Daily Archives: June 20, 2006

So far, so good

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rice logo.gifThe Rice Owls are off to a good start in the 2006 College World Series, winning their first two games over Georgia (6-4) and yesterday over Miami (3-2). In so doing, the Owls avoided the dreaded loser bracket task of having to win three games in three straight days just to have the opportunity to play in the best-of-three championship series that begins on Saturday evening. North Carolina is the only other team in the CWS with two wins and no losses, so the Owls and Carolina are currently the favorites to proceed to the championship series.
The Owls’ next game is on Wednesday at 7 p.m. (television by ESPN2) against the winner of today’s Miami-Oregon State game and, if the Owls win that one, then they proceed to the first game of the championship series on Saturday evening. If the Owls lose tomorrow’s game, then they play the winner of that game again on Thursday night at 7 p.m. for the right to play in the championship series. Consequently, a win in tomorrow’s game would be huge for the Owls, who would then be able to preserve key pitching depth for the championship series while avoiding another pre-championship series game on Thursday. Baseball America’s continually updated bracket is here and Baseball America’s excellent CWS page is here, along with Aaron Fitt and Will Kimmey’s blog on the CWS.
By the way, this NY Times article from over the weekend will be of interest to those who follow the Rice baseball program. The article chronicles the surgeries that each of the three top pitchers from Rice’s 2003 NCAA Championship Baseball team have undergone during the initial stages of their professional careers.

The sad state of New Orleans

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andrew-jackson2.jpgOn the heels of this report that New Orleans has lost over 60% of its population since Hurricane Katrina last summer, this NY Times article reports that, despite billions of dollars in federal aid that is available, local New Orleans governmental officials cannot even agree on whether a government plan to faciliate the rebuilding of New Orleans is even being prepared, much less when such a plan will be issued.
Then yesterday, after a weekend of grisly violence, New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin admitted that New Orleans police could not control the city’s crime problems and requested that the state send National Guard troops to help patrol the streets of New Orleans.
Meanwhile, amidst such dire problems, enormous resources are being expended on the civic largesse of supporting the city’s National League Football team.
What a mess.

More guilty pleas in gas trading-price reporting cases

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gas trading2.jpgThree former natural gas traders pleaded guilty yesterday in San Francisco to conspiracy to manipulate the price of natural gas in interstate commerce in connection with criminal cases that are the same as federal prosecutors have pursued in Houston against former local traders. This previous post contains information on the Houston cases.
The three former traders admitted in their plea agreements that they conspired to report fictitious trades to Inside FERC, a natural gas industry newsletter, from roughly July 1, 2000 through Nov. 1, 2000 in an attempt to manipulate the published index prices of natural gas in the direction that would benefit their companies — Atlanta-based Mirant and Cincinnati-based Cinergy — natural gas positions in the market at the time. All three defendants entered into cooperation agreements with the Department of Justice and face up to five years in prison.
The guilty pleas resolve three more of over a dozen cases that the Justice Department has been pursuing in San Francisco and Houston in regard to alleged manipulation of natural gas trading indexes, which are used to value billions of dollars in gas contracts and derivatives. Industry publications such as Inside FERC use data from traders to calculate the index price of natural gas, which affects the level of profits that traders can generate. However, in each of these cases, it remains unclear in what context the allegedly false information was transmitted or whether the publication even used any false information. The government’s theory of criminal liability is that it needs only to prove that fake trades were reported to the publications and not that the trades were actually published or affected the markets.
Most of the traders charged in these cases have pled guilty under cooperation agreements with the DOJ, but several others are fighting the charges and currently awaiting trial, including former Dynegy trader Michelle Valencia and former El Paso trader Greg Singleton. Jury selection in the case against Valencia and Singleton is currently scheduled to begin on July 5, 2006 at 9 a.m. in U.S. District Judge Nancy F. Atlas’ court in Houston.