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November 7, 2005
id='1'>Consumer
Credit Meeting Today
The Federal Reserve
Board
will meet today regarding consumer installment credit for September
2004 at
Constitution Ave. between 20th and 21st Streets NW, Washington, D.C.
No time
was given. For more information, call (202) 452-3206 or
href='http://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/'>visit
the site.
id='2'>Judge
Approves Delphi Expenses
A federal bankruptcy court judge on Friday approved payment of
attorneys
and other professionals representing auto parts maker Delphi Corp.,
which
is seeking sharp pay cuts from its unionized work force as part of a
financial
reorganization so it can compete with lower-cost suppliers, the
Associated
Press reported Saturday. Judge Robert Drain of U.S.
Bankruptcy Court
in New York also approved the company’s request for clearance
to pay its employees,
including payments that may be required under an executive severance
package
that had drawn criticism from union leaders. Under the new
agreement, executives
will be eligible for 18 months of pay if Delphi lays them off.
Delphi also
got court approval Friday for an "essential supplier
program," which
keeps intact relationships with parts suppliers to ensure the
supplies of
certain parts and raw materials are not interrupted. The judge also
approved
a process by which Delphi’s creditors committee can monitor
the auto parts
maker’s interaction with its suppliers.
href='http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/business/financial_markets/1…'>Read
more.
In other news, Mark Reutter, author of the book Making Steel:
Sparrows
Point, and the Rise and Ruin of American Industrial Might,
expresses his
view on Delphi and other big bankuptcies the Executive
Intelligence Review.
href='http://www.larouchepub.com/other/interviews/2005/3244mark_reutter.html'>Read
the full interview.
id='3'>New
York Court Faces Big Backlog
The number of
people filing
bankruptcy in Upstate New York doubled in September and surged 535
percent in
October ahead of changes in federal bankruptcy laws, court officials
say, the
Syracuse Post-Standard reported yesterday. The large increases
compared
with the same months last year came as lawyers worked weekends and
around the
clock to meet the deadline before stricter laws took effect Oct. 17.
Now U.S.
bankruptcy court officials are trying to sort through the backlog of
electronically
filed petitions. A preliminary count shows that the Utica and Albany
offices
that cover the region saw more than 9,000 bankruptcy petitions in
October, up
from 1,417 for the month last year.
href='http://www.syracuse.com/news/poststandard/index.ssf?/base/news-1/113127…'>Read
the full story.
id='4'>Behind
the Win: Showing Jurors Merck’s Good Side
The lead lawyer who
won a
defense verdict for Merck & Co. last week after a contentious
eight-week
trial in Atlantic City, N.J., in the second Vioxx case said that her
trial team’s
success lay in letting the jury see "the kind of people
Merck’s scientists
and doctors really are,” the National Law Journal
reported today.
Diane P. Sullivan, a veteran litigation partner in Dechert’s
mass torts and
products liability group in the firm’s Princeton, N.J., office,
parried questions
concerning her reportedly fiery demeanor in court with both the bench
and her
co-counsel, characterizing it as passion in support of her client. At
one point,
Sullivan drew a reprimand from Atlantic County Superior Court Judge
Carol E.
Higbee for violating an order barring comments about lawyers in front
of the
jury. Later in the trial, she cursed at her co-counsel. She said she
appreciates
that Higbee, who oversees New Jersey’s Vioxx docket of more than
3,000 cases,
faced a difficult task trying the first case of her first mass tort.
Sullivan
will almost certainly appear before Higbee again.
href='http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1131098716025'>Read
the full story.
Airlines
id='5'>FLYi
Files for Chapter 11
FLYi Inc. today
said that
it, and its low-fare airline Independence Air, filed for a voluntary
chapter
11 bankruptcy reorganization to restructure aircraft leases and other
obligations
and cut costs, the Associated Press reported today. The company, which
began
low-fare service in June 2004, operated previously as Atlantic Coast
Airlines.
FLYi said that it will seek court approval to auction the business to
potential
investors or purchasers, which would be expected to be completed
within 60 days.
Independence Air will continue serving customers, and the company said
it expects
to be able to fund its obligations—such as employee wages and
benefits—through
the process.
href='http://www.forbes.com/business/businesstech/feeds/ap/2005/11/07/ap23210…'>Read
the full story.
id='6'>Northwest,
Pilots Reach Tentative Deal
The union
representing pilots
at Northwest Airlines said it reached a tentative deal with the
airline on a
24 percent pay cut that would stall the carrier’s effort to have
a bankruptcy
court void the pilots’ contract, Reuters reported Friday. The
Air Line Pilots
Association (ALPA) said late Thursday that the deal, which requires
the approval
of its members and the bankruptcy court, would reduce pilot costs for
the airline
by $17.9 million a month. The concessions in the temporary deal would
amount
to $214.8 million a year in labor savings for the airline. That amount
is 60
percent of the $358 million Northwest is seeking from nearly 5,200
pilots. ALPA
said a permanent agreement eventually will result in more extensive
contract
changes. But the additional bargaining time would allow the union to
craft a
better deal for the pilots.
href='http://money.cnn.com/2005/11/04/news/fortune500/northwest.reut/index.htm'>Read
the full story.
Diocese
id='7'>New
Jersey Church’s Goal: Stave off Bankruptcy
The pastor of St.
Joseph’s
parish, located in wealthy Mendham, N.J., told parishioners in a
recent letter
that drastic changes are necessary to avoid bankruptcy, the Morris
County
Daily Record said yesterday. Officials of the Roman Catholic
Diocese of
Paterson say the parish’s financial problems have been building
for years and
those close to the situation say it involves paying off a school
construction
loan along with an economy-driven slowdown in contributions. Officials
also
say St. Joseph’s parishioners are getting younger, with more
financial burdens
and less disposable income.
href='http://www.dailyrecord.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051106/NEWS01/5…'>Read
more.
id='8'>Media
Moves Closer to Conn. Diocese Abuse Files
The Connecticut
Supreme Court
ruled Friday that news media have standing to seek secret court files
that could
expose how the Roman Catholic Diocese of Bridgeport, Conn., hid abuse
by priests,
the Connecticut Post reported Saturday. The state’s
highest court overturned
an appellate court ruling and ordered a Superior Court judge to hold
hearings
on whether the media and the public should be allowed to see the
files, which
are related to the diocese’s settlement of cases of priests
abusing children.
Read more.
id='9'>Colorado
Diocese Apologizes for Abuse Allegations
The Catholic
Diocese of Pueblo
on Friday issued a statement apologizing to victims of clergy sexual
abuse,
the Pueblo Chieftain reported yesterday. In the statement,
Bishop Arthur
Tafoya denied the diocese was aware of alleged abuse that has been the
subject
of recent lawsuits. Eight lawsuits in Pueblo have been filed against
the diocese
and the Marianist religious order. One accuser said that he told
officials about
the abuse in 1967. Tafoya’s statement on Friday contradicts that
claim. The
bishop stated that the diocese takes abuse allegations seriously and
has a Sexual
Misconduct Review Board.
href='http://www.chieftain.com/metro/1131185505/3'>Read
more.
id='10'>BAPCPA
Could See 35 Percent Rise in Filings for Year
Standard &
Poor’s believes
the new bankruptcy law could see a rise of 25-35 percent in bankruptcy
filings
this year, Acxess News reported on Saturday. Due to the change in law,
S&P
believes the increase in bankruptcy filings could cause total filings
to surpass
2 million for 2005. This is a sharp contrast from 2004, when the 1.56
million
in total filings was 3.8 percent lower than the record amount filed in
2003.
href='http://www.axcessnews.com/modules/wfsection/article.php?articleid=6471'>Read
more.
id='11'>Pennsylvania
Supper Club Owner Files for Bankruptcy
Mystic Bay supper
club at
the Beaver Valley Mall in Pennsylvania has closed after less than a
year in
business, the Beaver County Times reported yesterday. An
ambitious undertaking
by owner Chris Romeo of Aliquippa, Pa., Mystic Bay tried to carve
itself a niche
as a supper club with a Las Vegas strip feel. With space for up to 450
people,
Romeo hoped to attract jazz bands, celebrity impersonators and
comedians to
the Mystic Bay stage. Romeo filed a personal chapter 7 bankruptcy in
U.S. Bankruptcy
Court in Pittsburgh, but lists numerous unspecified business debts
among his
$666,170 in liabilities.
href='http://www.timesonline.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=15514825&BRD=2305&PAG=4…'>Read
more.
Asbestos
id='12'>HSC
Consults on Amended U.K. Regulations
The Health and
Safety Commission
(HSC) published a consultative document seeking comments on proposed
amendments
to its asbestos regulations and an Approved Code of Practice (ACoP),
according
to a press release by the U.K. Health and Safety Commission last week.
The proposed
changes will implement revisions to the EU Asbestos Worker Protection
Directive
83/477/EEC in Great Britain. The draft regulations include a single,
tighter
control limit for work with all types of asbestos; specific training
requirements
for those working with asbestos; and a clear hierarchy of controls
that should
be used to reduce exposure, based on the Control of Substances
Hazardous to
Health (Amendment) Regulations 2004.
href='http://www.hse.gov.uk/press/2005/c05026.htm'>Read
the full release.
id='13'>U.S.
Hearing Planned on Projected Asbestos Claims
Projections of
future asbestos
claims will be examined at a hearing planned for later this month,
U.S. Senate
aides said on Friday, amid concern over whether a proposed $140
billion asbestos
compensation fund is big enough, Reuters reported Friday. A study in
September
by a Washington, D.C., economic consulting firm said the proposed fund
would
quickly be swamped by asbestos injury claims and go broke within three
years,
adding to concerns among some senators that the fund is not viable.
The hearing
by the Senate Judiciary Committee is tentatively scheduled for Nov.
14, a panel
spokesman said.
href='http://today.reuters.com/investing/financeArticle.aspx?type=bondsNews&s…'>Read
more.
id='14'>Mirant’s
Chapter 11 Costs
On Thursday,
Atlanta-based
Mirant sent three top executives packing — and spent millions on
the send-off
in honoring contracts signed by a board that isn’t there
anymore, the Atlanta
Journal-Constitution reported Saturday. With a likely re-emergence
from
chapter 11 around the corner, the new Mirant now seems ready to put
the old,
high-living Mirant behind it.
href='http://www.ajc.com/business/content/business/1105/05bizmirant.html'>Here
is a look at some of the old Mirant’s costs during its
bankruptcy.
id='15'>San
Diego Bankruptcy? Maybe in May
A little more than
a week
ago, in a sprawling tome on the state of pension systems in the United
States,
the New York Times Magazine broke some news about San Diego. It
reported
that the city’s pension problems had "effectively
bankrupted the city,”
the San Deigo Voice reported today. At a debate and again at a
press
conference on Friday, mayoral candidate Jerry Sanders said he would
know by
the month of May whether or not to initiate bankruptcy proceedings.
href='http://www.voiceofsandiego.org/site/apps/s/content.asp?c=euLTJbMUKvH&b=…'>Read
the full story.
id='16'>AAIPharma
Files Chapter 11 Plan
AAIPharma Inc.
announced
that the company and its domestic subsidiaries filed a reorganization
plan and
corresponding disclosure statement with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for
the District
of Delaware, Genetic Engineering News reported today. The
chapter 11
plan that the company has filed is the product of extensive
negotiations among
the company, the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors and the
advisors
to an Ad Hoc Committee of the Company’s Secured Noteholders.
id='17'>Refco
Gets Five Bids for Assets to be Sold
Refco said that it
has received
five offers for all or some of its assets that will be sold at a
bankruptcy
court auction next week, Bloomberg News reported today. The company
received
the five bids before Friday’s deadline in New York, Refco said
in a statement.
While it didn’t identify the bidders, Man Group PLC, the
world’s biggest publicly
traded hedge fund company, and Alaron Trading Corp. said that they
submitted
offers. Refco is selling its regulated business to raise money for its
unregulated
units, which have seen customer accounts dwindle since the company
disclosed
on Oct. 10 that its former CEO Phillip Bennett hid $430 million in
debt.
href='http://www.shanghaidaily.com/art/2005/11/07/211191/Refco_gets_5_bids_fo…'>Read
more.
id='18'>Trump
Gets $253M for Indiana Casino
Donald Trump is
selling his
Indiana riverboat casino for $253 million and plans to invest the
proceeds in
the crowded Atlantic City, N.J., market, NewYorkBusiness.com reported
Friday.
Trump Entertainment Resorts Inc., which emerged from bankruptcy in
May, said
that it is selling Trump Indiana Inc. to Las Vegas-based Majestic Star
Casino.
The company has struggled to remain competitive in Atlantic City,
which has
12 casino properties spread over 1.4 million square feet of gaming
space, according
to Trump’s annual report. Last year, Trump obtained a $500
million line
of credit as part of its restructuring to revamp in Atlantic City,
including
the construction of a new tower at Trump Taj Mahal.
href='http://www.chicagobusiness.com/cgi-bin/news.pl?id=18396%20'>Read
the full story.
id='19'>At
Long Last, More Delaware Judges
The U.S. Bankruptcy
Court
for the District of Delaware in Wilmington has gotten closer to
getting what
it’s wanted for years — more judges — with the
tentative selection
of four individuals for the new posts by the Office of the Circuit
Executive
for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, The Deal
reported
yesterday. On Nov. 3, Kevin Carey, a judge now serving on the
U.S. Bankruptcy
Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia;
Kevin Gross
of Rosenthal Monhait Gross & Goddess in Wilmington; Brendan
Shannon
of Young Conaway Stargatt & Taylor in Wilmington; and Christopher
Sontchi
of Ashby & Geddes P.A. in Wilmington were "tentatively
selected"
by the circuit executive for the vacancies. The circuit executive will
now take
comments about the qualifications of the judge-designates until Dec.
1, then
make a final decision on their candidacy shortly after.
href='http://www.thedeal.com/NASApp/cs/CS?pagename=PENews&c=TDDArticle&cid=11…'>Read
the full story.
id='20'>Energy
Trading Firm Files Chapter 11, Faces Lawsuit from Ill. Attorney
General
A Central Texas
energy trading
company recently sought chapter 11 bankruptcy protection—on the
same day
that a government lawsuit was filed and allegations of risky trading
were lodged
by one of the company’s suppliers, the Austin Business
Journal reported
today. On Oct. 13, Austin’s Santanna Natural Gas Corp. filed for
chapter 11
bankruptcy reorganization. That same day, the Illinois attorney
general filed
a lawsuit in Chicago alleging that Santanna reneged on fixed-price gas
contracts
with some of its 15,000 customers in northern Illinois. Also that day,
Santanna’s
main gas provider, Virginia Power Energy Marketing Inc., declared its
intent
to suspend its gas supply contract with the company. Santana’s
attorney
says that hurricanes Katrina and Rita helped push Santanna into
bankruptcy.
The company listed $1 million to $10 million in debt.
href='http://www.bizjournals.com/industries/economic_view/bankruptcies/2005/1…'>Read
more.
id='21'>Holes
Remain: Next Few Weeks Critical for Krispy Kreme
The next two months
will
be critical in determining whether Krispy Kreme Doughnuts Inc., and
its stock,
can regain some of its once-sweet glaze, the Business Journal
Serving the
Greater Triad Area reported today. The company has a mid-December
deadline
to deliver revised financial statements for the past several years,
part of
the timeline built into the $225 million line of credit the company
obtained
this spring. Krispy Kreme hasn’t filed financial statements with
the Securities
and Exchange Commission since last fall, and earlier this year a
special committee
appointed to look into allegations of financial improprieties and
accounting
problems said the doughnut maker would need to restate its earnings
back to
2001. The revised financials are likely to be the first opportunity
that investors
and analysts will have to get a clear picture of Krispy Kreme’s
true financial
condition.
href='http://www.bizjournals.com/industries/economic_view/bankruptcies/2005/1…'>Read
more.