src='/AM/Images/headlines/headline.gif' />
August 30, 2005
name='1'>Census Bureau
Holds News Conference
The U.S. Census
Bureau will
host a news conference today at 10 a.m., which will focus on two new
reports,
"Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United
States: 2004"
and "Income, Earnings, and Poverty Data from the 2004 American
Community
Survey." Participants will include Hermann Habermann, deputy
director,
U.S. Census Bureau; Charles Nelson, assistant division chief, Income,
Poverty
and Health Statistics, Housing and Household Economic Statistics
Division, U.S.
Census Bureau and Preston Jay Waite, associate director, Decennial
Census, U.S.
Census Bureau. The conference will be held at the U.S. Census Bureau,
Suitland
Federal Center, Federal Office Building 3, 4700 Silver Hill Road,
Suitland,
Md. For more information, contact: Stephen Buckner at (301) 763-3691
or pio@census.gov.
href='http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/news_conferen…'>You
can also attend online.
id='2'>Owens
Corning Talks to Creditors
Owens Corning has
had "an
encouraging number of preliminary conversations" with creditors
aimed at
reworking its chapter 11 exit plan, according to the lead bankruptcy
lawyer,
Dow Jones Newswire reported today. Norman Pernick told U.S.
Bankruptcy
Judge Judith Fitzgerald that the Toledo, Ohio,
building-materials maker
met last week with holders of its bank debt, who prevailed Aug. 15 in
a critical
court contest. More meetings are scheduled in September as the company
tries
to reach a new understanding with key creditors before an Oct. 24
hearing.
href='http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB112534352735725838-email,00.html'>Read
the full story.
id='3'>Birch
Continues Along Chapter 11 Path
Earlier this month,
Kansas
City-based CLEC Birch Telecom filed for chapter 11 protection after
cutting
its workforce, Telecomweb reported yesterday. In addition, the
provider of local,
long-distance and Internet services saw its CEO, Mike Cassidy, resign,
replaced
immediately by Gregory C. Lawhon, who had been serving as senior vice
president
and general counsel. While it looks as though Birch can hold out
financially
until the end of the year, more belt-tightening and perhaps better
network negotiations
with BellSouth and SBC Communications will be needed to help the CLEC
emerge
from bankruptcy.
href='http://www.telecomweb.com/news/1125338286.htm'>Read
the full story.
id='4'>Diocese
to Appeal Court Decision
Bishop William S.
Skylstad
of Spokane said he will appeal a federal Bankruptcy Court’s
ruling that parish
properties must be included in the Spokane diocesan assets used to
settle millions
of dollars in clergy sex abuse claims, the Catholic News Service
reported yesterday.
U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Patricia Williams of Spokane ruled Aug.
26 that
civil property laws prevail in a bankruptcy proceeding despite any
internal
church laws that might bar a bishop from full control over parish
assets. Diocesan
lawyers had argued that in church law parish assets belong to the
parish itself,
not to its pastor or to the bishop.
href='http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/0504917.htm'>Read
the full story.
id='5'>McDermott
Agrees to Revised Settlement
Offshore energy
services
and engineering firm McDermott International Inc. said that it has
agreed to
a revised settlement agreement in the chapter 11 bankruptcy
proceedings involving
its Babcock & Wilcox unit, Reuters reported yesterday. On the
effective
date of the settlement, Feb. 22, 2006, the company said that it will
pay the
Asbestos PI Trust $350 million and will also assign to the trust all
insurance
rights, which were to be assigned under the previous proposed
agreement.
id='6'>Peregrine
Resolves More Claims Under Bankruptcy Plan
Peregrine Systems
Inc. is
one step closer to resolving claims under its bankruptcy
reorganization, two
years after emerging from chapter 11, SanDiego.com reported yesterday.
On Monday,
the Carmel Valley-based software firm said that it is distributing
600,000 shares
of common stock to former stockholders who held claims categorized as
Class
9 under the reorganization plan.
href='http://www.sandiego.com/sdbusiness.jsp?x=000&id=8533c91f-720f-4559-b824…'>Read
more.
id='7'>Arlington
Hospitality Delisted from Nasdaq
Arlington
Hospitality Inc.
received notice from the Nasdaq Listing Qualification Department
stating that
the company’s securities will be delisted from The Nasdaq
SmallCap Market on
Sept. 1, 2005 as a result of the company’s failure to file its
quarterly report
for the quarter ended June 30, 2005, Business Wire reported yesterday.
It has
until tomorrow to appeal the decision; however, the company does not
expect
to submit an appeal by this date. The company is continuing to
evaluate its
strategic alternatives, including the filing of a voluntary petition
for reorganization
under chapter 11.
href='http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=15119065&;BRD=1918&;PAG=740&;…'>Read
more.
id='8'>Katrina
Delivers Blow to Airlines
The one-two punch
of Hurricane
Katrina and oil prices briefly topping $70-a-barrel is giving the
beleaguered
major airlines just what they don’t need as they approach a
traditionally slow
travel season and a few of them consider bankruptcy, the Associated
Press reported
today. The storm forced the closure of several airports and caused
scores of
flight cancellations throughout the Gulf Coast region yesterday. It
also caused
a surge in oil prices, something the airlines have been battling for
months
with no end in sight. The result could mean more pain for Delta Air
Lines Inc.,
a major carrier affected by the hurricane, as it continues to try to
avoid a
chapter 11 filing. Airline shares fell Monday.
href='http://www.cnn.com/2005/TRAVEL/08/29/katrina.airlines.ap/index.html'>Read
the full story.
id='9'>Judge
Denies Pension Board Members’ Dismissal Request
A judge denied a
request
to dismiss conflict-of-interest charges against six current and former
pension
board members accused of voting to continue under-funding the pension
systems
while increasing their own retirement benefits, the San Diego
Union-Tribune
reported yesterday. Superior Court Judge Frederic L. Link called the
90 minutes
of legal wrangling over the defense motions the "foreshadowing of
a great
case." He scheduled a preliminary hearing for Oct. 26. District
Attorney
Bonnie Dumanis filed charges in May against six former and current
members of
the San Diego City Employees Retirement System.
href='http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20050829-1252-bn29pension.html'>Read
the full story.
id='10'>
Marin County Calls for Pension Reform
The California
State Association
of Counties, a lobbying group that represents all 58 counties in the
state,
is recommending a series of reforms in Marin, Calif.s’ pension
system, including
capping retirement benefits for new hires, reducing the benefits
levels and
raising the eligible retirement age, the Marin Independence
Journal reported
yesterday. Read
more.
id='11'>Dismissal
of Asbestos Suits Upheld
A 4-4 split by an
en banc
Pennsylvania Superior Court panel means that a top Philadelphia
judge’s rulings
against two asbestos plaintiffs have been allowed to stand, the
Legal Intelligencer
reported today. Philadelphia Complex Litigation Center Coordinating
Judge Norman
C. Ackerman had originally held in Summers v. CertainTeed Corp.
and Nybeck
v. Union Carbide Corp. that the plaintiffs—both longtime
smokers who
did not yet suffer from illnesses undeniably caused by asbestos
exposure—could
not prove asbestos-related injuries, and so granted the
defendants’ summary
judgment motions. The panel judges who were in favor of affirming
Ackerman argued
in Summers/Nybeck that a common pleas judge with significant
expertise
in asbestos litigation can look beyond the parameters of an expert
witnesses’
testimony when ruling on a summary judgment motion.
href='http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1125318958716'>Read
the full story.
id='12'>Ex-Aryan
Nations Site to Be Auctioned
The former
headquarters of
a white supremacist group is headed for the auction block because no
one picked
up the mortgage payments after the group’s founder died in
September, CNN reported
yesterday. Aryan Nations founder Richard Butler died of a heart attack
at age
86, leaving an unpaid balance of $91,486 on the home. Human rights
advocates
say the looming sale is one of many signs the Aryan Nations is in
decline.
href='http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/08/29/aryan.home.ap/index.html'>Read
more.