Wednesday, April 26, 2017

ESPN bloodbath begins with 100 layoffs | New York Post


http://nypost.com/2017/04/26/espn-bloodbath-begins-100-being-laid-off-by-network-today/


Freedom Caucus supports Obamacare repeal deal while centrists waver - Washington Examiner


http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/freedom-caucus-supports-obamacare-repeal-deal-while-centrists-waver/article/2621342


Danny Kanell among casualties in latest round of ESPN layoffs - 247Sports.com


http://247sports.com/Bolt/Danny-Kanell-among-casualties-in-latest-round-of-ESPN-layoffs-52493529


A Running List Of ESPN Layoffs - Deadspin


http://deadspin.com/a-running-list-of-espn-layoffs-1794664091


ESPN Layoffs Target On-Air Personalities - The New York Times


https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/26/sports/espn-layoffs.html


Robert Bentley Ordered A Criminal Investigation Of Donald Watkins For “Threatening” Him - Donald V. Watkins


https://www.facebook.com/donald.v.watkins/posts/10212700679734041 


Robert Bentley Ordered A Criminal Investigation Of Watkins For "Threatening" Him
By Donald V. Watkins
©Copyrighted and Published (via Facebook) on April 26, 2017
On April 8, 2017, the Alabama House of Representatives' Judiciary Committee released its 123-page Impeachment Report. Buried on pages 86 to 88 of the Report was a disclosure that Governor Robert Bentley suspected "Montgomery attorney (and staunch critic of Governor Bentley) Donald Watkins" of "threatening" him based upon an anonymous letter that was sent to Rebekah Mason shortly after First Lady Dianne Bentley filed for divorce on August 28, 2015. Mason was the governor's married "senior political advisor" and secret lover at the time.
Bentley ordered a criminal investigation into this letter incident by the State Bureau of Investigations, which is a division of the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency. The "threat" was investigated SBI Special Agent Scott Lee. The letter in question was delivered to Rebekah Mason's home and suggested the existence of what is now widely known as the governor's sexually explicit audiotapes with Rebekah.
On the same day of the First Lady's divorce filing, I published a news article titled, "The Bentleys End Their Marriage" (https://www.facebook.com/donald.v.watkins/posts/10207476357609253). This article reported, for the first time ever, that First Lady Dianne Bentley discovered her husband's marital infidelity and decided she could no longer endure it. She filed for a divorce to end their 50-year marriage. The divorce freed Bentley, a Bible-thumping "Christian" philanderer, to romance his paramour with unbridled passion.
Once Agent Lee started his assignment, he saw for himself what the investigation really entailed and was doubtful of its necessity and propriety. Lee received a call from SBI about a letter that was said to be "threatening" to Governor Bentley. The letter was being held at ALEA headquarters. In addition to suspecting me of sending the letter, Bentley also thought that Michael Echols, a Tuscaloosa accountant and long-time friend of the Bentleys, might have sent the letter. Echols was reportedly involved in assisting First Lady Bentley with her divorce filing.
I became a "suspect" in the eyes of Governor Bentley because of my publication of the exclusive series of investigative articles titled, "Forbidden Love - Robert Bentley's Secret Love Affair" and "Executive Betrayal – Robert Bentley's Fleecing of Taxpayers and Donors", which ran on September 4, 9, 11, 13, 16, 20, 25, and October 2, 2015. These articles described, in remarkable detail, the torrid love affair between Robert Bentley and Rebekah Mason. On September 18, 2015, I reported an exclusive story about Mike Echols' acrimonious split from Governor Bentley. A year and a half later, the Judiciary Committee's Impeachment Report would confirm every aspect of Bentley's illicit love affair, his fleecing of taxpayers and donors, and his bitter split from Echols that we first reported in these exclusive articles.
When Agent Lee arrived in Montgomery to investigate the "threat", he discovered that the letter had actually been addressed to Rebekah Mason at her home in Tuscaloosa. Prior to Lee's involvement, the ALEA had pulled fingerprints from the letter and had taken comparator prints from Mason and her husband. After Lee arrived, he contacted the postal service for surveillance video, (which was unavailable), and interviewed Rebekah Mason. Mason told Lee that she suspected that Echols had authored the letter. Mason said that Echols thought she was having an affair with Governor Bentley and was threatening to go public with the accusation.
Agent Lee came to the conclusion that the letter expressed no clear "threat" and that it represented, at most, the commission by the author of a "borderline misdemeanor." Lee summarized his findings and reported to SBI Director Gene Wiggins, and Wiggins and Lee went to see ALEA Director Spencer Collier.
During their meeting about the letter to Mason, Collier told Agent Lee that there actually did exist, as the letter to Mason had seemed to indicate, a recorded conversation between Governor Bentley and Mason. Collier directed Lee to go with him to a meeting with Governor Bentley to discuss the findings of Lee's investigation into the letter and to explore with Governor Bentley the possibility of a subsequent investigation into the audiotapes.
On the drive to the Capitol, Agent Lee expressed his concerns to Collier about conducting any investigation into the audiotapes for Governor Bentley's personal reasons rather than for a legitimate law enforcement purpose. During the meeting with Governor Bentley, Agent Lee says that Governor Bentley pulled out the envelope that had contained the letter to Rebekah Mason and was somewhat "emotional" about the issue. Ultimately, however, Agent Lee said Governor Bentley accepted his findings and did not ask Lee to press the matter further.
The entire 123-page Report can be found here:http://bentleyinvestigation.com. This Report is a "must read" historical government document.
The Report depicts Bentley as a paranoid, pathological liar; it documents the governor's gross misuse of state money and resources to carry on and conceal his illicit love affair with Rebekah Mason; and it graphically demonstrates Bentley's ruthlessness toward state employees and others who suspected the illicit affair between the two married lovers and tried to stop or report it.


For the record, I never sent any anonymous letter to Rebekah Mason. What I had to say about the governor's love affair was reported in exclusive online investigative news articles. It would be six months later before the Alabama Media Group, which is now accepting false credit and unearned accolades for "breaking" the story of Robert Bentley's secret love affair with Rebekah Mason, published its first article about the governor's extramarital affair.

Donald V Watkins
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Donald Watkins Comment on his FB page

Donald V. Watkins Is it "fraud" for AL.com to accept journalistic credit and national accolades for "breaking" the Bentley-Mason "sex for power" scandal wide open?


ESPN will cut 100 on-air personalities today - Daniel Roberts - Yahoo


https://finance.yahoo.com/news/espn-will-cut-100-air-personalities-today-123057142.html


Here come the ESPN firings, worse than we thought | New York Post


http://themeck.blogspot.com/2017/04/here-come-espn-firings-worse-than-we.html


Myles Garrett: Paul Finebaum defends Texas A&M star against 'complete loser' Warren Sapp - SECCountry


https://www.seccountry.com/texas-am/paul-finebaum-defends-myles-garrett-epic-rant-complete-loser-warren-sapp