Speculation a month ago that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s planned relocation would result in widespread layoffs may have been valid.
The bureau gave employees until July 14 to accept a geographic reassignment. Declining the move or failing to respond in time “will result in your separation from the CFPB,” a note to staff reads.
SOURCE/CREDIT: Dan Ennis - Banking Dive
Transit agencies in Atlanta, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Seattle are reporting new highs in ridership on certain game days.
SOURCE: Dan Zukowski - Smart Cities Dive
H.E. Holmes is the only MARTA station named after a civil rights trailblazer.
SOURCE/CREDIT: Elijah Megginson - The Atlanta Journal Constitution
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Industry leaders, executives, artists, and tech innovators gathered to focus on sync licensing and celebrate this central theme at the Renaissance Waverly Hotel.
A new Smithsonian-affiliated museum opening in Boston is all about the money — the Museum of American Finance shows how it’s evolved over the centuries, Paul Revere’s own bank book and more
https://youtu.be/JOduFDUTgx0?si=6xHS1KLBtEcV0233
SOURCE: NBC 10 Boston
Mojtaba Khamenei makes no public appearance at funeral prayers for his father in Tehran.
Prediction market platform Kalshi did more than $30 billion in trading volume last month, while Polymarket volume hit a record high of $10.8 billion.
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A small group of people who are researching the "Jake Horton" plane crash case -- reviewed this story about the covert surveillance of Kimberly Tanaka, ex-girlfriend of former Southern Company CEO Tom Fanning.
(Gulf Power VP Jake Horton, died in a plane crash in April 1989, aboard a Southern Company corporate plane. At that time, Gulf Power was a subsidiary of Southern Company).
This group of people are reviewing the "methods" that were used to spy on Kim Tanaka - which included hiring an "operative" and hiring people who allegedly had 'expertise' in "executive exfiltration", "methods of entry" and "audio intercept."
They think it's possible that some of these methods may have been used to spy on Gulf Power VP Jake Horton, before he boarded a Southern Company plane from Pensacola, FL, headed to Atlanta. The plane crashed minutes after takeoff.
They think it's possible that "audio intercept" may have been used to spy on Jake Horton, to find out how much he knew about the corruption going on at Gulf Power, and to overhear Horton's reaction to potentially being fired - and if he figured out that he was potentially going to be made a "scapegoat", and to overhear any possible plans Horton was making to clear his name -- and most importantly, 'who' Horton talked to about all this.
If an "audio intercept" method was used to surveil Jake Horton, the "intel" would likely reveal that Horton had booked the company plane, what documents he was taking with him -- and the most important thing - who was going to meet with in Atlanta and why.
Horton did allegedly talk to his friend and Gulf Power attorney Fred Levin just before he boarded the company plane to Atlanta. (Horton had also reportedly received death threats - and allegedly asked Levin to look after his wife Frances, if anything happened to him).
Levin later found four dead canaries with broken necks on his porch, not long before he was scheduled to give grand jury testimony at Southern Company's corruption trial in Atlanta - he viewed the dead canaries as a warning "not to sing." On the day Levin testified, he was escorted into the courtroom with armed federal agents for safety - because he had allegedly been receiving phone threats right up until the day he testified. (A Gulf Power vendor was also scheduled to testify at Southern Company's corruption trial - on the day he was scheduled to testify, witnesses say he was so nervous and afraid, that he went 'on the run' and literally vanished into thin air).
This group also thinks it's possible that "method of entry" expertise was used to infiltrate Horton's plane, to install an explosive device that would be hard for the NTSB to identify - as of today, no federal agency, including the NTSB, has been able to determine the cause of Horton's plane crash.
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The article below details - the covert surveillance of Kim Tanaka, an alleged "hush money" payoff scheme, an attempt to alert Fulton County DA Fani Willis of the alleged corruption going on at Southern Company - and details of 'people' involved in the surveillance operation - which included a paid 'operative' and a Bloomberg reporter.
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August 17, 2023
Kim Tanaka: An Innocent Victim in "Southern Company’s Spying Program" and Web of Deceit
BY: Donald V. Watkins
Southern Company CEO Thomas A. Fanning with Kimberly Tanaka in 2017 - CREDIT: Donald V. Watkins
On September 22, 2022, Kimberly Tanaka finally had enough of the Southern Company’s corporate surveillance program that had turned her life upside-down since 2017. Tanaka called police to a location in Metro-Atlanta to report a “stalking incident.”
While visiting AFPI Global Investigations in Atlanta, Tanaka and her private investigators found a GPS tracking device with a magnet under her car. She was livid.
Officer R.C. Hulon (ID #754) responded to the call. After interviewing Kim Tanaka, Hulon generated a police report (Case No. 2209-000894) for the Roswell, Georgia police department.
Kim Tanaka told Officer Hulon that she worked at a fitness gym and that some of her clients were "VIPs." She further advised Hulon that “she believes they are trying to get to one of those VIPs through her.”
Tanaka was advised that the matter would be turned over to the Criminal Investigation Division. Investigator C. White (ID #121) was assigned to the case. Office L. Davidson (ID #779) was assisting the investigation. The GPS device was taken into evidence.
Kim Tanaka was Caught Up in a Planned Coup D’etat at the Southern Company
In April of 2017, Kim Tanaka was the girlfriend of Southern Company CEO Thomas A. Fanning.
There was a plot to overthrow Fanning and install Alabama Power Company CEO Mark Crosswhite as the new CEO of the Southern Company
The coup d’etat plotters, their espionage vendor (Matrix, LLC), and private investigator (Derek Uman, founder of Clear Capture Investigations of Gainesville, Florida) got plenty of “intel” on Kim Tanaka. They also spied on Sarah Louden Novascone, who became [Tom]Fanning’s wife in 2018.
The coup plotters believed that Fanning engaged in a private lifestyle in Atlanta that would make him vulnerable to a forced resignation if they could document graphic evidence of this lifestyle and expose it to the company's board of directors and public.
In April of 2017, Kim Tanaka was an innocent party who held no position in any Southern Company business entity. Without her knowledge or consent, Tanaka was targeted for a blitzkrieg of clandestine surveillance activities, all of which were financially sponsored by the Southern Company.
The Espionage Program that Targeted Kim Tanaka was Quite Extensive
Southern Company’s coup d’etat executives and their espionage crew went to work on Kim Tanaka. These operatives publicly claimed to have expertise in “audio intercept,” “methods of entry,” and “executive exfiltration.”
The espionage crew hired Kristen Hentschel, a Florida-based free-lance field producer for ABC News and “several PR firms in different states - she was paid to develop a close personal friendship with Kim Tanaka.
Tom Fanning, who cut off all telephone contact with Tanaka in late 2017, desperately tried to reach her after she contacted Fanning via email about a call she received from a Bloomberg News reporter (Josh Saul) who was in the mix with the spy operatives who planted Kristen Hentschel within Tanaka's friendship circle.
Remarkably, Fanning confessed to Tanaka, via a reply email, that he knew about the surveillance, but he did not say when or how he learned about it. Tanaka refused to accept Fanning's repeated phones calls to discuss the matter, but she saved his voice messages in which he pleaded with Tanaka to call him back.
After learning that she was the victim of a Southern Company surveillance program, Ms. Tanaka threatened to sue the Southern Company for violating her right to privacy. Tom Fanning and Jim Kerr promptly resolved Tanaka’s legal claims. However, they did so in a clandestine manner and in amounts that evaded the company’s reporting requirements on its 10-Q and 10-K regulatory filings.
Instead, the payments to Kim Tanaka are/were laundered through a Southern Company vendor. These payments are the subject of an upcoming article.
In addition to Kim Tanaka, Kristen Hentschel received “hush money’ payments, as well. Again, the money was laundered through a Southern Company vendor to avoid detection.
I plan to amend the criminal complaint I filed on August 13, 2023, with Fulton County, Georgia District Attorney Fani T. Willis to add a claim of “hush money” payments using Southern Company funds without proper authorization and disclosure.
SOURCE/ARTICLE CREDIT: Donald V. Watkins
Six teens from Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro Atlanta will walk onto the field at Mercedes-Benz Stadium as Flag Bearers for the FIFA World Cup Round of 16 at Atlanta Stadium on July 7.
SOURCE: Rough Draft AI Assist
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Southern Company and its subsidiaries (i.e., Georgia Power, Alabama Power, etc.) have been 'long-time' clients of Matrix, a consulting firm founded by Joe Perkins - which some say provides 'questionable' services.
ex-Matrix CEO, Jeff Pitts, allegedly hired Kristen Hentshel, as an "operative" to develop a friendship with an Atlanta fitness trainer, Kimberly Tanaka. The goal was to get "intel" about Tanaka's boyfriend, Southern Company CEO, Tom Fanning.
The article below highlights Kristen Hentschel's background, her work assignments for Matrix -- and also details the personal relationships of ex-Matrix CEO Jeff Pitts - which includes his romantic relationship with a Vice President at NextEra Energy - a 'major rival' of his former client, the Southern Company.
When Jeff Pitts left Matrix and formed his own 'rival' consulting firm, one of his first clients was NextEra subsidiary, Florida, Power & Light. An interesting note, Pitts former wife worked for "Alabama Power", a subsidiary of Southern Company.
By highlighting Kristen Hentschel's work assignments with Matrix, the article below gives an insightful view of how corporate operatives work - and how they can be hard to recognize.
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{NOTE -- For "current investigators" investigating the "1989* deaths of Gulf Power's Jake Horton and Robert McRae" -- Southern Company and *Gulf Power, were Matrix clients during that time too - and "operatives" were likely used for client assignments, during that time as well -- this may be useful information that the "original investigators" likely didn't have.)
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December 21, 2022
She was an ABC News producer. She also was a corporate operative
BY: Miranda Green, Mario Ariza & David Folkenflik
(Excerpts from the article) ...
{Kristen}Hentschel began her journalism career with short stints at local TV newsrooms in Chico, Calif., Waco, Texas, and Knoxville, Tennessee.
Hentschel's résumé eventually reached {Jeff}Pitts at Matrix. By the beginning of 2016, he had hired her.
Hentschel soon secured a second gig. In February 2016, she started as a freelance news producer for ABC News.
Hentschel primarily did work for Good Morning America. Among her assignments: helping with segments on NFL star Tom Brady and the disappearance and death of Gabby Petito, the young Florida woman who documented her cross-country trip on social media.
A journalist's role in political dirty tricks
Interviews for this story and Matrix ledgers show Hentschel traded on her work for ABC News at least three times 'to trip up' Florida politicians whose stances on environmental regulations cut against the interests of major Matrix clients.
According to two people at ABC News with knowledge, Hentschel was not, in fact, reporting for ABC on any of those subjects. "If she was working on these stories, she was not authorized to cover them for ABC News," one of them said. They requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about sensitive network matters.
ABC News declined to comment for this story before its publication, although it confirmed that she still did work for the network.
After this story was published on Wednesday, ABC cut ties with Hentschel.
In another instance, the former girlfriend of Southern Company's CEO, Tom Fanning, says Hentschel cozied up to her over the past year. Southern Company is a rival to Florida Power & Light. This August, Alabama news site AL. com reported that Matrix had previously paid a private investigator to spy on Fanning in the summer of 2017.
Hentschel did not return multiple detailed requests for comment.
Matrix's former CEO, Jeff Pitts, who hired Hentschel for the firm, declined comment.
Matrix's founder, Joe Perkins, disavows any knowledge of Hentschel's work for Matrix and says Pitts was acting as a "rogue" employee in Florida.
Pitts left Matrix to found a rival firm in late 2020, alleging in court papers that he quit Matrix over Perkins' "unethical business practices," including "ordering and directing the clandestine surveillance including that of top executives of his largest client, the Southern Company." Perkins blames Pitts for the surveillance.
After Pitts left Matrix, reporters from Floodlight and NPR obtained company records documenting Hentschel's work. This story also draws on other materials, including court records, and 14 interviews with people with direct knowledge of her activities.
In recent months, Matrix has also been accused of interfering in the workings of democracy in Alabama and Florida by seeking to influence ballot initiatives, running ghost candidates and offering a lucrative job to a public official if he resigned. As Floodlight and NPR have revealed, Matrix secretly maintained financial ties to a half-dozen political news sites and tried to ensure favorable coverage for clients.
A record of mixing business and pleasure
Pitts could be a charmer. He was known to cultivate a personal rapport with his corporate clients over sushi and steak dinners, favoring long meals with freely flowing red wine. In an email exchange with a vice president of the energy company NextEra, Pitts wrote, "Talk tomorrow but miss you." She wrote back that his note was a nice surprise. "You said [to] be more open," Pitts replied.
Pitts mixed business with romance, Matrix financial records show. Over the course of the last decade, Pitts paid his then-wife more than $10,000 for work for Matrix, according to copies of the firm's invoices reflecting payments to her personal company. She had previously been employed at 'Alabama Power', one of Matrix's oldest clients, according to press clippings and two associates.
Matrix also paid Pitts' ongoing romantic partner, Apryl Marie Fogel, a conservative radio-show host, nearly $150,000 over several years. Fogel runs the conservative news site Alabama Today, which published articles showcasing Matrix clients in a favorable light.
On a recent episode of her radio show, Fogel compared her relationship with Pitts to that of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and his wife, the pro-Trump activist Ginni Thomas.
Shortly after Hentschel started working for Pitts at Matrix, the two began an affair, associates say, though it is not clear how long it lasted. Hentschel bought a home close to Pitts' apartment in West Palm Beach, Florida.
"Definitely violated"
Hentschel's work stretched beyond Florida politicians and news conferences.
This past June, fitness instructor Kim Tanaka was sitting poolside at an upscale hotel in Atlanta when a reporter for Bloomberg News called with a startling question: Did Tanaka know that she had been spied on five years prior?
Tanaka's boyfriend during that period was Tom Fanning, the CEO of energy giant Southern Company — The couple broke up in late 2017.
The reporter, Josh Saul, laid out the material he'd obtained in a leaked Matrix dossier, which included private information about her, Tanaka recalls.
"It made me feel mad. Definitely violated. And anxious," Tanaka says.
Bloomberg never published a story. A private investigator confirmed to AL. com this year that he had surveilled Tanaka and Fanning five years ago for Matrix.
But there was another shocker in the dossier. It didn't just contain old information pertaining to Tanaka — it contained recent and sensitive information about Fanning's wife, whom he married 'after' breaking up with Tanaka. To Tanaka, it meant the spying had continued as recently as this year.
A friend was sitting alongside Tanaka in June as she took Saul's call: Kristen Hentschel.
In late 2021, Hentschel had hired Tanaka at an Atlanta gym to be her personal trainer, even though there's no record of Hentschel living in Georgia ..."
FULL ARTICLE: https://www.npr.org/2022/12/21/1142575872/abc-news-producer-corporate-operative-investigation
ARTICLE CREDIT: NPR's David Folkenflik reported this story with Mario Ariza and Miranda Green of Floodlight, a nonprofit newsroom that investigates the powerful interests stalling climate action.
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COMMENTS FROM THE STREET:
"A few scenarios I've wondered about since reading this story.
How would "Georgia Power" know if an "operative" had infiltrated their company, and gotten access to Plant Vogtle? For example, Kristen Hentchel truly did freelance work for ABC, right? What if she applied for a position in Georgia Power's media or PR department? Her references would check out, because she actually really did freelance for ABC. She gets the job and pitches an idea to do a story on Plant Vogtle -- including going out to the site, taking photos and interviewing "key" plant staff. She gets the info she needs and relays it to the client who hired her.
How would Georgia Power know if this has ever happened? I ask this, because some weird things have happened to Vogtle "Unit 3" specifically, over the past few years. I remember a few times it went offline, and Georgia Power was late reporting that, and no one knew why it went offline. I noticed that there hasn't been any story or update about Plant Vogtle in any of the local news outlets, over the past year. I've wondered why?
Another scenario I thought about ...
How would Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensberger know if an "operative" had infiltrated Fulton County's 2020 election? Either through "Happy Faces Personnel" or the ACLU? He wouldn't.
Happy Faces was the staffing firm that supplied the poll workers for Fulton County, and the ACLU reportedly had ACLU staff posted at key voting locations. How would Happy Faces or the ACLU know if they'd been infiltrated? They wouldn't.
How would Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis know if an "operative" had infiltrated her office, or the special purpose grand jury? Especially that 'flaky' grand jury foreperson, Emily Kohrs. She wouldn't.
Just some food for thought."
Charles, 41 - Atlanta (Midtown/Piedmont Park)
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"I'm learning more toward Brad Raffensberger being an operative, and Ruby Freeman's daughter, Shaye Moss being one too.
I don't think Ruby Freeman knew initially what her daughter was a part of -- and by the time she did, it was too late. You could literally see that on Ruby's facial expression, in a portion of a video where Shaye walks away with a 'guy' -- Ruby has a concerned look on her face, and an expression that she hopes her daughter knows what she is doing. And I don't believe it was a "ginger mint" that Ruby passed to Shaye -- I don't care what the news stations or fact checking sites say."
Elise, 39 - Atlanta (Grant Park)
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"Definitely agree that Ruby Freeman's daughter Shaye Moss, was an 'operative' or 'plant' that was sent with instructions on how to 'handle' those 2020 election ballots. I give Ruby Freeman some benefit of the doubt, because I saw and heard a couple of videos and audios of her seeking an attorney for advice. She said she was in a real mess or something like that, and needed help.
I also think that Garrison Douglas, Gov. Kemp's media person was some type of plant or operative during the 2020 election. There were photos of Ruby Freeman, Trevian Kutti, and 'a man sitting in a chair' in the background. Mainstream media reported that the man was 'Harrison Floyd', it wasn't, it was Gov. Kemp's media person, Garrison Douglas. If you enlarge the photo, you can see it's not Harrison Floyd. My guess is Garrison Douglas was sent out to find out what Trevian Kutti and Ruby Freeman were talking about, and report that info back to Kemp. In a podcast, Floyd talk said he was harassed and questioned about Ruby Freeman, but Garrison Douglas wasn't questioned and nothing happened to him. Of course not, look who he works for. I think Kemp got David Perdue to 'endorse' Rick Jackson - to get more Republican votes, but to also divert attention away from Perdue's grand jury testimony where he implied that Gov. Kemp is the one who stopped the investigation into the 2020 election fraud allegations.
And no one can convince me that the guy who hit Harrison Deal's car, Mario Clark, wasn't an operative or something. Dude was sent out to hit Deal's car at a precise moment, to cover the explosion. One or two newspapers near Pooler, GA, tried to get follow up details about Harrison Deal's autopsy, was told it hadn't been performed. Pretty sure an autopsy was never performed. And the last anyone saw of Mario Clark, he pleaded not guilty, and his charges were dropped from a felony to misdemeanor homicide. I remember even the news anchor lady reporting this looked shocked. She couldn't believe those charges had been dropped so low. Mario Clark is probably an ex-con that different "entities" hire from to time, to handle jobs for them. My two cents worth.
The whole thing with Mario Clark and Harrison Deal was kind of similar to what happened to this guy named Burt Newsome. This Burt guy was an attorney representing one of the people, who was charged with Alabama rep. Oliver Robinson on bribery charges. The guy Burt was representing, was suing the company he worked for, because he believed they set up him up as a fall guy and he didn't believe that he got a fair trial Supposedly, Newsome almost died in a head-on-collision. I guess someone was trying to send Burt a message, and didn't want him representing that guy or reviving that trial. I think it was nicknamed the North Birmingham Bribery case. Research it for yourself."
James, 40 - Atlanta (Summerhill)
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"The most important thing that people need to know about 'operatives' -- is that they come in all "sizes", "races", "ages" and "occupations" -- the "model" used depends on what the situation requires."
Mindy, 45 - Atlanta (Midtown)
