Also. . .

* Enron Corp. is close to selling its Portland General Electric unit, which it bought for $3.1 billion two years ago, to Sierra Pacific Resources Inc., people familiar with the talks told Bloomberg News. Enron will get slightly more than what it paid for the utility and a sale could be announced as soon as today. Both Enron and Nevada-based Sierra Pacific declined to comment. Houston-based Enron bought Portland General, a utility that sells power to about 714,000 customers in Oregon, in July 1997 in its first acquisition in the U.S. utility industry.