Prosecutor’s probing turns Lay snippy

Enron Corp. founder Kenneth Lay dropped his famous affable persona as his cross-examination began Wednesday, snarling at a prosecutor who accused him of witness tampering when the ex-chairman and chief executive called several potential witnesses during his own fraud and conspiracy trial.

Jurors who had been listening impassively snapped to attention.

“Did you have any conversations to get your story straight for trial?” asked prosecutor John Hueston, equally primed for battle.

“Can you elaborate on that Mr. Hueston?” Lay shot back. “I’m not sure what story you’re talking about.”

The prosecutor noted that Lay called two Goldman Sachs & Co. executives during the trial regarding a September 2001 meeting about Enron.

Former Enron Chief Financial Officer Andrew Fastow — whom Lay has dubbed a traitor, liar and crook — testified that he and Lay met with the executives to discuss restructuring Enron at the same time Lay was telling employees and reporters that the company was sound. Lay says the executives called the meeting to discuss Enron’s vulnerability to a takeover.

Lay said he called the executives in March — the same month Fastow testified — but he said he didn’t try to align their memories of the meeting with his.

After a short afternoon break, Lay appeared to calm down.

Detroit

Delphi still talking with labor union

Delphi Corp.’s second-largest labor union is still negotiating with the auto supplier over wage cuts with talks scheduled to resume next week, a union official said Wednesday.

Union executive Robert Sutton made the comments Wednesday after a media report suggested the International Union of Electronic Workers-Communications Workers of America had broken off talks with Delphi because no progress was being made.

Spokane

Children join parents at work again

Today marks the fourth-annual Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work day, an event conceived of and promoted by the Ms. Foundation for Women.

The program, an offshoot of Take Our Daughters to Work day, which the foundation launched in the early 1990s, is aimed at encouraging girls and boys to “dream without gender limitations and to think imaginatively about their family, work and community lives,” the Ms. Foundation says in its press materials.

Boys were added to the program in 2003 “to broaden the discussion about the competing challenges of work and family,” the foundation says.