By Donald V. Watkins ©Copyrighted and Published on April 2, 2019 Twice during Rahm Emanuel’s two terms as mayor, Chicago was named the “Murder Capital of the World” because of its violent crime and homicide rates. In 2018, the number of murders in Chicago, the third largest city in America, was higher than the number of homicides in Los Angeles and New York combined. According to preliminary police numbers, there were 561 homicides in Chicago between Jan. 1 and Dec. 31, 2018. Last month, Mayor Emanuel was back in the news again. Rather than unveiling an effective plan to curb violent crime in his city, Emanuel held a news conference to denounce Cook County prosecutors for dismissing 16 felony counts of disorderly conduct against “Empire” actor Jussie Smollett for allegedly making a false police report. In February, Smollett was charged with these crimes after Chicago police officers said he orchestrated a “hate crime” in January that portrayed him as the “victim” because he was unhappy with his salary on the TV show. In essence, police claimed Smollett hired two men to beat him up for publicity purposes. Mayor Emanuel and police officials also claimed the City spent $130,000 investigating this crime. If these allegations are true, Jussie Smollett was both the “victim” and “perpetrator” of the crime he reported. Smollett had no prior criminal record. The actor performed community service work for the Rainbow PUSH Coalition in Chicago prior to the dismissal of his criminal charges. On March 26, 2019, Cook County prosecutors used their discretion under Illinois law to let Smollett enter a pretrial diversion program for low-level, non-violent offenders. It is common practice to dismiss the pending criminal charges and seal court records in deferred prosecution cases. In my experience, prosecutors around the country routinely offer pretrial diversion deals to young, mostly white, criminal offenders who come from privileged backgrounds and well-connected families. This practice is rampant in the State of Alabama for the children of high-powered political figures and other non-violent criminal offenders who reside in the right zip codes. Emanuel Leaves Office in May On September 4, 2018, Rahm Emanuel announced that he was not seeking re-election as Chicago’s mayor, a job he has held since 2011. He will leave office in May after two disastrous terms in office that saw the largest round of school closings in the city’s history, a teachers strike, the corruption conviction of his onetime schools chief, an explosion of gun violence that surged under his watch, a sex abuse scandal at Chicago Public Schools, record tax increases to shore up the city’s pensions and the Laquan McDonald police shooting that led to a federal investigation of the Police Department, and a decline in his support among the city’s African-American voters. Rahm Emanuel has been one of the least effective mayors in the nation. He is short in physical size and leadership stature. Emanuel’s only claim to fame is that he once served as Barack Obama’s first chief of staff. Even there, he was a dismal failure. Chicago Must Focus on Solving Its Murder Problem Jussie Smollett is not the most pressing problem facing Chicago; the city’s murder rate is. Instead of blasting prosecutors for permitting Jussie Smollett to enter a pretrial diversion program sanctioned under Illinois law, Mayor Emanuel and his flunkies in the police department need to use the city’s law enforcement personnel and resources to combat Chicago’s epidemic of murder cases. When I served as special counsel to Birmingham Mayor Richard Arrington, Jr., I was the Mayor’s Office liaison to the city’s police and law departments. On October 16, 1994, Andrew Anthony Apicella and Stephen Pilley murdered Changing Times Lounge bartender Pamela Dodd, 37; her husband, Lester "Eddie" Dodd, 38; her friend Florence Elliott, 45; and patrons William Nelson, 52, and James Watkins, 52. At the time, the execution-style killing of these five victims represented the worst mass murder in Birmingham’s history. The pressure was on Mayor Arrington and city police to solve this gruesome crime. Shortly after the murders, I attended a meeting between the law and police departments that was called to organize a sting operation against strippers who moonlighted as prostitutes after they left their strip club jobs. The police department was planning to allocate a sizable number of officers to pose undercover as “Johns” who were soliciting prostitutes. I strongly objected to implementing this sting operation until we solved the Changing Times Lounge murderers. I wanted all available man-power focused on solving this murder case, and solving it quickly. To me, catching the Changing Times Lounge murderers was far more important than arresting strippers who were charging “Johns” for sexual favors. Eventually, Apicella and Pilley were apprehended, charged, tried, and convicted of capital murder. Each man was sentenced to death and eventually died on death row from cancer. Chicago needs to follow this lead and focus on solving its epidemic of murder cases before allocating precious police manpower and resources to prosecute victimless crimes. My outcry today is over Chicago’s murder rate, not Jussie Smollett’s high-profile victimless crime. With the election of Lori Lightfoot as Chicago’s new mayor tonight, I am hopeful that Chicago will emerge from the failed leadership of Rahm Emanuel and enter the bright sunlight of progressive, responsive, and responsible government. Goodbye, Rahm Emanuel. I thank God you are gone next month! PHOTO: Outgoing Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel (left) and "Empire" actor Jussie Smollett (right).

By Donald V. Watkins ©Copyrighted and Published on April 4, 2019 at 10:20 p.m. EST For decades, Federal Aviation Administration (“FAA”) flight safety protocols and standards for new airplanes were promulgated and enforced, in large part, in response to accident investigations of airplane crashes by the National Transportation Safety Board, an independent government agency. When Boeing saw that it could use the company's lobbying influence and campaign money to seduce greedy, self-centered, Washington "Swamp"creatures like U.S. Senator Richard Shelby (R-AL.) and enticed them to take a leading role in deregulating the FAA’s flight safety standards and operations, only one result was certain to occur – catastrophic deaths from fatal plane crashes. The FAA's decision on whether the new Boeing 737 MAX airplane was “airworthy” and “safe to fly” was outsourced to Boeing, its lobbyists, and “Swamp” creatures in Washington. This is why two new 737 MAX airplanes loaded with 346 innocent passengers and crew members fell out of the sky in October 2918 and March 2019, killing all on board. For these reasons, I am issuing this important WARNING to all of my friends and family members around the world – Do Not Fly on 737 MAX airplanes under ANY circumstances. This aircraft is a flying death trap. PHOTO: Warning Poster on 737 MAX airplanes.

A Special Investigative Report By Donald V. Watkins ©Copyrighted and Published on April 4, 2019; Updated at 8 a.m. EST On April 26, 2017, Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg bragged to Wall Street analysts about how quickly the company had brought its new 737 MAX airplanes to market. Muilenburg praised the Federal Aviation Administration's "streamlined" certification process. He attributed the March 8, 2017 certification to the pro-business philosophy of the new Trump administration. "That's helping us more efficiently work through certification on some of our new model aircraft such as the [737] MAX as it's going through flight test and entering into service," Muilenburg told analysts on the conference call. "So we're already seeing some benefits there of some of the work that's being done with the FAA." Ten days later, on May 6, 2017, Boeing delivered its first 737 MAX airplane to Malaysia’s Malindo Air, which placed the aircraft into service on May 22, 2017. Following the fatal crashes of the 737 MAX 8 aircraft in October 2018 and March 2019, regulatory authorities around the world grounded all 737 MAX aircraft for an indefinite period of time. The grounding of 737 MAX airplanes around the world has become a nightmare experience for Boeing. The 737 airplane has been Boeing's bestselling product for decades. The company's future depends on the success the 737 MAX, a new and extended version of the jet. Boeing has 4,700 unfilled orders for 737 airplanes, representing 80% of Boeing's orders backlog. Virtually all of these 737 orders are for MAX versions of the aircraft. Today, Boeing is in an uncontrollable tailspin for the first time in the company’s 103-year history. Boeing’s Crisis Management has Failed Crisis managers for Boeing are trying to convince the flying public that the new 737 MAX airplanes are safe. This public relations campaign comes after a Lion Air 737 MAX crashed after takeout in Indonesia in October and an Ethiopian Air 737 MAX crashed in a similar fashion in March. A faulty flight control system designed to prevent the aircraft from stalling in flight caused both crashes. A total of 346 passengers and crew members were killed in these crashes. Following the crashes, Boeing announced the company had developed a software "fix" for the faulty flight control system. This, of course, was PR spin. In truth, there is no simple "fix" for the 737 MAX’s flight safety problem. Boeing’s problem with the 737 MAX airplanes is further compounded by the fact that “whistleblowers” warned the FAA in August 2018 that the agency’s flight safety inspectors lacked the training and certifications necessary to properly evaluate and certify the 737 MAX as safe to fly. Yet, Boeing had the political juice to push the 737 MAX through the FAA’s certification process in record time. An analysis of the “black box” data from the Ethiopian crash found that the pilots followed Boeing’s emergency procedures for disengaging the faulty flight control system in a futile effort to regain control of the aircraft. Even then, Crew members could not regain control of the airplane. The new Boeing jet crashed after experiencing “repetitive, uncommanded aircraft nose-down conditions,” Ethiopia’s transportation minister said this morning. The Real Problem with 737 MAX Airplanes When designing a new, extended version of its 737 airplane, Boeing engineers found that under certain conditions the 737 MAX's engines -- which are larger and located higher and closer to the front -- boost the chances that the aircraft would tilt upward too steeply -- causing the plane to stall. To offset this risk, Boeing engineers installed a Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS) in the 737 MAX "to compensate for the extra pitch up produced by its larger engines at elevated angle-of-attack (AOA).” If the AOA sensor detected too steep a pitch, the MCAS would elevate the horizontal stabilizer -- the little wings on the airplane's tail -- to push the nose of the plane down. The 737 MAX has two AOA sensors in its nose that measure air pressure to determine its pitch angle. In the original MCAS design, a signal from just one of the AOA sensors would trigger the MCAS to push down the nose repeatedly. If that AOA sensor was faulty, the MCAS would continue to push the nose down even though the 737 MAX was not actually stalling -- thus sending it into a nosedive. This is exactly what happened in the two recent crashes. Boeing’s post-crash engineering solution for this problem allows the MCAS to tip the nose down only once, rather than repeatedly. Supposedly, this “fix” will make it easier for pilots to regain control of the aircraft from the MCAS system. Boeing has not explained why the MCAS would not release control of the Ethiopian 737 MAX airplane back to the pilots after they turned it off in a desperate effort to prevent the fatal crash. Because the pilots could not regain control of the airplane from the computer operated anti-stall system, whether the MCAS was "on" or "off", there is a much larger problem with the 737 MAX's controls. In its current state, the 737 MAX airplane is a flying death trap that is subject to a nosedive and crash whenever the MCAS overrides a pilot's repeated efforts to disengage the system. Nobody at Boeing knows why this malfunction occurred because Boeing never properly tested the airplane's flight control systems. The cozy "pro-business" relationship between Boeing and the FAA relieved both parties from that safety responsibility. Unfortunately, Boeing’s software “fix” only masks the real problem – the 737 MAX is a redesigned airplane that bypassed all of the standard “airworthiness” and “flight safety” evaluations required by the FAA for a newly designed aircraft. The true price paid for compromising FAA flight safety standards and procedures for 737 MAX airplanes was the death of 346 passengers and crew members. Other Boeing “Fixes” Are in Progress While Boeing’s PR spin doctors are trying to repair the company’s damaged reputation and its engineers are trying to “fix” the faulty MCAS system, the company’s lobbyists have been quietly pressing members of Congress and the FAA to cut more corners in order to get the grounded 737 MAX airplanes back in the skies. Additionally, Boeing has been trying to influence the course of the U.S. Department of Justice’s criminal investigation into what went wrong in the FAA certification process. Two of Boeing’s top lobbyists – Howard Goodloe Sutton, Jr. and Art Cameron -- are protégés of U.S. Senator Richard Shelby (R-AL), the principal architect of deregulation for the airline manufacturing industry in the United States. From his decade-long powerful position on the Senate Appropriations Committee, Sen. Shelby was able to gut and/or cap critical funding for FAA operations. Shelby’s funding constraints forced the FAA to become more dependent on manufacturers to certify their own planes as safe to fly. Sen. Shelby and his political allies in Congress were rewarded handsomely for their deregulation actions and results. They received hefty campaign contributions from Boeing, Airbus, and the companies’ prime contractors that were discretely laundered through friendly political action committees. In the aftermath of the two 737 MAX crashes, these contributions are now viewed as “blood money.” Boeing has retained high-powered criminal lawyers in Washington and Chicago to represent the company and several of its senior management executives during the federal grand jury investigation. Boeing’s legal strategy is to shift all of the blame for its corporate actions in truncating and expediting the required safety analysis of the faulty MCAS flight control system to the FAA managers who acted as “rubberstamps” in the certification process. Sen. Shelby has lawyered up, as well. Our sources in Washington report that Shelby is ready to sacrifice his protégés at Boeing and everybody at the FAA. Richard Shelby is a true Washington “Swamp” creature. He will say and do anything to survive the criminal investigation into the death of 346 passengers and crew members. These deaths were a direct result of his cold, callous, and calculated actions in gutting and/or capping the FAA’s operational budgets over the years. Epilogue At the end of the day, the federal criminal investigation will likely turn into a murder investigation. The culprits at Boeing and in Congress were drunken with power. They used their power to truncate and expedite standard FAA flight safety protocols. Their reckless disregard for the lives and safety of the 346 passengers and crew members who flew on the 737 MAX death trap and died in the two crashes exposes Boeing's senior management executives, Sen. Richard Shelby, and their many accomplices to murder charges. RELATED INVESTIGATIVE ARTICLES IN THIS SERIES: Who Pushed the FAA to Expedite Certification of Faulty 737 MAX Aircraft? "Swamp" Creatures Lawyer Up in Aftermath of 737 MAX Crashes Deregulation Doomed 346 Passengers and Crew Members on Two Boeing 737 MAX Planes Sen. Richard Shelby: "Too Much Money Ain't Never Enough" PHOTO: On April 26, 2017, Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg, pictured below, praised the Federal Aviation Administration's "streamlined" certification process that killed 346 passengers and crew members on two 737 MAX airplanes that crashed recently. PHOTO: U.S. Senator Richard Shelby (R-AL), pictured below, used his position on the Senate Appropriation Committee to gut and/or cap funding for critical FAA operations. Shelby was rewarded with hefty campaign cash or "blood money" for making speedy FAA certification a reality for the faulty 737 MAX airplanes.

By Donald V. Watkins ©Copyrighted and Published on September 17, 2018 On September 4, 2018, Rahm Emanuel announced that he was not seeking re-election as Chicago’s mayor, a job he has held since 2011. Emanuel is Chicago’s first Jewish mayor and has been a power-broker in the national Democratic Party for the past 23 years. Emanuel will leave office in May of 2019 after two disastrous terms in office that saw the largest round of school closings in the city’s history, a teachers strike, the corruption conviction of his onetime schools chief, an explosion of gun violence that surged under his watch, a sex abuse scandal at Chicago Public Schools, record tax increases to shore up the city’s pensions and the Laquan McDonald police shooting that led to a federal investigation of the Police Department and a decline in his support among the city’s African-American voters. During Emanuel’s reign as mayor, Chicago became the Murder Capital of the World, twice. In 2016, 762 homicides occurred in Chicago. This was the highest number of homicides in Chicago in two decades and more than New York and Los Angeles combined. The nation’s third largest city also saw 1,100 more shooting incidents in 2016 than it did in 2015, according to data released this month by the Chicago Police Department. New York, the nation’s largest city, had 334 homicides in 2016, while the country’s second-largest city, Los Angeles, experienced 294 homicides. I first wrote about Chicago’s unflattering designation as the Murder Capital of the World on September 21, 2013. My article was published following a night of shootings in a city park that left 23 men, women, and children wounded from the shooting spree. The shootings occurred during the same week that the FBI officially proclaimed Chicago as the Murder Capital of the World. The FBI recorded 500 murders in Chicago in 2012, up from 431 in 2011. Sadly, the number of people in Chicago who were killed in 2012 outpaced the number of deaths of American soldiers in Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, and other international war/conflict zones combined during the same year. This was also true for 2016. Chicago experienced a reduction in homicides in 2013 (420) and 2014 (416), but the number of homicides started to climb again in 2015 (468). In 2016, the number skyrocketed to 762 homicides. How can Chicago be more dangerous than a war zone? There are many answers, but one apparent answer readily comes to mind. Chicago is led by Rahm Emanuel, one of the least effective mayors in the nation. He is short in physical size and leadership stature. Rahm Emanuel’s only claim to fame is that he once served as Barack Obama’s first chief of staff. Even there, he was a dismal failure. One thing is crystal clear -- Rahm Emanuel apparently does not give a damn about street violence in Chicago unless it occurs in the glitzy downtown Gold Coast area or on the City’s upscale North Side. Needless to say, these are predominantly white and rich neighborhoods in Chicago. The unprecedented wave of murders and other violent crimes is occurring on the city’s West and South sides, which are predominantly black, middle class, and poor neighborhoods that lack adequate community policing and basic city services. We cannot say that Chicago has a policing problem. The City knows how to police when it matters to the "big money" crowd that controls City Hall. Remember when Chicago hosted the 25th Annual NATO Summit in May of 2012? Rahm Emanuel put on a show of police force that would have dazzled the most hardened criminal element. He even opened up a closed prison to make sure that the City had plenty of capacity to incarcerate potential troublemakers. Crime in Chicago plunged that weekend to historic lows. Even the City's gangbangers got the message – important people from NATO are in town and we will not tolerate your foolishness this weekend. As a special counsel to former Birmingham, Alabama mayor Richard Arrington, who was a powerful force in the Alabama Democratic Party and a highly successful five-term mayor, and former Montgomery, Alabama mayor Emory Folmar, who was another successful five-term mayor and the chairman of the Alabama Republican Party in the 1990s, I have seen what it takes to run a large city in an efficient and effective manner. I am glad to see Rahm Emanuel leaving office. He has been a total failure as Chicago’s mayor. Bill Daley, the former U.S. Commerce Secretary under President Bill Clinton, has announced his intention to run for the job once held by his brother and father -- mayor of Chicago. Interestingly, Daley succeeded Emanuel as President Barack Obama’s White House chief of staff after Emanuel left the job in 2010 to run for mayor. Daley, who is generally regarded as weak and intellectually challenged, was also ineffective as Obama’s chief of staff. It will be interesting to see whether Chicago voters replace one inept mayor with another one. PHOTO: Rahm Emanuel recently announced that he is not seeking re-election as mayor of Chicago.

A Special Investigative Report By Donald V. Watkins ©Copyrighted and Published on March 25, 2019 In early 2007, I visited the Washington offices of U.S. Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Senator Richard Shelby (R-AL), Congressman Spencer Bachus (R-AL), and Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY) for the purpose of soliciting letters of support for a first-of-its-kind waste-to-ethanol facility in upstate New York. Sen. Sessions provided two letters of support for the project; one on January 10, 2007 and another one on January 18, 2007. Congressman Bachus provided his letter of support for the project on March 20, 2007. Sen. Clinton provided her letter of support on March 27, 2007. During my visit with Sen. Shelby, he was laser-focused on his campaign war chest even though he was midway through his fourth term as a U.S. senator. While I was pitching waste-to-ethanol as a means for achieving energy independence in America, Shelby was obsessed with talking to me about campaign contributions. He correctly noted that I had never contributed to any of his political campaigns. After I observed aloud that Sen. Shelby’s campaign war chest was still flush with leftover cash from his 2004 reelection campaign, he stood up, looked me in the eye, and told me: “Too much money ain’t never enough.” I was speechless. With that profound display of political greed, Sen. Shelby dismissed me without further ado. I never received a letter of support from Shelby for the New York waste-to-energy project. Modern-day “Carpetbaggers” Richard Shelby’s brand of political “whoring” has ushered in a new wave of modern-day “carpetbaggers” to Alabama. They are international corporations that love the generous tax incentive packages Alabama officials shower upon them for locating their automobile and aircraft manufacturing facilities in the state. They also love the following “pro-business” factors: (a) Alabama is a right to work state (which impedes union organizing activities); (b) Alabama has one of the most attractive taxation infrastructures for wealthy corporations; (c) serious investigative journalism is virtually non-existent in Alabama-based media organizations; (d) the Alabama Legislature and state government agencies ceded their regulatory powers to the industries they supposedly regulate “on paper” a long time ago; and (e) the “carpetbaggers” have cadres of “bought and paid for” deregulators like Sen. Richard Shelby and others of his ilk. These “carpetbaggers” have taken more from the people of Alabama than they have given them in economic benefits. Like parasites, they specialize in fleecing taxpayers in the states where they nest. Against this backdrop, Sen. Shelby focuses on what he does best -- political “whoring” for rich, powerful and well-connected “carpetbaggers.” The effects of his “whoring” reverberate far beyond Alabama. Deregulating the aviation industry for Boeing and Airbus has become a major part of Richard Shelby’s political legacy. The same is true with respect to the crashes of two new $120 million Boeing 737 MAX 8 airplanes in Indonesia and Ethiopia within the last five months. "These crashes emerged from an experience we’re all familiar with: the pressure to deliver on a tight timetable, the temptation to cut corners, and the hope that in a big, complex world, one little kludge won’t mess up the whole program," according to Quartz.com in a March 23, 2019 article titled, “The Boeing 737 MAX crisis goes way beyond software.” The two deadly 737 MAX crashes have (a) shocked passengers, regulators, and industry alike, (b) messed up the “whole program” for Boeing, and (c) placed Sen. Richard Shelby and other “Swamp” creatures in Washington on the hot seat. These “Swamp” creatures routinely peddle influence for corporate interests in exchange for campaign cash and “dark money” contributions. Sen. Shelby and the band of lobbyists he groomed to deregulate the aviation industry now have a real problem – a federal criminal investigation that is trying to find out why an unsafe airplane was certified by the Federal Aviation Administration and Boeing as “airworthy” and “safe to fly” in an unusually short period of time. Shelby and his friends gamed the FAA’s system for certifying new airplanes in a way that caused the deaths of 346 innocent passengers and crew members aboard the two crashed 737 MAX airplanes. Epilogue The two 737 MAX crashes remind us of one truism: Prostitution is not the world’s oldest profession; political “whoring” is. This kind of “whoring” is generally tolerated, except in situations where it results in the death of hundreds of innocent people. Now, Richard Shelby, Boeing, and their lobbyist friends must be held accountable for trading the safety of Boeing 737 MAX passengers and crew members for political contributions. In Washington, Shelby has earned a reputation as the undisputed “King of Political Whoring.” Remember Shelby’s infamous words, “Too much money ain’t never enough.” PHOTO: U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL), whose political mantra is: "Too much money ain't never enough."

A Special Investigative Report By Donald V. Watkins ©Copyrighted and Published on March 24, 2019 On July 2, 2012, Airbus announced that it was establishing a manufacturing facility in Mobile, Alabama to assemble and deliver its A320 series of aircraft. It would become the company's first American-based production facility. Airbus stressed that the assembly line, which will create jobs and strengthen the aerospace industry, is part of its strategy to enhance Airbus' global competitiveness by meeting the growing needs of its customers in the United States and elsewhere. The facility in Alabama would assemble the industry-leading family of A319, A320 and A321 aircraft. This project was expected to create 1,000 stable, well-paying jobs. The company began construction of the assembly line in the summer of 2013. Aircraft assembly started in 2015, with the first deliveries from the Mobile facility beginning in 2016. Since 2018, the Airbus facility has produced between 40 and 50 aircraft per year. U.S. Senator Richard Shelby (R-AL) lavished praise on Airbus for choosing Mobile as the location for their first aircraft assembly operation in the United States. “Mobile has long been a hub for world class shipbuilding and it will now become a critical node for the U.S. aerospace industry as well,” said Shelby.  “The effects of this decision will reverberate far beyond Alabama, however, as the entire country will benefit from having both global commercial aircraft manufacturers building planes on U.S. soil," he proclaimed. In a press statement critical of then-President Barack Obama, Sen. Shelby claimed that Airbus made a direct $600 million investment in the Mobile facility because (a) Alabama is a right to work state (which impedes union organizing activities), (b) the state has an attractive taxation infrastructure for wealthy corporations, and (c) his sustained efforts to deregulate the airline manufacturing industry have been successful. On January 16, 2019, Airbus and Alabama officials announced that the company is constructing a new assembly line at its Mobile facility to build A220 airplanes. Airbus has projected that the new assembly line represents a direct investment of more than $200 million and will provide more than 400 jobs. Airbus has embraced an aggressive timetable for this project. The company intends to start manufacturing the first A220 made in Mobile this year, well before the new assembly line is finished. The first new A220 from Mobile is due to be delivered in 2020. The Two Boeing 737 MAX Crashes Changed Everything Boeing’s answer to Airbus’ A320 series of aircraft is the 737 MAX series of airplanes. As Boeing hustled in 2015 to catch up to the Airbus A320neo and certify its new 737 MAX series of aircraft, FAA managers pushed the agency’s safety engineers to delegate safety assessments to Boeing itself, and to speedily approve the resulting analysis. When two new $120 million Boeing 737MAX 8 airplanes fell out of the skies over Indonesia and Ethiopia within the last five months, everybody knew something was terribly wrong with these airplanes. Terrorism was immediately ruled out as the cause of each crash. "These crashes emerged from an experience we’re all familiar with: the pressure to deliver on a tight timetable, the temptation to cut corners, and the hope that in a big, complex world, one little kludge won’t mess up the whole program," according to Quartz.com in a March 23, 2019 article titled, “The Boeing 737 MAX crisis goes way beyond software.” Well, the two deadly 737 MAX crashes in less than five months shocked passengers, regulators, and industry alike. They definitely messed up the “whole program” for Boeing. The crashes have also placed Sen. Richard Shelby and other “Swamp” creatures in Washington on the hot seat. They routinely peddle influence for corporate interests in exchange for campaign cash and “dark money” contributions. Shelby, whose campaign coffers historically contain massive amounts of cash, has bragged privately that “too much money ain’t never enough.” He has mastered the art of political “whoring” for mega, cash-rich corporations. Shelby and the band of lobbyists he groomed to deregulate the aviation industry now have a real problem – a federal grand jury is looking into how and why an unsafe airplane was certified by the Federal Aviation Administration (“FAA”) and Boeing as “airworthy” and “safe to fly” in an unusually short period of time (i.e., the 737 MAX performed its first flight on January 29, 2016 and gained FAA certification on March 8, 2017). Additionally, criminal investigators want to know who gamed the FAA’s system for certifying new airplanes in a way that resulted in two tragic crashes that caused 346 fatalities. Crisis Management for Influence Peddlers As we reported Saturday in “'Swamp' Creatures Lawyer Up in Aftermath of 737 MAX Crashes," Boeing has retained high-powered criminal lawyers in Washington and Chicago to represent the company and several of its senior management executives during the federal grand jury investigation. Additionally, the company’s PR spin doctors are already peddling a comforting but misleading narrative that the 737 MAX aircraft can be fixed with a simple software update, the installation of some inexpensive warning lights, and additional pilot training. Once again, Boeing and the FAA are cutting corners in a rush to get the grounded 737 MAX airplanes back in the skies. However, the timetable for "fixing" a politically manipulated and compromised regulatory system is drastically different from the timetable in a federal grand jury investigation into an avoidable event that caused the deaths of 346 passengers and crew members. The grand jury investigation could last between 18 to 24 months. While Boeing, as a corporate entity, will not be indicted for the 346 fatalities, one or more executives within its ranks will likely become a proverbial “sacrificial lamb.” To minimize the number of “sacrificial lambs” offered up from Boeing, the company has implored a legal strategy in the criminal investigation that shifts all of the blame for truncating and expediting the safety analysis of the faulty flight control system on the 737 MAX airplanes from Boeing to the FAA managers in charge of the certification process. In Boeing’s view, these FAA managers are underpaid government employees who do not have the financial resources to hire highly qualified criminal lawyers to assist them in the responding effectively to the grand jury investigation. As such, Boeing believes these FAA managers are the best candidates to serve as “scapegoats” in the criminal case. Sen. Shelby and his cadre of homegrown aviation industry lobbyists have lawyered up, as well. In Shelby’s view, everybody at the FAA and Boeing is dispensable. After all, Shelby has Airbus as a backup political ally and major financial contributor. PHOTO: U.S. Senator Richard Shelby (R-AL), the chief architect of deregulation in the aviation manufacturing industry.

A Special Investigative Report By Donald V. Watkins ©Copyrighted and Published on March 23, 2019 When two new $120 million Boeing 737 MAX 8 airplanes fell out of the sky in less than five months, everybody knew something was terribly wrong with these airplanes. Terrorism was immediately ruled out as the cause of these crashes. The “Swamp” creatures in Washington, D.C, who routinely peddle influence for corporate interests in exchange for campaign cash and “dark money” contributions, knew they had a problem. Their ability to game the Federal Aviation Administration (“FAA”) system for certifying new airplanes resulted in two tragic situations that caused massive fatalities. In October 2018, a new Boeing 737 MAX 8 operated by Indonesia’s Lion Air crashed into the Java Sea. None of the 189 people on board survived. On March 10, 2019, a second Boeing 737 MAX 8 plane operated by Ethiopian Airlines crashed shortly after take-off, killing all 157 people on board.  The plane’s flight data recorder showed “a clear similarity” with the Lion Air incident. Aviation authorities around the world grounded all Boeing 737 MAX airplanes indefinitely. The U.S. Department of Justice is investigating whether criminal wrongdoing occurred with respect to the FAA’s expedited certification of the Boeing 737 MAX airplanes. The immediate focus of this investigation centers on a faulty flight control system called the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (”MCAS”), which Boeing and the FAA certified as safe. Influence Peddling in the “Swamp” Contributed to 346 Deaths On March 19, 2019, I published an exclusive investigative article titled, “Who Pushed the FAA to Expedite Certification of Faulty 737 MAX Aircraft?” The article focused on the influence peddling role U.S. Senator Richard Shelby (R-AL) and Howard Goodloe Sutton, Jr., Boeing’s Senior Director of Political Mobilization, played in Washington’s political “Swamp” to shift responsibility from the FAA to manufacturers like Boeing for the certification of major flight safety systems. Richard Shelby has chaired and/or served on the Senate Appropriations Committee for more than a decade. Sen. Shelby’s right-hand man on the Senate Appropriations Committee was Howard Goodloe Sutton, Jr. He served as a professional staff member for the Appropriations Committee from 2006 to 2013. Sutton previously served as a legislative assistant to Sen. Shelby and as the state director for Shelby’s Alabama offices. He is an expert in the federal budget and appropriations process. In 2013, Sutton became the Director for Legislative Affairs at Boeing’s Government Operations Office in Washington. In 2013, another Richard Shelby protégé, Art Cameron, became Chief of Staff for Boeing’s Government Operations Office in Washington. Prior to joining Boeing, Cameron worked with Sen. Shelby as the staff director for the Senate Appropriations Committee. In 2018, Cameron became the Boeing’s vice president of federal legislative affairs in the Government Operations Office. Sen. Shelby, Howard Goodloe Sutton, Jr., Art Cameron, Boeing, and other interested parties were extremely effective in advancing Boeing’s corporate interests at the FAA, the agency that certified the 737 MAX aircraft on March 8, 2017. Their collective influence peddling paved the way for the FAA to transfer some of its required quality control and flight safety assessments to manufacturers like Boeing. This circumstance created a self-serving exercise for Boeing and a failure of oversight for the FAA. As a result, 346 passengers and crew members died in two recent 737 MAX airplane crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia that were less than five months apart. Lawyering Up We have confirmed from reliable confidential sources that Boeing has retained high-powered criminal lawyers in Washington, D.C. and Chicago to represent the company and several of its senior management executives during the federal grand jury investigation. We have also learned that Boeing’s legal strategy is to shift all of the blame for its corporate actions in truncating and expediting the required safety analysis of the faulty MCAS flight control system to the FAA managers in charge of the certification process. In Boeing’s view, these FAA managers are underpaid government employees who do not have the financial ability to hire highly qualified criminal lawyers to assist them in the responding effectively to the grand jury investigation. As such, Boeing believes these FAA managers are prime candidates to serve as “scapegoats” in this case. Investigators are also looking at Sen. Richard Shelby, Howard Goodloe Sutton, Jr., and others as “persons of interest” in the 737 MAX airplane crashes. Shelby and Sutton were in a position to influence the FAA’s decision to permit Boeing to play such a large role in deciding whether its airplanes are safe. Both men had the political clout, the motivation to help Boeing, the intimate knowledge of the FAA’s budgetary constraints, the ability to favorably impact the FAA willingness to outsource certain certification responsibilities to manufacturers, and the “insider” connections within the federal bureaucracy to game the system for Boeing’s benefit. Finally, we have confirmed that Sen. Shelby has lawyered up, as well. In his view, everybody at the FAA and Boeing is dispensable. The only person who is sacred in Shelby’s longtime Washington "Swamp" is himself. PHOTO: Search and recovery workers remove debris from the crash site of a new Ethiopian Airlines 737MAX 8 passenger airplane on October 10, 2019.

A Special Investigative Report By Donald V. Watkins ©Copyrighted and Published on March 19, 2019 The U.S. Department of Transportation (“DOT”) and Department of Justice (“DOT”) are investigating whether protocol lapses occurred in the Federal Aviation Administration’s ("FAA") approval of the Boeing 737 MAX airplanes involved in two recent fatal crashes, according to a report published Sunday in the Wall Street Journal. The DOT probe was launched after a new Boeing 737 MAX 8 operated by Indonesia’s Lion Air crashed into the Java Sea last October. None of the 189 people on board survived. On March 10, 2019, a second Boeing 737 MAX 8 plane crashed shortly after take-off, killing all 157 people on board the Ethiopian Airlines plane.  Mr. Dagmawit Moges, Ethiopia’s Minister of Transportation, announced on Sunday that preliminary data retrieved from the plane’s flight data recorder showed “a clear similarity” with the Lion Air incident. The Journal updated its Sunday article to report that a federal grand jury in Washington issued a broad subpoena one day after the Ethiopian Airlines crash to an individual involved in the development of the Boeing 737 MAX series of aircraft. The subpoena, which was issued by the DOJ, reportedly seeks relevant documents, such as emails and other messages. It is not clear whether the DOJ’s investigation is related to the DOT’s probe, according to the Journal report. After two fatal crashes in less than five months involving the same plane model, authorities around the world -- including the U.S., Europe, China, and Indonesia -- grounded all Boeing 737 MAX airplanes . A New, But Flawed Flight Control System Passed FAA Muster As Boeing hustled in 2015 to catch up to the Airbus A320neo and certify its new 737 MAX series of aircraft, FAA managers pushed the agency’s safety engineers to delegate safety assessments to Boeing itself, and to speedily approve the resulting analysis. However, the original safety analysis that Boeing delivered to the FAA for a new flight control system on the 737 MAX aircraft -- a report used to certify the plane as safe to fly -- had several crucial flaws. That flight control system, called MCAS (Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System), is now under scrutiny after two crashes of the jet in less than five months resulted in a March 13, 2019 FAA order to ground the plane. A March 18, 2019 article in The Seattle Times written by aerospace reporter Dominic Gates and titled, “Flawed analysis, failed oversight: How Boeing, FAA certified the suspect 737 MAX flight control system,” provides an excellent and detailed account of what went wrong during the FAA’s expedited certification process for the 737 MAX airplane. The only question not answered in Dominic Gates’ insightful article is this: Who had enough political juice, knowledge of the federal budgetary process, and “insider” connections in Washington to push the FAA into truncating and compromising its flight safety testing standards and certification protocols for the new 737 MAX? The Richard Shelby/Howard Goodloe Sutton, Jr. Connection Thanks to U.S. Senator Richard Shelby (R-AL), Alabama is one of the top recipients of defense spending. Shelby has chaired and/or served on the Senate Appropriations Committee for more than a decade. From his Senate Appropriations Committee chairmanship/member position, Sen. Shelby possessed the political juice to make all things possible within the federal bureaucracy for a defense contractor like Boeing, which ranked Number 5 in 2018 on the top 100 defense contractors by raking in $20.5 billion in defense dollars. In fiscal year 2015, alone, the Department of Defense ranked the State of Alabama 9th overall for receiving $12.2 billion, which made up 5.9 percent of the state’s gross domestic product. This level of spending, along with a high concentration of military generals and senior management level civilians, earned Alabama the moniker of being the “Pentagon of the South.” Sen. Shelby’s right-hand man on the Senate Appropriations Committee was Howard Goodloe Sutton, Jr. He served as a professional staff member for the Appropriations Committee from 2006 to 2013. Sutton previously served as a legislative assistant to Sen. Shelby and as the state director for Shelby’s Alabama offices. He is an expert in the federal budget and appropriations process. In 2013, Sutton became the Director for Legislative Affairs at Boeing’s Government Operations Office in Washington. In this capacity, Sutton represented and promoted Boeing’s civil and commercial interests within the Senate, House of Representatives and all federal agencies. By 2018, Sutton was serving as the Senior Director of Political Mobilization at Boeing’s headquarters in Chicago. In 2013, another Richard Shelby protégé, Art Cameron, became Chief of Staff for Boeing’s Government Operations Office in Washington. Prior to joining Boeing, Cameron worked with Sen. Shelby as the staff director for the Senate Appropriations Committee. In 2018, Cameron became the Boeing’s vice president of federal legislative affairs in the Government Operations Office. Boeing's Government Operations office serves the company by: (a) protecting and advancing the company’s interests, competitiveness, and reputation, (b) winning support for Boeing programs, and (c) shaping public policy issues that impact the company.  The Government Operations office strives to ensure the regulatory and political climate in the U.S. is conducive to global aerospace and defense leadership and supports long-term American manufacturing competitiveness and innovation. In addition to these many functions, the office serves as a point of contact between federal, state and local governments, plus associated third parties, and the company’s business units. One place where Sen. Shelby, Howard Goodloe Sutton, Jr., Art Cameron, Boeing, and other interested parties advanced Boeing’s corporate interests was at the FAA, the agency that certified the 737 MAX aircraft on March 8, 2017. While the FAA has allowed technical experts at aircraft manufacturers act as its representatives to perform certain safety tests and approve some low-risk aviation parts for several decades, the FAA greatly expanded the scope of this outsourced safety testing and assessment responsibility in 2009 with approval from Congress under the Organization Designation Authorization (“ODA”). The ODA authorized Boeing and other manufacturers to choose the employees who approve design work on the agency’s behalf. As a result, the FAA “delegated increasing authority to Boeing to take on more of the work of certifying the safety of its own airplanes,” reported Dominic Gates in The Seattle Times article. In 2015, the DOT Inspector General issued a report that found the FAA lacked “an effective staffing model” and “risk-based oversight process” over the ODA program. In Washington’s political swamp, the Inspector General’s report was largely ignored. As the Lion Air and Ethiopian Airline crashed have proven, the ODA process eventually evolved into a recipe for air disasters and death. Did Shelby and Sutton Use their Political Clout, Knowledge of the Congressional Budgetary Process, and “Insider” Connections to Game the FAA Certification System in Boeing's Favor? Boeing’s 737 MAX series was launched on August 30, 2011. It performed its first flight on January 29, 2016. The aircraft gained FAA certification on March 8, 2017. The first delivery was a MAX 8 on May 6, 2017, to Malaysia’s Malindo Air, which placed the aircraft into service on May 22, 2017. As of January 2019, the Boeing 737 MAX had received 5,011 firm orders and delivered 350 aircraft. Following the fatal crashes of 737 MAX 8 aircraft in October 2018 and March 2019, regulatory authorities around the world grounded all 737 MAX aircraft for an indefinite time period. The safety-review process for the Boeing 737 MAX series is ongoing. The DOT’s Inspector General and DOJ prosecutors are investigation the certification process for the 737 MAX. The FAA obviously cut corners in the certification process and allowed Boeing to analyze and assess the safety of a key flight control system on its 737 MAX aircraft. This circumstance created a self-serving exercise for Boeing and a failure of oversight for the FAA. As a result, 346 passengers and crew members died in two 737 MAX plane crashes that were less than five months apart. Obviously, investigators should consider Senator Richard Shelby and Boeing’s Director of Political Mobilization, Howard Goodloe Sutton, Jr., as “persons of interest” in this tragic series of fatal 737 MAX aircraft crashes. Both men were in a position to influence the FAA’s decision to allow a manufacturer of something as complex and potentially dangerous as a passenger jet to play such a large role in deciding whether its product is safe. Both men had the political clout, the motivation to help Boeing, the intimate knowledge of the FAA’s budgetary constraints, the support for ODA outsourcing initiatives, and “insider” connections within the federal bureaucracy to game the system in Boeing’s favor. DOT and DOJ investigators need to take a long, hard look at the behind-the-scenes roles these two “persons of interest” played in the FAA’s decision to truncate and expedite the certification process for Boeing’s faulty 737 MAX series of aircraft. This is one time when old school politics in Washington’s foul political swamp might have caused the deaths of 346 innocent passengers and crew members, as well as irreparable harm to Boeing’s corporate reputation. [Editor’s Note: Howard Goodloe Sutton, Jr., is the son of Howard Goodloe Sutton, Sr., the disgraced publisher of the Linden, Alabama Democrat-Reporter weekly newspaper who wrote a February 2019 editorial calling for the return of the Ku Klux Klan.] PHOTO: U.S. Senator Richard Shelby (R-AL), a powerful player in Washington's foul political swamp. Whether the swamp is drained or filled with dirty water, Sen. Shelby always finds a way to help his corporate friends game the system. PHOTO: Howard Goodloe Sutton, Jr., an Alabama native and Boeing's Director of Political Mobilization. Sutton's father's newspaper, the Linden, Alabama Democrat-Reporter, announced his new job at Boeing on April 25, 2013. This media announcement is reprinted below.

By Donald V. Watkins ©Copyrighted and Published on March 18, 2019 On July 27, 2012, Weld for Birmingham Publisher Mark Kelly issued a telling press statement on the newspaper’s website about reporter Kyle Whitmire’s decision to leave Weld to accept a job at the Alabama Media Group, which owns The Birmingham News and the website AL.com.  Kelly stated: “Over the past several weeks, substantial differences arose between our management team and Kyle. Those differences were related to our plans for the immediate and future direction and priorities of Weld for Birmingham and its online and print publications. They also involved issues related to Kyle’s current and past job performance and fulfillment of his duties as a shareholder in our company. It seems clear that all of that factored into his decision to accept the position he has been offered with our competitor. Regarding the issues that contributed to Kyle’s decision, I will not provide specifics, as they involve proprietary information about our company’s operations. We have been aware for a few weeks that Kyle was in discussions with Alabama Media Group, though he did not see fit to share that information with us until yesterday, when he told us that he had received and intended to accept a job offer. On a personal note, I do find it ironic that their recruitment of Kyle comes at a time when the Birmingham News has fired a substantial number of talented and seasoned reporters. Clearly, it is a competitive move in response to the inroads Weld has made in the past 11 months toward our goal of becoming the primary source of news and information for the Birmingham area. That certainly is their prerogative, as it is Kyle’s to accept what I assume is a substantially higher salary than we as a startup company can afford. Of course, it’s ironic anyway, given some of the reporting and editorializing Kyle has done about the company for which he apparently now will be working. These things happen in business….”. In his own words, Kelly publicly told the Birmingham community that Weld had issues with Kyle Whitmire’s job performance and his unwillingness or inability to fulfill his duties as a shareholder in Weld. I interpreted Kelly’s statement as a subtle pronouncement that Weld found Whitmire sorely lacking in productivity as a journalist and failing as a financially capable and reliable business partner. Additionally, Whitmire deserted his business partners at Weld without letting them know he was bailing out on them until the last minute. The way in which Whitmire deserted Weld speaks volumes about his loyalty and commitment to the people with whom he shared a fiduciary relationship in business. Furthermore, Whitmire joined a media competitor he privately and publicly disparaged while working at Weld. In essence, Whitmire abandoned business partners who trusted him to get in bed with Weld’s media “enemy" at the time. This “enemy” -- The Birmingham News -- has a sordid past. In 2004, the Alabama Supreme Court described how The Birmingham News defrauded six of its longtime former newspaper distributors in the case of The Birmingham News v. Sherry Horn. The News never publicly acknowledged defrauding these victims and has never apologized for the serial acts of fraud it perpetrated against them. Whitmire found a journalistic home that fits him well. It has solid credentials in defrauding business partners. It regularly departs from the Society of Professional Journalists’ Code of Ethics when writing and publishing articles. It has a documented history of fabricating fake racist quotations and attributing them to adversaries. And, it has a long and distinguished record as a ready, willing, and able COINTELPRO participant. Can Kyle Whitmire be trusted to report news on a fair and objective basis? Based upon how Whitmire betrayed and deserted Mark Kelly and Weld for Birmingham, and based upon Whitmire's biased reporting and undisclosed conflicts of interest in my case, I do not think so. PHOTO: AL.com columnist Kyle Whitmire (left) and Weld for Birmingham Publisher Mark Kelly (right).

By Donald V. Watkins ©Copyrighted and Published on March 17, 2019 Yesterday, AL. com columnist Kyle Whitmire ran a long and rambling article titled, “An Alabama fraud story: The many faces of Donald Watkins.” Whitmire is a longtime nemesis of mine who is drenched in conflicts of interest. He has a gift for crafting versions of the “truth” that further his personal agendas. Among the many topics covered in Whitmire’s article was my effort to buy a Major League Baseball team in the early 2000s. He failed to mention that UBS-Paine Webber issued me a financing letter on April 12, 2002 in the amount of $150 million for this transaction. Instead, Whitmire focused on negative press comments issued by my political adversaries at the time. None of these “haters” was privy to MLB's team acquisition process in my case. Whitmire also omitted from his article any mention of my pursuit of the St. Louis Rams between 2008 and 2010, even though this topic was specifically discussed during my criminal trial. Whitmire ignored these two topics because they got in the way of his skewed narrative and personal beliefs about me. After all, his media goal is to portray me as a "fraudster." Chasing the St. Louis Rams On May 3, 2008, I submitted a package to the National Football League that contained a completed “Owner Background Form” and “Authorization and Consent to Release Records.” The submission of this package was the beginning of the process to compete for a team ownership opportunity in the NFL. On June 25, 2009, the NFL and St. Louis Rams invited me to make a written presentation to Goldman Sachs in New York regarding the purchase of the Rosenbloom family’s 60% interest in the Rams. Seymour Pierce, Ltd., a 135-year-old London-based investment bank specializing in the sale and purchase of professional sports teams, arranged my financing for the Rams purchase transaction. Goldman Sachs reviewed my constellation of assets and personal background information. After its independent review and assessment of this information, Goldman Sachs qualified me as a bidder for the Rams. In doing so, Goldman Sachs was not conducting an exercise in political correctness or a social experiment in affirmative action. This was an undertaking in serious Wall Street business. On July 28, 2009, Goldman Sachs invited me to submit a “written, non-binding offer” for up to a 100% interest in The St. Louis Rams Partnership. While the Rosenbloom family was selling its 60% ownership interest in the team, it unclear whether Rams limited partner Stan Kroenke was selling his 40% interest, as well. On August 17, 2009, I submitted my written, non-binding offer to Goldman Sachs for the purchase of up to 100% of the Rams. Included in the offer was my detailed plan to liquidate certain Masada Resource Group, LLC, assets that were owned and/or controlled by me. I secured a $400 million loan commitment letter from Seymour Pierce for 60% of the Rams using my Masada assets as collateral. Citibank, N.A., agreed to provide funding for the loan. After I submitted my August 17th bid, Goldman Sachs provided my acquisition team with a Confidential Information Memo and other due diligence materials on the Rams. On October 12, 2009, Goldman Sachs notified me that I had advanced to the next round in the bid process. I was invited to make a “written, binding offer” for up to a 100% interest in The St. Louis Rams Partnership. I was also provided a definitive purchase agreement as part of this bid invitation package. Goldman Sachs reminded me in writing that Stan Kroenke held a “right of first refusal” in connection with any sale of the Rosenbloom family’s interest in the Rams. On October 22, 2009, my acquisition team submitted proposed modifications to the purchase agreement to make it mutually acceptable. We also submitted a binding financing commitment letter from Seymour Pierce for the purchase transaction. On October 29, 2009, I submitted the “written, binding offer” Goldman Sachs requested. Afterwards, there was nothing further for me to do but wait on the outcome of two events: (a) whether I submitted the best overall bid, and (b) whether Stan Kroenke was going to “tag-along” with the Rosenbloom family and sell his 40% interest or exercise his “right of first refusal” to acquire the Rosenbloom’s interest in the Rams. On the last day of the waiting period, Stan Kroenke notified the Rams organization and NFL that he was exercising his “right of first refusal” to become the sole owner of the St. Louis Rams. On August 25, 2010, NFL team owners gathered in Atlanta and approved Kroenke's bid to become the 100% owner of the Rams. The Ben Barnes Group Believed in Masada's Potential Value Kyle Whitmire also omitted all references to the undisputed trial testimony that former Texas Lt. Governor Ben Barnes and his team of experts and lawyers conducted extensive due diligence in 2011 on the same constellation of Masada assets. Barnes structured a fee schedule for his firm’s engagement in facilitating an acquisition/investment deal between Waste Management, Inc. (“WMI”) and Masada that would have paid his company a 10% commission for any transaction valued at $1 billion, 15% for the next $1 billion, and 20% commission for any transaction valued in excess of $2 billion. Barnes even formed a special purpose company with Masada for the sole purpose of pursuing the Masada-WMI transaction in 2011 and 2012. Former Georgia Attorney General Thurbert Baker, who executed a separate engagement agreement with Masada, worked with Barnes on the WMI transaction. None of this information mattered to Whitmire. Suppressing Material Facts Instead of mentioning Goldman Sachs’ decision to qualify me as a bidder for the St. Louis Rams based upon my allocation of the Masada assets, or discussing the Ben Barnes Group’s internal assessment of the same assets, Whitmire ignored this pertinent trial evidence and elected to write an article that feeds the negative stereotypes so many Alabamians hold toward people like me, even when we strive to compete on the highest stage of mainstream business. Whitmire’s complete omission of this trial testimony and supporting exhibits represents a classic example of how AL.com suppresses the truth by simply ignoring it. AL.com newspapers have a long and documented history of suppressing the truth. They practiced this art form religiously in Alabama during the COINTELPRO era of the 1950s, 60s, and 70s. In 2004, the Alabama Supreme Court described how one AL.com newspaper -- the Birmingham News-- defrauded six of its longtime former newspaper distributors in the case of The Birmingham News v. Sherry Horn. The News essentially lied to these plaintiffs by suppressing material facts regarding its unilateral decision to wrongfully terminate their decades-old distributor agreements. The News never publicly acknowledged defrauding these victims and never apologized for the serial acts of fraud it perpetrated against them. Nearly fifteen years later, AL.com is continuing its suppression of the truth concerning material facts of significant public interest. This time, Kyle Whitmire is AL.com's minister of propaganda and architect of disinformation. PHOTO: "Truth is Truth, even if no one believes it; a Lie is a Lie, even of everyone believes it."

By Donald V. Watkins ©Copyrighted and Published on December 9, 2018 I have always wanted to own a professional sports team. In 2008, I thought the time was right to chase the opportunity to own an NFL team. On May 3, 2008, I submitted a package to the National Football League that contained a completed “Owner Background Form” and “Authorization and Consent to Release Records.” The submission of this package was the beginning of the process to compete for a team ownership opportunity in the NFL. On June 25, 2009, the NFL and St. Louis Rams invited me to make a written presentation to Goldman Sachs in New York regarding the purchase of the Rosenbloom family’s 60% interest in the Rams. Seymour Pierce, Ltd., a 135-year-old, independent London investment bank specializing in the sale and purchase of professional sports teams, arranged my financing for the Rams transaction. After this presentation, Goldman Sachs qualified me as a bidder for the Rams. On July 28, 2009, Goldman Sachs invited me to submit a “written, non-binding offer” for up to a 100% interest in The St. Louis Rams Partnership. While the Rosenbloom family was selling its 60% interests, it remained unknown as to whether Rams limited partner Stan Kroenke was selling his 40% interest, as well. On August 17, 2009, I submitted my written, non-binding offer to Goldman Sachs for the purchase of up to 100% of the Rams. Included in the offer was my detailed plan to liquidate certain Masada Resource Group assets that were owned and/or controlled by me. I secured a $400 million loan commitment letter from Seymour Pierce for 60% of the Rams using my Masada assets as collateral. Citibank, N.A. agreed to provide funding for the loan. If needed, funding to purchase Kroenke’s 40% interest in the Rams was arranged through a Spanish-owned investment bank via the sale of limited partnerships in the Rams. After I submitted my bid, Goldman Sachs provided my acquisition team with a Confidential Information Memo and other due diligence materials on the Rams. On October 12, 2009, Goldman Sachs notified me that I had advanced to the next round in the bid process. I was invited to make a “written, binding offer” for up to a 100% interest in The St. Louis Rams Partnership. I was also provided a definitive purchase agreement as part of this bid invitation package. Goldman Sachs reminded me in writing that Stan Kroenke held a “right of first refusal” in connection with any sale of the Rosenbloom family’s interest in the Rams. On October 22, 2009, my acquisition team submitted proposed modifications to the purchase agreement to make it mutually acceptable. We also submitted a binding financing commitment letter from Seymour Pierce for the purchase transaction. On October 29, 2009, I submitted the “written, binding offer” Goldman Sachs requested. Afterwards, there was nothing further for me to do but wait to see two things: (a) whether I submitted the best overall bid, and (b) whether Stan Kroenke was going to “tag-along” with the Rosenbloom family and sell his 40% interest, or exercise his “right of first refusal” to acquire the Rosenbloom’s interest in the Rams. The wait was excruciating. Weeks turned into months and dragged on. I communicated constantly with Seymour Pierce and JP Morgan, which had been Masada’s investment bank of record since September 4, 2001. On the last day of the waiting period, Stan Kroenke notified the Rams organization and NFL that he was exercising his “right of first refusal” to become the sole owner of the St. Louis Rams. I was heartbroken, but not defeated. I knew the NFL had a cross-ownership rule that prohibited a majority owner from also owning another professional sports franchise in America. Kroenke owned the Denver Nuggets at the time he exercised his “right of first refusal.” I thought there was a reasonable chance the NFL would strictly enforce the rule and reject Kroenke’s deal. I was wrong. On August 25, 2010, NFL team owners gathered in Atlanta to consider the sale of the Rams to Kroenke. At the end of the meeting, Kroenke was approved as the 100% owner of the Rams. This event did not deter me. One year later, I cofounded Nabirm Global, LLC, a Birmingham, Alabama and Windhoek, Namibia-based oil and gas exploration company. My company engaged in offshore oil exploration in Namibia. As fate would have it, we learned in September 2018 that Nabirm’s oil block is located in the epicenter of a massive, shallow-water, oil reservoir in the Walvis Basin. With this great news, I was ready to resume my competition for an NFL team ownership opportunity. There are only 32 NFL teams in the world and I want to own one of them as part of the Watkins family legacy in America. No one has a constitutional right to own an NFL team. However, preparation, focus, perseverance, hard work, luck, and the ability to turn back the forces that oppose our progress in America will go a long way toward reaching this goal. PHOTO: St. Louis Rams players running a game winning play.

Posted on February 17, 2019 Opening statements will kick off the start of the USA v. Donald V. Watkins, Sr. and Donald V. Watkins, Jr. criminal case on Tuesday, February 19, 2019, at 9 a.m. CST in the eighth floor courtroom of Chief United States District Court Judge Karon O. Bowdre at the Hugo L. Black United States Courthouse, 1729 5th Avenue North, Birmingham, Alabama 35203. The trial is a public proceeding. Jury selection commenced on last Wednesday and the jury was seated on Thursday. Testimony in the case will begin immediately after opening statements. The trial is expected to last 2-4 weeks. PHOTO: Donald V. Watkins, Jr.(left) and Donald V. Watkins, Sr. (right).