Daily Archives: September 13, 2005

Blogging at the big Houston shelters

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astrodome9.jpgFormer Houstonian Christine Hurt of the Conglomerate blog passes along a new Houston-based blog by two South Texas College of Law professors — Tracy McGaugh and Kathy Bergin — who are making daily treks to Reliant Park and sometimes to the George R. Brown Convention Center to provide insight into the experience of the evacuees at both locations. The new blog is called White Washing the Black Storm: We Are Watching.
Each day, the profs volunteer at the medical aid table and ask what medicine is needed. Then, the profs go to a local drugstore and buy the medicine needed. The blog has a link where you can donate to the cost of the medicine, which the profs have been largely subsidizing.
The blog also provides somewhat unvarnished commentary on the goings on at each shelter, which is an important component of the complete story regarding Houston’s extraordinary effort to provide for the evacuees. It’s not all peaches and cream out there, folks.

One of the benefits of takeover battles

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Six Flags Astroworld.gifFinancially-strapped Six Flags, Inc. — the subject of an ongoing takeover battle — announced yesterday that it would close Houston’s AstroWorld theme park at the end of October and that it had engaged Cushman & Wakefield to market the valuable 109-acre site just south of the Reliant Park complex for sale.
The 37 year old theme park is overdue for finally being put to rest. AstroWorld was not originally a Six Flags Park, so it was not as well-planned as most other Six Flags Parks. Moreover, the park was landlocked from expansion and had poor relations with Harris County with regard to parking issues at adjacent Reliant Park. Consequently, Six Flags minimized capital expenditures at the park, which turned it into a decaying mess over the past several years. Thankfully, the value of the land is finally prompting Six Flags to put the underperforming park out of its misery.

Update on Katrina’s economic ripples

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oil-rigsmall.gifPetroleum futures fell to pre-Hurricane Katrina levels for the first time since the storm yesterday on news of heavy losses in refined products and market concern that that high gasoline prices have depressed demand for product. Earlier posts on the developing economic effects of Katrina over the past couple of weeks are here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.
Benchmark light, sweet crude oil futures for October settled at $63.34 a barrel on the Nymex Exchange, while Nymex gasoline futures for October settled down 8.60 cents at $1.8737 a gallon. Losses in heating oil futures on the Nymex were also substantial as the October contract settled down 8.22 cents at $1.8143 a gallon.
Despite the downward trend in the gasoline futures market, news on the Gulf oil and gas production front remained measured. Although operations at the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port were fully restored yesterday for the first time since the storm, oil production in the Gulf of Mexico showed only marginal improvement during the weekend as about 57.4% of daily output remains offline. Almost 60% of the daily total was offline as of this past Friday.

Westar executives convicted

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westar2.jpgA federal jury in Kansas City yesterday found former Westar Energy Inc. Chief Executive Officer David Wittig and chief strategy officer Douglas Lake guilty of looting the electric utility of millions of dollars. Previous posts on the hotly-contested case — which included a previous trial that ended in a hung jury — are here and here.
The prosecution against the two former Westar executives was similar to the prosecution of former Tyco executives Dennis Kozlowski and Mark Swartz in that the prosecution alleged that Messrs. Wittig and Lake engineered extravagant salaries and benefits for themselves at the expense of Westar shareholders while hiding their actions from the company’s board and federal regulators. As in the Tyco trial, Messrs. Wittig and Lake denied the charges and contended that all of their actions were legal, approved by the company’s directors and disclosed in the company’s regulatory filings. The jury found Messrs. Wittig and Lake guilty of conspiracy, wire fraud, circumventing internal controls and money laundering.
Mr. Wittig became CEO of Westar in 1998 and hired Mr. Lake, a former colleague at Salomon Brothers, to become his chief aide. After some initial success, Mr. Wittig’s quick-deal strategy faltered and Westar’s stock price fell from $44 to $9 as the company came under pressure from shareholders and regulators. As in the Tyco case, an outside law firm hired by Westar’s board eventually uncovered many of the actions of Messrs. Wittig and Lake that led to the indictment against the former executives.

2006 — The Enron Trial Year

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enron gavel.jpgOver four years after Enron’s descent into bankruptcy, 2006 is shaping up as the year of the Enron criminal trials.
First, in mid-January, the trial of the Enron Task Force’s legacy Enron case — i.e., the trial that everyone will remember — cranks up against former Enron chairman Ken Lay, former CEO Jeff Skilling, and former chief accountant, Richard Causey.
Then, in May, the first retrial of defendants in this year’s mistrial in the Enron Broadband case will take place against Kevin Howard, former chief financial officer of EBS, and Michael Krautz, former senior accounting director at EBS.
Following that trial, the second retrial of one of the Enron Broadband defendants will proceed in June against Scott Yeager, the former senior vice president of business development. Finally, the final two of the five Broadband defendants — Joe Hirko, former co-CEO of Enron Broadband Services, and Rex Shelby, former senior vice president of engineering and operations at EBS, will be retried in September. Mary Flood’s article on the Enron Broadband retrials is here.
Thus, 2006 is shaping up as quite a season for Enron-related criminal trials. And you thought the NFL season lasted a long time?