Workers

After refusing to testify against his co-workers, former Dynegy tax attorney Jamie Olis, one of the architects of Project Alpha, was sent to a minimum security federal prison in Texas Thursday to begin serving a 24-year sentence. He was convicted of conspiracy and five counts of securities, wire and mail fraud last year for helping push through the 2001 scheme.

Pacific Gas and Electric Co. late Tuesday sent an additional eight crews and support equipment/personnel to Southern California as the first help from Nevada and Arizona requested by the governor also arrived to help beleaguered local electric utility crews in trying to take both preventive and restorative steps.

On top of asking the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to turn over financial records on the once high-flying Enron Corp., two House panels have fired off letters to Chairman and CEO Kenneth Lay and former CFO Andrew S. Fastow seeking mounds of financial information related to the off-balance sheet entities that sparked the free-fall in the energy trader’s stock, and further interviews with key players who may possess critical information about the corporation’s financial collapse.

Energy security legislation proposed by Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) would give the energy secretary and attorney general widespread authority to direct energy companies to conduct extensive criminal background checks on persons who operate “critical energy infrastructure facilities” to determine if they are a security threat.

You shouldn’t unless you were one of the thousands of workerswho spent millions of person-hours over the last few years sweatingthe millennium bug out of your company’s systems. If that was you,congratulations; you’ve made this last new year slightly morememorable than Hands Across America Day. Now it’s time for anyfood-hoarding doomsayers to get busy: You’ve got a lot ofstockpiled chips and salsa to get rid of.

You shouldn’t unless you were one of the thousands of workerswho spent millions of person-hours over the last few years sweatingthe millennium bug out of your company’s systems. If that was you,congratulations; you’ve made this last new year slightly morememorable than Hands Across America Day. Now it’s time for anyfood-hoarding doomsayers to get busy: You’ve got a lot ofstockpiled chips and salsa to get rid of.

Atlantic Richfield Co. (ARCO) told employees it will lay offworkers and cut its operating budget in anticipation of continuedlow oil prices. No details on the number of job cuts or where theywould be made were available. A company spokesman told NGI ARCOshould have a plan in place by mid to late October. ARCO has about20,000 employees, all but about 3,500 of them in the United States.