Houston Chronicle - Thursday, December 19, 2002
Houston Chronicle - Thursday, December 19, 2002
BUSINESS
The grand jury investigating Enron has heard testimony about the wife of former Chief Financial Officer Andrew Fastow and her knowledge and control of money the government says was obtained illegally. Sources familiar with the investigation say that among the issues presented was how much control Lea Fastow, herself a former Enron employee, had over funds that the family received through various transactions, including those described in a 78-count indictment against her husband. Prosecutors commonly use the possibility of criminal charges against a spouse, partner or associate to pressure the other. But this recent testimony is the first indication that the Justice Department may be using such tactics.
METROPOLITAN
Yesterday at Fu Kim in the Bellaire Chinatown, gang violence erupted, tearing the small café apart and landing two people in the hospital with one in critical condition. The names of the injured are being withheld by the police for their safety. The police declined to say much about the shooting only that it appeared to be gang-related. Which of the customers was the target, the police have also not released that information. The Houston-bred rapper Michael Mathews was reported to be one of those involved in the shooting and that it is his father that lies in critical condition at Ben Taub hospital under police guard.
HEALTH
Government health officials have confirmed that West Nile can apparently be spread by transfusion and announced that all blood donations will probably be screened for the virus as soon as a test can be developed. The Centers for Disease Control also warned doctors that West Nile can cause acute polio-like paralysis in some cases. Doctors were urged to test patients for West Nile if they report sudden, painless paralysis but do not appear to have had a stroke. West Nile emerged in the United States just three years ago. The CDC has reported more than 1,640 human cases of West Nile virus so far this year, including 80 deaths. The weak and elderly are especially vulnerable to the virus, which can cause encephalitis, a potentially lethal inflammation of the brain. The screening process could prove tricky because West Nile is not like other diseases screened out of the blood supply. For one thing, West Nile is much harder to detect than a virus such as HIV because there are relatively small amounts of West Nile virus in tainted blood. Another complication is that because West Nile usually spends several days in the blood before symptoms show up, infected people may not immediately produce antibodies to fight West Nile. That means a screening test would have to search not for the antibodies for the virus itself, a much more difficult task.
SPORTS
Norfolk Admirals at Aeros at 7 p.m. today, 7:30 p.m. Saturday; Compaq Center.
FILM & TV
With its special-purpose entities, mark-to-market accounting and other arcana, the Enron story seems to defy lucid treatment by Hollywood. But some say it can be done, by using the corporate scandal as only a backdrop to a story about a few characters caught up in the debacle. CBS will make the first try on Jan. 5, when it airs The Crooked E: the Unshredded Truth about Enron. Fox's cable channel, FX, says it hopes to shoot a movie about Enron next year. Whether the movies are any good remains to be seen, but the scandal certainly has the stuff of which a great movie can be made, said Jim Ragan, director of the University of Southern California's professional writing program.
