By: Donald V. Watkins Copyrighted and Published on September 27, 2022 EXCLUSIVE BREAKING NEWS --- On September 23, 2022, the Alabama Supreme Court handed controversial Alabama political “dirty tricks” operative Joe Perkins and his firm, Matrix, LLC, a legal victory in his $1.5 million defamation case against Donald V. Watkins, P.C., and me. On August 20, 2021, Tuscaloosa County, Alabama Circuit Court Judge Allen May awarded Perkins and Matrix the $1.5 million judgment without conducting a trial in the case, even though the material facts in the case were hotly disputed by the evidence proffered by the defense. The defendants also asserted their constitutional rights to the legal protections afforded to journalists under the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark case of New York Times v. Sullivan. On Friday, the nine-member, all-white, all-Republican Alabama Supreme Court unanimously affirmed Judge May’s $1.5 million judgment without issuing a written opinion that addressed the legal issues the defendants raised on appeal. [Click here to read the Court decision]. Among the issues on appeal is this one: Whether Alabama’s system of at-large elections and gubernatorial appointments, which has consistently produced all-white appellate courts in a state that is 26% black, violates the defendants’ constitutional rights under the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments? By not issuing a written opinion, the Supreme Court ducked an answer to this important question. Is Truth a Defense to a Defamation Claim in Alabama? In October and November of 2017, I published a series of exclusive articles on my Facebook page that exposed the role Joe Perkins and his "dirty tricks" firm Matrix, LLC, played in the rape-suicide case of Megan Rondini, a well-liked and highly-respected University of Alabama honors student. On July 2, 2015, Megan Rondini reported to Tuscaloosa County, Alabama Sheriff’s Office deputies that she was raped at the home of local playboy T.J. "Sweet T" Bunn, Jr., a Tuscaloosa County businessman and then-member of the Alabama State Conservation Board. Rondini also made the same report to a rape counselor at the University of Alabama. "Sweet T" is the son of a powerful Alabama Crimson Tide football program booster, who has since died. His wealthy family was also friends and supporters of disgraced former Alabama governor and Perkins political "puppet," Robert Bentley. Sheriff’s deputies quickly turned against Megan Rondini once they realized "Sweet T" was the designated rape suspect. Additionally, the University's rape counselor withdrew from counseling Rondini after she learned that "Sweet T" was the accused rapist. Once she realized there would be no criminal justice in her rape case, a distraught Megan Rondini committed suicide. In July 2017, Buzzfeed News featured Megan Rondini's tragic story in a widely disseminated international article. My investigative articles followed. They provided undisclosed details of the police cover-up and failure of criminal justice in Rondini's rape-suicide case. My articles also presented the cold, hard, truth about what happened to Megan Rondini, why, and who was involved. Perkins/Matrix Sued Watkins for “Defamation” On November 13, 2017, Joe Perkins and Matrix sued my law firm (Donald V. Watkins, P.C.) and me for “defamation.” I asserted First Amendment freedom of speech and freedom of the press defenses. Perkins and Matrix claimed that my articles portrayed them in a false light by describing the role they played in the Megan Rondini rape-suicide case. The articles in question were based upon my conversation with Joe Perkins, my independent research and multiple background sources, my interviews with Megan Rondini's father, information supplied by confidential and credible news sources, and forensic evidence. The sources for these articles were described in a deposition I gave in the case and were ignored by Judge May and the Supreme Court. Joe Perkins gave the court a sworn affidavit in the case in which he stated: "I have never taken any actions to obstruct the truth in any rape case, including the rape allegations raised by Ms. [Megan] Rondini and her family." Perkins' affidavit testimony was enough to convince Judge May into awarding Matrix and him a $1.5 million judgment against my law firm and me in August 2021 without conducting the jury trial I requested under Alabama law. I appealed this $1.5 million Judgment to the Alabama Supreme Court. The nine-member Supreme Court sided with Perkins and Matrix, without comment. Jeff Pitts Confirmed Perkins'/Matrix’s Role in the Rondini Case On August 3, 2022, Jeff Pitts, Matrix's former CEO, filed an Answer in a lawsuit Perkins filed against him in Jefferson County, Alabama Circuit Court. The Answer contained a bombshell revelation about the Megan Rondini rape-suicide case. In his Sixth Defense, Pitts stated: "Defendant Pitts was compelled to resign [his job as chief executive officer of Matrix] because of Perkins' inappropriate and unethical business practices, including, but not limited to, initiating and directing the creation of an explicit video used in an attempt to intimidate the family of Megan Rondini, a rape victim who had committed suicide, to settle a civil claim [filed by her estate]....". Pitts' statement confirms what I reported about Perkins’/Matrix’s role in the Rondini case. On October 26, 2017, I broke the news about Perkins' fake video in an article titled "Matrix, LLC, Implicated in Threat Against Megan Rondini Family." The article stated: "On October 4th, Matrix created a big problem for the Bunn family and itself. On this date, Matrix surreptitiously delivered a plain envelope addressed to the law office of the Rondini family's Birmingham attorney that contained an EMTEC M700 16GB flash drive with two nude photos -- one of a male and another one with a male and female in bed -- and a one-minute-long 'video diary Number #1' recorded by Megan while she was home alone, sitting up in her bed, playfully talking about her evening at Harry's Bar, and eating a snack..... The purpose of the flash drive was to threaten and intimidate the Rondini family, which has a federal court wrongful death lawsuit pending against Sweet T and other defendants for causing or contributing to Megan's suicide after he escaped criminal justice in the case .... Information technology forensic experts examined the flash drive and found that it contained a host of information from a laptop used by Matrix employee Robert Taylor ....”. In an October 29, 2017 article titled, "Bunn Family PR Firm Linked to Recent Cyber Attacks," I again discussed Matrix's creation and delivery of the fake video to the Rondini family's law firm. Despite my introduction of the flash drive photo, Metadata, and other credible evidence of Matrix's direct involvement in the Megan Rondini rape-suicide case, Judge Allen May and the Alabama Supreme Court ruled in favor of Perkins and Matrix. Perkins' Longtime Friend Also Confirmed Matrix's Role in the Rondini Rape Case Paul Hamrick is a longtime friend, former client, and one-time employee of Joe Perkins. On June 7, 2022, Hamrick issued this stark warning to the public about Joe Perkins on his Facebook page: "Today there is a different nature to Joe [Perkins]. [H]is threats and acts of intimidation have grown much worse and been directed at women and children. In one of the most inhumane acts I can imagine, Joe created a fake set of files and had them delivered to the family attorney of a rape-suicide victim [Megan Rondini], apparently to intimidate them against pursuing litigation ..... I have worked with abuse victims since the late 80s. I'd like to say I've never known a human being capable of such a monstrous act, but that would not be true because I know Joe Perkins. Let that sink in, attempting to intimidate a father who has lost his young daughter. It breaks my heart to think someone I've been so close to could carry out such an abomination against humanity.” Alabama's Judicial System Gave Birth to New York Times v. Sullivan Alabama's judicial system gave birth to the use of defamation lawsuits as a means to chill the First Amendment freedom of speech of political progressives, independent journalists, and social justice activists. The famous New York Times v. Sullivan case arose from the concerted efforts of white Alabama elected officials and state court judges to use defamation lawsuits to quash local, state, and national support for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s 1960s civil rights movement. Not only did state officials indict Dr. King on two felony counts of perjury in connection with his state tax returns for 1956 and 1958, but they also joined local officials in naming Dr. King and four other prominent black ministers -- Reverends Ralph Abernathy, Solomon S. Seay, Fred L. Shuttlesworth, and Joseph Lowery -- as defendants in their defamation case against the New York Times. The state court trial judge "homecooked" the defendants during the trial. An all-white jury ruled against all of the defendants, who were ordered to pay a $500,000 judgment. The Alabama Supreme Court affirmed the jury verdict and judgment against the New York Times, Dr. King, and the other four black ministers. The defendants thereafter appealed their case to the U.S. Supreme Court. On March 9, 1964, the U.S. Supreme Court reversed the Alabama Supreme Court's ruling because the plaintiffs in the case, who were public officials, failed to prove that the defendants acted with "actual malice" in publishing the statements at issue or that the statements were published with a "reckless disregard of whether [they were] true or false." In subsequent cases, the U.S. Supreme Court imposed this same high burden of proof on "public figures" like Joe Perkins and Matrix when they sue members of the press and public for defamation. Judge Allen May and the Alabama Supreme Court engaged in the same old fashion "homecooking" in Perkins' case that was viewed with disfavor in New York Times v. Sullivan. They also ruled against my law firm, even though my firm had no Facebook page and did not write or endorse any of the editorial views expressed in my articles. Epilogue Like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Reverends Ralph Abernathy, Solomon S. Seay, Fred L. Shuttlesworth, and Joseph Lowery, I must now appeal my First Amendment case to the U.S. Supreme Court in order to protect freedom of the press and freedom of speech in Alabama. I also want to give the U.S. Supreme Court an opportunity to rule on whether Alabama's all-white Supreme Court is constitutionally permissible in a state that has a 26% black population and a well-documented, unrelenting history of discrimination against its black citizens, from the cradle to the grave. All articles are shared on Facebook and Twitter. If you enjoyed this article, please click on these links to follow Donald Watkins: https://www.facebook.com/donald.v.watkins https://twitter.com/donaldvwatkins

By: Donald V. Watkins Copyrighted and Published on December 14, 2022 On March 23, 1944, the bodies of two young white girls, Betty June Binnicker, age 11, and Mary Emma Thames, age 7, were discovered in Alcolu, South Carolina. The girls had gone missing the day before, as they did not return home the previous night. Binnicker and Thames both suffered severe blunt force trauma, resulting in penetration of both girls' skulls. George Stinney Jr., a 14-year-old black teenager, who at the age of 14 was arrested, charged, tried, convicted, and electrocuted for the murders, all within 83 days from when the girls' bodies were discovered. Stinney maintained his innocence throughout his ordeal. Stinney was executed on June 16, 1944, at 7:30 p.m. at the South Carolina Penitentiary in Columbia, South Carolina. He was prepared for execution in the state’s electric chair, using a Bible as a booster seat because Stinney was too small for the chair. Stinney was then restrained by his arms, legs, and body to the chair. An officer asked Stinney if he had any last words to say before the execution took place, but he only shook his head. The executioner pulled a strap from the chair and placed it over Stinney's mouth, causing him to break into tears, and he then placed the face mask over his face, which did not fit him as he continued sobbing. When the lethal electricity was applied, the mask covering slipped off, revealing tears streaming down Stinney's face. On that fateful date in 1944, George Stinney, Jr. became the youngest American to be sentenced to death and executed in the 20th century. He was murdered by the state of South Carolina for a crime he did not commit. In 2014, a re-examination of the Judicial proceedings and evidence in Stinney's case began. Several South Carolina social justice advocates -- George Frierson, Steve McKenzie, Matt Burgess, and Ray Chandler, together with the Civil Rights and Restorative Justice Project and the Northeastern University School of Law -- sought a judicial review of Stinney’s conviction. On December 14, 2014, South Carolina state court judge Carmen Mullen ruled that George Stinney, Jr. had not received a fair trial, and was thus wrongfully executed. As such, Judge Mullen vacated Stinney's murder conviction -- seventy years after he was executed. George Stinney, Jr. was initially buried in an unmarked grave. Today, his gravesite is a respected landmark. Stinney fought the injustice in his case, as best he could. He fought a brave fight.

By: Donald V. Watkins Copyrighted and Published on December 22, 2021 It was the week before Christmas, 47 years ago. Mr. Charlie W. Pollard and another survivor led me to a small shack in rural Macon County, Alabama. The man inside the shack could not come to the door, but he called out for us to enter his tiny home after Mr. Pollard knocked loudly on the door and announced our presence. The man had no Christmas decorations in or around the shack. A kerosene lamp provided lighting inside his home. The man was laying on a cot in the one-room, cold shack that had a dirt floor and cardboard tacked up where glass windows should have been. The stench from his shack was unbearable. This man was dying from the effects of 40 years of untreated syphilis and related health problems. He was old, nearly blind, laboring hard to breathe, debilitated by tumors, and suffering from liver and stomach problems. He was immobile due to searing bone and joint pain, as well as damage to his central nervous system. This man was hurting, badly. Yet, he had a profound sense of pride and dignity about himself. The man Pollard took me to see was a fellow participant in the infamous Tuskegee Syphilis Study. And, he was dying. A Racist, Unethical Government-Sponsored and Operated Medical Experiment on Unsuspecting Black Men In 1974, I was a young civil rights attorney with the law firm of Gray, Seay, and Langford. Senior partner Fred D. Gray, who represented Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Ms. Rosa Parks, and other civil rights icons during the 1950s and 1960s civil rights movement, was the lead counsel in a class action lawsuit filed in 1973 on behalf of 623 black men who were duped by the United States Public Health Service (USPHS) and Alabama Department of Public Health officials into participating in nontherapeutic human experimentation on syphilitic patients, without their valid, competent, voluntary, and informed consent to such experimentation. The official name of this human experimentation project was the "Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male." For 40 years, the United States government sponsored, financed, and operated medical research that callously experimented with and risked the very lives and health of these 623 black citizens. All of the participants in the Study were poor, rural, and mostly illiterate residents of Macon County, Alabama. All of them had been told that they had "bad blood," a local term for several ailments, including syphilis, anemia, bone and joint pain, and fatigue. The USPHS and state health officials promised the men treatment for their ailments, physical examinations, hot meals, transportation to and from the hospital (at Tuskegee Institute, which was misled into believing the Study participants were being properly treated), and burial insurance. Researchers also lied to the participants in order to get their permission for painful spinal taps during the physical exams and autopsies after their deaths. Mr. Pollard was the lead plaintiff in the case. He and the other 622 Study participants were the unwitting human subjects in this unethical medical experiment that lasted from 1932 to 1972. The sole purpose of the Study was to examine, in detail, the effects of untreated syphilis in human subjects until the last man was dead. The USPHS never gave any consideration to conducting this experimentation on white men, nor did it consider including white men in the Study. Over the 40-year period, 445 men with confirmed cases of syphilis and 178 men in the control group participated in the Study. All of the participants were given placebos such as aspirin and mineral supplements. The syphilitic participants were never given penicillin, even after it became the recommended treatment protocol for syphilis in 1943. USPHS researchers and state health officials convinced local doctors in Macon County to forego treating the Study participants for their ailments. A Slow, Painful Death The syphilitic man in the shack was nearing the end of his life when we met. For 40 years, this man had been on a long, slow, descent into a living hell, all in the name of some USPHS medical experiment of dubious value. Yet, this man still had hope that he would be cured. I gave this man an update on the lawsuit that Attorney Gray had filed on their behalf. I explained to him that a settlement that had been reached between the plaintiffs and the United States government. He listened to me talk, asked questions about the case, and he agreed to the settlement. As time passed, it became clear to me that this man was more focused on his health and on getting better than he was on the settlement. The man knew he was in bad shape, but he wanted to live. I did not address the man's hope of getting better because I knew he was dying a slow, painful death. I also knew his condition was irreversible at this stage in his life. Instead, I grabbed a Bible that was near his cot and asked the man if I could read a Biblical passage to him. He said, "Yes." I read him the Beatitudes in Matthew 5:3-12. Then, I led the four of us in the shack in a prayer. I asked God to transform this man -- a metaphorical "caterpillar" on earth -- into a beautiful "butterfly' with eternal life whenever he was received in Heaven. Until that time, I begged God to give this dying man a measure of freedom from pain and peace on earth. On our ride back to Attorney Gray's Tuskegee office, I did not say a word to Mr. Pollard or the other survivor riding with us. I was filled with bitterness and rage at the inhumanity of the federal and state officials towards the 623 black men in the Study and their families. These 623 Black Lives Did Not Matter, Until 1972 Under the 1974 settlement in the Tuskegee Syphilis Study case, 70 living syphilitic participants received $37,500 each. The 46 living men in the control group got $16,000 each. The 339 deceased syphilitic participants received $15,000 each. The deceased members of the control group got $5,000 each. Attorney Gray was not able to locate 36 syphilitic participants and 8 members of the control group, but we continued looking for them for several years. The total value of the settlement for the 579 Study victims Mr. Gray represented was $9,066,000, which was a record for the monetary value of black lives in Alabama in 1974. Attorney Gray had also negotiated free healthcare for life for the participants who were still living, as well as healthcare for their infected wives, widows, and children. The Tuskegee Syphilis Study did not end because USPHS and Alabama health officials suddenly valued black lives in 1972. The Study ended only because Washington Star reporter Jean Heller wrote an article about the Study that the Associated Press (AP) published worldwide on July 25, 1972. The New York Times published a front page article about the Study the next day. This press exposure rightly and grievously embarrassed the U.S. government. Alabama public officials remained unconcerned. After all, the Macon County men were just poor, rural, illiterate "niggers," and no white men were involved. By the time the AP and New York Times articles were published, 28 Study participants had died from syphilis, 100 more had died from related health complications, and 40 spouses had been diagnosed with syphilis. Additionally, congenial syphilis had been passed on at birth to 19 of the men's children. On May 16, 1997, President Bill Clinton issued a formal Presidential Apology for the Study. Only 6 Study participants were alive when Clinton apologized to these men. The last Tuskegee Syphilis Study participant died in 2004. No USPHS Doctor Involved With the Study Was Prosecuted for Crimes Against Humanity In 1947, the U.S. Military Tribunal at Nuremberg adopted the Nuremberg Code in 1947 and used it to charge, try, convict, and execute Germany scientists for their human experimentation on Jews, Gypsies, Gays, and Black Germans during World War II. The Tribunal characterized the German scientists' nontherapeutic human experimentation as "crimes against humanity." In America, the white medical community knew about the Study for decades and condoned it. Researchers even published articles about the Study in the Journal of the American Medical Association. White doctors working with the federal and state health officials, together with those doctors in private practice in Macon County, acted in concert with each other to make sure that the participants did not receive any medical treatment for syphilis and/or its related medical complications throughout the 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, 1960s and early 1970s. Yet, not a single doctor who participated in this unethical and illegal human experimentation was prosecuted for "crimes against humanity." Furthermore, no flag-waving "law and order" politician in America has ever demanded that the perpetrators of the Tuskegee Syphilis Study be charged and tried for "crimes against humanity" for the murdered of the 445 syphilitic victims. Likewise, in the past four decades, no "right to life" advocacy group has ever voiced a word of support for the children of the syphilitic participants who were born with congenital syphilis. Epilogue To this day, my visit to the man in the shack in Macon County 47 years ago this week was the worst experience in my 73-year-old life. That moment in time was the closest I have ever come to hating those whites who view and treat blacks as something less than human beings. The only thing that pulled me back from the brink of this hatred was my memory of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. holding my little hand in our Dexter Avenue Baptist Church Sunday School class while he quoted this verse from Matthew 5:44: "[L]ove your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you." Dr. King, who was my Sunday School teacher in the early 1950s, followed this verse by leadings us in singing, "Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so....". For the next 47 years, I used the hurt, bitterness, and anger I experienced at that Macon County shack 47 years ago to fuel my passionate fight against all forms of white racism in Alabama, a state that had what one federal judge described in 1986 as "an unrelenting historical agenda, spanning from the late 1880s to the 1980s, to keep its black citizens economically, socially, and politically downtrodden, from the cradle to the grave." For 48 years, my job as a civil rights attorney has been to lift the yoke of oppression from the necks of downtrodden men, women, and children. I have pursued this mission with a vengeance and won numerous high-impact, landmark legal civil rights cases in Alabama. For nearly five decades, these cases have made me a very unpopular public figure in Alabama's ultra-conservative white community. More recently, these cases have made me an unwelcomed social justice activist among the state's sad but growing "Uncle Tom" community. As I watch today's conservative political leaders and 28 Republican-controlled state legislatures boldly usher in a modern-day version of the "white hegemony" that birthed the Tuskegee Syphilis Study, I know that my job as a civil rights advocate is far from over. In fact, I am going into the 2022 New Year waging a battle to desegregate Alabama's all-white, 19-judge, appellate court system in a state with 26.39% black registered voters. Fortunately for Americans of interracial goodwill, I still have a raging fire in me for equal opportunity and the fair administration of justice that cannot be put out.

By: Donald V. Watkins Copyrighted and Published in December 10, 2022 An Editorial Opinion On June 16, 2015, Donald Trump formally announced his candidacy for president of the United States with a campaign rally and speech at Trump Tower in New York City. On August 2, 2015, I wrote and published an article titled, “Donald Trump’s Newest Art of the Deal – Winning the American Presidency.” In this article, I predicted that Trump would win the presidency. On February 4, 2020, I predicted Trump’s re-election, "barring divine intervention." Having survived an impeachment trial in the U.S. Senate and having survived Special Counsel Robert Mueller's criminal investigation into allegations that his campaign organization colluded with Russia during the 2016 campaign, Trump appeared to be invincible. Divine intervention occurred in the form of COVID-19, which invaded America in March 2020. Eventually, this deadly pandemic would killed 1,092,099 Americans within in less than three years. On August 10, 2020, I predicted Trump’s defeat due to his gross mismanagement of America’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Trump eventually lost the election by over 7 million votes. On September 27, 2020, I reported that Trump did not plan to leave office, whether he won the November 2020 election, or not. After his defeat, Trump entertained a scheme to use fake electors and martial law to remain in office. On February 28, 2021, I published an article explaining the nature and scope of Trump’s death grip on the Republican Party. In essence, Trump had converted the GOP into a cult of diehard supporters who idolized him. On August 31, 2022, I predicted that Trump would win the Republican nomination for president in 2024 and would win the general election, "barring divine intervention." Divine Intervention Has Occurred, Once Again For the second time since March 2020, divine intervention has manifested itself on the American political scene. This time it has come in the form of a trifecta of events that threaten Donald Trump’s political life and freedom. First, on November 18, 2022, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland announced the appointment of Jack Smith as the Special Counsel who will oversee the criminal investigations into the retention of national defense information at former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate and parts of the January 6, 2021, insurrection. As explained in my November 28, 2022 article, Jack Smith is a prosecutorial “hitman” who follows orders from Department of Justice superiors, without blinking. Second, Trump-appointed judges are acting in concert with other federal judges to shut-down all of Donald Trump’s legal challenges to Jack Smith's criminal investigation. This coordinated effort has deprived Trump of any legal redress in the courts while Jack Smith prepares for his indictment of Trump and his co-defendants for their involvement in the retention of national defense information and the January 6, 2021, insurrection. Third, the so-called “red wave” that Republicans expected during the mid-term elections last month did not materialize. Trump-back candidates for major political offices in swing-states were defeated across the board. The poor quality of Trump’s candidates cost Republicans control of the U.S. Senate and prevented them from achieving a substantial majority in the House of Representatives. Republicans across America now view Donald Trump as "toxic." This is especially true after Trump advocated that Americans terminate the U.S. Constitution and simply install him as president. At least two Trump-loyalists have publicly backed this crazy plan. They are Marjorie Taylor-Green (R-Georgia), who called for defunding the FBI, and Paul Gosar (R-Arizona), whose own siblings have questioned his mental health and distanced themselves from Gosar. In a Yahoo News/YouGov poll released on Thursday, Florida governor Ron DeSantis leads Trump among Republicans and Republican-leaning independents in a 2024 primary contest by five points, 47% to 42%. In a similar Yahoo News/YouGov poll conducted in October, Trump led DeSantis by nine points, 45% to 36%. What Will Happen to Donald Trump? Where does this trifecta of divine intervention events leave Donald Trump? The answer is simple. Trump is doomed. Once Trump is indicted, he will formally enter America’s “rigged” criminal justice system as a criminal defendant. In the last month or so, Trump has experienced healthy doses of how federal judges he appointed to the bench treat the “targets” of criminal investigations. Last A week ago, these judges body-slammed U.S. District Court Judge Aileen Cannon -- Trump's "pet" judge in Florida -- and forced her out of this game. Eventually, Trump will be convicted on some, if not all, of the charges against him because his lawyers do not have a clue about how to defend an “outcast” member of society. They appear to be representing Trump solely because he is the best gravy-train available to them at the moment. As is the case with 99% of all criminal defendants in federal courts, Trump will likely be "railroaded" during his trial because this is what the overwhelming majority of federal judges do. This is also what is expected of them when they are appointed to their judgeships. Very few of federal judges have the inclination, desire, or intestinal fortitude to engage in the fair administration of criminal justice. One judge who does is U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson. Remember, Justice Jackson was berated by several GOP members of the Senate Judiciary Committee as a nominee for her Supreme Court judgeship because she had a history as a District Court judge of treating criminal defendants in her courtroom with respect and safeguarding their constitutional rights throughout the proceedings. The beat-down these GOP Senators administered to Justice Jackson was ugly, disrespectful, and hurtful. After Trump is convicted, I expect he will be taken into custody from the courtroom because prosecutors likely consider him a flight-risk. Once Trump is imprisoned, he will need to be placed in solitary confinement for the entire period of his incarceration, for his own safety. Due to decades of systemic racial discrimination within the federal criminal justice system, the inmate population in most federal prisons is disproportionately black and brown. Most of these inmates do NOT like Trump. Furthermore, there are not enough white, GOP-leaning inmates in federal prisons to adequately protect Donald Trump in the general prison population. A synopsis of the threat-level for an inmate like Donald Trump can be found in the December 8, 2022 Department of Justice, Office of Inspector General, report on the 2018 brutal murder of gangster/FBI informant James “Whitey” Bulger. The report describes just how easy it is for inmates in the general population to eliminate a hated or undesirable inmate. America, we are witnessing the end of Donald Trump as a national GOP political force and power-broker. He’s done! No human being in the history of mankind has ever been able to overcome divine intervention of this scope and nature.

By: Donald V. Watkins Copyrighted and Published on December 9, 2022 An Editorial Opinion Yesterday, Russia freed WNBA star Brittney Griner in a prisoner swap for convicted arms dealer Viktor Bout, who was imprisoned in America. Many Americans celebrated Griner's freedom. I am one of them. In February 2022, Griner was arrested and charged with violating Russian drug possession laws by bringing vape cartridges containing cannabis with her when she flew into Moscow. Griner pleaded guilty and was sentenced in August to nine years in a Russian prison. Since July, the Joe Biden administration had been trying to negotiate a prisoner swap for Griner and former Marine Paul Whalen. Biden offered to swap Viktor Bout, a convicted arms trafficker, for Griner and Whelan. In 2018, Russian officials arrested Whalen on espionage charges and sentenced him to 16 years in prison following his trial. Whelan has steadfastly maintained his innocence. No progress was made on Biden's “two-for-one” prisoner swap proposal. On August 18, 2022, I published an article titled, “Bringing Brittney Griner Home.” The article warned the public that Biden would not be able to free Paul Whalen with Griner because Whelan's situation is far more complicated than Griner's. Whalen was a U.S. soldier whom the Russians believe was engaged in espionage activities. In Russia and the United States, Griner is a professional athlete only. She is not involved in any real or perceived espionage activities. The crime Griner pleaded guilty to committing did not threaten or adversely impact Russia's national security in any way. The Biden administration's effort to bootstrap Whalen's release to Griner's was unfair to Griner and delayed her release. These two prisoners fall into two vastly different categories of crimes. Now that Brittney Griner has been freed, it is time for Biden to focus his presidential resources on bringing Paul Whelan home. Another prisoner swap is needed to achieve this goal. Russian President Vladimir Putin will release Whalen only if he is swapped for another high value detainee of interest to Putin. America has custody and control of a vast population of high value-detainees in secret CIA prisons around the world. We lead the world in snatching wanted criminals in foreign countries and taking them to secret CIA “black sites” in host countries. We call this practice “renditions.” In 2006, I was briefed on the nature and scope of America's rendition business by a participating U.S.-based CIA contractor/company with whom I had an ongoing business relationship. The CIA runs an estimated 50 “black sites,” or prisons, around the world. These prisons hold detainees from 28 countries who were the targets our renditions. The Russians have a keen interest in several of these detainees. Biden should immediately offer to swap one of these detainees for Paul Whelan’s freedom. He should let the Russians have their pick of who they want for Whelan. It makes no sense to prolong Whelan’s agony while he languishes in a Russian prison. Biden should ignore the criticism coming from members of both major political parties in the wake of Griner's release. This criticism is nothing more than a self-serving exercise in political gaslighting. If any one of these critics had a blood relative in Russian captivity, he/she would support a prisoner swap for his/her relative in a heartbeat. These critics love to play geopolitical hardball with the health, safety, and lives of somebody else’s relatives. Additionally, while Biden was vice-president in 2014, he joined President Barack Obama in swapping Bowe Bergdorf for five high-ranking Taliban members who were held at the Guantanamo detention center in Cuba. What is more, Bergdorf was a deserter. America’s ability to replenish its population of detainees at “black sites” through renditions is unsurpassed by any nation. We can free a detainee today in exchange for Paul Whelan, and rendition two more high-value detainee targets tomorrow. This is how things work in the real geopolitical world. This is not the time for Biden to sit back in the comfort of the Oval Office during the Christmas season and complain about the terrible conditions of Paul Whelan’s confinement. Russian prisons are bad, but so are American prisons. As a country, we are in no position to criticize Russia’s criminal justice system or the country's treatment of its prisoners. This year, alone, the U.S. Department of Justice released two reports by its Office of Inspector General (OIG) that describe the deplorable conditions in federal prisons. On March 17, 2022, the OIG issued a report that blasted the Federal Bureau of Prisons for its chronic failure to provide adequate medical care to federal inmates. On December 8, 2022, the OIG released a devastating report on the litany of lapses in internal Bureau of Prisons procedures and protocols that resulted in the 2018 death of James “Whitey” Bulger. Biden should waste no time in bringing Paul Whelan home. His only decision is which one of our dozens of high-value detainees in CIA “black sites” does he want to swap for Whelan. I don’t want to see anymore delays or hear anymore excuses from Biden in this matter. I want Paul Whelan brought home, now.

By: Donald V. Watkins Copyrighted and Published on December 8, 2022 An Editorial Opinion “Welcome to Valley, Alabama, where people care and share,” is how the City of Valley describes itself. In reality, Valley, Alabama is a city that uses its criminal powers to shake-down elderly, sick, and poor residents who cannot afford to pay their trash collection bills. Since 2012, the City of Valley, Alabama has engaged in an ongoing pattern and practice of arresting its residents for unpaid trash bills. The City Code attempts to legalize this form of extortion by making the failure of a resident to pay his/her trash bill a misdemeanor offense that is punishable with a fine of not less than $50 and not more than $200. And, each day that the Valley resident does not pay his/her overdue and unpaid trash bill “shall constitute a separate offense and shall be punished accordingly.” The City of Valley has the express power in City Code Section 58-124 to exempt elderly, sick, and poor residents from paying her trash bill if their sole source of income is Social Security benefits. Instead of using this power, the city has steadfastly pursued an unconscionable course of action of arresting its citizens and forcing them to pay their trash bills, whether they can afford it or not. Valley Contracts with AmWaste for Waste Management Services The City of Valley contracts with AmWaste for garbage collection and disposal services. AmWaste is an affiliate of a privately-owned, integrated waste management company called Matter Management, which has 16 different holding companies across Alabama, Georgia, and Louisiana. Matter Management operates in a highly regulated industry. It appears that the company also engages in interstate commerce. AmWaste seems to be entangled in the growing scandal in which the City of Valley arrests elderly, sick, and poor residents for not paying they trash bills. It is unknown at this time whether the City of Valley pursues the arrest of its residents for unpaid trash bills, at the request of AmWaste. It is also unknown whether AmWaste shares in the proceeds from the city’s misdemeanor arrest scheme. These are matters that must be probes by investigators from the U.S Department of Justice. City-Sponsored Extortion? The City of Valley’s ongoing abuse of the criminal justice system can be viewed as “racketeering.” The term “racketeering” broadly refers to state and federal criminal acts such as extortion, bribery, money laundering, financial and economic crimes, gambling offense, obstructing justice, drug offenses, and murder for hire that are performed on an ongoing basis. Racketeering conduct is a conspiracy if it two or more parties participate in the illegal business enterprise. The term “racketeering” is often used to describe patterns of illegal activity specified in the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO). This is a U.S. federal law that makes it illegal to acquire, control, or operate a business enterprise through certain crimes or income from those crimes. It is also illegal to participate, even indirectly, in certain crimes committed by a business or to conspire to do any of the above under the Act. Scores of Victims Since 2012, scores of Valley residents have been victimized by the city’s ongoing scheme of criminalizing unpaid trash bills. The victims are black and white, mostly elderly, often poor, and sometimes physically infirmed. Ms. Martha Louis Menefield is the latest known victim of the city’s scheme to criminalize poverty. On November 29, 2022, the City of Valley publicly announced Ms. Menefield’s arrest for her unpaid trash bill on its Facebook page. This act amounted to a "victim shaming" and the public humiliation of Ms. Menefield, who is 82-years-old. The arrest of Ms. Menefield for failing to pay her trash bill ignited a firestorm of criticism against the City of Valley throughout the state and around the nation. Once again, Alabama has been cast in a very negative light in the eyes of the nation. Remarkably, no city, county, or state official has stepped forward to condemn the City of Valley’s abuse of the criminal justice system in these cases. Epilogue The practice of criminalizing Alabama’s poor, sick, and elderly citizens for civil debts must stop. Those who perpetrated and profited from the City of Valley’s horrendous debt collection scheme must be investigated, indicted, tried, convicted, and imprisoned. I will work to make sure this happens. I will also ask the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Federal Trade Commission to investigate the role of Management Matters and AmWaste in the City of Valley’s disgraceful “arrest for unpaid trash bills” scheme. I firmly believe that federal regulatory and law enforcement agencies should thoroughly probe this hot mess in the city, “where people care and share.”

By: Donald V. Watkins Copyrighted and Published on December 3, 2022 An Editorial Opinion On November 29, 2022, Mike Reynolds, police chief for the City of Valley, Alabama posted this message of the city’s Facebook page: “On November 27, 2022, officers of the Valley Police Department arrested Martha Louis Menefield, 82 years old of Valley, on the charge of Failure to Pay-Trash. She was processed at the Valley Police Department and then released on bond. City of Valley Code Enforcement Officers issued Ms. Menefield a citation in August of 2022 for non-payment for trash services for the months of June, July, and August. Prior to issuing the citation, Code Enforcement tried to call Ms. Menefield several times and attempted to contact her in person at her residence. When contact could not be made, a door hanger was left at her residence. The hanger contained information on the reason for the visit and a name and contact phone number for her to call. The citation advised Ms. Menefield that she was to appear in court on September 7, 2022, in reference to this case. A warrant for Failure to Pay-Trash was issued when she did not appear in court. According to the Environmental Services, Ms. Menefield has had her trash services suspended three times in the past two years for non-payment and records indicate that there have been over twenty-two incidents of suspensions and revocation of services since 2006. While our officers can use their discretionary judgment on certain matters, the enforcement of an arrest warrant issued by the court and signed by a magistrate, is not one of them. Ms. Menefield was treated respectfully by our officers in the performance of their duties and was released on a bond as prescribed by the violation.” The arrest of 82-year-old Ms. Menefield for failing to pay her trash bill has ignited a firestorm of criticism against the City of Valley throughout the state and around the nation. Once again, Alabama has been cast in a very negative light in the eyes of the nation. According to Chief Reynolds’ words, Ms. Menefield was arrested for “Failure to Pay-Trash.” In my words, Ms. Menefield was arrested simply because she failed to pay a $77 trash bill. Furthermore, Valley City Code Section 58-127 makes the failure to pay the city’s trash bill a misdemeanor offense that is punishable with a fine of not less than $50 and not more than $200. And, each day Ms. Menefield does not pay her trash bill “shall constitute a separate [misdemeanor] offense and shall be punished accordingly.” City Code Section 58-127 also adopts any other sanctions for violations outlined in Code of Ala. 1975, §§ 22-27-6 and 22-27-7, as amended. Even though the City of Valley had the express power in City Code Section 58-124 to exempt Ms. Menefield from paying her trash bill if her sole source of income was Social Security benefits, Chief Reynolds omitted any mention of this option in his Facebook post. His silence on this subject is deafening. Making a Career Criminal Out of an 82-Year-Old Elderly Resident The City of Valley dragged Ms. Menefield into a debtor’s court proceeding that has important, damaging, and long-lasting criminal consequences. Ms. Menefield now has a rap sheet, a mug shot, an appearance bond, a tentative court date, and possibly an entry in the federal government’s National Crime Information Center (NCIC) database. No matter what happens in this unfortunate saga, Ms. Menefield now has a permanent misdemeanor criminal record. What is worse, Ms. Menefield also falls within the class of people that politicians love to call “criminals.” If she is charged and convicted for each day her trash bill is not paid, she will become a “career criminal” by definition. Remarkably, no city, county, or state official has stepped forward to stop this gross mistreatment of Ms. Menefield and the City of Valley’s abuse of the criminal justice system in her case. The local criminal justice system in Valley cannot be used to collect the municipality’s trash bills. This debt collection practice was banned by Congress in 1833 and the U.S. Supreme Court in 1983. The City of Valley Found a Way to Circumvent the Law and Gaslight the Public Despite these bans, the City of Valley found a nefarious way to circumvent them. The city requested a local judge to issue an arrest warrant for Ms. Menefield for failing to pay her trash bill, as authorized in City Code Section 58-127. This is why the warrant says, “Failure to Pay-Trash.” However, Chief Reynolds’ posted message states that Ms. Menefield was arrested for missing her court date. This statement is a deliberate attempt to gaslight the public in light of the fact that City Code Section 58-127 is likely unenforceable under the Supreme Court's ban against using the criminal justice system to collect municipal debts. The bottom-line is this: The City of Valley is using its municipal court system to run a debtor’s court operation. Lawyers call this scheme “cash-register justice,” and is a fairly common practice in Alabama cities. Alabama is a relatively poor state. The median income is $27,212. Among the nation’s 50 states, Alabama ranks 45th in health care, 47th in education, 43rd in crime and corrections, and 46th in overall quality of life factors. As a result of these factors, state and local court systems in Alabama are under incredible pressure to become and stay financially self-sufficient. There is Hope in Ms. Menefield's Case All hope is not lost in Ms. Menefield’s case. I have an ongoing journalistic investigation into whether the City of Valley's police department or municipal court officials entered Ms. Menefield’s arrest information into the federal NCIC database. They most likely did so after her arrest on November 27, 2022. If so, the City of Valley unwittingly sucked the federal government into its “cash-register justice” scheme. The act of inputting Ms. Menefield’s arrest information into the NCIC database gives the U.S. Department of Justice jurisdiction in Washington the power and authority to: (a) investigate whether this was an illegal use of the federal government’s criminal database, and (b) prosecute this abuse of the NCIC system, if warranted. The NCIC system has been abused in Alabama in the past. In 2006, former Jefferson County Sheriff Jim Woodward and his attorney (Albert Jordan) were convicted on federal conspiracy charges of illegally using the NCIC database for inappropriate purposes. Their convictions were upheld on appeal. Stay tune!

By: Donald V. Watkins Copyrighted and Published on December 4, 2022 Coach Deion Sanders, thank you for your inspirational public service to Jackson State University (JSU) as its head football coach during the past three football seasons. You showed historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) what they can achieve if they are willing to focus on attaining greatness in their mission. What is more, you accomplished this feat at one of the most underfunded HBCUs in America, which happens to be located in one of the nation's poorest cities and states. Never has any modern-day football coach in America accomplished so much, with so few resources, for so many people. Vince Lombardi's Quotes Defined "Greatness" in Football and in Life Legendary Green Bay Packers head football coach Vince Lombardi was famous for these motivational quotes listed below. They define "greatness" in football and in life: “Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence.” “Winners never quit and quitters never win.” “The measure of who we are is what we do with what we have.” “Confidence is contagious. So is lack of confidence.” “It’s not whether you get knocked down, it’s whether you get up.” “Winning is not a sometime thing; it’s an all the time thing. You don’t win once in a while… you don’t do things right once in a while… you do them right all the time. Winning is a habit. Unfortunately so is losing.” “The harder you work, the harder it is to surrender.” “The only place success comes before work is in the dictionary.” “If it doesn’t matter who wins or loses, then why do they keep score?” “Individual commitment to a group effort – that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work.” “Practice doesn’t make perfect. Perfect practice makes perfect.” “The greatest accomplishment is not in never falling, but in rising again after you fall.” “Winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing.” “We would accomplish many more things if we did not think of them as impossible.” You Embody Bold Leadership and Greatness Coach Sanders, you embody all of the attitudes and attributes found in Vince Lombardi's quotes. This is why you are a bold and great leader, on and off the football field. As I stated in my October 22, 2022 Open Letter to you, your work at JSU and your 60 Minutes interview changed the landscape of HBCU sports, forever. The last HBCU head football coach who received this kind of national recognition and who positively impacted a sports program at a HBCU at this level was Eddie Robinson, Gambling State University's legendary football coach (1941-42 and 1945-97). (Robinson is not related to ASU's current coach, Eddie Robinson, Jr.) By all objective standards of measurement, Coach Robinson was a great man, a great head football coach, and a great ambassador of goodwill for Grambling. You are a modern-day version of Grambling's Eddie Robinson. Robinson never had the opportunity to progress to the NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision (or Division I-A level) as a head football coach. You did, and you rightfully seized it. You have reached the top of the world of athletics, as a college athlete, a professional athlete, and a head football coach at a Football Championship Subdivision university. All along the way, you performed in an outstanding manner and did whatever was necessary and proper to attain excellence in each of these endeavors. You radiate the confidence and standard of excellence that HBCUs desperately needed in their head football coaches. If any head football coach wants respect for his university, his football program, and himself, he needs to work hard and smart enough to win all of his team's games on the playing field. He and his team must view every game as a milestone on the road to excellence and dominance in his sport. America owes you a debt of gratitude for what you did for JSU and HBCU sports. Your efforts were sincere, productive, and inspirational for all HBCUs. You were successful in erasing the badge of inferiority that has plagued all HBCUs for far too long. You are on a mission from God to change young lives, and it is working. You have showed HBCUs what their sports programs can achieve if they truly want, demand, and pursue greatness. Too often, HBCUs complain about a lack of resources, when the real problem is a lack of heart, grit, and determination to be Number One in the competitive zones of academics, sports, and business. Ignore Your Haters As you know, there are a lot of blacks who resented your success at JSU. They are now celebrating your departure from JSU. I call these people, “haters.” They have always been among us. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., found a multitude of them in Alabama, Mississippi, and elsewhere in the nation. In 1958, one of them nearly stabbed Dr. King to death in Harlem. Eddie Robinson encountered plenty of "haters" in connection with his work at Grambling. No one who has achieved as much success in the world of sports as you have enjoyed is hating on you. In fact, they respect your impressive body of accomplishments. As a people, we must stop hating on those blacks who choose to live their lives free of a self-imposed inferiority complex. We should celebrate the fact that there is a growing number of blacks among us who are not languishing in a permanent state of psychological castration and mental slavery. Any HBCU can wallow in mediocrity. Most do. However, very few HBCUs have been willing to do what it takes to advance their institutions to the forefront of nationwide competition for all colleges and universities. JSU is one of them. I expect JSU will continue along this path. I wish you nothing but success at the University of Colorado. They are lucky to have you and your many talents. Sincerely, Donald V. Watkins Sacramento, California December 4, 2022

By: Donald V. Watkins Copyrighted and Published on December 1, 2022 Please stop praising Adolf Hitler and his Nazi regime in Germany. Here is a relevant history lesson for you: During the Nazis’ reign, black Germans were socially isolated and forbidden to have sexual relations and marriages with Aryans by the racial laws. In continued discrimination directed at the so-called “Rhineland bastards,” Nazi officials subjected some 500 black German children in the Rhineland to forced sterilization. Blacks were considered "enemies of the race-based state" along with Jews, Gypsies, and Gay people. The Nazis originally sought to rid the German state of Jews and Romani by means of deportation (and later extermination), while black Germans were to be segregated and eventually exterminated through compulsory sterilization. Had you been a black German under Hitler and his Nazi regime, you would have suffered a similar fate. The photo accompanying this article shows a black German (right) eating his bread in a Nazi concentration camp during World War II.

By: Donald V. Watkins November 29, 2022 On February 4, 2022, Dr. Christopher B. Roberts was named as the 21st president of Auburn University. He assumed office on May 16, 2022. I admire and respect Dr. Roberts. He is the most qualified and prestigious Auburn University president in the school's history. Dr. Roberts is a fair-minded leader who is not shackled to Auburn’s long, ugly, judicially-documented, racist past. He is a bold, strong, and visionary leader. His brilliance knows no bounds. I first met Dr. Roberts in 2007 when he served as the Chairperson for the Department of Chemical Engineering at Auburn. We worked together with Dr. Harry T. Cullinan, the head of the Alabama Center for Paper and Bioresource Engineering on Auburn’s campus, to: (a) develop new biofuel technologies for cars and trucks, (b) validate the efficiency of a hydrogen-powered propulsion system for jumbo cargo planes, and (c) research Fischer-Tropsch synthesis for liquid aviation fuels, all for the commercial benefit of my international waste-to-fuel companies. Dr. Roberts is an expert in fuels processing technologies and Fischer-Tropsch synthesis of liquid fuels. His professional background in fuels processing technologies is the most impressive in the commercial world. Auburn’s Reputation in Chemical Engineering is Unsurpassed in the World Most Alabamians do not realize that Auburn University has a worldwide academic stature and reputation for excellence in chemical engineering. Inside the state, Auburn University is mostly known and celebrated for its "War Eagle" football program. Around the world, Auburn is known primarily for its excellence in chemical engineering. In this zone, Auburn is Number One in the world. Thanks to Chris Roberts’ leadership as Department Chair (2003 to 2012) and Dean of the Department of Chemical Engineering (2012 to 2022), Auburn University has no peer in the pioneering world of new and commercially viable clean-burning biofuels and other forms of alternative energy. The University’s reputation for excellence in this area exceeds that of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Boston), Georgia Tech (Atlanta), Delft University of Technology (Netherlands), and Oxford University (United Kingdom). The Masada-Auburn Strategic Partnership On January 8, 2007, Auburn University executed a Sponsored Research Agreement with Masada Resource Group, LLC. Auburn’s engineering work under the Agreement propelled Masada to the forefront of the international world of waste-to-energy technologies. President Ed Richardson signed the Agreement on behalf of Auburn University. I signed it as Masada’s chief executive officer. The Agreement was a historic business alliance that produced paradigm-shifting waste conversion technologies for both parties. Over the course of the Agreement, Masada paid Auburn University $500,000 to perform its innovative research and development work. Masada also purchased the Tennessee Valley Authority’s biomass facilities and equipment packages that were used to conduct validation testing on the company's waste-to-ethanol process and donated the facilities and equipment to Auburn University as a $300,000 in-kind gift for research and development purposes. In 2010, Auburn published its first major study under the Masada Sponsored Research Agreement. Titled, “Reductive Modification of Alkaline Pulping of Southern Pine, Integrated with Hydrothermal Pre-extraction of Hemicelluloses” by Sung-Hoon Yoon, Harry T. Cullinan, and Gopal A. Krishnagopalan, the study was published in the prestigious Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry Research, 2010, 49, 5969–5976. This study opened new markets for Masada, which grew over the next ten years from one planned domestic waste-to-energy project in upstate New York to 19 strategic partnerships covering market and project development activities in over 40 international markets. On June 16, 2010, Auburn made this major announcement, “Under an agreement with Masada Resource Group, researchers in Auburn’s Department of Chemical Engineering have developed a series of technologies that utilize waste streams from pulp and paper mills and convert them into high-value products. Professors Harry Cullinan, Gopal Krishnagopalan, Y.Y. Lee and senior research fellow Sung-Hoon Yoon, along with several graduate students, developed methodologies to extract fermentable elements of current waste streams for possible conversion into ethanol.” This engineering breakthrough expanded Masada’s core waste conversion technologies and enabled the company to offer proven mill sludge-to-ethanol technology to commercial customers for the first time. Auburn filed worldwide patent applications for all of these Masada-related technologies. Additionally, Auburn and Masada executed a license agreement, with Masada committing to commercializing the technologies and providing a future royalty stream to Auburn. The pioneering work of the Christopher Roberts-led Department of Chemical Engineering and the Harry T. Cullinan-led Alabama Center for Paper and Bioresource Engineering at Auburn University, together with significant engineering contributions from TVA and the National Renewable Energy Laboratories in Golden, Colorado, made Masada a global leader in the world of waste-to-energy technologies. In the fog that engulfed Auburn University's hiring of a football coach yesterday, it is easy for Alabamians to lose sight of Auburn University true status and mission in the world. Football fans may question many things about the hiring of Hugh Freeze as Auburn's head football coach, but one area where Auburn University is Number One, and has been for the last two decades, is in its creation, development, and commercialization of innovative biofuels technologies. Related Articles: Thank You, Auburn University, published on December 7, 2018; and Will Deion Sanders Be Auburn's Next Football Coach?, published on November 6, 2022.

By Donald V. Watkins ©Copyrighted and Published on December 7, 2018 On January 8, 2007, Auburn University executed a Sponsored Research Agreement with Masada Resource Group, LLC. Auburn’s engineering work under the Agreement propelled Masada to the forefront of the international world of waste-to-energy technologies. President Ed Richardson signed the Agreement on behalf of Auburn University. I sign it as Masada’s chief executive officer. It was a historic business alliance that produced paradigm-shifting waste conversion technologies for both parties. On May 30, 2007, Auburn University announced the Agreement in a press release titled, “AU, Masada to convert garbage, sewage to ethanol.” According to the press release, “The proposed work will include the identification and validation of the optimal pretreatment of municipal waste to prepare it for ethanol production through enzymatic and microbial conversion. Researchers will also explore, a novel and environmentally-friendly means of separating cellulose and lignin from biomass; identify a cost-effective processing scheme for biomass and municipal waste, enabling the production of synthesis gas that can be used to produce aviation fuel as well as value-added chemicals; and develop a mathematical-based framework that accommodates the inclusion of profitability and other techno-economic measures in the process planning for a large biorefinery.” Over the course of the Agreement, Masada paid Auburn University $500,000 to perform its innovative research and development work. Masada also purchased the Tennessee Valley Authority's biomass facilities and equipment packages that were used to conduct validation testing on the company's waste-to-ethanol process and donated the facilities and equipment to Auburn University. In addition to Auburn University, Masada worked directly with TVA and the U.S. Department of Energy to develop and validate its CES OxyNol waste-to-ethanol technology.  Following four years of validation and system performance testing at TVA, Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection and Insurance Company, Special Risk Energy Division, insured Masada’s CES OxyNol waste-to-energy system performance in a commercial setting for $225 million. In 2010, Auburn published its first major study under the Masada Sponsored Research Agreement. Titled, “Reductive Modification of Alkaline Pulping of Southern Pine, Integrated with Hydrothermal Pre-extraction of Hemicelluloses” by Sung-Hoon Yoon, Harry T. Cullinan, and Gopal A. Krishnagopalan, the study was published in the prestigious Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry Research, 2010, 49, 5969–5976. This study opened new markets for Masada, which grew over the next ten years from one domestic waste-to-energy project in upstate New York to 19 strategic partnerships covering market and project development activities in 47 international markets. On June 16, 2010, Auburn made this major announcement, “Under an agreement with Masada Resource Group, researchers in Auburn’s Department of Chemical Engineering have developed a series of technologies that utilize waste streams from pulp and paper mills and convert them into high-value products. Professors Harry Cullinan, Gopal Krishnagopalan, Y.Y. Lee and senior research fellow Sung-Hoon Yoon, along with several graduate students, developed methodologies to extract fermentable elements of current waste streams for possible conversion into ethanol.” This engineering breakthrough expanded Masada’s core waste conversion technologies and enabled the company to offer proven mill sludge-to-ethanol technology to commercial customers for the first time. Patent applications were filed for all of these technologies, and a license agreement was executed between the parties, with Masada committing to developing the technologies and providing a future royalty stream to Auburn. Auburn University, which is known around the world for its excellence in innovative engineering, contributed significantly to Masada’s sustained competitive advantage in the international world of waste-to-energy technologies. Over the years, Masada and Auburn University cross-promoted each other’s expertise in alternative energy solutions, both at home and abroad. In 2015, Masada was recognized for its trade excellence when it became a recipient of the Governor’s 2015 Trade Excellence Award. This award is one of many earned by Masada and its senior management executives in recent years. The pioneering work of the Department of Chemical Engineering and Alabama Center for Paper and Bioresource Engineering at Auburn University, together with significant engineering contributions from TVA and the National Renewable Energy Laboratories, has made Masada a global leader in the world of waste-to-energy technologies. To this day, Auburn University outranks the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Georgia Tech, Virginia Tech, Oxford University, and other prestigious research and development institutions in commercializing innovative waste-to-energy technologies. Thank you, Auburn University! PHOTO: Masada's CES OxyNol waste-to-ethanol process engineering diagram.

By: Donald V. Watkins Copyrighted and Published on November 16, 2022 PopulationU.com published statistical data on the world’s countries and populations. Among this data are statistics that identify the most dangerous cities in the world, based upon violent crime. The 54 most dangerous cities in the world have the highest homicide rates per 100,000 inhabitants. Mexico tops the list with nine cities in the top 10 most dangerous cities in the world. The other dangerous cities on the list are located in Venezuela, Columbia, South Africa, Honduras, Jamaica, Brazil, Guatemala and United States. The cities in the United States that made the list of the top 54 most dangerous cities in the world are: Detroit, Michigan (#22); New Orleans, Louisiana (#42); Baltimore, Maryland (#50); Birmingham, Alabama (#51); and St. Louis, Missouri (#52). All five of these cities are governed by predominantly black City Halls. The victims of the violent crimes in these cities are overwhelmingly black. As of September 2022, Birmingham, Alabama (my former hometown) was leading a surge in the nation’s violent crime. The city’s murder rate increased by 40%, from 73 murders by September 2021 to 102 murders by September 2022. In 2021, 132 people were murdered in Birmingham. This number is expected to be exceeded by the end of 2022. In 2010, Birmingham’s population was 211,763. As a result of rising crime, poorly performing public schools, ineffective local government, and white-flight, Birmingham’s population decreased to 200,133 residents in 2021. Today, Birmingham’s population is 197,575. With its rapidly decreasing population and soaring murder rate, Birmingham’s mayor flew to Washington this week to plead with Congress for help. Mayor Randall Woodfin was not seeking additional funds to fight the surging violent crime in his city, which is on its way to becoming the “Murder Capital of the World.” Instead, Woodfin pleaded with Congress to decriminalize the sale and possession of marijuana in Birmingham and the rest of America. Apparently, Mayor Woodfin believes that his push to help Birmingham residents get “high” from marijuana is the answer to his city’s rising murder rate. Crime Inside the United States The FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting Program classifies murder, non-negligent manslaughter, rape, robbery, and aggravated assault as violent crimes. Property crime in the U.S. is much more common than violent crime. In 2019 (the most recent year for full Uniform Crime Reporting Program data), the FBI reported a total of 2,109.9 property crimes per 100,000 people, compared with 379.4 violent crimes per 100,000 people. The FBI’s National Incident-Based Reporting System provides information on the time of day, location and types of weapons involved in violent crime. It also captures demographic data, such as the sex, age, race and ethnicity of victims, known offenders and arrestees. As mentioned previously, Detroit, Baltimore, New Orleans, Birmingham and St. Louis are listed among the most dangerous cities in the world, based on violent crime. Apart from this international list of dangerous cities, crime statistics released by the FBI in July 2022, list Little Rock, Arkansas (#1); Memphis, Tennessee (#2); Tacoma, Washington (#3); Detroit, Michigan (#4); Pueblo, Colorado (#5); Cleveland, Ohio (#6); Springfield, Illinois (#7); Lansing, Michigan (#8); Kansas City, Missouri (#9); and Chattanooga, Tennessee (#10) as the most dangerous cities in the U.S., based on violent and property crimes. According to the Pew Research Center, only 40.9% of violent crimes and 32.5% of household property crimes are reported to law enforcement authorities. Most violent and property crimes in the U.S. go unreported to police, and most of the crimes that are reported are not solved. Epilogue Crime is out of control in many of our urban cities. I have been publishing articles on this subject since 2013. Today, mass murders and other violent crimes are occurring every day, everywhere in America. Our churches, grocery stores, movie theaters, schools, workplaces, transit systems, malls, concerts, and neighborhoods are no longer safe. Rather than pushing for people to get "high" on marijuana, as Mayor Woodfin is doing, our public officials need to focus on implementing effective measures to fight violent crime. Once we conquer the evil of violent crime, marijuana users can get "high" to celebrate this monumental achievement. Related Articles: Chicago -- The Murder Capital of the World Chicago -- The Murder Capital of the World, Once Again Message to the City of Chicago