Daily Archives: July 28, 2004

The Rocket rocks on

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The Rocket pitched seven innings of five hit ball as the Stros continued their domination of the hapless DBacks by winning 6-1 in the third game of their four game series on Wednesday night at the Juice Box.
As usual, Clemens was reliable, striking out eight while giving up only one run. JK and Bags whacked yaks again, while the Stros continued to improve their hitting statistics against the DBacks pitchers not named Johnson or Webb.
Tim Redding takes the hill tomorrow in the Businessman’s Special against Lance Cormier, who has a 14+ ERA. The Stros then take off to Cincy for a weekend series before returning home next week to face the Braves and the Expos.

More Medical Center political strife

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Daniel Arnold, a member of the Baylor College of Medicine board of trustees and the former chairman of that board, has sent the full board a July 14 letter calling for Baylor President Dr. Peter Traber to be fired for failed leadership. Mr. Arnold’s letter states that Traber’s management of Baylor is “deleterious” and “divisive,” and that “his lack of realistic vision and fundamental errors in judgment” are not what Baylor needs in a leader. Here is the Houston Chronicle article on this latest Medical Center dustup. The letter is expected to be discussed today at a meeting of the 48-member board.
Corby Robertson, the current chairman of the Baylor board, told the Chronicle that he believes that Dr. Traber has the board’s support
Mr. Arnold sent his letter amid the recent political fallout over the split of the long teaching relationship between Baylor and The Methodist Hospital (earlier posts here). The institutions have been in open conflict since deciding to sever their 50-year relationship in which Methodist served as the teaching hospital for Baylor students and residents. Last week, Baylor threatened legal action against Methodist if the hospital does not cease actions that Baylor alleges are interfering with Baylor’s operations, including Methodist’s “aggressive recruiting” of Baylor faculty members.
Mr. Arnold was the Baylor board chairman who butted heads with popular Baylor faculty member and president, Dr. Ralph Feigin. In that conflict, Mr. Arnold attempted to force Dr. Feigin to choose between the presidency and his other job as physician-in-chief at Texas Children’s Hospital. Dr. Feigin subsequently announced he was stepping down, only to have the decision overturned a month later after key faculty and trustees objected. Dr. Traber replaced Dr. Feigin in March, 2003 when Dr. Feigin resigned at the age of 65.
Update: The Baylor board voted unanimously (with one abstention) to support Dr. Traber.

Enron objects to employee settlement

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Setting up a potential jurisdictional battle between two federal courts, Enron Corp. filed an objection in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan yesterday seeking to block a settlement payment of the $85 million in insurance proceeds to approximately 20,000 current and former Enron employees that is emanating out of pending litigation in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas. Here is an earlier post on the proposed settlement.
Enron employees lost hundreds of millions of dollars when the Enron stock in their 401(k) plan became worthless as the company spiraled into bankruptcy in late 2001. After they sued Enron in 2002, U.S. District Judge Melinda Harmon in Houston approved the tentative settlement to the former Enron retirement-plan participants earlier this summer. The final hearing on the proposed settlement is scheduled for Aug. 19.
The settlement, which would be the largest to date for a case involving company stock in retirement plans, would be largely paid by Associated Electric & Gas Insurance Services Ltd. and Federal Insurance Co. Enron had $85 million in liability insurance to cover company employees who were acting as fiduciaries.
In pleadings filed with the Enron bankruptcy court in New York, Enron and its creditors argue the money is an asset of the bankruptcy estate and the bankruptcy court should decide who gets it. Enron and many of its creditors have previously filed pleadings in the bankruptcy case asserting that the employees’ claims should be subordinate to all other creditors.