PROFNET EXPERT ALERTS: Electric Vehicles / Liberian Elections / Enron

Nov. 2, 2011

EXPERT ALERTS

1. Energy: Utilities Hold Key to Unlocking Adoption of Electric Vehicles

2. Government: Post-Arthur Andersen, Government More Cautious

3. International: Liberian Elections and the New 'Watchdog' Role of the Liberian Media

4. Law: Criminal Cases Boosted Careers, Blemished DOJ

5. Law: Enron Bankruptcy Spawned Current Cleanup Efforts

6. Law: Enron's Far-Reaching Legal and Regulatory Legacy

7. Law: Need for Whistle-Blower Protections Becomes Evident

8. Law: Ten Years After Enron, Technology Has Added to E-Discovery Battles

9. Taxation: A Year-End Health Care Strategy That Can Actually Help You Save Money

10. Taxation: Tax Industry Under Scrutiny

OTHER NEWS & RESOURCES

1. Should Violent Images of World Conflict Be Shown on TV?

2. Grammar Hammer: The Muppets Explain Who vs. That vs. Which

3. Ideas for Creative (and Efficient) Content Generation

4. Tool Spotlight: Storify

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EXPERT ALERTS:

Via Expert Alerts, ProfNet members can alert reporters to experts who are available to discuss timely news topics. If you are interested in interviewing any of the experts, please see the contact info at the end of the alert. You can also find Expert Alerts online on ProfNet Connect at http://bit.ly/pncalerts

**1. ENERGY: Utilities Hold Key to Unlocking Adoption of Electric Vehicles. Arun Mani, energy and electric vehicles expert at PA Consulting Group: "Now is the time for utilities to take a leadership role in the adoption of electric vehicles (EVs), with environmental policy generating active government support for EVs and consumer interest rising. Utilities can encourage the adoption of EVs and be leaders in the emerging EV market by: 1) building a reliable and flexible infrastructure, 2) offering innovative commercial charging models and 3) shaping strategy around consumer behavior. And by embracing green technology with EVs, utilities have the opportunity to build consumer trust and position themselves as utilities of the future." Mani is based in Denver. News Contact: Carrie Gray, [email protected] Phone: +1-212-973-5954

**2. GOVERNMENT: POST-ARTHUR ANDERSEN, GOVERNMENT MORE CAUTIOUS. Rusty Hardin, a Houston attorney who defended Arthur Andersen in the first Enron-related trial in 2002: "Arthur Andersen was an international 'Big Five' accounting firm, but the company was virtually dissolved and only a handful of employees were left by the time the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously reversed its obstruction-of-justice conviction. The only good thing that came from the prosecution of Arthur Andersen is that the government now thinks harder before pursuing and destroying a large corporation based on the perceived conduct of a few. Unfortunately, it took the demise of an 88,000-employee worldwide company for that reality to sink in." News Contact: Bruce Vincent, [email protected] Phone: +1-800-559-4534

**3. INTERNATIONAL: LIBERIAN ELECTIONS AND THE NEW 'WATCHDOG' ROLE OF THE LIBERIAN MEDIA. Ken Harper, assistant professor at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University: "Liberia is experiencing a media revolution. After 13 years of civil war that left hundreds of thousands dead, a free press is trying to play its watchdog role for the first time in the nation's history. Never before has there been such a dramatic need for a strong, professional media." Harper has spent the past four years traveling to Liberia to conduct media training workshops with leading news organizations and artists. He is also director of Together Liberia, a media development project that trains Liberian students and professionals in photography, media ethics, multimedia and Web design. He has more than a decade of experience in online and print media. News Contact: Wendy S. Loughlin, [email protected] Phone: +1-315-443-2785 Website: http://togetherliberia.org

**4. LAW: CRIMINAL CASES BOOSTED CAREERS, BLEMISHED DOJ. Thomas Hagemann of the Houston office of Gardere Wynne Sewell LLP, who worked as a defense attorney in the Enron Nigerian barge case: "The federal prosecutors on the Enron Task Force enhanced their careers and put Houston on the white-collar-crime map, but in many instances their propensity to overreach in the effort to win convictions ended up giving the Department of Justice a bad name. Prosecutorial abuses in the disclosure of exculpatory information; intimidation of potential defense witnesses; ill-considered theories of fraud, including 'honest services' claims; and outrageous attempts to put people in prison for decades did not serve justice or this country. These prosecutors were long gone by the time the reversals started rolling in on the Arthur Andersen, Nigerian barge and Broadband cases, which were riddled with flaws and ultimate failures." News Contact: Rhonda Reddick, [email protected] Phone: +1-800-559-4534

**5. LAW: ENRON BANKRUPTCY SPAWNED CURRENT CLEANUP EFFORTS. Rhett Campbell, a bankruptcy lawyer in Thompson & Knight's Houston office: "Enron was an Oregon corporation with a Texas headquarters, and yet its then-largest bankruptcy was filed and anchored controversially in a New York court, where smaller creditors from around the country had trouble finding affordable representation. I don't know of a case where venue was so inappropriately set in New York as in the Enron case. The decision to leave it in New York has been heavily criticized. The problem of venue-shopping corporate bankruptcy filings has resulted in an effort in Congress to change the rules. Small and moderately sized creditors are largely disenfranchised by the present law, and the Enron case proved that clearly." News Contact: Barry Pound, [email protected] Phone: +1-800-559-4534

**6. LAW: ENRON'S FAR-REACHING LEGAL AND REGULATORY LEGACY. Richard Roper, a Dallas lawyer at Thompson & Knight and the former U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Texas: "The Enron investigations and prosecutions transformed the landscape of corporate regulation, as well as the tactics used by federal investigative agents and prosecutors. The 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley Act, the 2009 Fraud Enforcement and Recovery Act and the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act all were inspired by Enron and greatly expanded federal criminal and regulatory authority over corporations and their officers. Because of what was learned during Enron, federal prosecutors now routinely employ obstruction-of-justice statutes as a tool to bring corporations and officers to their knees. And corporate whistle-blowers are now positioned to receive millions of dollars in awards for reporting alleged corporate misconduct while enjoying near immunity from perceived attempts of employer retaliation." News Contact: Barry Pound, [email protected] Phone: +1-800-559-4534

**7. LAW: NEED FOR WHISTLE-BLOWER PROTECTIONS BECOMES EVIDENT. Philip Hilder, a Houston white-collar criminal-defense lawyer who represented Enron's Sherron Watkins and now represents a News Corp. whistle-blower: "Though business interests are waging legal war over new financial bounties for corporate whistle-blowers, it is crucial to maintain the new rules in the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act that encourage corporate whistle-blowing and discourage Enron-like corrupt corporate cultures. Corporate corruption takes root in the tolerances of those at the top. Deceit and concealment can become the mores of a company. So it was in Enron 10 years ago, so it is today with companies like News Corp. After Watkins warned of bad deals that could implode Enron, those above her considered retaliating. Congress realized Dodd-Frank protections are necessary to encourage and protect those who internally or externally make the effort to correct wrongs." News Contact: Mary Flood, [email protected] Phone: +1-800-559-4534

**8. LAW: TEN YEARS AFTER ENRON, TECHNOLOGY HAS ADDED TO E-DISCOVERY BATTLES. Rachel Womack, a data-security and electronic-discovery expert at Stroz Friedberg who was involved in Enron-related litigation: "Enron's demise in civil, criminal and bankruptcy courts included more than a half-million email records and other electronic data. But a similar corporate scandal would create far more electronic-discovery headaches today because employees in 2011 have far more records to retrieve from many different sources. The Enron e-documents were largely found on internal servers, desktops and laptops. If the same scenario happened today, those documents likely would be found on employee smartphones, iPads, external memory drives and in cloud-based servers. Important emails could be on private Google, Yahoo or other accounts. It is important for a company to put someone in charge of documents and for courts to have uniform e-material rules for all parties." News Contact: Robert Tharp, [email protected] Phone: +1-800-559-4534

**9. TAXATION: A YEAR-END HEALTH CARE STRATEGY THAT CAN ACTUALLY HELP YOU SAVE MONEY. Mark J. Kohler, author of "What Your CPA Isn't Telling You" and "Lawyers Are Liars": "Millions of Americans are catching on to fact that Health Savings Accounts, a 'keep it if you don't use it plan,' can go with them anywhere, give them tax-free distributions for health care costs and provide a big tax deduction on the front page of their tax return. The trick is, you must have a high-deductible qualifying policy in place before Dec. 1, and then you can make contributions deductible this year until April 15, 2012. This strategy also saves you with lower insurance premiums." Kohler can discuss details on how to take advantage of a Health Savings Account. News Contact: Jillian McTigue, [email protected] Phone: +1-949-622-5274

**10. TAXATION: TAX INDUSTRY UNDER SCRUTINY. Michael Rozbruch, founder and CEO of Tax Resolution Services, Co., one of the nation's leading tax negotiation and mediation firms: "There has been a lot of negative media buzz about unscrupulous tax resolution firms. Tax resolution firms are not created equal -- the unethical players have given the ethical firms a bad name, tarnishing the reputation of the entire industry, which good firms work to offset everyday. Consumers need to know that reputable tax resolution professionals are out there. If we paint the entire industry with a broad brush, everybody's out of business, and the ones that will suffer the most are the consumers." Rozbruch also founded Tax Problem Resolution Services Coalition (TPRSC), an industry trade group created to set high professional standards and business practices after the FTC proposed its rule for debt relief providers. Profile: http://www.profnetconnect.com/michael_rozbruch News Contact: Debbie Edwards, [email protected] Phone: +1-866-477-7762, ext. 326 Websites: http://www.taxresolution.com and www.taxproblemresolutionservicescoalition.com

OTHER NEWS & RESOURCES:

Following are links to other news and resources we think you might find useful. If you have an item you think other reporters would be interested in and would like us to include in a future alert, please drop us a line at [email protected]

**1. SHOULD VIOLENT IMAGES OF WORLD CONFLICT BE SHOWN ON TV?: ProfNet Editor Evelyn Tipacti shares the perspectives of two journalists regarding violent images of world conflict on TV: http://bit.ly/vhMBmP

**2. GRAMMAR HAMMER: THE MUPPETS EXPLAIN WHO VS. THAT VS. WHICH: ProfNet Editor Grace Lavigne reviews three main rules to determine when you should use who, that or which, with the help of the Muppets: http://bit.ly/sNiar1

**3. IDEAS FOR CREATIVE (AND EFFICIENT) CONTENT GENERATION: PR Newswire's Sarah Skerik discusses how polls, surveys and other tools can be used as content: http://bit.ly/sZT9CP

**4. TOOL SPOTLIGHT: STORIFY: ProfNet Editor Jason Hahn takes a look at Storify, a curation tool that helps make stories using social media content: http://bit.ly/w4sn72

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/PRNewswire – Nov. 2, 2011/

SOURCE ProfNet