... you should've heard Lay's *Pastor on the Brownwood airwaves of KXYL yesterday speaking to Lay's Character & Christianity. Surreal !

COMMENTARY
Young: Those whopping electric bills are Lay's legacy
John Young, WACO TRIBUNE-HERALD
Tuesday, July 11, 2006

If they sent his ashes into orbit, Ken Lay could never get around like he did on Earth.
One of humanity's great back scratchers and influence buyers is gone. But events he set in motion will linger on, and on, and on.
You think first, of course, of history's biggest corporate cataclysm: Enron. All the jobs lost, all the retirement funds squandered.
But the fact is that something further-reaching than even the Enron scandal is owed in large part to Lay's influence.
It bears on every utility bill in Texas, and maybe also the color of its skies as a once-regulated industry breaks free.
It may not be accurate to say that electric deregulation was an Enron invention. But no one put a better shine on it than Lay and his partner in corporate crime, Jeff Skilling.
Back in the mid-1990s, Skilling and Lay, who had found a niche in trading energy futures, pushed for electric deregulation in the Lone Star State and the opportunity to make a mint. You might say lawmakers were starry-eyed.
Our electricity at the time cost about half what it does today per kilowatt hour. Skilling told lawmakers the marketplace could cut that price by 30 percent to 40 percent.
With Washington pushing, and Enron-linked contributions warming political allies to the cause (Lay contributed $139,000 to candidate/Gov./President Bush, for one), these energy titans got a courteous airing before Texas lawmakers when electric deregulation came up at the late '90s.
"We consumer advocates had to wait until 2 in the morning to testify," recalled Randy Chapman of Texas Legal Services. The Enron boys? They testified on their time.
Not only did Lay and Skilling get what they wanted in electric deregulation, they got the guy they wanted to monitor things at the Public Utility Commission, Pat Wood. With Bush's rise, Wood also would rapidly ascend to head the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
Now, Texas is five years into partial deregulation, and experiencing electric bills that in some cases have risen 70 percent to 100 percent.
Next year, former monopolies such as TXU Energy won't be regulated at all, price-wise. Will that usher in the low-low rates touted by the Enron crowd? If it does signal lower rates by the big dogs, they could be the kinds that drive out competition.
But TXU can't lower rates too much, because it's on a coal-plant building spree, with Gov. Rick Perry supplying interference.
Assuming that TXU succeeds in getting permits for the 11 new coal plants it seeks, it will have gobbled up a big chunk of electric generation in the state.
"We'll have an unregulated monopoly then," Chapman said.
Relative to electric rates, the state points out that customers have the option of shopping around for better deals. Consumer groups point out that in some cases switching involves whopping deposits and higher rates based on credit scores.
Then there's the issue of companies that offer the service but never deliver. One such company was called New Power. It got into the newly deregulated arena early, took on a customer base, and then suddenly dumped customers and filed bankruptcy. Only when consumer groups filed complaints did New Power honor refunds.
Oh, yes: New Power was a spin-off from that other energy company, Enron.
Will deregulation deliver the goods — electricity at an affordable rate? Right now, the most affordable electricity in Texas is in regions still regulated. Their lawmakers managed to exempt them from the freight train — coal train? — Lay and Skilling set in motion.
The state has seen some benefits from deregulation, particularly among big purchasers and groups that have aggregated and found optimal deals.
But though the jury has spoken on Lay, it is still out on his shining notion: deregulation. Will the wonders of the marketplace shower on us all? Or will it simply create more rampaging corporate behemoths? You know, like Enron.

Young is Opinion Page editor of the Waco Tribune-Herald

source: http://www.statesman.com/opinion/content/editorial/stories/07/11YOUNG_edit.html
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* Dr. Steve Wende / Houston's First United Methodist Church
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Editorial/Opinion

Ken Lay escapes justice with death
Posted 7/6/2006 11:02 PM ET

San Francisco Chronicle,
in an editorial: "Because of (Ken) Lay's accounting fraud, 5,000 jobs were lost, as well as $1 billion in employee pensions. But Lay did not suffer as his employees did. In fact, he had the luxury of spending $200,000 for a chartered boat on his wife's birthday. He also spent $12,000 on his own birthday, $4,700 for a stay at the French Riviera, and another $32,000 for a trip to Park City in Utah. ... 'We had realized the American Dream and we were living a very expensive lifestyle,' Lay told jurors during his trial. 'It's the type of lifestyle that's difficult to turn off like a spigot.' Thousands of Enron employees and their families, however, were forced to change their lifestyles at the abrupt turn of a spigot because of his greed. Regrettably, Lay, who died at 64, will never spend time in prison to pay for what he did."

The New York Times,

in an editorial: "With (Lay's) folksy charm, the preacher's son who grew up poor in Missouri captivated the nation's attention in a way that Jeffrey Skilling ... who was Lay's co-defendant, never could. A boardroom Icarus, Lay made a spectacular fortune and befriended the president before his beloved company evaporated, taking the dreams and retirement accounts of workers and investors with it and utterly changing the way corporate books and decisions are scrutinized. An American symbol was extinguished in court; it was a man who died yesterday. Lay was fairly convicted of his crimes, but he was also a father and grandfather, whose family mourns his passing. He was headed for the penitentiary, but that did not have to be the end for him. He would have had an opportunity to use his personal skills to help other prisoners. And at 64 years, he might have had another shot at that third act after all. ... What Ken Lay might have done we will never know. Chances are it would have been interesting."

David Callaway,

editor in chief, MarketWatch: "Before Lay and Skilling were convicted in May, I wrote a column comparing Lay's plight to that of San Francisco Giants star Barry Bonds, saying that both had become symbols of everything that was wrong in their professions. It generated a spirited debate among readers on whether Bonds was innocent or guilty of taking steroids, and whether that mattered. Not one reader came to Lay's defense. In a country accustomed to leaping to conclusions and taking sides without pause, and at a time when cable TV talk shows and the Internet accelerate the process to within minutes of actual news events, I suppose it's no surprise that Lay became so widely despised."

Houston Chronicle,

in an editorial: "Lay's tragedy is that his story could have followed a different line, bringing him and the company he headed lasting success and admiration. Houston and its residents, which benefited greatly from Lay's philanthropy and civic leadership, need not have been grievously wounded by Enron's fall. Had Lay not been so driven to gain personal wealth and professional recognition, he could have presided over a growing, innovative company that led the way in providing energy to the world in today's highly competitive — and profitable — markets. Houston's charities, universities and arts groups could have benefited from steady support from Enron, its employees and its competitors."

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette,

in an editorial: "In his glory days, Lay was more than a captain of industry; he was a potentate for whom the normal rules of business did not apply. A friend of President Bush, he was courted and fawned over until the rot filled enough nostrils and Enron came crashing down. Even then, he was arrogance personified, as he made plain in his criminal trial earlier this year. Although he had been paid a king's ransom to run Enron, his defense was that he didn't do anything wrong and he could hardly be expected to know what underlings were doing. That did not sit well with a jury imbued with old-fashioned common sense. They knew con artists when they saw them and brought back verdicts (including against Skilling) accordingly."

source: http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/editorials/2006-07-06-opinionline_x.htm
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.....after the above "on air" performance, I'm shocked that the service (below) is not going to be simulcast on "right leaning" talk radio stations across the country ! I wonder if KXYL will book some of the Pastors of the employees who lost everything ?

Lay's memorial service set Wednesday

By KRISTEN HAYS
AP Business Writer
HOUSTON — Family and friends of Enron Corp. founder Kenneth Lay began saying their goodbyes in the same peaceful mountain setting where he died last week of heart disease.
Many more can do the same a few blocks from the failed energy giant's former headquarters where he rose to great heights before scandal and financial rot sank his company.
Lay, 64, died July 5 while vacationing in Aspen, Colo. with his wife, Linda. About 200 friends and family attended a memorial service Sunday in the ski resort town.
The second service, expected to have a much larger attendance, will be Wednesday at Houston's First United Methodist Church. Lay attended the church for about 12 years.
Lay and former Enron CEO Jeffrey Skilling were convicted in May of perpetuating fraud by repeatedly lying to investors and employees about the company's financial health before Enron careened into bankruptcy proceedings in December 2001.
Skilling, 52, attended the Aspen service and planned to attend Wednesday's service in Houston as well, said his attorney, Daniel Petrocelli.
The two men were the public faces of Enron throughout its days as a premier trading company that enjoyed Wall Street's adoration and grew into the nation's seventh-largest company. They also fell hard, vilified as masterminds of a massive fraud that fueled a flameout that left thousands jobless and wiped out billions from investors.
They insisted at their trial that they committed no crimes and no fraud occurred at Enron except for a few executives who skimmed money behind their backs.
A jury convicted Lay of six counts of fraud and conspiracy and Skilling of 19 of 28 counts of fraud, conspiracy, insider trading and lying to auditors. Lay also was convicted of bank fraud and lying to banks in a separate, non-jury trial related to his personal banking.
Little mention was made of Enron during Lay's Aspen service, and the same is expected for the Houston service. Before Enron crashed, Lay was a highly respected business leader and philanthropist in the nation's fourth-largest city with a powerful circle of friends that included President Bush as well as former President George H.W. Bush.
Security was tight for the Aspen service, and attendees were allowed in only if their names appeared on the guest list. But security won't be as stringent at Wednesday's service in a much larger sanctuary that can seat up to 1,500.
Kimberly said Tuesday that the service will be open to friends and family, and attendees don't have to be on a guest list to be admitted. But media will remain barred from the service.
Allen Houk, communications director for the church, added that no cameras or recording devices will be allowed on church property. He said uniformed police officers would be on hand to maintain the electronics ban.
___
July 12, 2006 - 1:12 a.m. CDT

source: http://www.statesman.com/news/content/gen/ap/Lay_Funeral.html
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Enron victims weigh in on Lay's death

By ERIN McCLAM - AP National Writer
Thursday, July 6, 2006 at 08:09 EDT

He was a man, after all - not just some abstract symbol of corporate thievery and vanished investor billions. Kenneth Lay, founder of Enron Corp., was also a grandfather to 12, a husband to the woman who sobbed at his side on the day of his conviction.
And yet his sudden death early Wednesday in Colorado - his pastor said Lay's heart "simply gave out" - deprives the thousands of victims of the Enron debacle the satisfaction they said they would feel at his spending perhaps decades in prison, reflecting on his crimes.
The Enron founder's death, three months before he was to be sentenced, left many grappling with difficult questions of forgiveness, retribution and the meaning of justice itself. On Internet blogs, some went so far as to suggest the death was conveniently timed.
There was this, for example, from a poster to a forum on the Web site of Lay's hometown paper, the Houston Chronicle: "The only sad ending to this story is that Ken Lay will never see a day in prison."
And then, minutes later, this more sympathetic response: "He is a man with extensive family and friends that needed to be notified, and all this while the family is dealing with the news. The man is gone from this world - if he's to be judged in an afterlife, so be it."
The prosecutors who won the devastating conviction against Lay declined comment Wednesday, and a statement from a family spokeswoman gave little more detail than saying Lay had died in the early morning hours in Aspen, Colo., where he vacationed. His pastor in Houston said the 64-year-old Lay died of a heart attack.
To say the least, it was an unexpected twist in the saga of the Enron founder, a once high-flying Houston civic leader who was convicted May 25 of fraud and conspiracy. And it left some victims scratching their heads about just what to make of the news. Some, speaking in religious terms, suggested Lay was now facing a different kind of justice.
"I hate this happened. I personally wanted to see him go to jail. But maybe this is God's way of having justice done," said Charles Prestwood, a former pipeline operator who retired from Enron in 2000 and later lost $1.3 million in retirement savings.
Prestwood said he already had heard talk of parties being thrown by ex-Enroners to celebrate Lay's death. He strongly objected.
"I wouldn't wish death on nobody," said Prestwood, 67. Of Lay and his former associates, he said, "They caused me to have financial debt, but at least my old heart's still ticking."
Others were less forgiving.
"He got off easy," said a blunt Sherri Saunders, who worked for Enron and its predecessor company for 24 years before she was laid off in 2001 and lost $1 million in retirement savings.
"To those of us who lost everything, we still have to struggle every day," Saunders said, adding that she had taken comfort in knowing that "if he was going to die, he was going to die in prison."
The sentiment was perhaps not a surprise, patricularly given the near-bloodlust that the public seemed to feel toward Lay and his colleagues after Enron went belly-up in 2001.
"It was evident during the trial that the great portion of the public, particularly in Houston, had an almost insatiable demand for retribution," said John Coffee, a Columbia University law professor.
Lay himself, of course, always cast himself as the victim of an historic injustice, prosecuted simply because the company he built had failed - failed honestly, he insisted, far from its reputation as a fraud-infested house of cards.
He had portrayed the case as a witch hunt, a prosecutorial "wave of terror." And on the day he was convicted, appearing upbeat outside the courthouse, he, too, wrapped himself in a religious justice.
"I firmly believe I'm innocent of the charges against me," Lay said that day. "We believe that God in fact is in control and indeed he does work all things for good for those who love the lord."

source: http://www.crisscross.com/us/news/30003
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Enron woes reverberate through lives
By Stephanie Armour, USA TODAY
MINNEAPOLIS — Roger Boyce was looking forward to retirement from Enron's Minneapolis Gas Pipeline Group in 2000.
His Enron stock was worth more than $2 million on paper. With that nest egg and other investments, Boyce anticipated a comfortable retirement that he'd spend traveling and funding his six grandchildren's college educations.
That didn't happen. At 71, he works full time in the summer months doing business consulting at a pool and spa company. Much of his savings evaporated in Enron's financial collapse in 2001, leaving him less able to travel and with little to contribute to the grandchildren's college expenses. Initially, there was a lot of bitterness and resentment because of the sense of betrayal that he and other former employees felt.
Four years after the Texas energy giant began its meltdown — and on the eve of a criminal trial for its former top executives — many former Enron employees still feel betrayed.
How did it happen? Like many employees, Boyce believed in Enron's stock. He bought and held Enron shares until it was too late to get out. About 20,000 participants in Enron retirement plans lost about $1.1 billion in their accounts, according to a lawsuit and lawyers for the workers.
Former employees who thought they'd be well off have abandoned retirement visions that included taking expensive pleasure trips and financing philanthropic projects. Some, at the end of their careers, have started over again in new jobs — but working harder to keep up with younger co-workers. They've turned to churches and food pantries to eat, sold homes they could no longer pay for, and endured financial stresses that frayed their marriages.
"A lot of them aren't doing well. The older workers had retired, and then they had to go to work. They're too old to make it up," says Lynn Sarko, a Seattle-based lawyer representing many employees in lawsuits to recover some of the lost retirement funds. "They've had trouble getting jobs, and some have taken jobs that are a step down. There's a lot of anger."
Savings wiped out
Enron workers' retirement savings were demolished because their 401(k) assets were mostly invested in company stock, which was considered a sound investment until late 2001. That October, Enron shocked Wall Street by announcing a quarterly loss and a big write-off of some investments. The Securities and Exchange Commission began an investigation. But for about three weeks in October and November, employees were blocked from selling the stock in their accounts. Enron shares, which had reached $90 in 2000, fell to less than a $1 after the company filed for bankruptcy-court protection on Dec. 2, 2001.
"Enron was held in such high esteem that employees had confidence in the company. We were misled all the way. This has compromised the quality of all of our lives after so many years of saving to that end," says Boyce, of Edina, Minn., who was director of human resources for the northern region of Enron's pipeline group. "The trial is finally bringing this thing to an end; it's bringing some closure."
Dale and Darlene Roberts are still waiting for closure. In 2001, Dale earned $3,000 a month as a field mechanic at Enron in Oklahoma. The Enron stock in his 401(k) account was worth roughly $50,000.
Within months, the couple lost it all: his job and the money in the stock. Dale was laid off, and the couple got by on $1,200 a month in unemployment until that ran out after six months. Darlene, a hairdresser, was disabled and couldn't work. Dale was out of work for more than two years.
The family house was briefly put into foreclosure, but they sold one of their cars to make the payments.
"I was devastated. We'd owned that home for almost 10 years. It was horrifying," Darlene says.
They also sold belongings such as tools and went to their local church for basic food supplies. It was humiliating, she says, to get a chicken, canned goods, toilet paper and soap from strangers.
How settlements are shaking out
Many Enron employees' retirement accounts were heavily invested in Enron stock, which became worthless after the company filed for bankruptcy-court protection. Various settlements reached so far may bring them more than $200 million, but that's a fraction of what they lost. The main settlements:
December 2005: $1.24 million with Arthur Andersen, the accounting firm that audited Enron's books, and David Duncan, who led Andersen's Enron team.
September 2005: Enron agreed to settlement of a claim in bankruptcy court that's worth in excess of $130 million.
May 2005: An $85 million settlement with certain officers, directors and administrative committee members of Enron. This settlement is currently on appeal by Ken Lay, Jeffrey Skilling and Northern Trust. About $20 million of that amount is earmarked for former workers' lawyers, however.
November 2003: A $40 million settlement with the Swiss-based Andersen Worldwide Société Cooperative (AWSC), an affiliate of auditor Arthur Andersen. That is to be shared with the securities fraud plaintiffs.
Source: Lynn Sarko, of Seattle, the managing partner of Keller Rohrback and one of the lawyers representing former Enron employees.
"We lost everything. We had to sell things just to be able to live. We had to go to the church to eat," says Darlene, of Duncan, Okla.
Dale, 54, now has a job as a mechanic for a different company, but bitterness about the experience lingers. He earns less than he did at Enron.
"Things are much, much better, but it caused physical and mental anguish, and it caused stress on our marriage," says Darlene, 54. "I am very bitter. I don't believe there's enough justification for what they did. Greed is a horrible, horrible thing."
Retirement delayed
Enron's collapse has delayed retirements and led to desperate efforts to rebuild savings.
Roy Rinard, 57, has worked since 1980 at Portland General Electric (PGE), which Enron purchased in 1997. PGE is a stable, well-known utility founded in 1889. Many of those at PGE have had parents and grandparents who worked there; employees such as Rinard felt comfortable with their future.
Rinard says he lost $470,000 after Enron went under. At first, he and his wife, Vicki, a nurse, felt panic. "It was just gone overnight. You can't imagine the feeling that everything you've worked your whole life for — your retirement — is dashed," Roy says. "We would drive around and say, 'What are we going to do now?' "
Within six months, they made the painful decision to sell their home, a 2,800-square-foot house on two acres in Damascus, Ore., to buy a much smaller home in Welches. That meant they could put more money away for retirement. They began saving furiously, living on a tight budget, giving up plans to travel or buy expensive presents for their two granddaughters and two grandsons.
Roy realized he could not retire at 60. He wouldn't have enough money. Now, he's trying to work until 67, hoping that by then, he'll have saved at least $200,000, half what he'd expected to have four years ago.
It's tough work. In one two-week stretch, Roy put in more than 130 hours of overtime on top of 80 hours of regular work in his job as a lineman troubleshooter.
"You're out in the cold, up on poles at night in all kinds of weather. I'm hoping physically I can work to 67. But even then, I won't have near the retirement nest egg," he says. "It's a sick feeling. To start over at 55 — it's hard."
Some employees say that they strive not to become bitter or to think about what might have been. Steve Lacey, an emergency repair dispatcher with PGE in Portland, didn't see any reason to worry. The value of his Enron shares ranged from $160,000 to $260,000 before Enron fell apart.
"It was all fake," he says.
Lacey, 49, of Salem, Ore., still works for PGE. The now independent company is expected to become a publicly traded company again in April. He says he still feels the reverberations of the Enron turmoil. But he's trying hard, he says, to put those days behind him.
"I'm not going to say that I feel good about losing that money. You scrounged and saved in those early working days to save that, and that makes me mad. It's made me a pretty bitter American citizen," Lacey says. "But if you dwell on it, it will ruin the rest of your life."
The experience also brought him to Washington. In 2002, Lacey spoke before a congressional hearing on Enron pension and retirement issues and tried to explain what losing savings is like.
"That was the hardest thing I've ever done, was to sit down and explain to my wife that I had lost everything," he said. "And that's probably one of the few times I've ever really emotionally broke down and cried in my whole life. And that was a tough night, and I won't forget it."
Younger workers rebound
But in some cases, former employees — especially younger workers who were far from retirement — have rebounded.
Matt Hommel, 36, lost several thousand dollars and his job at Enron Online in Enron's unraveling, but was recalled after a few days. While still working for the beleaguered company, he took his time picking over job offers. For the past four years, he's worked as a technology consultant at Texas Instruments.
"There was such a media furor over Enron's crash that everyone knew the whole story. People ask, 'What was it like to go through a piece of history like that?' " says Hommel, a married father of two young daughters in League City, Texas. "It's something I actually went through."
Despite a rebound more successful than that of some former employees, the experience changed him. "I'm a little more careful now. If I work at a company, I ask more questions. I want to be sure my trust is appropriately placed," he says. "It shows you that no matter how up the Fortune 500 you are, anything can fall."
Recovering from the Enron crash has been especially hard for those on the cusp of retirement, who had counted on 401(k)s and have little time left in their working years to save again.
In 2001, Tom Padgett, 63, was within six months of retiring and was feeling pretty good about his retirement. The former senior lab technician had 11,000 Enron shares — worth about $700,000 before Enron's bankruptcy — in his 401(k). He and his wife, Karen, had planned to spend their retirement opening and operating a ranch for disabled children.
Then the scandal erupted. Now, he's a lab technician at another company, and expects to work another seven or eight years. The stress of the financial loss has worsened Karen's rheumatoid arthritis, he says.
"I have to continue to work even though I don't want to. And it's harder at my age. I've had to work a lot harder than I used to," says Tom, of Mont Belvieu, Texas. "It's had an emotional impact on me and my wife both. She had always wanted to start a ranch for handicapped kids, to allow parents to have a free week or weekend. ... Some days are good, and some are bad. They're bad when we sit and think about what we could have done."

source: http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/energy/2006-01-25-enron-employees-usat_x.htm