http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/yankees/2015/09/23/yogi-berra-dies-obituary/1988947/
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Wednesday, September 23, 2015
Tuesday, September 22, 2015
Commentary: Why can’t Alabama find a QB? | USA TODAY Sports
http://sports.usatoday.com/2015/09/20/commentary-why-cant-alabama-find-a-qb/
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Monday, September 21, 2015
Video: Auburn Fan Tammy Goes On Epic Rant On Paul Finebaum Show | College Spun
http://collegespun.com/sec/lsu/video-auburn-fan-tammy-goes-on-epic-rant-on-paul-finebaum-show
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Peanut exec in salmonella case gets 28 years - USATODAY
http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2015/09/21/peanut-executive-salmonella-sentencing/72549166/
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'I lost part of my heart and the father of my sweet babies': Fox News commentator's touching tribute to her White House staffer husband and father of her two children who died in a charity bike race | Daily Mail Online
Sunday, September 20, 2015
At Alabama, doubt replaces a football dynasty - Dan Wolken - USATODAY
http://themeck.blogspot.com/2015/09/at-alabama-doubt-replaces-football.html?m=1
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Donald V. Watkins/Facebook - Exclusive: Mike Echols Splits From Bentley - Mike Echols, Governor Robert Bentley’s long-time personal CPA and heavy hitting moneyman for the Robert Bentley Campaign Committee, has split from the governor.
http://themeck.blogspot.com/2015/09/donald-v-watkinsfacebook-exclusive-mike.html?m=1
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12 ways to get more battery life from your iOS device running iOS 9 - Mashable
http://mashable.com/2015/09/20/how-to-save-battery-life-ios-9/#qww3LMLMGakM
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Alabama drops 10 spots in both polls | AL.com
http://www.al.com/alabamafootball/index.ssf/2015/09/alabama_drops_10_spots_in_new.html#incart_big-photo
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Donald Watkins: Executive Betrayal - Robert Bentley's Fleecing of Taxpayers and Donors - Part 2 - Follow The Money
Executive Betrayal - Robert Bentley's Fleecing of Taxpayers and Donors – Part 2
By Donald V. Watkins
©Copyrighted and Published (via Facebook) on September 20, 2015
Follow the Money
Rebekah Caldwell Mason, Governor Robert Bentley's mistress and the de facto First Lady of Alabama, is married to Jonathan P. Mason. Jonathan was a weatherman at WVUA, a small local television station in Tuscaloosa. When Bentley took office in January of 2011, however, he made Jonathan the director of Serve Alabama, which is the state agency for the governor's faith-based programs and services.
Serve Alabama functions as the Alabama State Service Commission, granting and administering ten state AmeriCorps programs across Alabama. It is the state's lead agency for Volunteer and Donations Management after disasters. This office serves as a liaison to the state for faith-based and community-based non-profit groups.
Serve Alabama also administered FEMA's Disaster Case Management Program for survivors of the April 2011 storms. It administers the Governor's Emergency Relief Fund. The office administers ReadyAlabama.gov, Alabama's statewide disaster preparedness campaign.
Serve Alabama states that it carries out the goals and objectives of the Governor's Office of Faith-Based and Volunteer Service through partnerships, integrity, and a sense of community. Since Jonathan Mason has been its director, the agency has taken on a highly suspect role in the Bentley administration.
As the governor's lover and mistress, Rebekah made sure that Bentley directed a lucrative stream of financial payments to Jonathan. Not only did this money to supplement their household income, but it also helped to ensure that Jonathan would turn a blind eye toward the clandestine love affair between Bentley and Rebekah.
It is reported that Jonathan draws a healthy annual salary in his position as director of Serve Alabama, while also receiving economic benefits for the donations he secures for the various programs under this umbrella organization.
Jonathan Mason has received a total of $393,538 in state pay (from 2011 to date) and has dominion and control over a staff of thirteen employees. Payroll costs and employee benefits for Serve Alabama employees have totaled more than $2.9 million since Jonathan has been director.
From his Serve Alabama empire, this former "weatherman"is now in a command position to hand out millions of dollars annually to religious and service organizations all over the state, with no adequate checks and balance and minimal financial oversight.
The funds that pour into Serve Alabama come from thegeneral fund, education trust fund and several special revenue funds, federal grants, private contributions, inter-fund state and federal programs, and other sources. The Alabama Commission on National and Community Service is authorized to accept funds and in-kind services from other state and federal entities on behalf of Serve Alabama.
Jonathan, who had no executive experience running a large business enterprise or managing a major financial programprior to joining Serve Alabama, decides how this pool of money will be spent and who will benefit from it. In fiscal year 2011-2012, Jonathan spent $9,591,869, followed by$6,576,204 in 2012-2013, $3,036,305 in 2013-2014, and $2,984,971 in 2014-2015 year-to-date. Even though Jonathan joined Bentley's administration in January of 2011, he spent the overwhelming majority of Serve Alabama's $4,589,423 for fiscal year 2010-2011.
Since 2011, Jonathan has awarded more than $20 million in grants and program benefits to a wide range of entities and programs across the state. Most of this money came fromfederal program funds. Federal funds are protected from fraud, misapplication, misappropriation, and other abuses. These funds are subject to federal criminal prosecution if they are misused.
Many of the Serve Alabama awardees have been qualified and deserving recipients. However, some of the Serve Alabama money went to "pass through" entities that were controlled by Bentley and his cronies. This made it possible for these expenditures escape to the normal transparency and oversight governing the expenditure of other public funds. In fact, audits of Serve Alabama bystate examiners only verify that the grant money was disbursed to the recipients. The examiners do not verify how the recipients spent the money. The Commission also has no meaningful oversight role with regard to expenditures by financial recipients.
In reality, Serve Alabama grant and program benefitsmoney has been doled out by Jonathan's office towhichever organizations, entities, and persons Jonathan, Rebekah and Bentley favored. Since Jonathan has been its director, Serve Alabama has evolved into another slush fund that was used to reward Bentley, the Masons, theirfriends, and political cronies. It has become a cesspool of corruption.
More to come on "Follow the Money".
By Donald V.Watkins
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NFL Scores & Schedules - USATODAY
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/nfl/scores/
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Rising Mississippi makes it two wins in a row vs. Alabama - USATODAY
http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaaf/sec/2015/09/20/ole-miss-alabama-college-football/72508334/
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Saturday, September 19, 2015
Donald V. Watkins/Facebook - Exclusive: Mike Echols Splits From Bentley - Mike Echols, Governor Robert Bentley’s long-time personal CPA and heavy hitting moneyman for the Robert Bentley Campaign Committee, has split from the governor.
EXCLUSIVE BREAKING NEWS---
Mike Echols Splits From Bentley
By Donald V. Watkins
©Copyrighted and Published (via Facebook) on September 18, 2015
©Copyrighted and Published (via Facebook) on September 18, 2015
Mike Echols, Governor Robert Bentley’s long-time personal CPA and heavy hitting moneyman for the Robert Bentley Campaign Committee, has split from the governor. Echols, who handled the financial books and records for both the Bentleys and the Campaign Committee, resigned his post over a disagreement with Bentley about Rebekah Mason, the governor’s mistress and married paramour.
The precise nature of this dispute, which occurred several weeks ago, is not known at this time.
What is known, however, is that Bentley wanted Echols to do something questionable with the financial records relating to Rebekah Mason. The governor's request did not sit well with Echols, a respected Tuscaloosa accountant and well-known PAC organizer. During a heated exchange between the two men, Echols refused the governor’s request and turned over the various checkbooks and financial records in his custody to Bentley. With this handover, the professional relationship between Echols and Bentley ended.
Echols has been Bentley’s personal accountant for many years. He was also the Campaign Committee’s treasurer in 2010 and 2014.
In a slick move that is expected to become the focus of First Lady Dianne Bentley’s divorce proceedings, as well as law enforcement agencies in Washington, the governor stashed $500,000 of cash from the marital estate away for his life with Rebekah after the divorce. He laundered this money in the form of leftover donations through a series of transfers, starting with a personal loan to his campaign account, then a transfer of this money from his campaign to his newly formed non-profit organization, the Alabama Council for Excellent Government, followed by payments from the Council to Rebekah Mason for services rendered. The loan can be repaid to Bentley’s campaign after his divorce.
As we reported on September 13, 2015, the governor has secured the legal services of Joe Espy, a Montgomery attorney and fellow University of Alabama trustee, to handle his potential criminal exposure for using state resources to carry on his illicit love affair, among other matters. Espy specializes in white-collar crimes and public corruption cases. Bentley confirmed Espy’s hiring earlier this week.
Echols’ departure from the governor’s inner circle adds to a growing list of top staffers and supporters who have split with Bentley over his illicit love affair with Rebekah Mason and his cover-up of the misuse of state resources and misspending of campaign funds. This list includes prominent officials in Bentley’s Tuscaloosa church who have urged him, albeit without success, to break off the affair. The list also includes a staffer who reported Rebekah’s misuse of state resources and misspending of campaign funds directly to the governor, and was chastised.
Others on the list include former trooper lieutenant Wendell Ray Lewis, the departing chief legal advisor David Byrne, a former executive employee at the state capitol who quit because of the Bentley-Mason affair, two of the three board members of the Alabama Council for Excellent Government (whose resignations are forthcoming), and several security officers (who are waiting to bolt from the mess created by this scandal).
More to come.
By Donald V. Watkins
Alabama goes with different starting quarterback | AL.com
http://www.al.com/alabamafootball/index.ssf/2015/09/alabama_goes_with_different_st.html#incart_river_mobile
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What's wrong with Auburn quarterback Jeremy Johnson? - USATODAY
http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaaf/2015/09/19/auburn-qb-jeremy-johnson-struggles-lsu/72488126/
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Alabama, Ole Miss both enter Saturday with plenty to prove | AL.com
http://www.al.com/alabamafootball/index.ssf/2015/09/alabama_ole_miss_both_enter_sa.html#incart_2box
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Watch LSU's Leonard Fournette run all over Auburn | AL.com
http://www.al.com/auburnfootball/index.ssf/2015/09/jeremy_johnson.html#incart_river_mobile
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Golfers react to news of Tiger Woods' surgery - USATODAY
http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/golf/2015/09/19/tiger-woods-surgery-reaction/72471088/
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