Daily Archives: March 22, 2005

New Provost named at UH

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shasta75.jpgAnne Linehan over at blogHouston.net alerts us to this University of Houston announcement that Donald J. Foss has been named the University’s new Provost.
Dr. Foss has been the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Florida State University for the past 10 years and, for 12 years before that, he was Dhairman of the Department of Psychology at The University of Texas at Austin. He replaces former UH Optometry Dean Jerald Strickland, who has filled the Provost position on an interim basis since September 2003.
By all accounts, Dean Strickland has done a marvelous job of patching up the relationship between the UH Faculty and Administration that had deteriorated badly during the tenure of former UH Provost Edward Sheridan. That bitter relationship is the subject of this April 2002 Tim Fleck Houston Press article.
Dr. Foss’ appointment is subject to approval by the UH Board of Regents at its April 6 meeting, and he is expected to assume the Provost position in July.

Well, at least it’s playing close by

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River Oaks Theatre.jpgThe Chron’s Mary Flood reports today that the documentary Enron, The Smartests Guys in the Room (earlier post here) will open in Houston on April 20 at the River Oaks Theatre, just down the street from where Ken Lay, Jeff Skilling and Andy Fastow all live.
No word on whether the three are on the invitation-only list for the Houston premiere.
By the way, I am patiently waiting for a movie reviewer to read this paper before penning a review on the Enron documentary. Don’t worry, though. I am not holding my breath while waiting.

Rocket Boy disses the Space Shuttle program

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NASA.jpgHomer Hickam, the former NASA engineer and author whose brilliant October Sky was made into one of the best family films of the past decade, urges President Bush to discontinue the obsolescent Space Shuttle program in this devastating Wall Street Journal op-ed ($), in which he observes:

I left NASA in 1998 to pursue a writing career. I’m glad I did, because I could no longer stand to work on the Space Shuttle: 24 years after it first flew, what was once a magnificent example of engineering has become an old and dangerous contraption. It has killed 14 people and will probably kill more if it continues to be launched. It has also wasted a generation of engineers trying to keep it flying on schedule and safe. Frankly, that’s just not possible and most NASA engineers in the trenches know it. Einstein reputedly defined insanity as repeating the same behavior and expecting different results. The Shuttle program is a prime example of this.

Mr. Hickam describes a phenomena of big governmental agencies that Robert Coram examined in regard to the Defense Department in Boyd: The Fighter Pilot Who Changed the Art of War — i.e., the tendency of power elites in governmental agencies to perpetuate their pet projects at the expense of progress and innovation. Secretary Rumsfeld is confronting much the same inertia in the Defense Department as he attempts to transform America’s military, a topic that is addressed in these earlier posts. This is not a story that the MSM covers to any meaningful degree, but it remains one of the most important to America’s survival as a superpower.

Former WorldCom chairman finally settles

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Bert roberts.gifFormer WorldCom chairman Bert C. Roberts, Jr. — the final settlement holdout among WorldCom Inc.’s former outside directors — agreed to settle the WorldCom investors’ class-action lawsuit claims against him for $5.5 million, including $4.5 million out of his own pocket. Earlier posts on the WorldCom directors’ settlement may be reviewed through this post.
Roberts’ settlement leaves WorldCom’s former auditor Arthur Andersen as the only remaining defendant in the trial of the class action, which is scheduled to begin on Wednesday. With huge litigation exposure remaining in connection with both the WorldCom and Enron class actions cases, Arthur Andersen has apparently decided to use its remaining cash reserves (estimated to be several hundred million dollars) to defend the cases rather than dilute the reserves through settlement. Andersen really does not have much to lose in pursuing such a high risk litigation strategy. It’s not like the firm can be put out of business. The Justice Department has already taken care of that.

AIG sacrifices more to the Lord of Regulation

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AIG.gifFollowing on these earlier posts regarding the increasing threat of criminal indictment that is being place on American International Group executives, AIG canned two of its top executives — CFO Howard I. Smith and VP Christian M. Milton — after the two invoked their Fifth Amendment right against possible self-incrimination in the ongoing investigation into whether whether AIG manipulated its books in connection with a transaction involving General Re Corp., a unit of Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc.
Both men were terminated pursuant to an AIG company policy that requires employees to cooperate with government authorities investigating matters pertaining to the company. However, the two employees were clearly placed in an untenable position given recent developments in similar criminal investigations. In connection with this investigation involving Computer Associates, three former executives of that company pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice charges that were not tied to alleged misstatements told to federal investigators, but to alleged misstatements made to the company’s own law firm during the company’s internal investigation. Similarly, in this case involving accounting giant KPMG, the government required threatened criminal action against KPMG in connection with a tax avoidance scheme unless the firm forced one of its partners to cooperate with the government, which of course can use the partner’s statements against him in prosecuting a crime.
Accordingly, rather than attempt to facedown the government over its increasingly common use of its odious power to criminalize merely questionable business transactions, the AIG Board has decided to offer several sacificial lambs to the Lord of Regulation in an effort to avoid a meltdown of the company. One can only ponder how many such lambs this Lord will require?