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California Man Almost Loses His Stepmother in Guardianship Dispute

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Even though they live in different states, Larry Davis, 74, regularly speaks to and visits his 85-year-old stepmother, Kise. So he is stunned when her neighbor calls to inform him that someone came and took her away. Determined to help his stepmother, Larry embarks on a long legal battle to bring Kise home. [00:00:00] Bob: This week on The Perfect Scam. [00:00:02] It’s painful, and it’s heartbreaking. One lesson I learned is that no matter how awkward it seems to be intervening in your loved one’s life, and how much they may resist it because of their own independence, you cannot get in there too soon. [00:00:18] Bob: Welcome back to The Perfect Scam. I’m your host, Bob Sullivan. And today we’re going to talk about a really important topic, a really sensitive topic about what happens when someone gets very sick and they can no longer make decisions for themselves about their health or their money. Often a court-appointed guardian is named to make these critical decisions, and sometimes these relationships go sideways fast. There can be a tug of war between family members and institutions over who gets to make those decisions with the vulnerable person caught in the middle. And there’s been some horrible abuses, scams that involve bad actors taking control of people’s lives just for the money, raiding their bank accounts with fake services, keeping loved ones away from family members during their last few precious years of life. Some of the scams are so dramatic there have been several exposes in newspapers across the country, even a new show on a popular streaming service devoted to this tragic problem. We’ll get to this heart wrenching topic in a moment, but first, I want to… Read More

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Whitmire: How the IRS covers up political corruption

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By Kyle Whitmire | [email protected] This is an opinion column. The story I’m about to tell you wouldn’t be possible today, and that’s a problem. In 2017, my colleague John Archibald and I felt around in the dark for the edges of a criminal conspiracy. We worked at it for months. State Rep. Oliver Robinson had been up to something — that much we could tell. He’d taken a conspicuous interest in the Environmental Protection Agency’s efforts to clean up toxins in north Birmingham. He opposed the agency expanding its mission to include the nearby suburb of Tarrant, and his charity, the Oliver Robinson Foundation, had been trying to persuade residents not to let the EPA test their soil. We suspected he was getting paid by somebody. But there’s what you think, what you know and what you can prove — and the first two don’t matter. We couldn’t yet close the loop, so we couldn’t write the story. But to kick over one more rock, I asked for his non-profit’s 990s, the disclosures charities must make to the IRS. Specifically, I wanted a form the IRS doesn’t include in its online databases — Schedule B, which shows donors who contributed more than $5,000. “You’re not going to find anything,” Archibald said when I left to pick up the documents. “I’ll bet you a Coke.” Dirty Business: How Alabama officials conspired against their own people I wasn’t ready to give up hope. I had to look. Robinson’s lawyer, Doug Jones, left the documents at his law office’s front desk. As I walked back to the elevators in the downtown office building, I slid the 990s out of the manila envelope. I flipped to Schedule B and … I’m not an… Read More

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