http://mweb.cbssports.com/ncaaf/eye-on-college-football/25326444/alabama-annihilates-georgia-xx-xx-x-things-to-know-about-the-washout
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Saturday, October 03, 2015
No. 23 Florida upsets No. 5 Ole Miss 38-10 - USATODAY
http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaaf/sec/2015/10/03/florida-upsets-ole-miss-38-10/73317386/
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Nationals' ace Max Scherzer throws no-hitter vs. Mets - 2nd No Hitter this season - USATODAY
http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/2015/10/03/max-scherzer-no-hitter-perfect-game-washington-nationals-new-york-mets-nl-east-nlds-home-field-los-angeles-dodgers/73311878/
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No. 13 Alabama wipes out No. 6 Georgia 38-10 - USATODAY
http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaaf/sec/2015/10/03/alabama-georgia-college-football/73301066/
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Heavy rain pounds South, floods historic Charleston, S.C. - USATODAY
http://www.usatoday.com/story/weather/2015/10/03/hurricane-joaquin-flooding-east-coast/73276216/
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Friday, October 02, 2015
The Meck Report: 2015 college football TV schedule - USATODAY
http://themeck.blogspot.com/2015/10/2015-college-football-tv-schedule.html?m=1
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Gov. Bentley's Chief of Staff Resigns - Donald V Watkins via Facebook
Bentley's Chief of Staff Resigns
By Donald V Watkins
Seth Hammett, Governor Robert Bentley's chief of staff, has resigned his post. The governor announced Hammett's departure today with the praise and fanfare needed to mascara this surprising defection.
Hammett exited the scene at the governor's office because he was not confortable with the growing scandal that has ensnared the governor and senior political advisor, Rebekah Caldwell Mason.
Hammett was one the staffers Bentley dispatched to get troopers on the security detail to sign confidentiality statements as word of the love affair spread. Lieutenant Wendell Ray Lewis refused to sign one.
Hammett knows that the entire Bentley-Mason scheme to defraud state and federal taxpayers, as well as the misuse of donor money by Bentley's campaign committee and non-profit organization, will be presented to the Justice Department in Washington. He also knows that Bentley and Mason have lawyered up in anticipation of a criminal investigation into wire and mail fraud, money laundering, conspiracy, and racketeering charges. Hammett is leaving this dangerous playing field before he gets swept up in the governor's cover-up of misuse of campaign money and public funds.
Last month, we reported that Mike Echols, the governor's long-time personal CPA and heavy hitting moneyman for the Robert Bentley Campaign Committee, had split from Bentley. 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, who is also 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. 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 had been Bentley's personal accountant for many years. He was also the Campaign Committee's treasurer in 2010 and 2014.
Hammett's 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 Rebekahand 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 chastisedfor doing so.
Others on the list of departures include former head of executive security Wendell Ray Lewis, chief legal advisor and consigliere David Byrne (who is hanging around until his successor is hired), 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
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Executive Betrayal - Robert Bentley's Fleecing of Taxpayers and Donors – The Finale - By Donald V Watkins -- Getting the Alabama Media to Look the Other Way - By Donald V Watkins
Executive Betrayal - Robert Bentley's Fleecing of Taxpayers and Donors – The Finale
By Donald V. Watkins
©Copyrighted and Published (via Facebook) on October 2, 2015
Getting the Alabama Media to Look the Other Way
The Birmingham News (the "News") is a media entity inthe Alabama Media Group. The Mobile and Huntsville newspapers are also in this media group.
The News was a willing participant in the FBI's COINTELPRO program that was aimed at secretly spying on, infiltrating, discrediting, and disrupting domestic political organizations. The News worked closely with the Alabama Sovereignty Commission and state and localofficials who opposed racial integration in Alabama. In doing so, the News targeted individuals like Martin Luther King, Jr., Richard Arrington, Jr., and other civil rights leaders from the 1950s to the 1970s for an unrelentingcampaign of negative news reporting in an attempt to undermine their credibility. COINTELPRO came to an official end after it was publicly exposed in the 1976 Congressional "Church Committee" hearings. Unofficialactivities continued.
Today, the News plays a significant role in advancing and protecting the interests of unfit state officials. The latest case in point involves disgraced Governor Robert Bentleyand his marital infidelity scandal. Bentley, who was recently divorced by his wife Dianne, used the News and other Alabama media organizations to spin this scandal in the light most favorable to him. Charles J. Dean, who covers the capitol for the News, wrote and publishedseveral favorable stories on the governor's marital troubles. Leada Gore, who wrote soft stories about the scandal and Bentley's paramour Rebekah Caldwell Mason, joined Dean in this thinly veiled PR campaign.
What the News never disclosed to the public was the fact that Dean's name, email and home addresses, and amount of money paid were all listed on the leaked Ashley Madison database last August. Dean says the listing occurred because his credit card had been compromised, and he reported the $1,661 in "unauthorized" Ashley Madison "purchases" to the News. Ashley Madison is a business that facilitates marital infidelity. Interestingly, Gore wrote a story on August 24th discouraging the public from downloading the Ashley Madison leaked database.She did not mention that Dean's name was on the list. Gore now claims she did not know Dean's name was on the list. Dean followed with a September 23rd story about the Bentley scandal that said, "Don't believe everything you read".
Instead of breaking the Bentley cheating scandal wide open, the News opted to challenge the accuracy of three peripheral facts in our exclusive "Forbidden Love" and "Executive Betrayal" series of articles, using stories authored by the Dean/Gore team for this purpose. Without disclosing that Rebekah is a close friend of Dean, theywrote stories claiming: (a) Bentley's lawyer and consigliere, David Byrne, had not resigned, even though another lawyer had been offered the job and turned it down;(b) Bentley had not moved from the Governor's mansion to the Winton Blount Estate, even though the Blount home was only identified in our articles as a "love nest" for Bentley/Mason trysts; and (c) Mason was not working for the John Kasich presidential campaign, even though she delivered Bentley's endorsement of Kasich in exchange for future work with the Ohio governor.
The Montgomery Advertiser, another COINTELPRO newspaper owned by a different media group, never engaged in any reporting of the infidelity scandal beyond one rambling story chastising the News for mentioning our Facebook-published articles.
The Divorce Settlement
The governor's divorce settlement is telling. The lawsuit caught the governor off guard. Bentley raced to have the records sealed. He was scheduled to give testimony under oath in November. Instead, the governor filed an answer denying that his 50-year marriage was "irretrievably"broken and quickly settled the case before any evidence of his marital infidelity with Rebekah surfaced in court.
The settlement also showed that the governor is highly leveraged and cash-strapped. Yet, he was romancing Rebekah in grand style. How was this possible?
Romancing on Taxpayers and Donor Money
Taxpayers and donors have sponsored every aspect of the governor's love affair with Rebekah. Bentley's campaign organizations paid her in 2010 and again from July 2013 through November 2014. She was on the governor's payroll from January 2011 to June 2013. In early 2015, Bentley pressured donors to contribute "dark money" to hisAlabama Council for Excellent Government "slush" fund. The money was then funneled to Rebekah in structured transactions. The governor has also directed other income streams to Rebekah from businesses benefitting from the $20 million in Serve Alabama money that has been doled out by her husband Jonathan, who is the agency's well-paid director.
Bentley routinely "wined and dined" Rebekah on taxpayers and donor money. Taxpayers and donors covered the airplane flights, trooper escorts, and international travel needed for Rebekah to properly service the governor's desires.
The $28 million "love nest" at the secluded Winton Blount estate was closed to the public under the guise of ongoing "renovation" work so that the lovers could use it for their personal pleasure and private enjoyment, courtesy of taxpayers.
Finally, both the governor and Rebekah have hired top criminal lawyers who specialize in public corruption cases. Donor money is paying this tab as well.
There is no end in sight to Bentley's fleecing of taxpayers and donors, and it's all in the name of love.
By Donald V Watkins
By Donald V Watkins
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Thursday, October 01, 2015
GOP presidential candidate Mike Huckabee visits Dothan on Alabama tour - Dothan Eagle - Jimmy Sailors
http://m.dothaneagle.com/news/politics/gop-presidential-candidate-mike-huckabee-visits-dothan-on-alabama-tour/article_a5f94572-68a9-11e5-85b2-afa114952c7d.html?mode=jqm
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The Meck visits with Gov. Mike Huckabee in Dothan, Ala 11/23/2012 - YouTube
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=oVPidJFJNYs
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WRC preparing to host Huckabee presidential rally - WDHN
http://www.dothanfirst.com/news/wrc-preparing-to-host-huckabee-presidential-rally
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Wednesday, September 30, 2015
Oct 1, 2015 - Mike Huckabee in Dothan, AL - Rebuild America Rally - Events - Mike Huckabee for President
http://www.mikehuckabee.com/2015/10/dothan-al-rebuild-america-rally
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Phil Knight sees the finish line as Nike's leader - USATODAY
http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/2015/09/30/phil-knight-nike-michael-jordan-stepping-down-2016/72885302/
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Tuesday, September 29, 2015
At Service for Yogi Berra, Friends Recall Much More Than a Ballplayer - NYTimes.com
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/09/30/sports/baseball/at-service-for-yogi-berra-friends-recall-much-more-than-a-ballplayer.html?referer=https://www.google.com/
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Derek Jeter’s fond, funny memories of Yogi Berra | New York Post
http://nypost.com/2015/09/29/derek-jeters-fond-funny-memories-of-yogi-berra/
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How Rod Stewart Thrilled Vegas, Reunited Faces | Rolling Stone
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/features/how-rod-stewart-thrilled-vegas-reunited-faces-found-happiness-at-70-20150929?utm_source=newsletter&utm_content=daily&utm_campaign=092915_16&utm_medium=email&ea=dGhlbWVja0B0aGVtZWNrLmNvbQ==
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The Rise of the Four-Hour College-Football Game - WSJ - Ben Cohen
http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-rise-of-the-four-hour-college-football-game-1443468601
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USA TODAY GOP Power Rankings: Rubio on the rise | OnPolitics
http://onpolitics.usatoday.com/2015/09/29/republican-power-rankings-week-5-fiorina-rubio-trump/
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Monday, September 28, 2015
Trust in the media is at an all-time low. That’s a terrible thing for all of us. - The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2015/09/28/trust-in-the-media-is-at-an-all-time-low-thats-a-terrible-thing-for-all-of-us/?postshare=3311443474569007
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