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June 2, 2006     Barnstable Patriot
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June 2, 2006
 
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W yt $tern*tatile patriot — Founded in 1830 — Published Weekly at 396 Main Street, Suite 15 • P.O.Box 1208 • Hyannis, Massachusetts 02601 Tel:(508) 771-1427 • Fax: (508) 790-3997 E-mail info@barnstablepatriot.com • www.barnstablepatriot.com PUBLISHER , Robert F. Sennott, Jr. EDITOR David Still II BUSINESS MANAGER ..Barbara]. Hennigan ASSOCIATE EDITOR Edward F. Maroney ADVERT1SING DEPARTMENT EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT Luanda S. Harrison Representative Kathleen Szmit Manvvaring Reporter John Picano Representative Melora B. North Reporter Carol A. Bacon Representative Jack Mason Representative DESIGN/PRODUCTION DEPARTMENT Steven Goldberg Representative Cathy Stap les Graphic Designer David A. Bailey Graphic Designer CIRC. & RECEPTION Tanya Ohanian MEMBER NEW ENGLAND PRESS ASSOCIATION i \ ^> | First Place,General Excellence -New England Press Association,2001 *"' Z ,- First Place, General Excellence -Advertising, 2002 & 2003 More business as usual BY PAUL DUFFY Well, sure, he could have been a little more forthcom- ing. But that assumes he knew what to be forthcoming about. He says he didn 't know any- thing was wrong. Indeed , as far as he could tell, everything at Enron was hunky-dory, what's-to-worry-about . copa- setic. Then, without warning, the company fell over dead. Not my fault , says Ken Lay OK.sojust before the end he sold millions of dollars wort h of Enron stock even as he urged everybody else to buy it. And yes. his wife sold some, too. 500,000 shares, as a mat- ter of fact , literally 15minutes before it was announced that the company was headed for the sanitary waste station. But let's not jump to conclu- sions. Let him who is without sin, etc. etc. It wasn't for nothing that Enron was named America 's most innovative company by Forbes magazine, and not just once but for six consecutive years, from 1991 to 2001. If Forbes had only known how innovative! The thing is. at Enron everything was an inno- vation and nothing was what it seemed. The company 's accounting was like a David Mamet play with shell game artists trumping one con game with a better one. Enron had become a kind of Ponzi scheme empire in which a cabal of lawyers, accountants, bankers and company crooks conspired to hoodwink inves- tors while bribingtax officials to go blind . The company. once the seventh biggest in the country, paid no income taxes between 1996 and 1999. according to the investiga- tion by the Senate Finance Committee , although in the same period it was report- ing earnings in the scores of billions. During this same period the total annual pay of the company'stop 200 executives rose from $193 million (an average of $1 million each) to $1.4 billion (an average of $7 million each), most of it paid in stock options. Ken Lay's own pay went from $15 million to $168 million. Some might call this evidence of greed , but with the cost of living going up Ken Lay liked his people to be ahead of the curve, and why should he deny himself a small reward along the way for his matchless leadership? They say the Enron offices were awfully nice, too.a good place to work, to dream, per- chance to loot. No one on the compensation committee of the board of directors ever said a word. Needless to say, for this kind of elaborate swindleto succeed the conspirators needed a lot of help, especially from the financial analysts and stock touts that breed and multiply in the damp air of lower Man- hattan. Wall Street, being Wall Street , bought into the whole deal without asking too many questions and was stillflogging the stock even as the pallbear- ers assembled on the steps of Enron'sHoustonheadquarters. In the end, many thousands of investors allover the world lost money in amounts to tax the calculating limits of their lap- tops. And then there were the thousands of ordinary Enron employees who lost not only their retirement savings but their job s. The evidence of malfea- sance against Lay and his sidekick , Jeffrey Skilling, was overwhelming, the scope of their plunder breath-taking, the depth of their cynicism limitless. And the basis of their defense beyond incred- ible - more likelaughable. The legal strategy seemed to be based on avariation of the old concentration-cam p-guard chestnut: I vas only follovink orderz. The trouble here was that Lay wasn't following orders , he was giving them. But he says he wasn't doing anything wrong, or anything much at all. He didn't know what was going on, remember? But if he didn't know what was go- ing on and he didn't give any orders , what was he doing for his $168 million? Pathetic as it was, this may have been the only defense possible: go up there and lie and keep on lyingand maybe the jury will be dumb enough to buy it. It wasn't, and it looks like Lay and Lie are going to jail for a long, long time, in Lay's case quite possibly for the rest of his life. Isn't it illegal for lawyers to counsel their clients to lie under oath? And how much did the lawyerscharge for this outrage? How many millions, that is? Who's paying their fees and with whose money? THE T/ V!EW FROM A S&ANCE, ^^ * BY PAUL DUFFY A EARLYFILES FROM BARNSTABLE PATRIOT. JUNE 5. 1986 HAT DAY - This class of youngsters at Hyannis West Elementary School celebrated Hat Day as one of many special days featured in the class this month. Top row, left to right are Theresa Guay, Paul Fulcher, Elyssa Underwood , Sean McAuliffe , Christopher Scarpato , Brad Lovell and Michael Butler; front row, left to right are Tammy LaFountaine, John Oliver, Jonathan Churchill, Shawn Kimball, Gary Brown and Lee Ann Lehtola. 1836 The peculiar severity of the past winter was such as seriously to injure the great body of Salt Marshes in this and the adjoining towns; and the present appearance of these marshes is such as to lengthen amazingly the visages of our farmers, to whom the crop of salt hay is of incalculable importance. There is scarcely a green spear to be seen upon the high marsh, and the farmers interested fear that the roots of the grass are were so destroyed by the great quantity of fresh water ice, which lay long upon the marsh last winter, that they shall suffer severely in consequence. 1866 (President Johnson) isnowjustly regarded asthe man who will save the country from radical ruin. He stands to-day just where Mr. Lincoln would have stood had he lived; his policy is the same precisely as that worked out by his distinguished predeces- sor.And yet for this grand fidelity to principle, this devotion to the real good of the country -he is the worst abused man in the country. 1896 Memorial day services for the town of Barnstable were held at Centreville , as usual, and the cool day with the dust well laid by the rain of the previous night, combined to draw together a large crowd. The exercises commenced by the formation of Theo. Parkman Post No. 204 G.A.R. at Howard Hall, Post Headquarters , from whence escorted by Cotuit Brass Band and Peter Pineo Camp, sons of Veterans of Hyannis and followed by Theo. Parkman W.R.C. No. 114 of Centreville , by school children and many friends of the cause, the line of march was begun for Oak Grove cemetery via Monument Square. 1916 Hyannis was the center of the Cape 's activities today, the Barnstable County Conference on Com- munity Planning being in progress... The opening session was held in the vestry of the Congrega- tional Church , Professor E.L. Morgan presiding. The purpose of this session was to bring together representatives of different groups of workers and organizations and the exchange of experiences and statements of work and progress were verystimulat- ing and interesting. Among those who spoke were Mr. H.L. Chipman for the Federation of Churches , Mr. John Duffy for the Boy Scouts, Hon. T.C.Thacher and Mr. L.B. Boston for the Farm Bureau , Miss Laura Comstock for the Home Economic work of the Farm Bureau , Mr. John A. Lowe, Agent of the Free Public Library Commission and Miss Soule for the LibrarySection, Supt. G.H. Galger for the Cape Cod Superintendents , Mr. Simpson for the Barnstable County Y.M.C.A., Miss Turner and Mrs. Carstens for the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children... The meeting in the Idlehour... (featured) Dr. Walter H. Brown of the State Board of Health under the topic "Wasting Human Life." (He) discussed preventable diseases illustrating his forceful words by stereopticon views. 1926 In the tide of motor travel which is setting in stronger and stronger daily as the season advances, toward Cape Cod resorts,huge transportation trucks with building supplies and contractors ' outfits are conspicuous... It is also noticeable that the traffic of- ficers in the centre of Plymouth are getting more and more work to do asthe springtime goes and there are times when it is difficult to find a safe passage across on some of the main arteries of travel on account of the southward bound campers. Often passengers in the rear sections of cars are wedged in with suit cases, bags, bundles and even baby buggies, while the running boards and mudguards are freighted with large packages wrapped in rubber, tarpaulin , and, occasionally, old bedquilts , and they are all headed for Cape Cod - Old Colony Memorial. 1936 Special Justice Thomas Otis has under advise- ment the civil suit of Mrs. Edna Harrisof Centerville against Peters' Chocolate Shop for personal injuries sustained when bitten by a cat allegedly owned by the Peters shop... Mrs. Harris said she was walking down Main street leading her German shepherd pup Skippy on a leash when "all of a sudden out of nowhere " the cat landed on the pup's back. She testified when she sought to disentangle the dog and cat,the cat bit and scratched her, tearing stock- ings, dress and coat... Judge Otis remarked that by a Supreme court decision a horse was entitled to one bite, and he would now ascertain whether a cat was entitled to any scratches. 1946 Supplies of poultry feed were reported in criti- cal condition on Cape Cod this week. One dealer informed Betram Tomlinson , county agricultural agent, he had nothing, either grain or mash, on hand , and poultry raisers said they were operating on a day to day basis as to supplies despite drastic cuts in their flocks. CONTINUED ON PAGE A:12 EDITORIALS A changing industry needs changing rules Verizonwantsto get into the cable televisiongame.Actually,it alreadyis, with the introduction of its all-fiber- optic systems in some communities acrossthecountry.But asanewentry, the companyisfinding the regulatory price of admission, negotiating com- munity-by-community for access, archaic and cumbersome. To this end, Verizon has offered a rule change to the Massachusetts Department of Telecommunica- tions and Energy to do away with localfranchiserequirements,leaving the state as the all-in-one overseer of the newly-coined field of "video services." The concept has found support in regulatory and legislative corners as the latest hope of developing a competitive market in television delivery. In callingfor hearings on the Veri- zon proposal, DTE is looking favor- ably on the enhanced competition a deregulated environment could bring. That competitors object sug- gests it might not be a bad thing for consumers, but there are elements that need protection. But cities and towns are looking at yet another reduction intheir control over cable providers in their commu- nities, and aren't happy about it. At this week's Barnstable Cable AdvisoryCommitteemeeting,member DougMurphy,who'sseenmanyopera- torscomeandgoascompaniesmerged or were sold, asked. "What control do we have now, realistically?" Committee chairman David Cole, whose tenure on the committee equals that of Murphy, conceded the point,but issuessuchasPEG (Public, Education and Government access) and town-wideinstallation can still be addressed and negotiated within the contract. The public access industry of low production values and high opinion content was born in a time when in- frastructure was expensive, licenses were exclusive and competition non- existent. Communities were able to muscle cable companies into PEG access because private companies knew it was the only way to gain a captive audience and effective monopoly, and were willing to pay the price. These aren't those times. Municipalities want to bring com- petitors through that same process, exacting similar pounds of flesh in local benefits while expecting com- petition between relative giants. That may be unrealistic. What's needed are legislative and regulatory guarantees to preserve traditional and expected extractions from providers of what'snow termed videoservices.These canbe incorpo- rated at the state and federal level. While it is easy to memorialize the sendeesnow in place, there needs to be assurancethat asnew servicesare offered to new areas that the same PEG access remains available.We're allfor open, competitive markets.We wishmore existedinthisstate (think auto insurance), but there is a need to ensure the benefits that local ac- cess provides are retained. Verizon is antsy about the review time line, which pushes the state decision-making on the Verizon-of- fered regulatory change into the fall, because it is looking at least 45 franchise processes. Verizon's would-be competition is antsy as well. Comcast and RCN stand opposed, each publicly calling into question the fairness of relaxed standards given their history of lo- cal regulation and negotiation. But the companies are likely worried about Verizon's superior product , in terms of speed, versatility and price point. These hard-wired companies with their expensive infrastructure will face increasing competition from high-powered wide-area wireless operations (WiMax) that willreturn television to its over-air roots, albeit not for free. Much likesatelliteservic- es now.such operations willhave no local regulatory provisions, save for the occasional tower.That suggests a tough future for local access. If PEG and issues of community access areatthe heart of local opposi- tion (there 's also the issue of locally collected franchise fees: $440,000 for Barnstable), municipal officials across the state need to hammer that home with the DTE. Killingcompetition to keep current access alive is not in the interest of consumers. DS II editor@barnstablepatnot.com [l I | Next Week in &fte patriot... 11 ^ Graduation Days Hail to thee, Barnstable High School Class of 2006, and to Barnstable students graduating from Cape Cod Regional Technical High School and Sturgis Charter Public School.... www.barnstablepatriot.com BARNSTABLE PATRIOT ISSN 0744-722 1 Pub. No. I'SPS 044-480 Periodical Postage paid ai the Hyannis Post Office and at additional entrs offices Published weekly at 396 Main St . Hyannis . MA 02601 Terms: $29.00 per year in advance We assume no hfuinci.il narpnudbilrrjf.tr typography -il errorsm advertisements, bin we will retmnl tti.it pan of the advertisement m whuh the errat *>vt.iii\ POSTMASTER: send address changes In THE BARNSTABLE PARTIOT P.O. Boi 120*1. Hyannis. MA 02*01 © 2006, The Barnstable Patriot, a division of Ottaway Newspapers Inc.