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September 8, 2005
name='1'>Bankruptcy
Law "Too Tough," Move to Exempt Katrina Victims from
Latest Changes
Victims of
Hurricane Katrina
should get a reprieve from a tough new federal bankruptcy law set to
go into
effect Oct. 17, according to consumer activists and some members of
Congress,
the San Francisco Chronicle reported today. Travis Plunkett,
legislative
director of the Consumer Federation of America, joined with National
Association
of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys Director Brad Botes in a conference
call yesterday
urging that implementation of the law be delayed by a year for Katrina
victims
and that some of its provisions be permanently waived for them.
Proponents of
the new law say it will crack down on deadbeats who run up credit card
debts
heedlessly. Opponents say it makes it almost impossible for people and
businesses
that have gotten in over their heads financially to make a fresh
start.
id='2'>Bankruptcy
Changes Unlikely to Aid Victims
House and Senate
Republican
leaders appear unlikely to reopen the sweeping bankruptcy legislation
enacted
earlier this year, despite warnings today from liberal-leaning groups
that the
law could hurt victims of Hurricane Katrina, Congress Daily
reported
yesterday. A spokesman said that BAPCPA already includes exceptions
for "special
circumstances" that could dramatically affect a consumer’s
ability
to repay debts. Senate Finance Chairman Grassley (R-Iowa) also
believes that
the law’s "special circumstance" exemptions would
cover the
victims of Hurricane Katrina.
href='http://nationaljournal.com/pubs/congressdaily/'>Read
the full story.
id='3'>Bankruptcy
Court Okays Vertical/Comdial Combo
Internet Protocol
system
vendor Vertical Communications says that, through a bankruptcy
court-approved
transaction worth about $20 million, it will acquire Comdial Corp., a
long-standing
customer premises equipment maker that filed for chapter 11
reorganization last
May, TelecomWeb reported yesterday.. Cambridge, Mass.-based Vertical
adds that
the agreement to buy Sarasota, Fla.-based Comdial now is subject to
the completion
of financing arrangements. The U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District
of Delaware
approved the asset purchase late last week.
href='http://www.telecomweb.com/news/1126032822.htm'>Read
more.
id='4'>Diocese
of Tucson: Paving the Way for Separately Incorporating Parishes
The move to form 74
independent
nonprofit corporations by April would be nearly certain to protect
them from
being sold off to pay diocesan debt, the Associated Press reported
yesterday.
Tucson Bishop Gerald F. Kicanas said that he does not expect the
incorporations
to have any effect on parishioners.
href='http://kvoa.com/Global/story.asp?S=3811668'>Read
the full story. Meanwhile, victims of sexual abuse by priests were
sharply
critical of the Catholic Diocese of Spokane for appealing a bankruptcy
judge’s
ruling that churches and parochial schools can be sold to pay claims
filed by
victims, the Associated Press reported yesterday. In an appeal filed
late Tuesday
in U.S. District Court in Spokane, lawyers for Bishop William Skylstad
wrote
that U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Patricia C. Williams erred in her
analysis
in 11 areas and wrongly ignored evidence and centuries of religious
law.
href='http://www.kgw.com/sharedcontent/APStories/stories/D8CFMLM80.html'>Read
the full story.
id='5'>Mirant
Agreement Announced
Mirant has reached
an agreement
with shareholders and other creditors on the terms of how the energy
company
will emerge from bankruptcy protection, BankruptcyData.com reported
yesterday.
The agreement sets the terms on which the value of the Mirant
enterprise will
be shared among stakeholders. The deal permits Mirant’s
constituencies
to put their differences behind them and work together to bring the
business
out of chapter 11 quickly.
href='http://www.bankruptcydata.com/BankruptcyDataNewsNEW.asp'>Read
the full story.
Airlines
id='6'>Possible
Airline Ticket Tax Suspension
Regulators are
considering
a suspension of the 7.5 percent ticket tax paid by airline passengers,
a move
that would help carriers more easily raise fares and recoup some
losses blamed
on soaring fuel prices, Reuters reported yesterday. In a conference
call with
reporters, Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta said that he had
recently
discussed the idea with senior airline industry officials and that it
was something
the agency was exploring, even though it would remove a key source of
revenue
from the trust fund that pays for air traffic services.
id='7'>UAL
Corp. Plan Filed
UAL Corporation
announced
that it filed a reorganization plan and related disclosure statement
with the
U.S. Bankruptcy Court, BankruptcyData.com reported yesterday. The
joint plan
includes UAL, United and 26 other subsidiaries that filed for
chapter-11 reorganization
on Dec. 9, 2002. Under the plan as proposed, unsecured creditors
generally will
receive distributions of new UAL common stock to settle their claims.
Read
the full story.
id='8'>Feds
Buy Airline
A federal
bankruptcy judge
on Friday approved a settlement between US Airways Group and the U.S.
Pension
Benefit Guaranty Corp. that resolves about $2.7 billion worth of
claims, HouseofLabor.com
reported yesterday. The settlement gives the pension agency an
ownership stake
in the airline.
href='http://houseoflabor.tpmcafe.com/story/2005/9/6/85859/69213'>Read
more.
id='9'>Delta
to Sell Planes
Delta Air Lines
agreed to
sell 11 Boeing 767-200 jets and moved to slash flights out of
Cincinnati, its
second-largest hub, in what the troubled carrier said was a bid to
restructure
faster, Reuters reported yesterday. The moves come amid widespread
speculation
that the carrier will be forced to seek bankruptcy protection by the
end of
the year as it struggles with high fuel and pension costs.
href='http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/07/AR20050…'>Read
more.
id='10'>Kaiser
Plan Filed
Kaiser Aluminum
Corp., Kaiser
Aluminum & Chemical Corp. and certain debtor affiliates filed its
second
reorganization plan and related disclosure statement with the U.S.
Bankruptcy
Court, BankruptcyData.com reported yesterday. In response to the
filing, the
official committee of asbestos claimants and the future asbestos
claimaints
representative filed a letter with the court.
href='http://www.bankruptcydata.com/BankruptcyDataNewsNEW.asp'>Read
more.
id='11'>La
Voz Parent Files for Chapter 11
The parent company
of La
Voz Nueva, Denver’s oldest and largest Hispanic weekly
newspaper,
has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, the Rocky Mountain
News
reported today. Hispanic Print Media took the move to restructure its
long-term
debt, said Wanda Padilla, La Voz’s publisher and co-founder.
Contrary
to trends at most newspapers, La Voz doubled its circulation since
2003 to 100,000
and has increased annual advertising revenue by 20 percent in the same
period,
she said.
href='http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/business/article/0,1299,DRMN_4_40…'>Read
more.