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September 30,
2005
name='1'>Delinquent
Credit Card Accounts Hit Record
High gasoline prices
helped
push credit card payment delinquencies to a record in the second
quarter, and
with pump prices continuing to rise, the rate is unlikely to improve,
the Toledo
Blade reported yesterday. Payments were overdue at least 30 days
on 4.81
percent of accounts, compared with 4.76 percent in the first quarter,
the American
Bankers Association said. Consumers are listing prices for gasoline
and other
fuel as contributing to their budgeting problems, said Jim Welch,
financial
counselor supervisor for the Consumer Credit Counseling Service of
Northwestern
Ohio in Toledo.
href='http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050929/BUSINESS04/5…'>Read
the full story.
id='2'>Asbestos
Lawsuit Venue in Dispute
W.R. Grace & Co.
and
the New Jersey attorney general are wrangling over what court will
have jurisdiction
over the state’s civil suit against the Maryland-based
construction products
and chemical manufacturer, the Trenton Times reported today.
The lawsuit,
filed in state Superior Court this past summer, accuses the company of
submitting
false or misleading information to state regulators about the
asbestos-tainted
vermiculite it processed over the course of three decades at a
fireproofing
and insulation plant in Hamilton. The state is seeking up to $1.6
billion in
penalties from the company. W.R. Grace is trying to move the case to
U.S. Bankruptcy
Court in Delaware, where the lawsuit likely would be stayed, a
spokesman for
state Attorney General Peter Harvey said yesterday. Awash in a sea of
litigation
over asbestos contamination claims, Grace filed for chapter 11
protection in
2001.
href='http://www.nj.com/search/index.ssf?/base/news-0/1128068070208991.xml?ti…'>Read
more.
id='3'>Bankruptcy
Court Approves Plan Termination
Falcon Products Inc.
received
approval to terminate one of its pension plans and replace it with a
voluntary
401(k) plan, Pensions and Investments reported Tuesday. Judge
Barry
S. Schermer of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in St. Louis signed an
order last
week authorizing changes to the company’s collective bargaining
agreement
with the United Food and Commercial Workers International Local
272(T), Russellville,
Tenn., which represents nearly one-third of Falcon’s employees.
The pension
termination is part of changes to the union’s contract, and the
union
did not file an objection to the company’s Sept. 2 motion to
modify the
collective bargaining agreement. Court papers said the union’s
pension
plan would be turned over to the PBGC. The bankruptcy court is slated
to consider
Falcon Products’ request to terminate its other two pension
plans at an
Oct. 6 hearing. The three plans have a combined $28.6 million in
assets as of
November 2003, according to the company’s most recent annual
report.
href='http://www.pionline.com/news.cms?newsId=2894&ht=bankruptcy%20bankruptcy'>Read
the full story.
id='4'>Prime
TV Files for Bankruptcy
Prime TV, the
Southern Pines,
N.C.-based seller of satellite-TV subscriptions whose business
practices twice
caught the attention of the state Attorney General’s office, has
filed for bankruptcy
and is liquidating its assets, the Raleigh News Observer
reported today.
Prime TV’s filing in federal bankruptcy court in Durham last
week wasn’t a surprise,
given that it went out of business last year after satellite-TV
provider DirecTV
canceled its sales contract. The bankruptcy petition form filed by the
company
says that Prime TV has between 50 and 99 creditors, and debts of
between $10
million and $50 million. The petition also states that it has assets
of more
than $10 million.
href='http://newsobserver.com/business/story/2805904p-9249669c.html'>Read
more.
id='5'>Credit
Counselors Brace for Onslaught
Nonprofit credit
counselors
are being given a greater role in the bankruptcy process, the
Associated Press
reported yesterday. Under BAPCPA, debtors must take part in a credit
counseling
session in the six months before filing bankruptcy applications,
paying as much
as $50 for a 90-minute session. The law also mandates that many
complete a financial
education course before their bankruptcies are final, and some of
these courses
will be handled by credit counselors.
href='http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/business/3375723'>Read
more.
id='6'>Albany
Printing Co. Files for Chapter 11
The William Boyd
Printing
Co. Inc. of Albany, N.Y., filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection
in U.S.
Bankruptcy Court in Albany, the Albany Business Review reported
yesterday. The
company continues to operate from its headquarters and it has
maintained its
45-member work force. The Business Review listed Boyd Printing as the
region’s
seventh-largest commercial printer in 2004 with revenue of $4.75
million. The
company has existed since 1889. It specializes in printing books and
journals.
href='http://albany.bizjournals.com/albany/stories/2005/09/26/daily44.html?js…'>Read
the full story.
id='7'>Big
Bankruptcy Changes Coming
Many of the people
who come
in to see Minnestota attorney Robert Russell to file bankruptcy are
typical
wage earners, he said, but are dealing with overwhelming medical
bills, loss
of work, disabilities or a failed business, the Fergus Falls
Journal
reported yesterday. They’re the type who need shelter from debt,
and are
not trying to take advantage of the system. And though Congress
enacted a law
to make it more difficult to abuse the bankruptcy system, Russell said
beginning
Oct. 17, for many of the people who truly need to file for bankruptcy,
the process
will become more difficult and expensive.
href='http://www.fergusfallsjournal.com/articles/2005/09/28/news/news04.txt'>Read
more.
id='8'>Atlantic
Coast Minority Holder Files for Bankruptcy
Atlantic Coast
Entertainment
Holdings Inc. said yesterday that its minority shareholder GB Holdings
Inc.
has filed for reorganization under chapter 11 bankruptcy protection
because
it does not have the capital to pay its 11 percent notes that came
due, Reuters
reported. Atlantic Coast said the bankruptcy of GB Holdings, which
holds a 28
percent common stock interest in Atlantic Coast, will not affect its
operations.
It owns and operates The Sands Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City, New
Jersey.
id='9'>
Ohio Village Nears Bankruptcy
As the village of
Sparta,
Ohio, teeters on the brink of bankruptcy, officials say the local
school district
and the state Environmental Protection Agency are responsible for its
unpaid
loans, the Associated Press reported Wednesday. Village officials
hired a lawyer
to prepare bankruptcy filings after they were unable to repay $1.2
million officials
borrowed to build sewers and a treatment plant. In a lawsuit in the
Morrow County
Common Pleas Court, officials said that the Highland school
district’s abandonment
of the village system is the main reason the village can barely cover
its monthly
operating costs, much less repay its loans. Officials also said that
the EPA
is allowing the district to illegally operate its own wastewater
treatment facility.
href='http://www.ohio.com/mld/beaconjournal/news/state/12765263.htm'>
Read more.