Tranquility Base, Houston Here ...

Four years ago, I came to Houston to cover the beginning of the Enron story. The scene then: A former company vice chairman had just killed himself, the FBI had begun a document-shredding investigation, chief executive and founder Kenneth L. Lay had resigned, congressional hearings commenced, the ripples of impropriety were spreading to Enron accountants Arthur Andersen LLP, and the once-mighty energy giant -- a darling of the shimmering '90s economy -- was in full collapse.

I spent five weeks here in spring 2002, trying to make sense of complex off-balance-sheet accounting that, to experts, was either illegal or so exotic as to never have been seen before. Or both.

Now, four years later, I've returned to the nation's fourth-largest city as this long-running drama's two most compelling characters -- Lay, the affable uncle of the story, known in Houston as a Santa Claus of charity and once to President Bush as "Kenny Boy;" and Jeffrey K. Skilling, the steely-eyed Ego and Id of the company -- come to the witness box of the Bob Casey Federal Courthouse to face dozens of fraud charges.

My Business section colleague Carrie Johnson has been sitting in the courtroom for the past 10 weeks and has spent four years on this story. She will sprint through the finish of this trial and continue her coverage for The Post newspaper, as Skilling takes the stand, likely on Thursday, then Lay, followed by closing arguments, after which the jury takes center stage.

My job will be to sit in what is called the "overflow press room" -- really, a converted courtroom -- to watch the proceedings on a big-screen television and cover the trial for washingtonpost.com.

That means there will be a story on the Web site that I will update several times each day, as news happens in the courtroom. If you click on the story throughout the day, you'll see new developments from the testimony.

Also, I will be updating this blog, where I will post news updates as they happen in the courtroom along with other bits of color and flavor that would not find their way into a news story. I also hope to revisit some of the stories I wrote from here in 2002 and see what has happened to the people and places in the wake of the Enron debacle.

I'm going to try to give readers a broad picture of what it's like to be here, and there's a good chance I'm going to be obsessing about the heat and humidity (highs on Tuesday: 87 degrees; humidity, about the same; Code Orange for ozone; and don't even get me started on the pollen), searching for the perfect barbeque and finding some time to spend at Minute Maid Park, formerly Enron Field, home of the Houston Astros. (The Nationals come to town for a four-game series Friday.)

Since Enron's implosion, thousands of workers have lost their jobs, tens of thousands of pensioners watched their savings evaporate thanks to fund managers who loved the high-flying Enron stock (which went from $80 to $0.67 per share), even more sat in the dark in California blackouts that Enron was accused of causing, and the Camelot of a company has vanished, a metaphor for the times and the tolls they exacted.

As accusations of corporate crime go, it's hard to match this one in scale and scope.

As the government has prepared its case against Enron executives, Lay has largely stayed in character, maintaining his innocence on his Web site.

Skilling, on the other hand, has had a rocky past few years.

When called before Congress in February 2002, Skilling was combative, saying he was unaware of any financial impropriety at Enron while he was there. But his tone as much as his testimony bothered lawmakers, as Skilling could not seem to help himself from displaying his pugnacious intellect.

Things got worse. In April 2004, Skilling was taken into custody by New York police after they said he had been "acting erratically" and accusing bar patrons of being FBI agents and trailing him. He was taken to a hospital for observation.

So that is the backstory for the days about to unfold.

It should be an interesting next few weeks.

I will be happy to take your comments and reply to as many questions as possible.

By Frank Ahrens |  April 5, 2006; 2:42 PM ET  | Category:  About This Blog
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Posted by: Caesar Gott | April 18, 2006 03:53 PM

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