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NEWS BRIEFS
HOUSTON
Enron CEO
sentenced to 24
years in jail
Former Enron CEO Jeffrey Skill-
ing, the most vilified figure from
the most notorious financial scan-
dal of the decade, was sentenced
yesterday to 24 years, four months
in the harshest sentence yet in the
case that came to symbolize corpo-
rate fraud in America.
U.S. District Judge Sim Lake -
ordered Skilling, 52, to home con-
finement, wearing an ankle moni-
tor, and told the U.S. Bureau of
Prisons to recommend when Skill-,
ing should report to prison. Lake
recommended no date, but suggest-
ed Skilling be sent to the federal
facility in Butler, N.C.
Skilling, insisting he was inno-
cent yet remorseful in a two-hour
hearing, was the last top former offi-
cial to be punished for the account-
ing tricks and shady business deals A For
that led to the loss of thousands widen
of jobs, more than $60 billion in comp
Enron stock and more than $2 bil-
lion in employee pension plans
when Enron collapsed.
Lake denied Skilling's request F
for bond.
JERUSALEM
Israel's Olmert q
strikes deal with
hard-liner o
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud
Olmert, in a bid for political sur-
vival, struck an alliance yesterday
with a hard-liner who has called DE
for stripping Israeli Arabs of citi- Co.'s
zenship, executing lawmakers for red ii
talking to Hamas and bombing Pal- the c
estinian population centers. lion l
Taking the hawkish Yisrael Beit- Nort
einu party into the government costs
would shore up Olmert's coalition, restr
weakened badly by the war with It
Hezbollah, but probably ends any loss
hope for a unilateral Israeli with- the n
drawal from much of the West make
Bank. predi
Yisrael Beiteinu's leader, Avigdor in th
Lieberman, announced the deal share
yesterday after meeting Olmert. furth
"We are joining the government," manu
the smiling Lieberman said. dema
Th
TREMONT, Penn. manc
Explosion kills one the y
billion
in eastern Penn. coal last y
. 2 The
mine; four escape ried
squee
-A coal mine explosionkilled a ize sa
miner yesterday, but four others closur
escaped, authorities said. restr
The blast happened at the "It
R&D Coal Co. anthracite mine in those
Schuylkill County, about 80 miles ter en
northwest of Philadelphia. Mood
"We have one confirmed fatal- Bruce
ity," said Kurt Knaus, a spokesman Ford
for the state Department of Envi- saving
ronmental Protection. "I believe it Foi
is a recovery and not a rescue oper- the e
ation." strike
State and federal investigators tiate
were trying to determine the cause, ers us
he said. Regulators ordered the "It
mine closed until an investigation envir
is complete.
Four miners who were under-
ground at the time were able to
get out, said Kate Dugan, a spokes-
womanforthefederal occupational N
Safety and Health Administration.
DEARBORN R
Four thousand Ford
workers take buyout,
retirement offers Bt
About 4,000 Ford Motor Co.
hourly workers at former Visteon W
Corp. plants have taken the com-
pany up on buyout and early retire- to
ment offers, a Ford official said
yesterday.
The deadline for workers whose
plants are run by Automotive Com- W
ponents Holdings LLC to take the lican
offers was Friday. gress
Ford President of the Americas Bush
Mark Fields said in a conference supp
call with reporters and industry two
analysts that about 40 percent of tions
about 10,400 former Visteon work- In
ers agreed to leave the company Repu
under the offers. cate
The acceptance rate was slight- Hou
ly better than the company had a be
expected, Fields said. ter
Earlier this year, Ford took the cours
plants back from Visteon an formed Re
aholdingcompany.VisteonisFord's of Vi
former parts wing, but it was spun ate
off as a separate company in 2000. seem
GOP
-Compiled from wart
Daily wire reports war
cours
warrc
SITE OF TH g E AYIn:
.S
If there's one thing (R-T
in the sports world that supp
makes die-hard fans cheer know
against their own team, of m
it's fantasy sports leagues. prop
Fantasycongress.com has part
the same effect, just with elected .V
officials. Geor
Here, political masterminds pecte
craft teams of congressmen, earn- tle
ing points as their officials sponsor Jams
and pass legislation. In the end, the the-t
team with the most points wins. cann
But play at your own risk: The sit- thini
has the potential to make lifelong We h
Marxists Grin at tax cuts. adan
Tuesday, October 24, 2006 - 3
More time was
needed for WTC
° body recovery
d Motor Co. assemblyman works on the Ford Mustang at the Auto Alliance Plant in Flat Rock. Ford Motor Co.'s loss
s to $5.8 billion in the third quarter, weighed down by the costs of its massive restructuring plan aimed at reshaping the
any and cutting expenses so it can compete better against lower-cost rivals overseas.
ord loses $5.8b in third
uarter due to sagging sales
Quarterly loss is
mpany's largest in
14 years
ARBORN (AP) - Ford Motor
blue oval continued to bleed
nk in the third quarter, with
ompany posting a $5.8 bil-
oss yesterday due to sagging
h American sales and huge
associated with a massive
ucturing plan.
was the largest quarterly
in more than 14 years for
ation's second-biggest auto-
r, and company officials
cted things would get worse
e fourth quarter as market
drops and Ford pays for
er plant closures to bring its
facturing in line with lower
nd for its products.
e July-September perfor-
e brings Ford's losses to $7.24
n for the first nine months of
ear, compared with a $1.87
n profit for the same period
rear.
e loss had some analysts wor-
that Ford could face a cash
ze before it begins to real-
avings from job cuts, plant
res and other aspects of its
ucturing plan.
's going to take a while for
benefits to be evident in bet-
arnings and cash flow," said
dy's Investors Service analyst
Clark, who predicted that
would not see substantial
gs until 2009.
rd could be in dire shape if
conomy slows or if there's a
as the auto companies nego-
with the United Auto Work-
nion next year, Clark said.
's going to be a very tough
onment. They are going to
ervous
epublicans
lallenge
ush on Iraq
'lute House seems
be searching for a
better course
have to deliver in a number of
areas," Clark said.
Moody's said Ford's perfor-
mance was consistent with expec-
tations that led it to downgrade
Ford's long-term rating to B3, six
notches below investment grade,
on Sept. 19.
Ford's new chiefexecutive, Alan
Mulally, called the latest results
unacceptable, but said he was
encouraged by Ford's progress in
turning itself around.
"This is a critical time," said
Mulally, a former Boeing Co. exec-
utive who has been with the com-
pany a little more than a month.
"We clearly recognize it and plan
to deal with the business realities
we are facing," he told reporters
and industry analysts in a confer-
ence call yesterday morning.
Also yesterday, Ford said it
plans to restate its earnings for
2001 due to accounting errors
involving derivative transactions
in its credit company. The restate-
ment is expected to affect finan-
cial results from 2001 until the
third quarter of this year.
The company expected the
restatement would improve results
for 2002, but said other periods
are under study.
Ford's net loss of $3.08 per
share in the third quarter was
larger than last year's third-quar-
ter loss of $284 million, or 15 cents
per share.
Revenue fell 10 percent to $36.7
billion from the same period a
year ago.
Excluding restructuring and
other special charges, Ford said
it lost $1.2 billion, or 62 cents per
share, from continuing opera-
tions. Excluding special items in
the third quarter of last year, Ford
lost $191 million, or 10 cents per
share.
Without the special items, Ford
nearly met Wall Street expecta-
tions. Analysts surveyed by Thom-
son Financial had been expecting
a loss of 61 cents per share for the
quarter.
Ford shares fell 11 cents to close
at $7.90 on the New York Stock
Exchange, where they have trad-
ed in a 52-week range of $6.06 to
$9.48.
Ford also said it had $23.6 bil-
lion in cash available at the end of
the quarter, but it was exploring
the possibility of usingits automo-
tive assets as collateral to borrow
cash to maintain liquidity as loss-
es and restructuring costs mount.
The company expects to spend
about $3.5 billion more of its cash
by the end of the year.
"We have plenty now," said
Chief Financial Officer Don
Leclair. "We do expect to have
some significant cash outflow."
Ford expects to spend $9.5 bil-
lion to $10.5 billion in restructur-
ing and other costs, with the bulk
of that coming next year, Leclair
said.
Because of the prospect of more
secured borrowing, Fitch Ratings
placed Ford's senior unsecured
debt on "Rating Watch Nega-
tive." Additional Ford secured
debt "would impair the position
of unsecured debtholders," Fitch
said yesterday in a note to inves-
tors.
Dearborn-based Ford's turn-
around plan aims to cut $5 bil-
lion in costs by the end of 2008
by slashing 10,000 white-collar
workers and offering buyouts to all
of its 75,000 unionized employees.
A better performance in 2007
is unlikely, given production
cutbacks, a slowing economy,
enhanced competition in the
critical pickup segment, and lack
of new impact products," Fitch's
note said.
Officials thought
more of the 2,749
dead could be found
NEW YORK (AP) - As the city
agency overseeing the removal of
the World Trade Center rubble was
wrapping up its work in 2002, sever-
al officials handling the painstaking
recovery of human remains warned
that things were movingtoo fast.
They believed that more pieces of
the 2,749 dead could be found, and
that the city shouldn't be rushing
such an important task. But they
were overruled, two of those offi-
cials told The Associated Press this
week.
Over the past few days, dozens
of bones have been discovered in
underground passages at ground
zero, more than five years after the
tragedy.
"I knew that this was going to
happen - they really just wanted
us out of there," said retired Lt.
John McArdle,
the Police Depart- t went f
ment's ground
zero commander. rescue to
"There was not a
good exit strategy ery to a c
for some of these . p
places, and if there Lion proj
was, it was poorly came a pc
done."
A utility crew time Whei
stumbled upon said 'We
body parts lasts ,
week in an aban- to wrap t]
doned manhole
along the edge LT. JO
of the site, and New York Poli
forensic experts
have since dug ground ze
down and found
more than 100 bones and fragments
from skulls, ribs, arms, legs, feet
and hands. The discoveries have
angered and saddened relatives of
the Sept. 11 victims.
The notion that rescue work-
ers were rebuffed by a city eager to
finish the job could help shed light
on why the remains are being dis-
covered only now. The area where
bones are being found is one where
officials had raised objections.
The officials said they repeatedly
aired their concerns to the agency in
charge, the Department of Design
and Construction, which was later
praised for its speedy, under-budget
cleanup of 1.5 million tons of trade
center debris,
"The desire was driven by one
thing, and that was, 'Get it done,"'
said another official who protested,
speaking to the AP on condition of
anonymity because he is not autho-
rized to discuss the work publicly.
"Many a time the issue was raised
about how fast it was going and
things were being missed."
Deputy Mayor Ed Skyler, who is
overseeing the renewed search, said
a review of such issues would be
Fl
C
D
r
H
is
el
premature, but noted that the Fire
Department was designated as the
lead agency for findingremains, and
that DDC proceeded with its work
only when the FDNY gave the go-
ahead. The Department of Design
and Construction had no comment.
According to the two officials,
FDNY rescue workers were among
those who resisted the Department
of Design and Construction. How-
ever, Fire Department spokesman
Frank Gribbon said yesterday that
reports of objections were exag-
gerated. Chief of Department Sal
Cassano said in a statement that
the FDNY "had final sign-off on
areas where the recovery effort was
deemed complete, and at no time
was pressured to sayotherwise."
Memos obtained by the AP show
that DDC acknowledged at least
some of the objections in the spring
of 2002, but was concerned about
"delayingthe sign-off."
After the twin 110-story towers
collapsed,police andfireofficialsled
the backbreaking search for bodies
while the Department of Design and
Construction was
assigned to exca-
r a vate the debris,
a recov- which stood 10
stories high at the
onstruc- start. The agency,
'ct. There staffed by engi-
neers, architects
)int in and construc-
tion profession-
n they als, specializes in
gotatry engineering and
gotta t construction proj-
his up."' ects, including
emergency debris
HN MCARDLE, removal.
ce Department Each day, DDC
convened plan-
ro commander ning meetings
with all the par-
ties involved, including engineers,
emergency responders and a range
of other city agencies.
The project finished months
ahead of city officials' yearlong pre-
diction, and cost about $750 million
- just a fraction of the initial mul-
tibillion-dollar estimate. But DDC
was sometimes at odds with the res-
cue workers, who frequentlyneeded
to shut down or pause the operation
as they recovered bodies.
"It went from a rescue to a recov-
ery to a construction project,"
McArdle said. "There came a point
in time when they said, 'We gotta
try to wrap this up,' and they tried
to expedite it as much as possible,
and they jumped the gun, and now
you have all of these families hurt
and they're finding all these body
parts."
Particular disagreements arose
as the DDC was preparing to turn
over the site, which belongs to the
Port Authority. According to people
involved in the process, DDC had
created a grid map and asked those
leading the remains recovery to
walk through each area, and sign
off, square by square.
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- -
ASHINGTION (AP) - Repub-
s worried about losing Con-
s are challenging President
on Iraq, eroding his base of
ort for the unpopular war just
weeks before midterm elec-
S. To play: Comple
creasing calls from restive
blicansfornew ideas to extri- and every 3
the U.S. come as the White
se itself seems to struggle for
tter course, or at least a bet- There is r
way to describe the current just use logi
.se.
epublican Sen. John Warner
irginia, chairman of the Sen- Difficulty
Armed Services Committee,
ned to open the floodgates to 8 4
criticism this month when he .
ned after a trip to Iraq that the
was "drifting sideways" and a
se correction might soon be
ranted.
recent days:
en. Kay Bailey Hutchison
exas) said she would not have
orted the invasion had she
wn there were no weapons
ass destruction, and she has
osed splitting Iraq into three
s.
'irginia Republican Sen.
ge Allen, locked in an unex-
redly difficult re-election bat-
with Democratic challenger
es Webb, dropped his stay-
course mantra to assert, "We
ot continue doing the same
gs and expect differentresults.
have to adapt our operations,
t our tactics."
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