Recently, my wife pulled me to the new Farrelly Brothers' (Dumb and Dumber, Kingpin and There's Something About Mary) movie, Fever Pitch, which billed itself as a chick flick disguised as a sports movie. Or, as ESPN's Bill Simmons explains in this absolutely hilarious article on the movie, a "Spork Flick."
Mr. Simmons recently attended Fever Pitch with his father because the film was billed as a funny spork flick, but he realized after enduring the movie that it was really just a straightforward chick flick:
Here's the plot for "Fever Pitch" in one sentence: Guy loves the Red Sox, meets Drew Barrymore, tries to love them both, nearly loses her because of the Sox, decides to give up his season tickets next to the Red Sox dugout because he loves her, she stops him just in time, and they get back together and end up making out on the field after the first Red Sox championship in 86 years. The end.
Mr. Simmons goes on compare the movie with other chick flicks (don't miss his analysis of My Best Friend's Wedding), and then reveals that the key to success of a chick flick is hitting on the top ten generic themes of chick flicks, a couple of which are the following:
4. If you're dating someone who is passionate about something, he will absolutely give that up for you because all men change once they fall in love. Especially if you have a nice apartment.5. You can have only three friends: A smart friend who's pretty in a quirky way, a calculating beauty who's morally corrupt and an overweight girl who doesn't say much. You can only hang out with these people all at once. If there's anyone in your life who doesn't fit one of those three categories, get rid of them.
Trust me on this one -- read the entire article. Hat tip to Craig Newmark for the link.
Posted by Tom at 6:47 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Although such matters are notoriously unpredictable, the SCOTUS blog -- the premier U.S. Supreme Court blog -- reports that observors of the oral argument earlier today on Arthur Andersen's appeal to the Supreme Court of its witness tampering conviction unanimously reported that the Justices appeared to favor Andersen's side of the argument strongly. In particular, Justice Scalia expressed incredulity at the government's position:
"You want criminal liability to attach to that?" Justice Scalia asked, referring to Andersen in-house lawyer Nancy Temple's email. "You want somebody to go to jail?"
Here is the Washington Post report on the argument.
Posted by Tom at 5:47 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)
As noted earlier here and here, there are several characteristics of the structure of American International Group Inc. that are similar to the structure of Enron Corp. In particular, both companies' business is largely dependent on its customers' trust and, as Enron showed us in dramatic fashion, once that trust is lost, a company structured in such a manner can literally collapse in a very short period of time.
On face value, this report from yesterday regarding the Lord of Regulation's investigation into whether AIG wrongly pocketed tens of millions of dollars in insurance premiums that should have gone to the New York state workers' compensation fund is probably not any more damaging to the public's trust in AIG's finances than any of the dozens of other revelations that have occurred in regard to AIG and Berkshire Hathaway in connection with that investigation over the past couple of months.
However, in what can only be described as an astounding revelation in this morning's Wall Street Journal ($) article, AIG's general counsel in 1992, E. Michael Joye, informed AIG's senior management -- including former CEO Maurice "Hank" Greenberg -- that the company's accounting treatment with regard to the insurance premiums was illegal. Even more interestingly, Mr. Joye resigned from AIG (or was forced out) later that same year over problems relating to accounting issues.
To top it all off, according to the WSJ article, Mr. Joye provided to the Lord of Regulation a copy of his memo to AIG management about the insurance accounting issue, and then AIG waived its attorney-client privilege regarding Mr. Joye's memo and the accounting issue to allow Mr. Spitzer's office to proceed with its investigation into the issue. AIG's board is allowing this highly unusual level of cooperation with the Lord of Regulation because of its realization that the Lord has the board over a barrel: if the AIG board were to assert such basic rights as the attorney-client privilege, then the Lord of Regulation would almost surely issue an indictment that would have a potentially cataclysmic effect on AIG's various insurance licenses.
On the other hand, if AIG's senior management forced Mr. Joye out because of his calling out of questionable or illegal accounting practices, then that would reflect a serious defect in AIG's internal controls in that an advocate of adhering to legal requirements was canned rather than rewarded. Inasmuch as a similar defect in internal controls allowed Enron's Andrew Fastow to profit wildly from Enron's apecial purpose entities while serving as Enron's CFO, this latest revelation about AIG sure is starting to sound familiar, isn't it?
By the way, the WSJ's ($) article on AIG's ultra-exclusive New York area golf club -- Morefar -- makes it sound as if getting an invitation to play Augusta National is easy in comparison to getting one to play Morefar.
Posted by Tom at 12:15 PM | Comments (4) |
This Washington Post article reports on the trial that is cranking up this week in New York City as New York AG ("Attorney General" or "Aspiring Governor," take your pick) Eliot Spitzer's prepares to prosecute former Bank of America securities broker Theodore C. Sihpol III in connection with an alleged crime uncovered during Mr. Spitzer's wide-ranging investigation of the financial services industry over the past three years. Here is a sampling of posts regarding the Lord of Regulation's investigations over the past year and a half.
While more than a dozen brokerage firms and fund companies have rolled over and paid $3 billion in fines, restitution and promised fee reductions (i.e., ransom) to settle Mr. Spitzer's investigations, Mr. Sihpol has refused to give in to Mr. Spitzer's public relations machine. Mr. Sihpol contends that the trades that are at the heart of the criminal case against him were not illegal and that Mr. Sihpol did not have criminal intent to commit larceny, fraud and alteration of business records.
The case revolves around whether the 37 year old Mr. Sihpol knew his clients were breaking the law by putting in same-day orders after 4 p.m. In his usual public relations blitz on such cases, Mr. Spitzer has compared the the trades to betting on a horse race after it was over because the late trades allowed Mr. Sihpol's clients to profit from news announced after the markets closed. However, the Securities and Exchange Commission regulation in place at the time of the trades did not use the words "4 p.m." Rather, the reg simply stated that all mutual fund orders placed after a fund has computed its daily price must get the next day's price. Inasmuch as many funds do not calculate their daily price until nearly 5:30 p.m., Mr. Siphol contends that the trades were in compliance with the regulation. In fact, an SEC survey done shortly after the scandal broke found that a quarter of brokerage firms had helped clients trade after the 4 p.m. close. New SEC rules proposed after Mr. Spitzer's investigations into trading abuses state specifically that the trades must be placed before 4 p.m.
The risk of loss is so high that it is understandable that companies and individuals under Mr. Spitzer's relentless public relations campaigns roll over and settle without so much as a whimper. Nevertheless, it is refreshing when an individual stands up and requires Mr. Spitzer actually to prove what he enjoys preaching about on television talk shows. Here's hoping that the jury is not swayed by Mr. Spitzer's glitz and examines carefully whether Mr. Spitzer's criminalization of merely questionable business transactions is an appropriate form of business regulation.
Posted by Tom at 6:22 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
As noted in this previous post, the reason that Enron crashed was that its business model required that its customers rely on the company's financial integrity and not necessarily on the company's net worth. Accordingly, when Enron's financial integrity came into question over a slew of questionable transactions with some equity funds run by Enron's CFO, Andrew Fastow, Enron melted faster than an ice cream cone in a Texas summer.
Unfortunately for American International Group Inc., its business model is built upon the same sense of trust, and this latest public revelation is not going to help the company maintain that trust. Here is a sampling of earlier posts on AIG's developing problems, including the questionable transactions between AIG and Berkshire Hathaway.
The report referred to in the NY Times article was prepared by two outside law firms -- Simpson Thacher & Bartlett and Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison -- who are working for AIG's board. According to the Times article, the report raises serious questions about the integrity of AIG's financial-reporting systems. The report contends that recently retired AIG chairman and CEO Maurice R. "Hank" Greenberg and fired CFO Howard I. Smith controlled critical aspects of the company's financial reporting without appropriste financial and accounting controls in place to oversee that control. The report's conclusions sound remarkably similar to those contained in the Powers Report, which was the similar report that the Enron board commissioned when Enron's questionable transactio ies class action in the United States, but that record is probably short-lived. The aggregate settlements in the similar class action in the Enron case projects to lap the WorldCom record by several billion.
Posted by Tom at 4:30 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Take a spin sightseeing throught the United States on this interesting page that links to Google satellite images of various American attractions.
That's Houston's Reliant Park in the picture on the left. As one would expect, the satellite images of Alaska, Colorado and California attactions are particularly spectacular.
By the way, in case you haven't used it yet, the related Google map website is the best mapping website available on the Web.
Posted by Tom at 7:55 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
The deal highlights a startling turnaround that has occurred in the refining industry over the past several years. Since the big shakeout in the oil and gas industry that occurred in the mid-1980's, the refining industry struggled for over a decade. Investment in new refineries slowed to a trickle for a combination of reasons, including overcapacity, inadequate return on investment, oppressive environmental regulations and local political opposition to new and more efficient facilities. As a result, most people do not realize that the last new plant to be built in the U.S. was in 1976, that the number of refineries in the U.S. has declined to 150 at present from 325 in 1981, or that refining capacity for crude oil has declined from about 18.5 million barrels a day to about 17 million barrels per day over the past five years. Accordingly, while worldwide demand for gasoline has been rising dramatically over the past several years and refiners have struggled to keep pace with increasing demand, the refiners' limited capacity and low inventories have resulted in substantially improved margins, which is the difference between the price that the refiners' receive for their product and the price that they pay for crude oil. Thus, when you hear complaints about high gasoline prices, recognize that the relatively high price of oil is only one component of the problem. Lack of refining capacity is at least as big a reason for the problem, and making it difficult to construct new refineries only ensures continued high gasoline prices.
Posted by Tom at 5:09 AM
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On the heels of the U.S. Supreme Court's decision last week in April 24, 2005
Singh wins his second straight Shell Houston Open
Vijay Singh took advantage of long John Daly's hooked drive into the water on the first playoff hole
Although the Houston Open is one of those relatively insignificant golf tournaments that take place in the dreaded "down" period between The Masters and the U.S. Open, the entertaining final round probably garnered its share of television viewers who chose it over meaningless first round NBA playoff games and early season b always seem to torment golfers in the heat of competition. Sudde naments. As 8:25 PM | In what appears to be a questionable ruling, former Enron CEO and COO Jeff Skilling was required to leave the courtroom on Friday morning during the ongoing trial of the Enron Broadband trial.
Normally, at the commencement of most trials, counsel for either or both parties will invoke "the rule," which simply means that fact witnesses cannot listen to the testimony of any other witnesses during the trial. The rule was apparently invoked at the start of the Enron Broadband case.
However, prior to the commencement of the trial, one of Mr. Skilling's lawyers -- Daniel Petrocelli -- had been advised that Mr. Skilling would not be called as a witness during the trial. So, on Friday morning, Mr. Skilling walked into the courtroom gallery to attend the trial, probably in anticipation of the testimony of former president of Enron Broadband Services and close Skilling confidant, Ken Rice, who has copped a plea bargain and began his testimony yesterday afternoon on behalf of the prosecution.
When the prosecution realized that Mr. Skilling was in the courtroom, the prosecutors raised an objection to U.S. District Judge Vanessa Gilmore based on "the rule." Mr. Skilling was asked to leave the courtroom and did so without incident.
If Mr. Skilling had indeed been taken off the witness lists for Broadband trial, then it was more than a minor mistake to exclude him from attending the testimony of Mr. Rice. Inasmuch as Mr. Rice's testimony on behalf of the prosecution is going to be detrimental to, and disputed by, Mr. Skilling in his trial next January, Mr. Skilling is absolutely entitled to be present in the courtroom during that testimony so long as he is not going to be called as a witness during the trial.
If a witness is not telling the truth in his testimony, then often it is much harder to prevaricate in the presence of someone who knows that the witness is lying. Inasmuch as the truth of Mr. Rice's testimony is a key issue in the Broadband trial, the jury in the Broadband trial ought to be allowed to view Mr. Rice's demeanor while testifying in front of his former boss who, if Mr. Rice's testimony is false, would know it.
Posted by Tom at 7:03 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (1)
After a short but successful 3-1 homestand, the Stros (8-7) hit the road for a weekend series in St. Louis (9-5) and then a series in Pittsburgh (5-11) during the first part of next week before returning home on Friday the 29th to begin a six game homestand against the Cubs(8-8) and the Pirates.
The most recent homestand featured this Stros club's strength, which is solid starting pitching. The Rocket, Brandon Backe, Roy O, and Pettitte all had strong performances, and the only reason the Stros didn't win all four games was that they couldn't muster a run in 12 innings in Clemens' game against the Braves. Oswalt's performance (9 IP, 4 H, 1 R/ER, 0 BB, 8 K's) was particularly masterful as he mowed down the Brew Crew in a little more than two hours with a devastating combination of a 95 mph heater and a 70 mph curve. By the way, the 27 year old Oswalt is well on his way to becoming the best pitcher in Stros history. After 2.97 ERA/21 RSAA (RSAA explained here) and 3.49 ERA/22 RSAA seasons in 2003-04, Oswalt is off to a 3.41 ERA/3 RSAA start in his first 4 starts. He has a 3.12 career ERA, compared to a league average of 4.25 during his career, and a 108 RSAA in 124 games. Roy O already holds the Stros record for career RSAA:
1 Roy Oswalt 108
2 Billy Wagner 99
3 Mike Hampton 76
4 Dave Smith 75
5 Octavio Dotel 67
6 Nolan Ryan 60
7 Wade Miller 56
8 Don Wilson 55
9 Joe Sambito 53
10 Larry Andersen 45
By the way, if you want to miss one of the Stros' games this weekend during the St. Louis series, you may want to make it tonight's game. The Stros trot out fifth starter Brandon "Home Run" Duckworth to the mound against the Cards' power lineup, so this one could get ugly fast.
Posted by Tom at 5:27 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
KPMG LLP agreed to pay a record (for an auditing firm, anyway) $22.5 million to settle SEC charges in connection with the firm's audits of Xerox Corp. from 1997 through 2000. KP 04_12.asp#001537">operational and customer problems, and competition problems.
Meanwhile, America West narrowly escaped a chapter 11 case in late 2001 by arranging a bailout loan of over $400 million backed by almost an equivalent amount of federal guarantees. That financing allowed the airline to tap more than $600 million in other financing and concessions from manufacturers, vendors, leasing firms and others. Nevertheless, America West posted a net loss last year of almost $90 million on revenue of about $2.35 billion, and ended 2004 with a bit over $400 million in cash.
I don't think this proposed merger has Southwest Airlines quaking in its boots.
Posted by Tom at 5:00 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
On the heels of this post from a couple of weeks ago, the Stros announced yesterday that they are retiring former centerfielder Jimmy Wynn's number 24.
The ceremony honoring Mr. Wynn will be on Friday, July 8, before the game against the Dodgers.
Posted by Tom at 7:23 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
Don't miss Banjo Jones reminiscing about the Houston Post, which closed ten years ago today.
When I moved to Houston back in the early 1970's, the Post was Houston's morning paper and the Chronicle was delivered in the afternoon. Then, the Chronicle began to publish multiple editions, including a morning edition. Seemingly before you knew it, the Chron had bought the Post's assets and the Post was no more.
As Banjo notes, Houston lost something quite special when the Post closed, and the newspaper landscape in Houston has never been anywhere near as interesting without it.
Posted by Tom at 12:43 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
One would normally not be all that surprised by reading this following news report coming out of California, but San Antonio?:
'Mad Max' Fan Convoy Ends in ArrestsSAN ANTONIO - Eleven "Mad Max" fans were arrested after alarming motorists as they made their way to a movie marathon in a theatrical convoy in which they surrounded a tanker truck armed with fake machine guns.
As the group was headed to San Antonio from nearby from Boerne on Saturday morning, police received several calls from motorists who reported a "militia" surrounding a tanker truck, a police report states.
Police charged nine people with obstruction of a highway and two others with possession of prohibited knives in addition to obstruction of a highway.
One of the organizers of the convoy, Chris Fenner, said the arrests were unfair. He said he didn't know why anyone would have confused the costumed crew recreating a scene from "Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior" - set in a post-apocalyptic wasteland - with a real threat.
"I honestly don't know how that could be, because 'Road Warrior' was so over the top," he said.
About 25 people participated in the convoy and more than twice that number were expected to attend the movie marathon, which was canceled after the arrests.
A reader reminds me that this event would not have made the news in California because it would not have been considered particularly unusual and certainly no one would have been arrested. ;^)
Posted by Tom at 11:08 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)
Given that it is Shell Houston Open week, it seem appropriate to note that Ft. Worth's Dan Jenkins -- whose writings were previously featured in posts here and here -- is the best golf writer of our times. An outstanding golfer as a collegian at TCU, Mr. Jenkins has covered golf for various publications (he writes a column for Golf Digest these days) for over 50 years. He writes with an engaging combination of wit and historical perspective (he has covered the past 55 straight Masters golf tournaments), which allows him to compare better than anyone else the accomplishments of Tiger Woods to the other dominant golfers of the past 50 years, Ben Hogan and Jack Nicklaus. Thankfully, Mr. Jenkins has passed on his talent to his daughter, Sally, who is an excellent sportswriter for the Washington Post.
In connection with the recent Master's golf tournament, Golf Digest ran this article excerpting pieces of Mr. Jenkins' writings over the past 20 years and also providing parts of a recent interview with Mr. Jenkins. Don't miss it. Here are a few gems:
On Ben Crenshaw's emotional and inspirational 1995 Masters victory the week after the death of this long-time mentor, Harvey Penick:"Not to bury the lead, but all in all, this Masters was a very bad week for atheists."On Greg Norman shooting 78 and blowing a six-shot lead to Nick Faldo on the last day of the Master's in 1996:
"When Greg Norman self-destructed, Nick Faldo was right there to claim his third green jacket. A strange object slowly bled to death before our very eyes for four hours, and it wasn't even a shark. Although Norman did it to himself and unleashed every Great White Can of Tuna joke in the book, his undoing also wrought sympathy from his most cynical critics. On the one hand, you could appreciate why Faldo hugged Greg on the final green. Why wouldn't you hug a guy who's been that nice to you?"Which reminds me of Mr. Jenkins' following joke (not included in the article) about Norman, who is a favorite target of Mr. Jenkins. Upon French golfer Jean Van de Velde's blow-up on the final hole that cost him the 1999 British Open, Mr. Jenkins observed:
Q: What does "Jean Van de Velde" mean in English?A: "Greg Norman."
Again on Norman, this time after he hit a wayward shot on the 18th hole of the 1986 Masters ensuring Jack Nicklaus' fifth green jacket:
"What do you do if you're Greg Norman in the 18th fairway of the Masters on Sunday and you're trying to get Jack Nicklaus into a playoff? You hit a half-shank, push-fade, semi-slice 4-iron that guarantees the proper result for the history books. Oh, well, Greg Norman always has looked like the guy you send out to kill James Bond, not Jack Nicklaus."On the proliferation of Tournament Player Courses on the PGA Tour:"TPC sounds too much like something kids sniff."On Ian Baker-Finch's blow-up round during the 1997 British Open:
"He went out in 44 and came back in 48, which sounded like a man's service history in World War II."And finally, in the interview, Mr. Jenkins is asked whether today's PGA Tour players are as accessible to the press as the players of bygone eras:
"Not even close. Hell, they're not even accessible to each other. The old guys hung out, in the locker rooms, bars, restaurants. Players and writers drank together, had dinner together. Back then, smoking wasn't a felony and cocktails came easier."
Dan Jenkins is a Texan and American treasure.
Update: I just have to pass along this Jenkins anecdote from Dr. Jim Bob Baker, a reader of this blog who commented:
After years of cigarettes and cream gravy, Jenkins had to face the inevitable Cardiac Bypass surgery, but he managed to joke about even this. His surgeon had said that he was planning to do 4 bypass grafts pre-operatively, but managed to restore good blood flow to Jenkins' heart with only three, prompting Jenkins to brag that he had "birdied my bypass."
"Birdied my bypass?" Classic Jenkins!
Posted by Tom at 5:30 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack (1)
After starting the season with a promising 4-1 homestand, the Stros (5-6) stumbled on their their first road trip of the season over the past week. The Stros lost five of six games on the trip, with the Mets (6-6) sweeping the Stros in three close games to begin the trip. Then, after the Stros blew out the Reds (6-5) in the first game of their weekend series, the Reds came back to win two close games to take that series.
Despite the disappointing road trip, the Stros are about where most everyone expected them to be 11 games into the season. Until slugger Lance Berkman returns (probably in a couple of weeks or so), it is unlikely that this Stros team has enough hitting to do much better than win as many games as they lose. In fact, unless changes are made, it is highly unlikely that this Stros team can win more than 85 games even with Berkman.
I hope Stros management is open to making changes because the Stros' pitching staff is every bit as good as I predicted and, barring injury, good enough to carry the team to more than 90 wins. Through two weeks of the season, the Stros pitching staff is ranked second only to the Marlins (6-6)in the National League in runs saved against average ("RSAA," explained here). With the exception of Brandon Duckworth's typically mediocre performance in today's game, every Stros pitcher has been above-average in their pitching performances to date.
Although it's a bit dicey to make firm conclusions less than 7% into a baseball season, it's becoming clearer with each game that Phil Garner is not pushing the right buttons to maximize the effectiveness of the Stros' meager offensive weapons. He continues inexplicably to bat the light-hitting Everett (.150 Ave./.255 OBP/.225 SLG) at leadoff even though Everett has not yet proven that he is even an average Major League hitter, much less an effective leadoff batter. Similarly, Garner continues to write the anemic Ausmus (.111/.200/.148) into the lineup each day even though Ausmus has now deteriorated to well below even replacement level performance. Meanwhile, Garner continues to sit Mike Lamb, the Stros' best lefthanded hitter outside of Berkman, and makes such questionable moves as batting Jason Lane -- arguably the club's best hitter right now -- sixth in the batting order in the final game of the Reds series.
This Stros club is going to win most of its games with its strong pitching. But the club's hitting is so weak that there isn't much marging for error, and Garner made his share over the past road trip. Garner needs to put Lamb in left field and leave him there and move Everett to the back end of the order. Then, the Stros' management needs to call up catcher Humberto Quintero (acquired in the Tim Redding trade) from AAA Round Rock, where he is currently hitting .368/.428/.667. Quintero and Chavez would be a better duo than Chavez and Ausmus, who simply is no longer a major league quality player.
The Stros have a quick four game homestand this week with two games each against the Braves (6-5) and the Brewers (5-6)before going out on the road again to face the Cardinals (6-4) next weekend and then the Pirates (4-8) during the first part of next week. The Stros return home to face the Cubs (6-6) on Friday the 29th.
Posted by Tom at 7:59 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack (1)
The 2005 Shell Houston Open is this week at Redstone Golf Club as the no. 2 ranked player in the world -- Vijay Singh -- returns to defend his 2004 title. Shreveport native David Toms, the ninth-ranked player in the World Golf Rankings, is also in the field, but he is the only other player in the tournament who is in the Top 10 of the World Rankings. Although the tournament's awkward date two weeks after The Masters -- among other problems -- continues to hurt the quality of the field, crowd favorites such as John Daly, Steve Elkington, Chad Campbell, Darren Clarke, Charles Howell III, Mark Calcavecchia, and Jose Maria Olazabal make the field good enough to justify making the trek to Redstone for a day or two of the tournament. Here is the Chronicle's special section on the tournment.
This is the final Shell Houston Open tournament that will be played on the Redstone Golf Club's Peter Jacobsen-Jim Hardy designed course. Next year, the tournament will move across the steet to the new Rees Jones course that the Houston Golf Association and Redstone have developed specifically to host the golf tournament. The HGA is hoping that the top PGA Tour players will take a liking to the new course and again make an effort to fit the Shell Houston Open into their schedules.
Although I have my doubts that this strategy will prove successful, I hope I'm wrong. The Shell Houston Open is good for Houston, but it is definitely a golf tournament that needs a shot in the arm.
Posted by Tom at 5:45 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (1)
Chris Tomlin, my old friend who has been the subject of these previous posts, was awarded a prestigious Dove Award for Best Praise and Worship Album of the Year by the Gospel Music Association in its awards show on Wednesday night in Nashville. Chris' award-winning album -- Arriving -- has been at the top of the contemporary Christian music charts for months now.
This richly deserved award could not have been won by a nicer fellow than C.T. However, the honor will still not stop me from continuing to throttle him on the golf course. That's just the way it is in big golf games.
Posted by Tom at 4:14 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
Former Enron suitor Dynegy Inc. has agreed to pay $468 million to settle a class action suit that accused the Houston-based company and several of its former officers and directors of conspiring to cook the company's books to mislead investors. The Chronicle story on the settlement is here.
For more than a decade in the Houston business community, Dynegy was known as "Enron-lite" -- a smaller energy company that tracked Enron's success in various business ventures, but primarily in natural gas trading. The class action claims arose during the period after Dynegy's failed merger with Enron during that latter company's meltdown at the end of 2001. Inasmuch as Enron was a market-maker in energy trading, that entire industry suffered a major shakeout immediately after Enron's demise, and Dynegy was one of the trading companies that had to scramble to avoid its own demise in the aftermath of Enron's bankruptcy.
Dynegy said it will pay the settlement using available cash, insurance, company stock, and bank lines. Dynegy reported about $1.2 billion in cash and unused bank credit availability as of Dec. 31, 2004. Dynegy will use insurance to cover $150 million of the settlement, $250 million from its cash reserves, and the remaining $68 million will be in the form of Dynegy's common stock issuance. Dynegy expects to book a first-quarter charge of $155 million from the settlement and associated legal expenses, and its stock finished Friday's regular session down 3.8% at $3.56.
The class action claims revolved around a financial project dubbed "Project Alpha," a system of gas trades that Dynegy allegedly used to mollify a discrepancy between lagging operating cash flow and rising net income. As a part of that deal, class plaintiffs alleged that Dynegy disguised a $300 million loan as cash to inflate its financial statements. Representatives of Arthur Andersen, Dynegy's former auditor, testified that Dynegy representatives had not disclosed key parts of the deal to Andersen and that its accounting treatment of the deal would have been different had all information been disclosed. That testimony led to a well-known conviction in a related criminal case that is known on this blog as the sad case of Jamie Olis.
The settlement also covers negligence allegations pending against former Dynegy CEO Chuck Watson, former president Steve Bergstrom, and former CFO Rob Doty. Their portions of the settlement will be paid out of the company's Directors and Officers' liability insurance policy.
Posted by Tom at 7:00 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
Although Tiger Woods may not make it look so, golf is an exceedingly difficult game to play for most of us. Yet, because of the exceptional ability of Mr. Woods and a relatively few number of professional golfers, this Golf Digest article reports that the United States Golf Association is now officially searching for a more sluggish golf ball.
In an email dated April 11, the USGA is asking about 35 golf equipment manufacturers for prototype golf balls that fly shorter distances than those currently allowed. The email requests that manufacturers submit two golf-ball designs, one that would land 25 yards shorter on average than the USGA's current standard, and another that would fall 15 yards shorter. The email stated that participation in the new prototype ball is voluntary and did not set a timetable for submitting the prototypes.
Until around 2000 or so, most good golfers used liquid-filled wound golf balls that were soft and easy to control, but did not fly as far as hard balls with solid cores and urethane covers. However, newer ball technology has now produced balls have a solid core and a urethane cover that are as easy to control as the old liquid-filled balls, so the good golfers are pounding these balls longer distances.
So, what's wrong with hitting a golf ball further, you ask? Well, while most golfers are looking for any edge to make a difficult game easier, proud course owners contend that that the new balls make their courses too easy to play. As a result, a few course owners have lengthened their courses to make them more challenging, but golf "traditionalists" believe that such acts are sacriligeous and akin to retrofitting a work of art. Meanwhile, the vast majority of golfers do not hit a golf ball appreciably further with the new balls, and many of the new longer courses that are created to challenge the long hitters are simply torture chambers for the average golfer. Nevertheless, the mantra to rein in the golf ball coninutes on. Prominent professionals such as Jack Nicklaus and Greg Norman have lobbied for limits on golf equipment for years and Augusta National Golf Club, host of last weekend's Masters Tournament, is also calling for technological restrictions.
On the other hand, golf manufacturers are resisting the call for restrictions. Outside the insulated world of professional golf, manufacturers understand that golf as a sport is struggled to keep golfers playing. The number of rounds played in the U.S. was about 495 million in 2003, which is down from a peak of around 520 million in 2000, and industry statistics reflect that new golfers each year are offset roughly by the number of people who give up the game.
Some manufacturers have suggested that the USGA consider allowing separate technologies for pros and recreational golfers, which would make the sport easier for recreational players while maintaining stricter standards for professionals. However, such a move would break with golf's tradition of maintaining the same rules for all players, and it is highly uncertain how such a break would be received in the marketplace. Moreover, inasmuch as everyone from Mr. Woods to low-handicap recreational golfers can qualify for open tournaments, differing technological standards would raise the issue of where the USGA would draw the "technology line?"
So, in the end, the USGA should just leave good enough alone. No golfers are quitting the game because of technological innovations in golf equipment. The fact that a few professionals' ability to hit the long ball is making a few courses obsolescent for professional tournament golf is an inadequate reason to make an already impossible game more difficult for the vast majority of golfers.
Posted by Tom at 7:32 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
The shoe dropped today for a couple of Houston-based businessmen in regard to the criminal investigation into the allegedly corrupt administration of the United Nation's Oil for Food program.
Following this earlier post from last December, this New York Times article reports that David B. Chalmers, Jr. -- a Houston resident who owns Bayoil, Inc., a Bahamian company -- was arrested today along with two other oil traders under a Southern District of New York indictment that alleges that they paid millions of dollars in secret kickbacks to Saddam Hussein's Iraqi regime and, in so doing, cheated the United Nations' oil-for-food program of humanitarian aid funds. Ludmil Dionissiev, a Bulgarian citizen and permanent U.S. resident, was also arrested today at his Houston home in connection with the indictment, and the U.S. Attorney in New York is seeking the the extradition from England of a third defendant, John Irving.
Under the indictment, the government accused the defendants of paying millions of dollars in kickbacks so that Mr. Chalmers' oil companies could continue to sell Iraqi oil under the oil-for-food program. The kickbacks between mid-2000 and March 2003 involved over $100 million in funds that allegedly otherwise would have been earmarked for humanitarian relief. Another criminal complaint unsealed on Thursday in New York charged South Korean citizen Tongsun Park with conspiracy to act in the U.S. as an unregistered government agent for the Iraqi government's effort to create the oil-for-food program.
The U.N. program, which the U.S. originally endorsed, began in 1996 and permitted Iraq to sell oil despite a stiff U.N. economic embargo against Saddam's regime. Under the program, the proceeds of the oil sales were to be used to buy food and medicine for Iraqi people suffering under the sanctions. The indictment alleges that "the government of Iraq alone had the power to select the companies and individuals who received the rights to purchase Iraqi oil," and, beginning in 2000, the government demanded that distribution of oil be conditioned upon the recipients' willingness to pay kickbacks.
The investigation of Mr. Chalmers and others in regard to the Oil for Food scandal has been ongoing for some time, and the connections between the individuals allegedly involved are certainly intriguing, as this Laurie Mylroie Financial Times article reports.
Posted by Tom at 11:51 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
The gamesmanship continues in the battle between the Enron Task Force and former Enron chairman and CEO Ken Lay over when and how to handle the trial of the government's bank fraud charges against Mr. Lay. Prior posts on this flanking action in the war between the Task Force and Mr. Lay can be reviewed here, here, and here.
In response to the government's request for a trial within the next two months on the severed bank fraud charges, Mr. Lay not surprisingly has asked U.S. District Judge Sim Lake to include the bank fraud charges in the January 2006 trial of the larger conspiracy-securities fraud charges in which Mr. Lay is a defendant along with former Enron CEO Jeff Skilling and fomer Enron chief accountant Richard Causey. However, in an interesting twist, Mr. Lay has requested that Judge Lake adjudicate the bank fraud charges himself rather than allowing those charges to be considered by the jury that will hear the conspiracy-securities fraud charges. Thus, Mr. Lay's attorneys are attempting to hedge the substantial risk that a jury might be inclined simply to throw the book at Mr. Lay and convict him on all counts whereas he might stand a better chance of acquittal on the bank fraud charges in front of Judge Lake.
Although an interesting strategy, my sense is that Mr. Lay's approach will not work because the Task Force will want to try the bank fraud charges to a jury, which the government figures will be more sympathetic to its case than Judge Lake. A hearing is scheduled on the matter on April 21. The Chronicle's Mary Flood's report on the skirmish is here.
Posted by Tom at 7:11 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
One of the truly good guys in Houston's legal community -- Fulbright & Jaworski litigator Tom Godbold -- has been elected chair of the board of the State Bar of Texas and will assume the one-year term during the State Bar's annual meeting to be held June 23-24 in Dallas.
Tom has given his time generously to Bar activities for some time. He has served on the State Bar Board since 2003, and was awarded a State Bar Presidential Citation for serving as Chair of the Legal Services for the Poor Funding Request Work Group in 2004. Tom has also been active in the Houston Bar Association for years and served as its president in 2002-2003.
Posted by Tom at 6:35 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
This Chronicle article reports on the 20th anniversary taking place this weekend of the two-day, Houston to Austin, 186 mile bicycle excursion known in these parts as the "MS 150."
In the first event 20 years ago, 237 riders braved the ride and raised $117,000 for research into Multiple Sclerosis. Incredibly, the event has now grown to over 13,000 riders who will raise about $10 million, which is the largest event by far of this type of event organized by the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. Check out the MS 150 website, which allows you to donate money in the name of any of the riders in the event.
Posted by Tom at 6:01 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
This New York Times article reports on a just released New England Journal of Medicine study that indicates athletes who drink as much liquid as possible during intense exercise to avoid dehydration face an even greater health risk than dehydration.
The study reports that an increasing number of people who engage in intense exercise or recreation are severely diluting their blood by drinking too much water or sports drinks, risking serious illness and, in some cases, death.
The condition -- called Hyponatremia -- occurs because, during intense exercise, the kidneys cannot excrete excess water. Accordingly, as intense exercisers continue to exert themselves and drink more fluid, the extra water moves into their cells, including brain cells. The expanded brain cells eventually have no room to expand further and press against the skull and compress the brain stem, which controls vital functions such as breathing.
Indeed, the mantra from docs to intense exercisers over the past generation -- i.e., avoid dehydration at any cost -- may be part of the culprit. As the Times article notes:
"Everyone becomes dehydrated when they race," [said one of the researchers involved in the study]. "But I have not found one death in an athlete from dehydration in a competitive race in the whole history of running. Not one. Not even a case of illness."On the other hand, he said, he knows of people who have sickened and died from drinking too much.
To make matters even more complicated, Hyponatremia can be treated,
but doctors and emergency workers often pressume that a person feeling ill after intense exercise is simply suffering from dehydration. Thus, they give the exerciser intravenous fluids, which makes the Hyponatremia worse and can kill the patient.
I guess those old high school football coaches of mine back in the late 1960's who didn't allow my teammates and I so much as a drink during two-a-days in the summer heat knew more than they were letting on? ;^)
Posted by Tom at 5:32 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
The Stros probable fifth pitcher in their starting rotation -- rookie Ezequiel Astacio -- had an impressive warm-up last night at AAA Round Rock in preparation for his Major League debut next week.
Astacio gave up just one hit -- a solo yak -- and one walk in seven innings while whiffing five in Round Rock's 2-1 loss to the Iowa Cubs last night. The Cubs scored the winning run in the eighth after Astacio had left the game.
Astacio is tall (6'3"), but weighs only 150 lbs., and that may be pushing it for his weight. Despite his slim build, Astacio has wicked stuff and could be a nice addition to an already imposing Stros pitching staff this season. Astacio is one of three promising young starting pitchers in the Stros' minor league system who could see action on the Major League level soon. The other two are Wandy Rodriguez (AAA Round Rock) and Fernando Nieve (AA Corpus Christi). Nieve threw six innings of one hit, shutout ball while walking two and striking out eight in leading Corpus to its first victory in franchise history last night.
Posted by Tom at 9:06 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
This Chronicle article reports on the road trip that several Houston business and city government representatives are taking to New York this week for a Thursday meeting with National Football League officials on Houston's bid to host Super Bowl XLIII (i.e., 43) in 2009. Final bids must be submitted by May 2, and the league's owners will award the Super Bowl to one of the candidates on May 25 at the NFL summer meetings in Washington. Houston and Atlanta are considered the early favorites to win the bid, although Tampa and Miami also are submitting bids.
Houston's successful hosting of the Super Bowl XXXVIII in 2004 is certainly a feather in its cap, but the competition for hosting the Super Bowl is getting very stiff. With new stadiums likely to be completed in both Dallas and New York by 2010, and with San Diego, Miami and New Orleans being the favored sites for Super Bowls, Houston might not be in the running to host another Super Bowl for a long time if it is not successful in its bid for the 2009 game.
Posted by Tom at 6:20 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Don't miss Arthur Andersen's appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court of its criminal conviction of witness tampering in connection with its destruction of Enron Corp.-related documents during the latter stages of that company's collapse in late 2001.
The Justice Department frames its argument of the key issue in the appeal in the following manner:
The lower courts correctly defined the term corruptly in Section 1512(b) as having an improper purpose to subvert, undermine, or impede the fact-finding ability of an official proceeding. The lower courts definition is consistent with the purpose-based definition long given to the identical term in the general obstruction-of-justice statute, 18 U.S.C. 1503, on which Section 1512 was based; in other obstruction-of-justice statutes; and in other federal criminal statutes more generally. That definition does not render the term corruptly superfluous. Nor does it criminalize conduct that is not inherently wrongful, because it has long been understood that it is improper to destroy documents when litigation is anticipated for the purpose of frustrating the truthseeking process.Petitioners novel alternative definitions of the term corruptly which would require either proof of improper means of persuasion or inducement to unlawful acts, or proof of consciousness of wrongdoing should be rejected. The former definition cannot be reconciled with the text of the statute; would give the term corruptly a different meaning in Section 1512(b) than in other obstruction-of-justice statutes; and would criminalize little, if any, conduct that is not already criminalized by other provisions. The latter definition contravenes the established principle that ignorance of the law is no defense, and no exception to that principle is warranted here.
The Justice Department's brief is 77 pages, which makes it even more incredible to me that appellate attorneys are not using the bookmark tool in Adobe Acrobat to facilitate ease of review of lengthy appellate briefs.
Posted by Tom at 7:46 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Las Vegas is not normally the place that one goes to visit a museum, but the one described in this Opinion Journal piece appears to be worth checking out during a respite from the blackjack tables:
Over . . . 40 years, 928 nuclear devices were exploded at [the Nevada Test Site, 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas] -- although atmospheric blasts eventually gave way to underground testing.The fascina land">former Yukos chairman and CEO Mikhail B. Khodorkovsky laid the wood to the Russian government yesterday in which he alleged that the charges were "the fantasies of a pulp-fiction writer" meant to cover up the Russian government's effort to seize his oil assets and silence him politically.
Posted by Tom at 6:24 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
The Lord of Regulation chats with the Oracle of Omaha
Let's review the landscape of regulating business for a moment.
Various former executives of disgraced and insolvent Enron Corp. are under indictment for using structured finance transactions that independent lawyers and accountants approved to mislead investors regarding Enron's true financial condition. Although such transactions came to light almost four years ago, no such Enron executive has yet to be tried on such charges. In the meantime, Enron has been effectively liquidated.
Several years ago, General Reinsurance Corp., a unit of Berkshire Hathaway, and American International Group, Inc. entered into at least one large structured finance transaction with each other. As with Enron's structured finance transactions, numerous executives, lawyers, accountants and perhaps even consultants for both companies reviewed and approved the deal. Here are the previous posts on the saga involving AIG and Berkshire.
New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, the new Lord of Regulation, believes that the companies did not account for the transaction properly and, as a result, that the transaction made AIG and Berkshire's financial performance appear better to each company's investors than it really was. Despite not having heard his side of the story, the Lord has already concluded that former AIG chairman and CEO -->
April 11, 2005
More on oil prices
This Angry Bear post provides a good overview of the probable impact of current oil prices on the American economy, which segues nicely to this recent Wall Street Journal ($) interview with ExxonMobil CEO Lee Raymond, in which he observes the following:
WSJ: What do you think of ChevronTexaco's decision to acquire Unocal?Mr. Raymond: I can never remember an industry consolidating at high prices. But I can remember an industry consolidating at low prices.
WSJ: Some people think prices will keep going up.
Mr. Raymond: Maybe. I'll bet they'll be lower at some point.
Let me go back to the last time we went through something like this, which started when the shah of Iran was around. [The shah went into exile in 1979.]
A lot of people don't remember, but we went through a period of relatively high oil prices, which by today's standard would be very high oil prices, that lasted for almost five years. It was at that time that we got into our first stock-buyback program.
As today, we had very strong cash flows. There were a lot of people that were talking about buying other companies. Although we didn't say it directly at that time, we had a view that the price structure could not last -- that it was fundamentally unstable, and that it was just a matter of time. And so we concluded that the cheapest oil we could buy was our own. But because of the stock-buyback program, we were roundly criticized on Wall Street. There were no opportunities. We were liquidating the company. All that kind of stuff.
But the facts are that, behind the scenes -- we were not going to say it publicly, obviously -- we just felt that the price structure couldn't persist. And, come along December of 1985, it just collapsed. Went from $28 to $10 in two weeks. So when people ask today, what are you going to do with the money, my answer is: We're not going to do anything stupid. We're going to manage it like we've managed everything else.
WSJ: What is Exxon planning to do with all its cash?
Mr. Raymond: First of all, we'll sort through it. And secondly, why in the world would we ever tell anybody in advance what we were going to do with it anyway?
The fluctuation of oil prices is a common topic on this blog, and prior posts on the topic can be reviewed here.
Posted by Tom at 7:42 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Stros 2005 Review: Stros sweep Reds and head out on the road
The Stros rode strong pitching from the Rocket, Brandon Backe, Roy O. and Brad Lidge over the weekend in sweeping the Reds, 3-2, 4-3, and 5-2.
The Stros finish their first home stand of the season at 4-1, although the five runs that they scored in the Sunday win over the Reds was the most that the club has scored in any of its first five games of the season. At least Bags hit a couple of yaks over the weekend, along with taters from Bidg, Ensberg, and Lane. Rookie Chris Burke drew his first start of the season in the Sunday game (in left field) and acquitted himself well with three hits.
The Stros now go on the road for a week with an odd Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday series in New York against the 1-5 Mets, who just won their first game of the season on Sunday. Ex-Stro Beltran has not yet warmed up (.273 Avg./.304 OBP/.455 SLG.), so let's hope he stays in the doldrums for awhile longer. After the Mets series, the Stros visit Cincinnati for another series next weekend against the Reds (3-3), and then return for a quick four game homestand on Monday April 18th with two games each against the Braves (4-2) and the Brewers (3-2) before heading back out on the road against the Cardinals (2-3) and then the Pirates (2-4).
Posted by Tom at 4:30 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
April 10, 2005
Update on what's going on in Wayne's World
After previous posts here and here regarding local investigative reporter Wayne Dolcefino's recent squabble with his long-time employer, KTRK-TV, this Chronicle article confirms that the conflict arose from the station quashing Dolcefino's story on the non-profit Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo's lavish spending on its offices and the on.net post about current HCSA chairman Billy Burge's (picture left) over-the-top outburst during a recent appearance of former HCSA chairman Jack Rains on Dan Patrick's call-in show on KSEV-AM radio.
It occurs to me that, when a quasi-governmental official such as Burge expresses this degree of concern over dissolution of his agency, then that is pretty darn good evidence that the agency needs to be dissolved. Quickly.
Posted by Tom at 7:34 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
April 8, 2005
Former Seitel CEO Paul Frame convicted
Paul Frame, the former CEO of Houston-based geophysical seismic company Seitel, Inc., was convicted yesterday by a jury in Houston federal court of of swindling $750,000 from the company to settle a civil lawsuit that his former fiancee had filed against him. Here is a previous post on Mr. Frame's indictment on those charges.
In an unusual move, U.S. District Judge David Hittner ordered Mr. Frame taken away by U.S. Marshals and placed in the Federal Detention Center in downtown Houston after the verdict rather than allowing him to remain free on bond pending sentencing. Prosecutors had requested a small increase in his bond, but had not opposed Mr. Frame's release pending sentencing. Sentencing is scheduled for July 7, and Mr. Frame faces up to 20 years in federal prison.
Seitel emerged earlier from a chapter 11 case in 2004 that was commenced in 2003 several months after Mr. Frame had been terminated as the company's CEO amidst revelations of his use of corporate assets for personal purposes and accounting issues regarding the value of Seitel's primary asset, which is its library of geophysical seismic data.
Posted by Tom at 6:42 AM | Comments (8) | TrackBack (0)
How would you like this P.R. job?
The Wall Street Journal's ($) Washington Wire reports today that Michael Jackson's 72% negative rating dwarfs his 5% positive rating, and that those numbers are worse than those of O.J. Simpson.
However, of some comfort to Mr. Jackson is that his ratings are slightly better than those of Saddam Hussein.
Posted by Tom at 6:03 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
Did Buffett rat out AIG?
In an extraordinary development in the unfolding criminal investigation of transactions between American International General, Inc. and Berkshire-Hathaway, Inc., this NY Times article reports that Berkshire chairman Warren Buffett -- in an effort to win leniency for Berkshire in an unrelated case -- directed Berkshire's lawyers several months ago to turn over documents describing the transaction between Berkshire unit General Re and AIG that is at the heart of the criminal investigation. Here are the previous posts on the AIG and Berkshire saga.
As a result of Mr. Buffett's peace offering, former AIG chairman and CEO Maurice "Hank" Greenberg is facing the prospect of giving a deposition next week to the Justice Department, Securities and Exchange Commission, Eliot Spitzer and the New York attorney general's office, and New York insurance regulators. In comparison, Mr. Buffett will merely be "interviewed" on Monday by the investigators, who consider him merely a witness in the AIG probe at this point.
According to the Times article and this similar Wall Street Journal ($) article, Mr. Buffett and Berkshire served up AIG and Mr. Greenberg on a platter to prosecutors in December when prosecutors were questioning Berkshire officials regarding General Re's transactions with Reciprocal of America, a failed Virginia-based insurer. The prosecutors are investigating whether General Re had helped Reciprocal disguise loans as reinsurance to hide losses from insurance regulators. Two Reciprocal executives have copped plea deals and began cooperating with investigators, which led prosecutors to inform Berkshire lawyers that General Re and Berkshire executives may face criminal charges in connection with their probe of Reciprocal. A couple of weeks later, the Times and WSJ report that, at Mr. Buffett's behest, Berkshire lawyers gave investigators documents regarding General Re's questionable transaction with AIG.
Sort of makes one feel warm and fuzzy about doing business with that American business icon, Warren Buffett, doesn't it?
Posted by Tom at 5:29 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)
Reds come to town
After splitting the first two games of the season with the Cardinals, the Stros have their first weekend series of the season at Minute Maid Park against the slugging Cincinnati Reds, who are coming off a satisfying season-beginning three game sweep of the Mets. The Rocket takes the hill on Friday against the Reds' Ramon Ortiz, followed by Backe on Saturday and Roy O. in the Sunday matinee.
It's not prudent in baseball to make concrete conclusions based on the anecdotal experience of two games, but the Stros' lack of hitting -- particularly power hitting -- is apparent. In Games 1 and 2 against the Cards, the Stros were able to score a total of seven runs on 22 hits, 15 of which were singles and none of which were home runs. Pitchers Pettitte, Qualls, and Lidge looked good in Game 2 against the Cards, but without more run production, good pitching will only go so far.
The Reds are sort of the polar opposite of the Stros, with a raft of mashers at the plate (Houston area resident Adam Dunn, Ken Griffey, Jr., Austin Kearns, etc.), but marginal pitching, at best. The Reds also f former Stros star and local icon, Nolan Ryan.
Posted by Tom at 4:31 AM | Dick Watt gained an appreciation for cogent football coaches while playing under the legendary Darrell Royal and Coach Royal's late Defensive Coordinator, Mike Campbell, on the fine University of Texas football teams from 1966-68. Dick's son, Andrew, is currently attending the Naval Academy and so Dick has taken an interest in Coach Johnson, whose blunt nature reminds him of football coaches from bygone eras.
Along those lines, Dick passes along this recent interview with Coach Johnson, who is just not pleased with the way spring football practice is going at the Naval Academy. Here are a few pearls of wisdom from the interview:
Q. How does the team look?A. Lovely.
Q. Who's your best fullback?
A. I don't know. I don't know if we have one.
Q. Have you not been pleased with what you've seen from the fullbacks so far?
A. Not really.
Q. In what way?
A. I just haven't been pleased.
Q. They don't run hard enough?
A. It's a myriad of things, each one has his own problems. It hasn't sorted itself out at all in my mind.
Q. Do you think the three guys that are out here (Kimbrough, Ballard and Hall) are capable?
A. Yeah, I think they have the ability. But if they don't get better, we will play with a freshman.
Q. What happened to Marvin Dingle?
A. He quit.
Q. Is he expected to return? Is he just taking the spring off?
A. Nope. Not when you quit. You don't do that here with me. When you quit, you quit.
Q. Any injuries of note?
A. Not really, same guys that were hurt before.
Q. How does the quarterback situation look at this point?
A. It's about like I thought. Some days are better than others.
Q. Just watching the kickers briefly, it appeared that the kid that came over from the sprint football team (Joey Bullen) has a decent leg.
A. Today he did better than the others.
Q. But it's not that way every day?
A. None of them are consistent right now.
Now, that's my idea of a football coach!
Posted by Tom at 4:30 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
April 7, 2005
Possible relief from the worst television commercials ever?
This BBC News article reports on a University of Minnesota Medical School study that links use of Viagra to vision loss:
[Researchers at the University of Minnesota Medical School] writing in the Journal of Neuro-ophthalmology, said it brought the total number of reported cases to 14. But Pfizer, the makers of the drug which has been used by more than 20m men since its launch in 1998, said the cases were a coincidence. The seven men, aged between 50 and 69 years old, had all suffered from a swelling of the optic nerve within 36 hours of taking Viagra for erectile dysfunction.If the plaintiffs' lawyers can use this information to prompt Pfizer to use Viagra's advertising budget for defense costs rather than advertising, then I will be strong advocate of the plaintiffs' bar in this case. Hat tip to the HealthLawProf Blog for the link to the BBC News article.
Posted by Tom at 7:45 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Lawyers, bring your schedules
Coming on the heels of this earlier post on the Enron Task Force's use of Ken Lay's prior public statements to move for an early trial on the pending bank fraud charges pending against him, Mary Flood of the Chronicle reports that U.S. District Judge Sim Lake (picture on the left) has called a hearing in the case for next Friday to discuss scheduling matters in regard to the bank fraud charges against Mr. Lay.
Contrary to my earlier speculation, Ms. Flood speculates that Judge Lake -- who does run an efficient docket -- will schedule the bank fraud trial against Lay this summer before the bigger January 17, 2006 trial of the securities fraud charges against Mr. Lay and his co-defendants Jeff Skilling and Richard Causey.
This is a horrifying development not only for Mr. Lay, but also for Messrs. Skilling and Causey. The adverse publicity that will result from a trial of Mr. Lay six months before the trial of the multi-defendant case will be hard for the defendants to deal with in an environment that is already hostile to anyone associated with Enron.
Meanwhile, Ms. Flood also reports that there will be a panel discussion about the Enron scandal before the Houston premiere of Alex Gibney's documentary, Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room on April 19, which was the subject of this earlier post.
By the way, I have not been asked to participate on the panel. ;^)
Posted by Tom at 6:15 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
It's The Masters and Martha time
The Master's Golf Tournament cranks up today and, almost on cue, Martha Burk is railing against the capitalist roaders wasting money on such nonsense. Writing in today's Wall Street Journal ($), Ms. Burk asserts that corporate sponsorship of a rich man's club that does not allow women members is only part of the good ol' boys network that prevents an equal number of women from becoming members of corporate boards:
Augusta National Golf Club, which openly and proudly discriminates against women, will produce its Masters Golf Tournament with considerable help from the masters of corporate America. After two years without sponsors, the tournament will again be underwritten -- by stockholders and customers of IBM, SBC and ExxonMobil. The companies will spend between $7 million and $12 million for the privilege of sharing four commercial minutes per hour on the air. Even so, CBS will lose money on the broadcast, giving its stockholders -- male and female alike -- the opportunity to pick up the slack.With the return of corporate sponsorships, there will no doubt be a return of corporate entertainment. Citigroup, Coca-Cola, Bank of America, and others will spend up to a million dollars apiece on lavish meals, liquor, housing, transportation, and gifts to customers. And that doesn't count hidden overhead expenses such as use of the company plane, staff time, and cash-only "all-night entertainment services."
It's hard to imagine this kind of corporate involvement with a club that flaunted its race discrimination. In a parallel situation in 1990, when the subject was exclusion of blacks at the Alabama club hosting the PGA Championship, IBM pulled its sponsorship with the statement: "Supporting even indirectly activities which are exclusionary is against IBM's practices and policies." Yet because the subject is now gender discrimination, IBM repudiates these selfsame policies, and other corporate lemmings follow suit. If it's good enough for Big Blue, why not?
The harm to stockholders pales beside the harm to working women. If the largest companies can send the message that sex discrimination is acceptable, it has a legitimizing effect that goes far beyond Augusta. It trickles down to frontline management, it permeates the culture, and it stifles women's progress. If women were fully represented on corporate boards, it is doubtful they would approve company entertainment at places that keep females out, or nominate new board members who condone sex discrimination by belonging to such clubs. But females constitute only 10% of boards in the Fortune 500.
Why?
Well, maybe because of the good ol' boy network, which happens to be the focus of Ms. Burk's new book, Cult of Power, published this week by Scribner. But I'm sure that Ms. Burk would not use the purity of her criticism regarding corporate support for Augusta National Golf Club to promote her new book.
Apparently, Ms. Burk has a policy of advocating rather odd views. Apart from the dubious notion that a corporation's support for a popular golf tournament means that it is supporting a golf club's policy of discriminating against women, Ms. Burk's argument fails to acknowledge that wealthy businessmen -- as well as strident women -- have the right in America to associate in a private organization with whomever they want. Those of us not in the organization may not like it, but about the time that we start advocating that the government do something about the club excluding people like us, we better start worrying about what else that a government so empowered can do. And believe me, a government so empowered can generate much greater injustice to women than anything Augusta National can do.
By the way, The Master's website has a pop-up screen that allows you to watch players on the practice tee hitting balls while warming up and on a couple of holes on the course. Check it out. That is, if you can tolerate using the website of a club comprised of a bunch of rich, white guys.
Posted by Tom at 5:05 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (1)
April 6, 2005
Golf Digest's Greatest 100 American golf courses
Golf Digest's annual survey of America's Greatest 100 Golf Courses is always an interesting and controversial article, and this year's edition is no exception.
The following is Golf Digest's Top 10 courses in the United States or, as one friend of mine from the Midwest points out, "the Top 10 courses near the East and West Coasts":
1. PINE VALLEY G.C. Pine Valley, N.J.-- George Crump & H.S. Colt (1918)2. AUGUSTA NATIONAL G.C.
Augusta, Ga.-- Alister Mackenzie & Bobby Jones (1933)3. SHINNECOCK HILLS G.C.
Southampton, N.Y. -- William Flynn (1931)4. CYPRESS POINT CLUB
Pebble Beach, Calif. -- Alister Mackenzie & Robert Hunter (1928)5. OAKMONT C.C.
Oakmont, Pa. -- Henry Fownes (1903)6. PEBBLE BEACH G. LINKS
Pebble Beach, Calif.-- Jack Neville & Douglas Grant (1919)7. MERION G.C. (East)
Ardmore, Pa. -- Hugh Wilson (1912)8. WINGED FOOT G.C. (West)
Mamaroneck, N.Y. -- A.W. Tillinghast (1923)9. NATIONAL G. LINKS OF AMERICA
Southampton, N.Y.�C.B. Macdonald (1911)10. SEMINOLE G.C.
Juno Beach, Fla.�Donald Ross (1929)
One cannot quibble much with most of this list, although Golf Digest's Eastern U.S. bias shows with the inclusion of both Shinnecock Hills and National Golf Links of America. Both of those are fine courses and clearly should be included in the Top 100 somewhere, but neither are Top 10 material.
In addition to its East Coast bias, Golf Digest's annual survey has long had an anti-Texas bias, reflected by its inclusion of only a couple of Texas courses each year in the Top 100. This year, Golf Digest includes the deserving Tom Fazio-designed Dallas National Golf Club (65th) and traditional favorite Colonial Country Club in Ft. Worth (73rd), which is really not one of the top ten golf courses in Texas anymore. Texas might not have the number of great golf courses of such golf meccas as Florida, California, and Arizona, but it does have its share of outstanding golf courses that compare favorably with golf courses anywhere. Golf Digest's persistent failure to include more Texas golf venues among its Top 100 U.S. courses borders on the absurd.
Golf Digest's annual survey also includes a list of the best courses in each state, and here is its list of the Top 25 Texas courses:
1. Dallas National G.C. Dallas2. Colonial C.C. Fort Worth
3. Whispering Pines G. C. Trinity
4. Spanish Oaks G. C. Bee Cave
5. The Club at Carlton Woods, The Woodlands
6. Briggs Ranch G. C. San Antonio
7. Champions G. C. (Cypress Creek ) Houston
8. Brook Hollow C. C. Dallas
9. Shadow Hawk G. C. Richmond
10. Crown Colony C. C. Lufkin
11. Royal Oaks C. C. Houston
12 The Rawls Course, Lubbock
13. The Tribute G.C. The Colony
14. River Oaks C. C. Houston
15. Cimarron Hills C. C. Georgetown
16. The Vacquero Club, Westlake
17. Preston Trail G. C. Dallas
18. The Hills C. C. (Flintrock Falls) Austin
19. Barton Creek Resort & Spa (Fazio Foothills) Austin
20. The Club at Comanche Trace, Kerrville
21. Pine Dunes Resort & G. C. Frankston
22. Austin Country Club, Austin
23. Deerwood at the Clubs at Kingwood, Houston
24 Hyatt Hill Country G. C. San Antonio
25. Barton Creek Resort & Spa (Fazio Canyons)
Here are the Houston area golf courses included in that Top 25 list:
3. Whispering Pines G. C. Trinity5. The Club at Carlton Woods, The Woodlands
7. Champions G. C. (Cypress Creek ) Houston
9. Shadow Hawk G. C. Richmond
11. Royal Oaks C. C. Houston
14. River Oaks C. C. Houston
23. Deerwood at the Clubs at Kingwood, Houston
Golf Digest does a reasonable job with its Texas list, but there are several errors and oversights. As noted above, Colonial is rated far too highly and realistically should come in around number 20 or so. Houston's Lochinvar Golf Club, which Golf Digest usually rates in the top 10 or so of Texas courses, is not even rated in the top 25 this year. On the other hand, Golf Digest always rates Houston's River Oaks Country Club highly because of its Donald Ross design, and it is certainly -- along with Memorial Park Golf Course -- one of Houston's finest old golf courses. However, there are at least a dozen golf courses in the Houston area alone that are superior to River Oaks, so its rating as number 14 in Texas and six in Houston is a bit too high. The inclusion of Houston's Royal Oaks at no. 11 in Texas and no. 5 in the Houston area is downright bizarre as that nice but otherwise pedestrian course probably would barely eke into the Top 20 courses in the Houston area, much less all of Texas.
Of Houston's top three courses, Golf Digest gets it right, although I would rate Champions Cypress Creek first, Whispering Pines second, and Carlton Woods third. I would put Lochinvar at four, followed by Shadow Hawk, Deerwood, and The Woodlands East Course (formerly the TPC at The Woodlands) as the top seven golf courses in the Houston area. By the way, the picture of the golf hole above is no. 17 at The Woodlands East Course -- the notorious "Devil's Bathtub" -- and one of the best holes in Houston.
One final note. Two new Houston-area golf courses that are about ready to open may edge their way into the top courses in Texas and the Houston area. First, Rees Jones' long-awaited tournament course for the Shell Houston Open golf tournament will open this summer at Redstone Golf Club. And then, Tom Fazio's new course in The Woodlands -- where many folks believe the Shell Houston Open should be played -- will open on a beautiful piece of land later this year. These two new courses will surely add to the outstanding array of courses that makes Houston one of the truly under-rated golf venues in the United States.
Posted by Tom at 6:42 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack (1)
Promising new drug to treat alcoholism
A new Journal of the American Medical Association ($) article (abstract here) described in this summary reports on a once-monthly, injectable medication that has been shown to reduce heavy drinking substantially among alcoholics.
The drug is a formulation of naltrexone, a drug that is currently approved to treat alcohol dependence. However, the drug is currently rarely prescribed because it must be taken daily, which most alcoholics simply will not do. Cambridge, Mass.-based Alkermes Inc. filed an application with the Food and Drug Administration earlier this month to approve the drug, which will be known under its brand name of Vivitrex. According to the study, Vivitrex -- which must be taken only monthly -- has the "potential to improve intervention strategies for alcohol dependence." Alkermes funded the JAMA-Vivitrex study and the development of the drug was supported by a grant from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, a unit of the National Institutes of Health.
The NIAAA estimates that up to 18 million Americans have an alcohol-related disorder. Alcohol dependence is defined as women who consume four or more drinks a day on a regular basis and men who consume five or more drinks, which researchers used to define a "heavy drinking" day in the JAMA study involving Vivitrex.
James C. Garbutt of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill headed up the study, which involved 624 alcoholic adults. The patients received either an intramuscular injection of 380 milligrams of Vivitrex, 190 milligrams of Vivitrex, or a placebo (i.e., a fake injection), and all of the patients received counseling. Overall, the study sh tock) that transmuted that volatility into unnaturally smooth reported earnings.
One big albatross for [former AIG chairman and CEO, Maurice "Hank" Greenberg] will be the Enron overhang. By far, the largest factor in AIG's stock decline is the evaporation of its predictability premium, not the accounting scandal. But that won't stop trial lawyers, prosecutors or the media from assuming that the distance between AIG's peak and its ultimate low reflects the damage Mr. Greenberg personally did to investors.
And in closing, Mr. Jenkins notes that it may still be a tad early to be making a play for AIG stock, which is down almost 30% in value from the beginning of the year:
[AIG's board of directors] no interest in defending any of this, since board members have learned that their personal fates are best served by running up a white flag. Eliot Spitzer, New York's attorney general, let it be known this week that their compliance had met with his approval.There's also a question of whether, in a market where skepticism rather than trust is the rule, it's possible or sensible to maintain an organization as complex as AIG. Hold onto your seats for the battle over Starr International, a peculiar entity set up years ago and holding much of the incentive wealth of the company's top executives. We can't think of a quicker way to destroy the morale of AIG's remaining leadership, and thus perhaps the company.
Posted by Tom at 5:15 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Fortune magazine's annual list of the 500 largest U.S. publicly-owned companies has just been published, and the following 21 Houston-area companies made the list. The asterisk next to Anadarko's name notes that the company is based in The Woodlands, which is 30 miles north of downtown Houston:
Posted by Tom at 6:56 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)
San Ramone, California-based ChevronTexaco Corp. won the bidding yesterday for its California-based rival Unocal Corp. yesterday in a cash-and-stock package valued at $16.8 billion. The deal is the largest oil-sector deal since 2001 when the acquirer was created under Chevron's merger with Texaco.
ChevronTexaco is paying a premium price for Unocal as U.S. oil companies face heightened competition for scarce oil-and-gas reserves, many of which are locked up in regions where the companies are not welcome. The theory behind the deal is that it turns the merged company into the second-largest holder of oil-and-gas reserves in Southeast Asia behind Petrochina Co. and also strengthens ChevronTexaco's presence in the Caspian Sea region.
However, today's high oil prices can turn such deals upside down in a hurry. Although the price allows companies such as ChevronTexaco to have the strong balance sheet necessary for such acquisitions, should oil prices retreat from current levels in the next two to three years, the risk of write-downs in goodwill is high. ChevronTexaco hedged that risk somewhat by financing the deal mostly with its own stock -- ChevronTexaco will pay $4.4 billion in cash and the balance in stock, and will assume $1.6 billion in Unocal debt.
Moreover, the deal reflects the increasing price that oil companies will pay for reserves. ChevronTexaco was able to replace only about 20% of the oil and gas that it produced in 2004, even though it generated in excess of $13 billion in profits and ended the year with over $9 billion in cash. The merged company will have daily production of over 3 million barrels of oil equivalents and increases ChevronTexaco's reserves by about 15%.
The deal values Unocal at $62.07 a share, which is a 3.6% discount based on Unocal's closing price of $64.35 on Friday. Widespread market anticipation that Unocal would be acquired has increased its share price nearly 50% since the beginning of the year. News of the deal actually sent both Unocal and ChevronTexaco stock down yesterday on the New York Stock Exchange, Unocal to $59.60 and ChevronTexaco to $56.98.
Posted by Tom at 5:34 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
In an effort to calm the harried investors in his latest target, American International Group Inc., New York AG ("Aspiring Governor") the reigning Lord of Regulation Eliot Spitzer announced yesterday that his office expects to reach a civil settlement with AIG even as he rachets up the criminal investigation into several private entities closely tied to AIG's business. Here are the previous posts on the developing AIG and Berkshire Hathaway debacle.
After being hammered for over a month, the price of AIG shares responded to the Lord's announcement yesterday by increasing to $2.35, to $53.30 on the New York Stock Exchange. Even with yesterday's spike, however, AIG shares are down 26% since the beginning of the Enronesque investigation into AIG's finances. The seemingly bottomless drop in AIG's share price is driven by the fact that no major financial company has survived criminal charges in the history of U.S. financial markets.
Meanwhile, seemingly just to make things more interesting, several senior AIG executives were fleeing the boards of C.V. Starr & Co. and Starr International Co,, two closely-owned AIG-associated entities, the former of which controls 12% of AIG's stock. Former AIG chairman and CEO Maurice R. "Hank" Greenberg is the CEO of Starr International, which uses its stake in AIG to provide deferred-compensation to AIG executives. Inasmuch as the Lord of Regulation does not approve of Mr. Greenberg's tentacles affecting AIG, the AIG board is scrambling to disassociate itself from the closely-owned entities and reassert control over AIG's executive compensation program.
Given the Lord's disapproval of AIG's arrangement with Starr International, that the structure of the arrangement may actually benefit AIG shareholders does not appear to be a particularly important consideration at this time to the AIG board.
Posted by Tom at 5:03 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Remember that motion that former Enron chairman and CEO Ken Lay filed last fall in which he requested a separate trial from his Enron co-defendants Jeff Skilling and Richard Causey?
You know, the one in which U.S. District Judge Sim Lake delivered a body blow to the Lay defense team when he granted Mr. Lay a separate trial on the bank fraud counts that are specific toward him, but ruled that he would also have to stand trial with Messrs. Skilling and Causey in regard to the securities fraud and related criminal counts that are common to all three of the former Enron executives.
Well, the effect of that ruling is reverberating through Houston's Federal Courthouse today. The Chronicle's Mary Flood is reporting that the Enron Task Force has filed a motion in which it requests that Judge Lake schedule the trial of Mr. Lay's bank fraud charges in May or June of this year before the trial of the larger case against Messrs. Lay, Skilling, and Causey that is currently scheduled to begin on January 17, 2006. Apparently, in support of its motion, the Task Force is relying upon Mr. Lay's prior pleadings and public statements to the effect he wanted a speedy trial of all criminal charges against him.
Of course, Mr. Lay made those statements in the context of seeking a separate trial altogether from Messrs. Skilling and Lay, and quickly waived his speedy trial right when Judge Lake ruled that he would be tried with Messrs. Skilling and Causey on the common charges relating to all three. Thus, the Task Force is taking Mr. Lay's request for a speedy trial out of context in using those statements to support its request for a quick trial on the bank fraud charges. Mr. Lay has suggested that the separate bank fraud trial commence within 60 days after the conclusion of the multi-defendant trial.
Judge Lake probably will not want to risk the prejudicial publicity of having Mr. Lay tried on the smaller bank fraud case before the larger multi-party case, so my sense is that he will deny the Task Force's request for an earlier trial of the bank fraud charges against him. But the results of Mr. Lay's seemingly innocuous motion seeking a separate trial in this case will prompt defense attorneys to think twice (and maybe three times) before filing such a motion in future multi-defendant cases.
Posted by Tom at 4:36 PM | Comments (2) | T http://mtcgi.kir.com/mt-trackbk.cgi/1844" dc:title="City of Houston Housing Department slammed in audit" dc:identifier="http://blog.kir.com/archives/2005_04.asp#001866" dc:subject="News - Houston Local" dc:description="Coming on the heels of this earlier story regarding HUD's decision to freeze over $48 million of federal funds allocated to the City of Houston until the City corrects serious problems in the City's Housing and Community Development Department, this..." dc:creator="" dc:date="2005-04-04T05:21:25-06:00" /> -->
Coming on the heels of this earlier story regarding HUD's decision to freeze over $48 million of federal funds allocated to the City of Houston until the City corrects serious problems in the City's Housing and Community Development Department, this Chronicle article reports on a Jefferson Wells audit report that essentially concludes that the Authority has been run as the personal fiefdom of some of its directors for over a decade.
The report identifies serious deficiencies in every area of the department, including a dysfunctional management culture and ineffective systems for verifying such basic things as whether contractors were doing their jobs and ensuring repayment of loans. Probably only the department's system for setting up directors' travel arrangements worked without a hitch.
The findings in the report are no surprise to anyone who has attempted to deal with the City of Houston Housing Department in an honest and businesslike manner. Tip to Mayor White: Clean house.
Posted by Tom at 5:21 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
With Spring Training concluded and Opening Day on Tuesday approaching, it's time for my preview of the Stros and the upcoming Major League season.
My first year of blogging coincided with last year's magical Stros season in which the club came with ir record last season and above only the woeful Pirates in the NL Central standings.
Could it really get that bad so quickly?
Well, yes it could, but my sense is that such a dramatic downfall is unlikely. Although the Stros are coming to the end of the Bidg-Bags era, the club has an interesting mix of veteran players and youthful prospects that can still contend for a playoff spot.
In evaluating the Stros on this blog last season, I introduced two handy statistics that baseball sabermetrician Lee Sinins developed for evaluating hitters and pitchers. "Runs created against average" (RCAA) is the hitters' statistic. RCAA measures the two most important things from a hitter's perspective in winning baseball games �- that is, creating runs and avoiding making outs. Thus, RCAA computes the number of outs that a particular player uses in creating runs for his team. RCAA then compares that number to the amount of runs that an average player in the league would create while using an equivalent number of outs. Inasmuch as the hypothetical average player's RCAA is always zero, a player can have either a positive RCAA -- which indicates he is an above average hitter (i.e., Barry Bonds, who had a +152 RCAA last season) -- or a negative RCAA, which means he is performing below average (i.e., Ausmus, who had a -26 RCAA).
"Runs saved againt average" (RSAA) is the parallel statistic for pitchers. RSAA measures the number of runs that a pitcher saves for his team relative to the number of runs that an average pitcher in the league would give up while obtaining an equivalent number of outs for his team (as with RCAA, RSAA is park-adjusted). As with RCAA, a hypothetical average pitcher in the league always has an RSAA of exactly zero. Thus, a pitcher can have either a positive RSAA, which indicates he is an above average pitcher (i.e., Randy Johnson had a +50 RSAA last season) or a negative RSAA, which means he is performing below average (i.e., Tim Redding had a -15 RSAA last season).
Clearly, the biggest problem for this Stros club is going to be hitting, which was also the biggest problem of last season's club. The excitement of the Stros' extraordinary play during the final quarter of last season tends to make people forget that the Stros meandered around 10th among the 16 National League teams in RCAA for the first three quarters of the season. Even after their hitting picked up during their closing drive, the Stros still ended up just seventh in RCAA among the National League teams. Given that the Stros' collective +50 RCAA included substantial contributions from the now departed Beltran (28) and Kent (12), it is certainly reasonable to question whether the Stros' hitting this season will be sufficient to sustain a playoff caliber performance.
Part of the reason that I think the Stros will be good enough wsweek/?pg=1">this online review of its issues over the past 27 years that have featured a picture of the Pope on the cover.
George Weigel's Witness to Hope is probably the best biography on Pope John Paul II. Mr. Weigal's op-ed from ten years ago -- The Mobile Pope -- explains how the Pope modernized the papacy and in The Holy Father in the Holy Land from five years ago, Mr. Wiegel describes the Pope's historic visit to Jerusalem and the Middle East.
Pope John Paul II leaves a legacy of grace, strength and forgiveness that is a beacon of light in an increasingly dark world. His is a life worthy of reflection, so take a few moments to review the momentous contributions of this remarkable man.
Update: Mr. Wiegel provides this interesting personal remembrance upon the Pope's death on Saturday afternoon.
Posted by Tom at 7:43 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Oil prices climbed to record highs Friday on mounting concern about limited supplies.
Crude futures for May delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange settled up $1.87 at $57.27 a barrel. That price is a new record closing price, beating the old record of $56.72 a barrel of a couple of weeks ago. Adjusted for inflation, Friday's closing price close is the highest since Oct. 11, 1990 when Nymex crude closed at $40.42, which is equal to $58.18 in today's dollars. Nymex crude would still need to reach $90 a barrel to beat the inflation-adjusted high price that was established in 1980.
This Forbes graph provides an instructive overview of oil prices over the past 150 years. The last 30 years of oil price fluctuations has been quite a ride.
Posted by Tom at 6:57 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
John Brattain over at the Hardball Times wrote this well researched article about one of the most underappreciated Stros players of all-time, Jimmy Wynn.
Wynn -- who was nicknamed "the Toy Cannon" -- toiled for the Stros during the club's difficult early years when the club was not blessed with much talent. Moreover, his career hitting numbers do not compare well with statistics of today's sluggers because Wynn played in a different, more pitching dominated era (1963-77). Nevertheless, as Brattain points out, Wynn was one of the best centerfielders of his era:
Ive often been amazed that Wynn never got more love from the BBWAA or the VC in Hall of Fame consideration. No, Im not advocating him, but when I watched this little dynamo, I was always very impressed how he played the game.When you consider that he played the bulk of his career in what were at the time the toughest hitters parks in the game (the Astrodome and Dodger Stadium) his 291 home runs looks very impressive. Wynn was a plus defender (albeit a rag arm which caused right fielder Joe Ferguson to cut in front of Wynn to make a catch with a runner on third during the 1974 World Series) with a terrific batting eye. He has a number of legitimate knocks against him: short career (6653 AB), no hardware save three All Star Game rings, just 26 post-season AB, no big career milestones etc.
According to Lee Sinins sabermetric encyclopedia, Wynn was the second best (albeit a distant second) CF in the NL from 1960 to 1980 (using the "Runs Created Against Position" ("RCAA") metric). If there was ever an "Unappreciated Player Hall-of-Fame," Im guessing Wynn would go in on the first ballot.
Brattain's article points to another reason why the RCAA is particularly valuable to evaluate hitting ability across different eras. RCAA measures the two most important things in winning baseball games that is, creating runs and avoiding making outs -- by computing the number of outs that a particular player uses in creating runs for his team. RCAA then compares that number to the amount of runs that an average player in the league would create while using an equivalent number of outs. Inasmuch as the hypothetical average player's RCAA is always zero, a player can have either a positive RCAA -- which indicates he is an above average hitter (i.e., Barry Bonds) -- or a negative RCAA, which means he is performing below average (i.e., Brad Ausmus).
Thus, RCAA measures a player's hitting ability against that of an average player each season and, as a result, a player's lifetime RCAA reflects how well that player hit in comparison to an average player during that player's career. Accordingly, Wynn's RCAA reflects how well he compared to an average hitter during his era, just as the current Stros' hitters' RCAA reflects how they measure against the average player in today's era. Inasmuch as Wynn was consistently in the top ten in the National League RCAA during a good part of his career -- which is basically the stature of current players Bags, Bidg and Berkman during their prime seasons -- the Toy Cannon remains one of the best Stros players of all-time.
Posted by Tom at 11:59 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Kevin Whited at blogHouston.net notes that the Houston Chronicle has been awarded a prestigious business writing prize from the Society of American Business Editors and Writers in the Breaking News category for its coverage of the indictment of former Enron chairman and CEO, Ken Lay.
The award is a well-deserved honor for the Chronicle Enron-reporting team, which has been led by Chronicle reporter Mary Flood. The Chron endured some criticism from local and national press sources for its supposedly slow reaction when the Enron scandal began to unfold in late 2001. However, regardless of that criticism, the Chronicle is now clearly the leading source of information on the Enron scandal. The Chron's special Enron online section is the best overall source of information on pending matters relating to the Enron scandal.
Posted by Tom at 5:45 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
American International Group Inc.'s public admission this week that it engaged in improper accounting practices has placed AIG's auditor -- PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP -- squarely in the sights of government regulators and plaintiffs' lawyers. Here are the earlier posts on the fast developing scandal that has enveloped AIG and Berkshire Hathaway over the past several weeks.
Federal and state investigators (Mr. Spitzer is seemingly everywhere these days) are currently evaluating what AIG told PWC auditors about the questionable transactions, but it is only a matter of time before investigators and class action securities plaintiffs' lawyers will begin to question PWC regarding its failure to uncover the allegedly improper accounting. As noted in this earlier post, one of the most troubling aspects of the current AIG investigation is that many of these transactions under scrutiny may well have been reviewed and approved by various business professionals working on behalf of AIG. Already, press reports on the AIG investigation assume that the accounting for the transactions was improper, and any defense that the transactions were accounted for properly has been shoved aside in the wave of negative publicity and the AIG board's efforts to bend over backwards for the regulators in an attempt to limit the collateral damage to AIG's stock price.
At any rate, if the transactions were accounted for improperly and were material, generally accepted accounting principles require that AIG restate its financial reports for several past years. If the violations are not deemed material, then AIG could correct its financials by taking a one-time adjustment to its fourth-quarter results for 2004. The question of whether an accounting violation is material is determined by whether the financial result of the violation would have influenced the opinion of a hypothetical reasonable investor. AIG has already stated that correcting the known violations would reduce its $83 billion net worth by only 2%.
So, as we wait for the other shoe to drop on PWC, let's hope that governmental regulators take note of this point.
Posted by Tom at 4:47 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
