Good morning! PARTLY CLOUDY, HIGH 73, LOW 49 / PAGE B12 TURIN PUTS ON BEST FACE FOR OLYMPICS / PAGE C1

WWW.CHRON.COM SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2006 ¬¬¬¬* VOL. 105 • NO. 115 • $1.75

A Texas two-step The sounds of Motown Longtime Oilers star becomes the first black With XL in the Motor City, voted into the we rev up our coverage of the big Pro Football Hall of Fame, game with a 14-page preview joining a star-studded of the matchup between the class that also features and former Dallas Seahawks. Cowboys standout SECTION K . PAGE C1 KICKOFF: 5:28 p.m.

▲ TROY AIKMAN TV: ABC ▲ WARREN MOON RADIO: 790 AM MIKE HOLMGREN A SEA CHANGE NEW ORLEANS HOT WATER FAILURES LED Our bays are getting WARMER, which is a chilling thought TO CRIME HERE to many who make their living along the TEXAS COAST ■ serious crime. Suspects such When New Orleans flooded as Ivory Harris — five days after a local crime commission criticized police were released and prosecutors for doing a despite charges poor job of putting violent criminals behind bars — Harris in violent offenses was one of thousands of in- mates farmed out to jails throughout Louisiana. By KIM COBB And when he was released HOUSTON CHRONICLE in Shreveport on Nov. 3, Harris new orleans — When became Houston’s problem Hurricane Katrina hit, Ivory and a key figure in Houston’s “B-Stupid” Harris was living new crime controversy. at 2800 Perdido, the parish Harris is among 11 Katrina jail. It was his home away from evacuees suspected of transfer- home. ring their New Orleans turf The 20-year-old man had battles to Houston and carry- racked up a staggering list of ing out homicides, robberies arrests in New Orleans, includ- and kidnappings that began af- ing two on murder charges. But ter his release from Shreve- he was never convicted of any Please see HARRIS, Page A17

Austria, Mexico battle

m over ‘symbol of power’ Magenta

MAYRA BELTRÁN : CHRONICLE ‘IT’S WAY TOO WARM’: In more than 60 years of shrimping in Aransas Bay, Jim Ellis has experienced plenty of ups and downs. He said the current rise in water temperatures is making it harder to catch shrimp.

HEATING UP mented an increase in ocean past decade bays from Seattle By DINA CAPPIELLO With the water temperature temperatures worldwide, a to Maryland have been getting HOUSTON CHRONICLE warming that many scientists warmer. rising in the majority of the ockport — state’s bays, some of the Jim Ellis think is caused by the buildup Records dating to 1978 for effects include: just may be the oldest of heat-trapping carbon dioxide the Gulf of Mexico document y Rshrimper on Aransas pollution in the atmosphere, an increase in water tempera- Bay. scientists say it is nearly impos- ture of 1 degree. Mangroves Yellow In his 70s, he is nearly 50 sible to say global warming is “Many of the things they are years older than his ragged causing the water to heat up seeing in the open ocean are be- AUSTRIAN MUSEUM OF FOLK LIFE AND FOLK ART boat, the Blue Mist. He was 3 along America’s coasts. Re- ing seen in shallow-water bay ‘INCALCULABLE VALUE’: The headdress, which many scholars when his dad, who owned a lo- search has shown that in the Please see BAYS, Page A16 believe belonged to the Aztec Emperor Moctezuma II, is in Vienna. cal live-bait shop, took him out on his first shrimping trip in 1938. ■ At stake is the Through the years, Ellis has THE ENRON TRIAL weathered price slumps, spikes revered headdress

7 8 9 10 11 12 in the cost of fuel, bad weather and the occasional hurricane. called the ‘crown Once limited to the South But the biggest threat to A few pennies can buy deception of Moctezuma’ Texas coast, the plants shrimpers this year, he said, has been the thermometer. have taken the practice of are denser than anyone By TOM FOWLER By MARION LLOYD can remember in the Port “Temperature will make or earnings management to a break you, and it broke us this HOUSTON CHRONICLE fraudulent extreme, it’s HOUSTON CHRONICLE Aransas area. One species Enron online FOREIGN SERVICE year,” Ellis said, standing out- Sometimes a penny is just hardly an uncommon prac- — the red mangrove — is mexico city — now as far north as Port side Fleming’s Bait Shop, the a penny. But as testimony tice, and not always illegal. Live coverage: Up-to- For nearly O’Connor. pink shed on the edge of Rock- from last week’s Enron trial Companies have long date information, plus 500 years, the jewel- port Harbor he has owned for 11 shows, sometimes a penny squirreled away profits into profi les, encrusted, plumed headdress years. “This is the worst I have can be worth a whole lot “cookie jar” accounts to Mexicans revere as the “crown Mangrove snapper seen it for the hot water.” more. smooth rough patches in later photos and of Moctezuma” has been hid- Data collected by the Texas On the witness stand, periods. Accounting rules more at den away in the private collec- Parks and Wildlife Department former Enron investor rela- give companies some discre- chron.com tions of European royalty or bear out what Ellis has experi- tions chief Mark Koenig told tion in the practice, although /enron behind bulletproof glass in a enced at sea. During the past 23 of measures the company using reserves for just that museum in Austria. years, the water temperature in took to match or beat ana- purpose is now prohibited. New blog: Lawyers Now Mexico wants it back. the majority of the state’s bays, lysts’ expectations for its But an obsession with share their perspectives And Mexican officials said This tropical fish species, which rises and falls with the quarterly earnings. Adding short-term results, fueled at blogs.chron.com last month that they would for- seasons and long-term ocean one or two pennies to its earn- largely by a rise in the use of mally petition Austria for the more common to the /legalcommentary southern Gulf of Mexico cycles, has increased by nearly ings per share kept its stock stock-based executive pay in return of the relic, on display 3 degrees Fahrenheit — a warm- price climbing or at the very the and Wall Street’s in the Ethnological Museum of and Florida coast, was Forum: Talk about c caught in all Texas bays for ing trend that intrigues scien- least kept it from taking a hit demand for growing profits, Vienna. Many scholars think the first time in 2000-01. tists but is not easily explained. from Wall Street, Koenig said. led companies to more aggres- the trial at chron.com the headdress once belonged to Cyan Though research has docu- Though Enron is alleged to Please see ENRON, Page A16 /enronforum Please see HEADDRESS, Page A12

ZEST INSIDE Hoffman...... ZEST Crossword ...... G6 Horoscope ...... G5 Zydeco meets hip-hop Back in the action Dear Abby ...... G7 Lottery ...... B2 Rooted in Louisiana, the zydeco music In Firewall, 63-year-old Harrison Ford proves he Editorials ...... E2 Movies ...... ZEST scene is branching out in Houston. PAGE G1 can still mix it up with the bad guys. PAGE 14 Hale ...... G8 Obituaries ...... B8 WE RECYCLE A16 HOUSTON CHRONICLE ¬¬¬¬* THE JUMP PAGE Sunday, February 5, 2006

BAYS: Causes, effects of warming debated

CONTINUED FROM PAGE A1 fish species more common to systems. But I’m not ready to the southern Gulf of Mexico and push all of the dominoes over Florida coast, was caught in all yet,” said James Tolan, a TPWD Texas bays for the first time in estuarine ecologist, who discov- 2000-01, according to inter- ered the Texas warming trend views conducted by the state by investigating some of the with sport fishermen. That 160,000 temperature measure- same year, fishermen reported ments taken in the state’s eight that mangrove snapper made up largest bays since 1975. 8.8 percent of their catch. In Tolan took averages of the 1983-84, the species repre- temperature readings collected sented only 0.40 percent of all on each bay every month from fish caught. 1982 to 2005 and plotted them “I used to know all the fish. on graphs. Only two — Sabine But what I’ve caught lately, I and Galveston — are not show- don’t even know what they ing the temperature increase, are,” said Bill Brice, who when which is being driven largely by not fishing helps Ellis run his warmer water in the winter bait shop. months, Tolan said. For shrimpers such as Ellis, Regardless of the underlying water temperature is essential cause, some say the warming to success. Most shrimp are has led to subtle changes in the caught as they move from environment, shifts so tiny it coastal marshes into the open takes an old sea dog such as Ellis bays to spawn. But when the to spot them. water is warm, oxygen declines, “I’ve been doing this for 18 causing the shrimp to stay put. years, and I can’t tell the tem- Ellis calls this a “fish freeze.” perature is increasing,” said “If you are hot and can’t Tom Wagner, a state natural re- breathe, you are not going to source specialist, who is on the run a marathon,” explained El- Corpus Christi Bay research lis, who as a bait shrimper team. fishes year-round. “When the Among the anecdotal evi- water is cool they are more ac- dence are sightings of birds so tive. Cold is good for shrimp- rare that longtime watchers ing.” have had to consult guidebooks Ellis thinks the bays are to identify them. Mangroves, warming because human beings MAYRA BELTRÁN PHOTOS : CHRONICLE once limited to the South Texas are polluting the atmosphere LIVELIHOOOD: For the past 11 years, Jim Ellis has owned a bait shop on Rockport Harbor. Ellis, who started shrimping in 1938, bait-fishes from the coast, are denser than anyone with gases that act like the win- Blue Mist, sailing in Galveston Bay, to supply the business. can remember in the Port Aran- dow panes in a greenhouse, sas area. One species — the red trapping the sun-generated heat mangrove — is now as far north inside. Last year, according to “We have more cuts in the tics will say, ‘How do you know TEXAS Sabine Lake LOUISIANA as Port O’Connor. federal scientists, was one of the bays now. We have had more it’s not part of a natural ° warmest on record. droughts,” he said. “There are cycle?’ ” said Tom Cronin, a ge- 0 ‘Cold is good’ lots of different factors that ologist with the U.S. Geological Houston Making a leap? Aransas Bay Galveston Bay But in these parts, where could be contributing.” Survey in Reston, Va., whose re- ° ° many people’s livelihoods de- But not everyone is con- Scientists who have docu- search has shown that recent +2.48 0 pend on the water, it’s what is vinced that climate change is mented warming in other bays, temperature extremes in Chesa- Matagorda Bay Gulf of Mexico happening in the bays that behind it. including Chesapeake Bay in peake Bay exceed those docu- +2.48° counts. And changes are being “Recently, we’ve been spot- Maryland, say that without mented in the rings of trees and San Antonio Bay BAYS WARM UP documented there, too. ting more mangrove snapper,” comparing recent temperature pollen that are natural recorders +3.98° The water in most of Texas’ Mangrove snapper, a tropical said Willy Cupit, a technician increases to natural swings over of temperature changes across Corpus Christi Bay bays has gotten on average for the parks department who much longer periods, it will be millennia. +2.98° SEEING MORE SNAPPER has collected samples on Aran- difficult, if not impossible, to Cronin also cautioned about 3 degrees warmer during Upper Laguna the past 23 years, state data Surveys of sport anglers fishing sas Bay for the past two years. link what is happening in Texas’ against trying to link the meager This past summer, he caught ju- bays to global warming. temperature rise to species be- Corpus Madre show. At left, a look at the Texas’ bays from 1983-2003 Christi +2.48° temperature change (in degrees show mangrove snapper, or gray venile mangrove snapper for the “In a nutshell, if you have havior. Lower Laguna Fahrenheit) documented from snapper, becoming more prevalent first time. only 30 years of data, the skep- “When biologists start jump- ing from salinity and tempera- Madre 1982-2005, by bay. in catches as bay temperatures MEXICO +4.46° rise. In the 2000-01 season, the ture to . . . species and a whole ROBERT DIBRELL : CHRONICLE tropical species was caught for ecosystem, I get worried,” Cro- the first time in all the bays in nin said. “Animals are compli- Texas. cated, and data are sparse.” are those most familiar with the causing the greenhouse effect.” bays, the people who spend “I’m out here day after day, Percent of catch ‘It looks the same’ 9 countless hours on the water season after season, and it looks It also is unlikely that the taking down information. Dur- the same to me.” 8 8.8% Texas data will provide the an- ing a recent trip aboard the R/V Back on the docks, Ellis likes 2000-01* 7 swer because the discovery was Nueces in Corpus Christi Bay, to reminisce about the day he made by chance, using informa- three state workers pulled up a got his biggest catch. It was 6 tion collected to assess the net teeming with sea life. The Christmas 2004, and a rare 5 health of the fishery. Twenty claws of crabs, the iridescent snowfall forced the shrimp to times every month, state techni- scales of fish and the gelatinous hunker down in the channel. He 4 cians trawl for fish and shell- bodies of squid and jellyfish netted 50 pounds in 10 minutes. 3 fish, drag a net along muddy bay were poured onto an inspection On the side of his bait shop, 2 shores to collect young fish re- table. shrimp swam in pools fed by bay cently spawned and, from Aran- Luis Uballe, a 56-year-old water. The temperature was 65 1 sas Bay north, dredge to evalu- volunteer, began to measure the degrees. 0 ate the oyster population. catch, calling out the lengths of “It’s way too warm,” Ellis ’83- ’87- ’91- ’95- ’99- ’02- “We didn’t magically start each organism. said. “I’d like it at 56 degrees. ’84 ’88 ’92 ’96 ’00 ’03 this 30 years ago to see a trend “It’s going through a cycle, is That’s a good temperature for *First time mangrove snapper caught in all Texas bays. STUDY SUBJECTS: Spot kroker, common in Corpus Christi Bay, are in water temperature,” Wagner what I’m thinking,” Uballe said. fish and shrimp to move.” Source: Texas Parks and Wildlife Department among the fish collected during surveys in the past 23 years that show said. “We did it for the fishery.” “I don’t think it’s because EDWIN LOUIE : CHRONICLE Gulf bay temperatures increasing. Some of the biggest doubters people are polluting the air and [email protected]

ENRON: Laws try to fight earnings manipulation

CONTINUED FROM PAGE A1 over backward to meet or beat promise of future sales as if they ecutive management team. sive earnings-management them. were current. “There’s greater threat from techniques. Such efforts cross the line An example of that may “It’s not the penny, it’s the perception. the SEC, from (Sarbanes- “The ’90s was the slippery when phony sales are gener- come up in the Enron trial. En- Investors always want to own a stock that’s Oxley), from criminal prosecu- slope from managing expecta- ated, for example, if the com- ron’s broadband division tried tion and private class actions, tions to managing earnings to pany’s books are left open a few to book income from a 25-year beating expectations, not disappointing.” but not any one of them is deci- outright fraud,” said Patrick days beyond the end of the deal with Blockbuster Video —DAN PICKERING, sive,” Coffee said. McGurn, a vice president with quarter to book more deals, or years before it would create any energy analyst But McClellan said compa- investor advisory firm Institu- the company lies about where real money. nies are turning to different tac- tional Shareholder Services. income came from. Companies also try to man- tics. For example, while storms, Throughout the 1970s and age the expectations of Wall from firms if their analysts wer- “Investors became much customer bankruptcies and the Push for quick results much of the 1980s, earnings Street through a variety of en’t appropriately enthusiastic shorter-term holders of invest- shutting-down or selling-off of A penny per share may not management was more likely to methods. about the company. ments and started to swap in parts of a company have always seem like a lot of money, but it be a case of companies creating Before it was outlawed by the The Enron trial already has and out of funds more regu- occurred in the business world, can create the impression that a rainy-day reserves, socking Securities and Exchange Com- provided testimony on how larly,” McClellan said. “There companies now look to turn ev- company is doing better or away current profits for use mission’s Regulation Fair Dis- former Chairman Ken Lay and was more scrutiny in how the ery such event into something worse than expected, said Dan when times weren’t so good, closure, aka “Reg FD,” compa- former CEO Jeff Skilling sought mutual funds performed from that should be considered out of Pickering, a longtime energy said Jack Coffee, a professor at nies would regularly tip off the to freeze former Merrill Lynch quarter to quarter.” the ordinary. “So many chunks analyst and principal with Columbia Law School who spe- most important analysts when energy analyst John Olson out The mutual fund managers of quarterly earnings are Houston’s Pickering Energy cializes in white-collar crime. results would be better than the of conference calls and meet- then pressured the stock ana- smoothed out by companies Partners. If companies earned in ex- official estimate. ings. Congressional investiga- lysts who rate the companies in claiming certain items should “It’s not the penny, it’s the cess of what the market ex- “That would lead to more tors concluded Merrill Lynch their portfolio, encouraging be overlooked as one-time perception,” Pickering said. pected, “they wouldn’t get extra bullish analyst reports on the forced Olson out of the com- them to put out favorable re- events,” he said. “Special items “Investors always want to own a credit for it, so they would use companies, which would help pany because of his negative ports that would bolster the are so prevalent now that stock that’s beating expecta- the extra for another time,” Cof- the stock price,” said Stephen outlook on Enron. stock price. they’re not special anymore.” tions, not disappointing.” fee said, noting that General McClellan, a former computer Such practices may not be a Companies that try to resist Recent laws and a renewed Electric and Gulf & Western services analyst for Merrill thing of the past, either. A re- Auditors help enforce law Wall Street’s quarter-to-quarter focus on corporate fraud appear were among the biggest users of Lynch. “We wouldn’t change cent survey by IR magazine, a Since 2003, research firms demands can find the effort to have cut back on earnings such techniques. our estimates on the company, publication for the investor re- are supposed to disclose the punishing. Google, which owns manipulation, observers say, but we’d say in the reports the lations industry, found that 38 percentage of “buy” and “sell” the popular online search en- but the obsession with quarter- A lure for executives official expectation was conser- percent of analysts say they recommendations they have on gine, gives little guidance to to-quarter results has not The motivation for earnings vative.” have been shut out by a com- stocks, as well as their “buy/ analysts and is strident in its waned. management changed in the pany after they downgraded sell” breakdown on companies long-term focus. But when it “Quarterly earnings are still 1990s when companies began to Punishing analysts their rating of the company’s they have as customers. missed analyst expectations last made up to be too important, in ratchet up the use of stock and A practice that still appears stock. “This is supposed to make it week, the company’s stock took my judgment,” said Chuck Hill, stock options in executive pay, to be common is for companies clear if a firm is really just a shill a huge hit, dropping by more an independent researcher who Coffee said. to regularly give guidance a few Pressure for mutual funds for clients,” Hill said. than 10 percent. helped fine-tune the methods With so much of their pay pennies below what they really The pressure to focus on the Today, there are more barri- “If a company says it’s for gathering earnings proj- tied up in the value of company expect, McClellan said. This short-term results and the ensu- ers to earnings manipulation, changing its long-term growth ections while running research stock, management focused less way the company can say it beat ing stock price doesn’t come Coffee said. Laws such as the rate by 1 percent, that should be for Thomson Financial. on the long-term ability of the Wall Street estimates, a practice just from inside companies 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley Act help bigger news than if it missed its “There’s too much focus on the company to generate cash and that Microsoft was often ac- McClellan noted how in the outside auditors resume their quarterly earnings per share by short term by far.” more on how to get the stock cused of. 1980s, as more money poured role as watchdogs over company a penny,” Hill said. “But it’s Companies have always set price to grow every quarter. Companies also had been into mutual funds, the level of financials by having them re- not.” profit goals for themselves, and One way to do that was to known to use the threat of with- competition between fund man- port to the audit committee of a they’ve been willing to bend boost revenue by recording the drawing their banking business agers became more intense. board of directors, not the ex- [email protected]