June 14, 2004

Senate to Consider Class
Action Bill

Once the Senate completes work
on the defense authorization bill, it is still expected to turn to
legislation overhauling rules for class action lawsuits,
CongressDaily reported. A spokeswoman for Senate Majority
Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) said that could mean floor action on the
class action bill would begin late this week, but it is more likely to
move to the floor next week. Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.)
has said Democrats do not plan to oppose a motion to proceed with the
bipartisan class action bill, which would move many class action
lawsuits from state courts to federal courts, where more stringent rules
would govern those cases. Frist has said he expects the compromise bill
to pass because more than 60 senators have indicated their support for
it, and that would break any filibuster, the newswire reported.



Retail Sales Rebound in May



Sales at the nation's retailers rose by 1.2 percent, a sign the economy
is recovering, the Associated Press reported. The latest snapshot of
retail activity reported by the Commerce Department today comes after a
consumer pullback in April, which decreased retail sales by 0.6 percent.
May's increase was slightly larger than the 1 percent rise that
some economists were predicting and marked the biggest gain since March.
In the retail sales report, sales at automobile dealerships increased by
2.7 percent in May, an improvement from the 2.1 percent decline in April
and the biggest gain since November. Excluding sales at automobile
dealerships, retail sales went up by 0.7 percent in May, the newswire
reported.

United to Exit Bankruptcy in '04

United CEO Glenn Tilton said on Friday that he expects
the airline to emerge from bankruptcy by year's end even if its
pending application for a $1.6 billion federal loan guarantee is
rejected, the Associated Press reported. Chicago-based United believes
it qualifies for and urgently needs the government backing, which the
Air Transportation Stabilization Board is expected to rule on soon. But
Tilton said the carrier's 18-month restructuring has left it on solid
enough footing to finish the reorganization regardless of the verdict,
the newswire reported. United is targeting fall for its exit from
chapter 11, though that timing could be in jeopardy if the company
doesn't receive the long-sought loan guarantee. United's restructuring
moves have included $2.5 billion in annual labor cost reductions,
including trimming employee wages and benefits, and extensive aircraft
refinancing.

Mooney Aerospace Group Ltd. Files Chapter 11
Reorganization



Mooney Aerospace Group announced on Friday that it filed a petition for
reorganization under chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code in the U.S.
Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware on June 10, 2004, the
Business Wire reported. The company intends to file a plan of
reorganization in the proceeding.

Wanted: Legal
Superstars

 

After three years of belt-tightening, law firms are competing again for
lawyers who can defend executives charged with fraud or understand
engineering and other highly technical fields, the Washington
Post reported. Securities law, once considered dull by lawyers
in more glamorous practices, now has high status in an era of corporate
scandals. And, with the boom in technology, firms are also looking for
lawyers who understand both the intricacies of intellectual property law
and complicated technologies like the biochemistry involved in making
drugs. Read the full article at
href='http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A38992-2004Jun13.html'>
face='Times New Roman'
size='3'>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A38992-2004Jun13.html.

With Shares Down, MCI Begins to Look Like a Buyout Target

At an investor conference two years ago,
Verizon Communications Inc. Chairman
and CEO Ivan Seidenberg joked that WorldCom Inc. stock might become so
cheap he would consider buying it for fun, the Wall
Street Journal reported. With the stock capitalization of MCI Inc.
around $4.6 billion, some investors view MCI as a buyout target,
according to the Journal. Shares of MCI are down about 35
percent from $22.55 the week before the company emerged from chapter 11
bankruptcy protection in April, to $14.60 currently. Read the article at
www.wsj.com (subscription
required).

Mandalay Eases Before the
Bell

Shares of Mandalay Resort Group
edged lower today after MGM Mirage raised its offer to buy Mandalay to
$7.9 billion, including debt, after talks between the two companies over
the weekend, Reuters reported. Shares of Mandalay fell to $68.10 on the
INET electronic brokerage system, down a bit from its New York Stock
Exchange close of $68.42 on Thursday.

Japan Corporate Bankruptcies
Fall For 17th Month In May

Japanese corporate bankruptcies
slid for the 17th straight month in May, helped by a strengthening
economy that is spurring a recovery among leading firms and rejuvenating
small and mid-sized companies, Reuters reported. The number of
bankruptcies fell 20.2 percent year-on-year and inched down 0.6 percent
from April to 1,182 cases, independent research firm Teikoku Databank
said today.

DirecTV Ruled Not in Violation
of Pegasus Bankruptcy

A federal bankruptcy judge in
Maine on Thursday said DirecTV Inc. had not violated bankruptcy
protection granted to a subsidiary of Pegasus Communications Corp. by
marketing its satellite TV service to customers in rural markets served
by Pegasus, Reuters reported. Pegasus Satellite Television, Inc. filed
for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on June 2 amid a dispute over its
right to distribute DirecTV satellite television. The company's lawyers
had asked U.S. Bankruptcy Judge James Haines to find that DirecTV had
violated bankruptcy laws by directly soliciting customers in the rural
service area where the service once was sold exclusively by Pegasus. But
Haines ruled that some of the actions Pegasus complained of occurred
before it filed for bankruptcy and were not a violation of an automatic
stay that precludes a bankrupt company's creditors from seizing its
assets or taking action that devalues them, the newswire
reported.