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Enron founder Ken Lay dies
64-year-old former energy executive was awaiting sentencing for fraud.
By Shaheen Pasha, CNNMoney.com staff writer
July 5 2006: 6:03 PM EDT


Enron's Ken Lay

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Kenneth Lay, who rose from a poor preacher's son to become a millionaire before being convicted of corporate fraud, died early Wednesday in Aspen, Colo., a family spokeswoman said.

Lay, 64, was awaiting sentencing after being found guilty of conspiracy and fraud in the Enron trial in May.

In a statement, spokeswoman Kelly Kimberly said, "The Lays have a very large family with whom they need to communicate, and out of respect for the family we will release further details at a later time."

"Apparently, his heart simply gave out," said Lay's pastor, Dr. Steve Wende of Houston's First United Methodist Church.

An autopsy indicated Lay died of coronary artery disease, Mesa County, Colorado coroner Robert Kurtzman said. There was "no evidence of foul play," he added.

Toxicology reports are still pending and won't be completed for two to three weeks, Kurtzman told reporters late on Wednesday.

A spokeswoman for Aspen Valley Hospital confirmed that Lay arrived at the hospital at 1:41 a.m. MT and was pronounced dead at 3:11 a.m. MT.

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Originally posted by filthy

A sad day indeed.

I was looking forward to seeing him in the can for a while. The fucker done got away!

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Originally posted by HalfMooner

...What I'll remember most about Enron was how, a few years back, its executives laughed and joked among themselves as they manipulated electrical supplies to deliberately create rolling blackouts here in California.

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Judge blasts Blackwell
Secretary of state faulted in provisional-ballot case, accused of failing Ohio
Thursday, October 21, 2004
Mark Niquette
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

A federal judge ripped Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell yesterday for failing to comply with a court order regarding provisional ballots and for "failure to do his duty.''

U.S. District Judge James G. Carr in Toledo also suggested that Blackwell risked denying large numbers of Ohioans the right to vote on Nov. 2 and "apparently seeks to accomplish the same result in Ohio in 2004 that occurred in Florida in 2000.''

While an appeals court decides the legal dispute over provisional ballots in Ohio, Carr wants Blackwell to give county election officials alternative instructions for the possible outcomes in the case so no time is lost once there's a ruling.

The judge even offered his own language for those guidelines, saying Blackwell can't be trusted to do so.

"I cannot be confident . . . that Blackwell will, indeed, fulfill his obligation to this court, Ohio's election officials, and Ohio's voters,'' the judge wrote.

Blackwell, who has called Carr a "left-wing judge,'' said through a spokesman that the judge's strong language was "surprising'' because Blackwell thinks he has complied with Carr's requests.

"Ohio has a history of conducting great elections, and Secretary Blackwell is working hard to make sure the Nov. 2 election continues in that tradition,'' spokesman Carlo LoParo said.

It is the latest legal skirmish in the battle over how Ohio will handle provisional ballots, which federal law says must be offered to all voters who thinks they are eligible to vote -- even if they are told they're not.

The ballots are held for 10 days while election workers confirm whether voters are eligible. The idea is to ensure that no one is wrongly denied the right to vote on Election Day, as an estimated 1.5 million voters were in 2000 because of errors.

With the contest for president in Ohio and nationwide expected to be close, provisional-ballot rules are being closely scrutinized. About 98,500 such ballots were cast in Ohio in 2000, and more than that are expected this year.

The dispute is over federal language that says such ballots must be provided in a voter's jurisdiction. Carr ruled that's a county -- meaning votes cast in the right county but wrong precinct would count, at least for federal offices. Blackwell says it's a precinct, meaning any vote cast in the wrong precinct would not count.

Carr ruled last week that Blackwell's directive to election officials Sept. 16 violated the federal Help America Vote Act because the directive says provisional ballots should not be issued to a voter in the wrong precinct. It said poll workers must direct voters to the correct precinct.

Ohio Democrats and three labor groups sued, arguing that the Blackwell edict would cost thousands of voters the right to vote -- especially the poor and minorities who might mistakenly go to the wrong precincts and wouldn't be able to go elsewhere. The judge agreed.

Blackwell is appealing to the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, arguing that Carr misinterpreted the voting act -- and that state law says votes cast outside a voter's home precinct are illegal.

The appeals court yesterday ordered Blackwell to file his legal arguments by 10 a.m. today, and Democrats have until 10 a.m. Saturday to respond. If the court decides oral arguments are needed, they would be Tuesday in Cincinnati.

The three judges hearing the case are Chief Judge Danny J. Boggs, Circuit Court Judge Ronald L. Gilman of Tennessee and U.S. District Judge Herman J. Weber of Cincinnati. Boggs and Weber were appointed by President Reagan, while Gilman was named by President Clinton. Carr also was appointed by Clinton.

Blackwell has noted that 26 other states plus the District of Columbia are handling provisional ballots the way he proposes, and the Florida Supreme Court backed that approach in a ruling this week on a similar lawsuit.

The U.S. Department of Justice intervened in a Michigan lawsuit, arguing that it is up to states to determine how ballots are counted.

With the Nov. 2 election fast approaching, Carr had suggested that Blackwell file two possible directives: one that complies with Carr's ruling and another if Blackwell wins his appeal.

But Blackwell filed only one proposed directive Monday, and Carr determined it did not comply with his order. The judge called that "inexplicable.''

"Ignoring this court's clear command is one thing; it is another thing, and under the circumstances even more blameworthy, to leave Ohio's election officials utterly without guidance about how to apply HAVA's provisions,'' Carr wrote.

He allowed Blackwell to file another proposed directive yesterday but also included his own version so no more time is lost -- and because "it is necessary for this court to do the job that he should have done.''

"The exigencies requiring the relief being ordered herein are due to the failure of (Blackwell) to fulfill his duty not only to this court . . . but more importantly, to his failure to do his duty as secretary of state to ensure that the election laws are upheld and enforced,'' Carr wrote.

Carr also scolded Blackwell for waiting 23 months after the voting act was passed to issue directives for handling provisional ballots and for not pushing to make Ohio's "outdated'' provisional-ballot law -- passed before the voting act -- conform with the new federal law.

Ohio's law was enacted in the late 1980s to accommodate voters who had moved or changed their names and not updated their registrations, and Blackwell has said a bipartisan commission found in 2003 that state law conforms to the federal act.

mniquette@dispatch.com

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