|
Troubled Farmers Getting Attention from Crop Insurance
Bill
Republican and Democratic lawmakers recently seized on a crop insurance
bill to send $7.1 billion in aid to the economically distressed Farm
Belt, the Associated Press reported. Some of no-interest government
loans are targeted to such diverse constituents as sheep and angora goat
ranchers to tobacco farmers and cotton growers and ginners. Millions
more are set aside for research on items as diverse as livestock waste
streams and plant genetics, much of it directed to the states of
lawmakers who wrote the bill. 'The cost of agriculture just doesn't seem
to stop,' said Sen. Connie Mack of Florida, one of four Republican
lawmakers who opposed the bill when it sailed through the House and
Senate. Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho) led the charge by advocating
no-interest loans for farmers who are creditors of AgriBioTech, a
Henderson, Nev., seed company that filed for chapter 11 earlier this
year. As a result, a provision earmarking $35 million in no-interest
loans is available for 18 months. If the bankruptcy proceedings aren't
settled by then, the farmers will become eligible for the USDA loans
currently denied them. The loans are to be repaid from the proceeds
farmers receive from the bankruptcy settlement. 'I'm willing to provide
you some money short term, said Craig to to 14,000 farmers involved.
'But I'm also willing to say that business is business. You're in
bankruptcy court.'
An $8.2 billion crop insurance bill was months in the making, with
the decision to add the $7.1 billion in economic assistance made shortly
before final passage. The bill passed by voice vote in the House, and by
91-4 in the Senate. $5.5 billion of the aid will give farmers an
additional subsidy payment under a formula established in 1996
legislation designed to phase out such support to many of them. Some
farmers would be able to 'receive a payment without demonstrating real
need,' said Rep. Charles Stenholm (D-Texas). 'I strongly believe that
more fully funding the disaster payments would have been a better method
for directing these funds to agriculture producers.'
Tobacco Firm Chairman Defends Business Policy Before Florida
Jury
In the class-action trial that could potentially bankrupt the tobacco
industry once punitive damages are decided, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco
Holdings Inc. Chairman Andrew J. Schindler defended his company's
business practices, and said that the company, the 2nd leading
manufacturer of cigarettes, has no reason to apologize for the way it
markets its products, The Wall Street Journal reported. 'I can't
apologize for what we're doing, because we're doing the best we can,'
Schindler told the jurors in the Florida trial. Other companies, such as
Philip Morris Cos. and British American Tobacco, explained to the jury
last week that they had changed their ways, adding that as a result,
they don't need to be penalized further. In the first part of the trial
held last year, which was brought about by a group of Florida residents
with smoking-related illnesses, the jury found that the tobacco
companies manufactured an unreasonably dangerous product and that the
companies had committed fraud by misleading the public about the health
risks associated with smoking. In this phase of the trial, the punitive
damages could go into the billions, effectively bankrupting the tobacco
giants. Schindler denied any fraud on the part of his company. 'I've
never seen it, and I've never experienced it,' he said, adding that he
would not be following the lead of Philip Morris, which promised to end
all advertising in magazines with a greater that 15 percent teen
audience. 'We are being restricted to the point where we can't
legitimately be calling ourselves, at some point, a private enterprise,'
he said.
Compaq Files Objection in Inacom Bankruptcy Proceeding
Just days after Inacom, an Atlanta-based information technology services
provider, filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, Custom Edge Inc.
and its parent, Compaq Computer Corp., the largest supplier of computing
systems in the world, filed an objection in those proceedings, according
to a newswire report. The filing states that Inacom and its lenders
received more than $94 million in Custom Edge's funds and requested that
these funds be returned to Custom Edge. It was also disclosed that
Custom Edge had withheld approximately $43 million in fees and other
amounts payable to Inacom.
Sunterra Seeks Final
Okay of $53M DIP Funding Pact
Sunterra Corp. (OWN) will seek final approval from the bankruptcy court
onJune 27 for a $53 million debtor-in-possession financing agreement
with Ableco Finance LLC, which it will be entitled to
fully tap only if the value of its unencumbered assets is at least $150
million. Without the DIP financing, the developer and operator of
time-share resorts 'will have no available cash and will, effectively,
be denied any hope of reorganization,' according to Sunterra's DIP
financing motion.
Courtesy
of
href='http://www.fedfil.com/bankruptcy/developments.htm'>The Daily
Bankruptcy
Review Copyright © June 20,
2000.
size='3'>Thanks for visiting Today's Bankruptcy Headlines.
New
articles are posted here each business day.
|
