s criminal RICO enterprise appears to have seen an opportunity, a financial windfall.
“The [U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’] Jacksonville District hired Durham, N.C.-based PowerSecure Inc., a subsidiary of Atlanta-based Southern Co., via a sole source time-and-materials contract for repair and restoration of Puerto Rico’s power grid following Hurricane Maria in 2017. The Corps’ contract was initially worth $1.3 million. After several modifications, its value reached $523 million, according to a 2019 U.S. Dept. of Defense Inspector General audit.”
Southern made over 400 times more than originally planned.
But then came the federal probe. ENRSoutheast reports:
“U.S. Justice Dept. officials alleged that PowerSecure violated the Truth in Negotiations Act, which requires that government negotiators have access to cost or pricing data when developing a proposal for a sole-source contract, as well as the False Claims Act, which makes contractors liable for defrauding the federal government, by knowingly failing to disclose pricing data related to labor and equipment costs on another post-hurricane restoration project it had taken in Florida and Georgia earlier in 2017.”
In December, Southern Company’s wholly owned subsidiary agreed to pay the federal government $8.4 million to resolve allegations that it improperly withheld pricing data.
The concealment of pricing data confirms what we correctly foreshadowed last April: criminal concealment has been a consistent element involving Southern Company and their stooges.
With the anonymous documents we received in November, criminal concealment has emerged as a central pattern in the Southern Company criminal RICO enterprise.
Just like the criminal enterprise took advantage of poor African American families in the North Birmingham Bribery Scandal, people of color in Puerto Rico appear to have been used, abused, and discarded.
A week ago, sources claim that “Sloppy Joe” Perkins, the founder of Matrix, LLC and the Oompa Loompa of Alabama politics, was frolicking in the atrium at the corporate headquarters of Alabama Power.
If true, was this an example of Sloppy Joe’s sheer arrogance and hubris, or was he being interviewed by King & Spalding, the outside law firm hired by Southern to conduct an internal probe of the criminal enterprise?
Unsubstantiated rumors are circulating saying that Sloppy Joe and Matrix have so much dirty laundry on Alabama Power executives, unlike Florida Power & Light, they cannot fire or terminate the diminutive consultant or his firm.
Regardless if the rumors are true or untrue, the fact that someone could possibly blackmail Southern Company executives makes the company an open security risk.
Maybe Southern Company needs to clean out all the stalls at Alabama Power filled with horse manure and fire all the compromised executives, regardless of the embarrassing or criminal misconduct.
Multiple sources state that the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and staff now are reviewing the materials submitted by Donald V. Watkins and numerous other victims of Southern Company’s criminal RICO enterprise. This includes information about Balch & Bingham, the embattled law firm which represents Southern Nuclear (a Southern Company subsidiary) before the NRC.
NRC staff have been asked to revoke Southern Company’s license to operate nuclear facilities since they are a criminal RICO enterprise.
We learned that NRC staff have also been briefed on the Puerto Rico debacle.
With rumors creating an open security risk, the criminal RICO enterprise would certainly be “inimical to the common defense and security or to the health and safety of the public” per federal regulations governing nuclear facilities and operators.
Southern Company’s licenses and authority to operate nuclear power plants are in grave jeopardy.
Multiple RICO victims have filed complaints with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to revoke and/or postpone the issuance of licenses, and are calling for formal NRC hearings on the fitness of Southern Company to operate these facilities.
Sources tell us that Southern Company failed to inform the NRC that they had hired King & Spalding to conduct an internal probe of misconduct related to the criminal enterprise.
Vogtle
The move will undoubtedly postpone the launch of reactors 3 and 4 at the Vogtle Nuclear Power Plant in Georgia, now six years late and at least $16 billion over budget.
DonaldWatkins.com dropped the bomb and broke the news late Friday on just one of multiple complaints lodged against Southern:
Over the past two decades, the Southern Company, Alabama Power Company, and Georgia Power Company paid Matrix, LLC, and Joe Perkins (Matrix’s owner) tens of millions of dollars to act as their special breed of well-fed, zealously protected, vicious, Pit bulls. From time to time, these electric utility companies would let Matrix and Perkins out of their kennels and direct them to maul critics, political adversaries, and anybody else who posed a real or perceived threat to their (a) monopoly in electrical power generation and (b) longtime suppression of effective regulatory oversight.
An example of this proverbial Pit bull mauling is described in Joe Perkins’ 13-pages handwritten notes of his plan to maul me to death. The notes speak for themselves.
I survived the mauling by Matrix, Perkins, and those who acted in concert with them.
My son and I were not the only victims of the Southern Company’s reign of terror. I have spoken to other victims of the racketeering scheme operated by the Southern Company, Alabama Power Company, Georgia Power Company, Matrix, Perkins, and those entities and persons who acted in concert with them over the years.
Chairman Hanson
[W]e filed a formal complaint with Mr. Christopher T. Hanson, Chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), in which we challenged the fitness of the Southern Company and its affiliates to hold a license to own and operate Vogtle Nuclear Power Units 1, 2, 3, and 4 in Waynesboro, Georgia.
Southern Company, acting by and through Southern Nuclear Operating Company, Inc., and Georgia Power Company, is involved in the ownership structure and operational control of Vogtle. Southern Nuclear is the designated “Operator” of Vogtle, while Georgia Power owns a 45.7% equity stake in this facility.
In recent months, the Southern Company has been seeking a non-prosecution agreement from the Department of Justice on behalf of itself, Alabama Power, and Georgia Power. All three companies are directly implicated in our Criminal RICO Complaint as culpable parties in the Southern Company’s longtime, multi-state, racketeering enterprise. All three companies used Matrix and Perkins to maul innocent victims during their ongoing racketeering scheme.
It does not appear that the Southern Company, or Southern Nuclear, or Georgia Power has disclosed this critical licensure-related information to the NRC while they await final regulatory approval to bring Vogtle Nuclear Power Units 3 and 4 online this year.
We believe that Section 2133(d) of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as amended, prohibits any regulated person or entity that knowingly participated in an ongoing racketeering enterprise from owning and operating nuclear power facilities in the U.S. Section 2133(d) expressly states that “no license may be issued to any person within the United States if, in the opinion of the Commission, the issue of a license to such person would be inimical to the common defense and security or to the health and safety of the public.” By definition, a person/entity that operates a multi-state racketeering enterprise poses a great danger to America’s national security and public safety.
We requested the NRC to: (i) immediately open a licensure and regulatory compliance investigation into this matter, in parallel with the Department of Justice’s criminal investigation; (ii) review the investigatory findings regarding the fitness of Southern Company affiliates to retain their participation as an operator (for Southern Nuclear) and principal owner (for Georgia Power) in the NRC licenses for Vogtle Nuclear Power Units 1, 2, 3, and 4, (iii) hold a public hearing on the identified licensure matter, and (iv) determine what legal action by the NRC, if any, appears to be warranted and appropriate in connection with this licensure and regulatory compliance complaint.
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.
U.S. Federal Court staff confirmed this morning that the sentencing of alleged pedophile and ex-Balch attorney Chase T. Espy for possession of child pornography has been moved to March 7th.
The admissions in the plea deal that alleged sexual predator and ex-Balch attorney Chase T. Espy signed are shocking, revolting, and unbelievable.
The admissions and revelations are graphic and repulsive; but much, much worse, the evidence presented appear to show that this was not Espy’s first time at the rodeo.
Espy appears to be an experienced pedophile. According to the plea deal, Espy appeared to be advertising himself on a social media application.
No one will believe Balch & Bingham, who terminated Espy months before he solicited a child for sex, that they did not know he was trouble.
March Madness indeed.
Two ex-Balch will be in prison, and companies will question their relationship with the embattled law firm that has gone from prestigious to egregious in the past 5 years.
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 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.
Espy appears to be an experienced pedophile. According to the plea deal, Espy appeared to be advertising himself on a social media application.
