With its fiercely independent communities and an aversion to bureaucracy, the area has so far resisted any form of regional administration, relying instead on loose networks of politicians, local groups and businesses.

ECONOMIST: High-tech America

The Bush administration's cyber initiative, signed by the president in early January, aims to increase surveillance of government networks, which have suffered multiple major intrusions in recent years.

FORBES: Bush's Cyber Secrets Dilemma

Ken Lay was the only energy executive to meet privately with Vice President Dick Cheney to help shape the administration's new energy policy -- which included a recommendation to break up monopoly control of electricity transmission networks, a longtime Enron goal.

CNN: Bill Press: Enron makes Whitewater look like peanuts