THE MECK REPORT --- THE MECK PODCAST

On August 14, 2009, federal and state regulators took control of Colonial BancGroup, a regional banking powerhouse based in Montgomery. The seizure of ColonialBank's 346 branches and $26 billion in assets made it the sixth-biggest bank failure in U.S. history, the worst of 2009, and the third largest during the credit crisis that plunged the financial markets into turmoil in 2008. Colonial's collapse cost the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation $2.8 billion. Colonial's shareholders lostbillions of dollars in stock value. Thousands of bank employees lost their jobs.

Although the public focused on the failed leadership of Bobby Lowder, Colonial's founder and CEO, it was David B. Byrne, Jr., who was in charge of the bank's legal affairs and regulatory compliance when Colonial failed. Byrne was Colonial's executive vice president, general counsel,and corporate secretary. Byrne is the same man who would later emerge as Governor Robert Bentley's chief legal advisor and consigliere.

After Colonial collapsed, Byrne was retained for a while by BB&T, the North Carolina-based bank that bought Colonial's assets. He was eventually pushed out of BB&Tand was looking for work.

Lowder, Byrne and other top Colonial executives worried about an investigation by the FBI and the Office of the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program into Colonial's "warehouse" mortgage lending business. Colonial had applied for $550 million in TARP funds during the financial crisis of 2008, but the bank was never cleared to receive a bailout.

On August 3, 2009, just eleven days before regulators shut down Colonial, law enforcement agents raided the bank's offices in Orlando, where the warehouse lending was managed. David Byrne was the man who signed off on the legal review of Colonial's regulatory filings with the U.S Securities and Exchange Commission. He also reviewedColonial's highly suspect TARP funding application before it was submitted to the U.S. Treasury Department. Byrne worried that, as Colonial's executive vice president and general counsel, he could face civil or even criminalcharges if fraud was found in the bank's TARP applicationor customary business operations.

Federal prosecutors found a $3 billion fraud scheme operating during Byrne's watch at Colonial. Senior vice president Catherine Kissick was charged, convicted, and sentenced to eight years in prison for her role in the fraud. Byrne escaped criminal prosecution. However, Byrne was deemed to be "unemployable" because the $3 billion fraud scheme operated right underneath his nose at Colonial and it was larger than the $2.7 billion accounting fraud discovered in 2003 at HealthSouth.

In 2012, Bentley rescued Byrne from the ranks of the unemployed by hiring him to replace R. Cooper Shattuck as his chief legal advisor. This action came after Byrne's wife, Alice Ann Byrne, brokered a deal with Bentley to advance and protect the interests of Rebekah and Jonathan Mason as state employees in exchange for a job for David. Alice, who has served as the general counsel of the State Personnel Department since 2000, practically ran the Department from her lawyer's position. The governor agreed to this deal.

After David joined Bentley's staff, he and Alice took care of the governor's wishes with respect to his favorite state employees. They arranged for former trooper Wendell Ray Lewis to receive a total of $799,285 in base pay and overtime as a member of Bentley's executive security detail, as well as a highly questionable promotion from sergeant to lieutenant in 2014. They aided Bentley in directing $393,538 in total compensation to Jonathan, as the director of Serve Alabama. They also helped Jonathan increase Serve Alabama's small staff to thirteen state employees.

David advised Jonathan on Serve Alabama's distribution of$20 million in grants and program benefits to religious and service organizations across the state. These payments included substantial financial contributions each year to the First Baptist Church of Montgomery Foundation, where David Byrne serves as a board member.

David also cleared the way for Rebekah to operate her private public relations firm, RCM Communications, Inc., while working full-time as Bentley's communications director. Undeterred by state ethics laws, Rebekah conducted RCM business from the governor's office and used state resources to further her private business interests.

On August 26, 2015, David Byrne, along with Bentley and others, were accused in a federal court lawsuit of forcing Alabama One Credit Union, a Tuscaloosa-based financial institution with $598 million in assets, into settling hotly disputed legal claims for millions of dollars to benefit one of Byrne's former law partners and close personal friends, attorney Justin D. "Jay" Smyth, III. Bentley and Byrne, who are named defendants in the lawsuit, pressured a stateregulatory agency into facilitating the delivery of monetary benefits to Smyth and his clients. This was an unprecedented abuse of executive powers by Bentley and Byrne. Their actions pushed Alabama One into conservatorship under state control.

This was the second time in six years that David Byrne has been a central figure in the demise of a regulated financial institution. First, it was the 2009 collapse of Colonial Bank. Next, it was the conservatorship of Alabama One. Each time, the collateral damage to innocent parties was catastrophic.

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John Boehner Folds in the Face of the Kamikaze Caucus - The Daily Beast

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/09/25/john-boehner-folds-in-the-face-of-the-kamikaze-caucus.html?via=newsletter&source=DDMorning

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Thursday, September 24, 2015

2015 college football TV schedule - USATODAY

http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaaf/2015/06/02/college-football-tv-guide-schedule-fbs-2015/26525745/

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SEC Week 4: Viewer’s guide, picks | USA TODAY Sports

http://sports.usatoday.com/2015/09/24/sec-week-4-viewers-guide-picks/

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SECond Look: Can Alabama and Auburn bounce back? | AL.com

http://www.al.com/sports/index.ssf/2015/09/second_look_can_alabama_and_au.html#incart_river_mobile

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Alabama kicker arrested for DUI | AL.com

http://www.al.com/alabamafootball/index.ssf/2015/09/alabama_kicker_arrested_for_du.html#incart_river_mobile

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Listen to Vin Scully’s touching tribute to Yogi Berra | For The Win

http://ftw.usatoday.com/2015/09/vin-scully-tribute-yogi-berra

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New York Yankees pay tribute to legendary career, life of Yogi Berra | For The Win

http://ftw.usatoday.com/2015/09/new-york-yankees-tribute-career-life-yogi-berra

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Lawmakers Loved The Pope, No Matter What He Said - The Daily Beast

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/09/24/lawmakers-loved-the-pope-no-matter-what-he-said.html?via=newsletter&source=DDAfternoon

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USA TODAY Sports college football staff picks for Week 4 | USA TODAY Sports Wire

http://sportswire.usatoday.com/2015/09/24/usa-today-sports-college-football-staff-picks-week-4/

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The Hill: Where Yogi Berra's loss hits home - USATODAY

http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/2015/09/23/yogi-berra-dies-loss-hits-home-the-hill/72711216/

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New Big Three bring intrigue to Tour Championship - USATODAY

http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/golf/2015/09/24/new-big-three-rory-mcilroy-jordan-spieth-jason-day/72711344/

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Wednesday, September 23, 2015

Yogi Berra at 90: Quips and quotes from a Yankees icon - USATODAY

http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/2015/05/12/yogi-berra-celebrates-90-birthday-yogi-isms-baseball-icon/27153095/

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Nightengale: The world loved Yogi Berra - USATODAY

http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/2015/09/23/yogi-berra-dies-yankees/72667632/

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God Bless This Commonsense Pope for Speaking the Truth - The Daily Beast

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/09/23/god-bless-this-commonsense-pope-for-speaking-the-truth.html?via=newsletter&source=DDMorning

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Cleveland Browns turn back to Josh McCown after Johnny Manziel - USATODAY

http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/browns/2015/09/23/josh-mccown-start-quarterback-cleveland-browns-johnny-manziel/72669646/

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Dianne Bentley - Strength in the Face of Domestic Abuse - By Donald V. Watkins via Facebook

Dianne Bentley – Strength in the Face of Domestic Abuse

By Donald V. Watkins
©Copyrighted and Published (via Facebook) on September 23, 2015.

Governor Robert Bentley abused Dianne Bentley emotionally, psychologically, and verbally. The abuse started when Rebekah Mason became Bentley's closest advisor and lover during the governor' first term in office. Bentley's domestic abuse of Dianne was pervasive, degrading, and ugly, and his malicious words and deeds, ultimately left Dianne feeling irrelevant, disgraced, and utterly inadequate.

As Bentley's romance with Rebekah Mason heated up, so did his abuse of Dianne. Though not physical in nature, Bentley's abusive conduct was so disparaging towards Dianne that even the couple's four sons and some of his grandchildren have felt the need to disassociate from him.

Once Bentley became governor, he changed. He was no longer the kind and gentle man his children and grandchildren had known all their lives. Everyone noticed how Bentley's respect for Dianne began to wane. This became particularly evident after he began spending more intimate, personal time with Rebekah, the attractive 43-year-old mother of three. As a result of his newfound relationship, Bentley began to manifest an oversized ego and an inflated sense of importance. He constantly talked down to Dianne, berating her over the smallest of things, and he increasingly treated her in a mean-spirited manner.

Bentley had become a man Dianne didn't recognize. He was enamored with the trappings of the governor's office – the trooper escorts, use of the state airplane, global travels, access to dignitaries and celebrities, life in the Governor's mansion, wining and dining Rebekah like a billionaire at Winston Blount's magnificent $28 million estate, along with all the other high-life perks that come with being called "Governor". Bentley had gone from obscurity as a little-known Tuscaloosa legislator/dermatologist to rock-star status as governor, and he simply could not handle it.

As the governor's domestic abuse of Dianne escalated, state trooper Wendell Ray Lewis grew progressively more impatient and distressed by the governor's actions and progressively more concerned for and protective of Dianne.

After taking office, Bentley brought Lewis from Tuscaloosa to Montgomery, where he became a member of the governor's inner circle. Lewis had a tremendous amount of respect for Bentley when Lewis first arrived for his executive security work in Montgomery. The governor made sure that Lewis was well compensated for his work and that he was promoted from sergeant to lieutenant. Once Lewis became a lieutenant, Bentley placed him in command of the governor's executive security detail.

As Bentley's protector and confidant, Lewis saw two disturbing character flaws emerge in Bentley that bothered him deeply: Bentley's growing degradation of Dianne and his blossoming romance with Rebekah. In the span of a few years, Lewis witnessed the governor's transformation from a practicing deacon at the First Baptist Church of Tuscaloosa to an adulterer and domestic abuser.

Lewis, who holds strong Christian beliefs, formed a close professional relationship with Dianne. He admired and respected the First Lady for her character, class, and principled life. The two talked often and remain close friends today.

Lewis retired from the trooper force a few months ago, in part, because he was powerless to stop Bentley's marital infidelity and psychological abuse of Dianne. Because of his strong admiration for and loyalty to the First Lady, Lewis could no longer function comfortably in the duplicitous environment of deceit, betrayal, and abuse perpetrated by Bentley on Dianne. Lewis' loyalty to Mrs. Bentley's devout Christian values trumped the Governor's efforts to curry favor with him through the award of promotions and enormous overtime pay.

Lewis' efforts to get the governor to stop his illicit love affair with Rebekah were unsuccessful. Bentley would not listen to Lewis just as he refused to listen to anyone else broaching the subject of the governor's relationship with Rebekah.

Ironically, during her first term as First Lady, Mrs. Bentley chose awareness for domestic violence prevention as her platform to make a difference. Because she is a staunch advocate for healthy marriages and families, Bentley's pervasive domestic abuse, coupled with his marital infidelity, was something Dianne Bentley just could not bear. On August 26, 2015, she reaffirmed her platform as she signed her name to a sworn divorce complaint against her husband of 50 years.

The divorce filing caught the governor by complete surprise. He was stunned, angry, and visibly shaken. This time, there was nothing Bentley could do to hurt Dianne emotionally. He had already alienated her affection, abused her emotionally, and dishonored her 50 years of unconditional love and support. She was done.

Dianne's filing for divorce signaled to the world that she would not live a lie. She was prepared to endure whatever public shame and embarrassment flowed from her divorce filing, suffer any act of retaliation or revenge from the Governor and his henchmen, and bear the heavy burden of starting life over again at 72 years old.

In the end, Dianne Bentley set herself free from her husband's domestic abuse and martial cheating. In the process, she preserved her dignity as a woman and legacy as First Lady.

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