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September 6, 2005
name='1'>Congress:
Making Natural Disaster Worse?
When Congress
returns this
week, several
href='http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2005/katrina_bankruptcy.html'>members
of the House will introduce legislation to shield victims of Hurricane
Katrina
from the new bankruptcy law that takes effect on Oc. 17th,
ConsumerAffairs.com
reported yesterday. The measure would "prevent new bankruptcy
provisions
from having adverse and unintended consequences for the hundreds of
thousands
now facing financial catastrophe by providing needed flexibility for
victims
of natural disasters in bankruptcy proceedings," Reps. Sheila
Jackson Lee
(D-Texas), John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.), Mel Watt (D-N.C.), and Jerrold
Nadler
(D-N.Y.) said in a statement. In other news, John Conyers, the ranking
Democrat
on the House Judiciary Committee, will introduce legislation next week
in response
to gas price gouging and bankruptcies related to Hurricane Katrina,
Raw Story
reported Friday. Democrats inserted provisions into the bankruptcy
bill last
year to provide for similar emergencies, but they were stripped out of
the final
bill.
href='http://rawstory.com/news/2005/Conyers_readies_gas_price_gouging_hurrica…'>Read
more.
id='2'>American
Dollar Falls
The dollar hit its
lowest
levels in nearly four months yesterday on worries that the Federal
Reserve may
pause in its dollar-supportive monetary tightening as the United
States counts
the cost of Hurricane Katrina, Reuters reported yesterday. In
relatively thin
trading due to the Labor Day holiday, investors sold dollars as
surging gasoline
prices and uncertainty about how deeply Katrina has affected the
economy fanned
talk that the Fed might not raise interest rates at its Sept. 20
meeting from
the current 3.5 percent.
href='http://today.reuters.com/news/newsarticle.aspx?type=businessNews&summit…'>Read
more.
id='3'>Bankruptcy
Spike Brings Additional Judgeship
A U.S. bankruptcy
judge position
has been created to help handle a recent spike in bankruptcy filings
in the
Northern District of New York, Newsday reported yesterday. The
position
is one of 28 new judgeships approved by Congress as part of BAPCPA.
href='http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newyork/ny-bc-ny-brf--bankruptcy…'>Read
the full story.
id='4'>Bill
to Boost Exemptions Heads to Governor
Legislation
increasing the
amount of property that debtors can protect from creditors under North
Carolina
bankruptcy rules is awaiting Gov. Mike Easley’s signature, the
Business Journal
reported Friday. The legislation, which passed through both the
House and
Senate in August, would supersede federal bankruptcy codes, which
allow states
to pass their own exemption rates if they wish. Under the bill, the
"homestead"
exemption, which covers the debtor’s residence, increases from
$10,000 to $18,500.
href='http://www.bizjournals.com/triad/stories/2005/09/05/story6.html?from_rss'>Read
more.
id='5'>Winn-Dixie
Closures Announced
Winn-Dixie Stores
announced
that 37 of its store locations in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama
have been
closed and an additional that 18 are operating under limited generator
power
as a result of the devastation of Hurricane Katrina,
BankruptcyData.com reported
Friday.
href='http://www.bankruptcydata.com/BankruptcyDataNewsNEW.asp'>Read
the full story.
Airlines
id='6'>Judge
Approves US Airways Pension Claims Deal
A federal
bankruptcy judge
approved a settlement between US Airways Group and the U.S. Pension
Benefit
Guaranty Corp. that resolves about $2.7 billion worth of claims,
Reuters reported
Friday. The settlement gives the pension agency an ownership stake in
the airline
and helps clear the way for US Airways to emerge from bankruptcy as
well as
complete its merger with America West Airlines this fall.
href='http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticleSearch.aspx?storyID=170496%2B0…'>Read
the full story. In other news, the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the
Eastern
District of Virginia today entered an order that will allow US Airways
Group
Inc. to close on its previously announced plans to sell certain
Embraer regional
jet aircraft and slot assets to Republic Airways Holdings, PRNewswire
reported
on Friday. Upon closing the transaction will provide US Airways with
approximately
$100 million in cash.
href='http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/…'>Read
the full story.
id='7'>FAA
Probing Problems at Northwest
Federal aviation
regulators
are investigating possible maintenance problems at Northwest Airlines
since
mechanics went on strike on Aug. 20, the Wall Street Journal
reported
today. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said that one of its
inspectors,
temporarily re-assigned from his duties at Northwest, had complained
to the
FAA and to Mark Dayton (D-Minn.). The senator in turn contacted the
FAA, the
Department of Transportation Office and sent a letter to FAA
Administrator Marion
Blakey.
href='http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20050906/bs_nm/airlines_nor…'>Read
more.
id='8'>ITC
Appeal Declined
Integrated Telecom
Express
announced that the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the
company’s appeal
of the decision of the U.S. court of appeals for the Third Circuit to
dismiss
the company’s bankruptcy case, BankruptcyData.com reported
Friday. Consequently,
the company has exhausted all appellate options and expects that the
case will
be remanded to the U.S. bankruptcy court with instructions to dismiss
Integrated
Telecom Express’ petition under chapter 11.
href='http://www.bankruptcydata.com/BankruptcyDataNewsNEW.asp'>Read
more.
id='9'> New
World Pasta Agreement Announced
New World Pasta
announced
that it has received a binding agreement from Morgan Stanley Senior
Funding,
GE Commercial Finance, and Wells Fargo Foothill for $240 million in
new financing,
BankruptcyData.com reported today. The new financing will be used to
finance
the company’s exit from its chapter 11 reorganization
proceedings. The proposed
new financing must be approved by the court.
href='http://www.bankruptcydata.com/BankruptcyDataNewsNEW.asp'>Read
more.
id='10'>ATA
Holdings M.O.R. Filed
ATA Holdings filed
its monthly
operating report for the period ended July 31, 2005 with the U.S.
Bankruptcy
Court, BankruptcyData.com reported today. The report states that ATA
Holdings
reported net income of $2.97 million in July, including expenses
related to
the low-cost carrier’s reorganization. The report also states
that ATA intends
to outsource its base maintenance operations and would pursue a number
of other
sourcing initiatives in order to reduce its aircraft maintenance
costs.
href='http://www.bankruptcydata.com/BankruptcyDataNewsNEW.asp'>Read
more.
id='11'>Asarco
Close to Deal
Bankrupt U.S.
copper miner
Asarco is close to reaching a deal to end a crippling two-month
strike, Reuters
reported Friday. A union response to a company back-to-work plan was
being analyzed
and should result in a deal in the near future, a company executive
said.
href='http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticleSearch.aspx?storyID=210762%2B0…'>Read
more.
id='12'>Creditors
Try to Force Bankruptcy
Eight months after
Roberson
Transportation sold off its trucking concerns to two companies,
several of its
creditors are trying to force two of the company’s divisions
into involuntary
bankruptcy, the Danville News-Gazette reported Sunday. Ten
creditors
have asked the U.S. Bankruptcy Court to declare involuntary bankruptcy
for PFT
Roberson, the company’s flatbed carrier division, and CX
Roberson, the company’s
dry van division. The creditors claim that the Roberson units
aren’t paying
debts as they become due.
href='http://www.news-gazette.com/localnews/story.cfm?Number=18911'>Read
the full story.