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November 1, 2005
id='1'>Fed
Meets on Interest Rates
The Federal Open
Market Committee
(FOMC), the policy-making arm of the Federal Reserve, will hold a
closed meeting
today at 9 a.m. to discuss interest rates. No location was given. The
committee
will release its decision at 2:15 p.m. Contact (202) 452-3204 for more
information.
id='2'>Morgan
Stanley Costs to Rise in 4th Quarter, BAPCPA Blamed
Morgan Stanley, the
second-biggest
U.S. securities firm, forecast that pretax costs this quarter will
jump as much
as $250 million from the third quarter on a surge in bankruptcy
filings, Bloomberg
News reported today. The company’s Discover Bank unit received
more filings
before a federal bankruptcy law took effect Oct. 17, according to a
statement
yesterday from New York-based Morgan Stanley. Spokesman James
Badenhausen, in
a phone interview, said that the law change caused "a spike in
bankruptcies,"
adding to the company’s costs. Morgan Stanley also said that its
loan-loss provision
may rise by another $250 million should efforts to make certain
receivables
secure fail. The National Bankruptcy Research Center estimates that
industrywide
filings rose tenfold in the week preceding the legal change, according
href='http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000103=axxb4HnOyYiI=us%20'>Read
the full story.
id='3'>Delphi
Bankruptcy’s Potential Cost: 12,500 Jobs, $390M Tax Hit
Delphi Corp.’s bankruptcy could result in the loss of at
least 12,500
U.S. Delphi jobs and Michigan plant closings, and could reduce
Michigan state
and local taxes by $390 million,
href='http://www.andersoneconomicgroup.com/modules.php?name=Content&pa=display_aeg&doc_ID=1792'>according
to a study released yesterday, Crains Newswire reported today.
The report
by East Lansing-based Anderson Economic Group LLC analyzed three
potential
scenarios from Delphi’s bankruptcy reorganization. The
consulting firm
said that under the best-case scenario, Delphi would successfully
reorganize
and emerge from bankruptcy in mid-2007.
href='http://www.crainsdetroit.com/cgi-bin/news.pl?newsId=7233'>Read
the full story.
In other news, Delphi’s Kirkby, U.K., Merseyside electronics
components
plant has been included, unlike most Delphi Europe assets, in the
group’s
chapter 11 bankruptcy filing, the Automotive News Europe
reported yesterday,
but has been granted exemptions that enable it to continue paying
workers
and suppliers. Two other Delphi factories in Europe have similarly
been included,
unlike the majority of Delphi’s European operations, which are
legally
unaffected. It has been made clear that the Kirkby plant is at no
risk from
its parent company’s bankruptcy, and the Amicus union
representing workers
there says that Delphi’s management has been exemplary in
keeping them
informed and creditors paid on time.
id='4'>Bankruptcy
Costs Cause Record Loss for United
Burdened by the
heavy costs
of reworking its airplane leases and contracts, United Airlines
reported a record
$1.77 billion loss for the third quarter yesterday to run its overall
losses
from nearly three years in bankruptcy to $9 billion, the Seattle
Times
reported yesterday. United maintained that the huge charges are normal
for a
company nearing the end of a bankruptcy overhaul and pointed to a $165
million
operating profit as evidence that its restructuring is paying off.
Even so,
it was the company’s 21st straight quarter in the red, and the
loss topped its
previous record deficit of $1.47 billion for the fourth quarter of
2002, when
it filed for bankruptcy.
href='http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2002596488_earnsroundup01.html'>Read
the full story.
id='5'>Connecticut
Diocese to Settle Abuse Cases for $22M
The Roman Catholic
Archdiocese
of Hartford, Conn., has agreed to pay $22 million to settle 43 cases
of sexual
abuse of children by priests from the 1960s to about 1985, Reuters
reported
yesterday. Fourteen priests were accused of committing sexual abuse
ranging
from rape to fondling at the Archdiocese of Hartford, mostly while
John Francis
Whealon was archbishop from 1968-91. The Hartford archdiocese said
that of the
14 priests faced with charges of abuse, six had died and four had been
retired
and can no longer be called priests. But the remaining four are still
considered
priests, though only one is in active duty.
href='http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticleSearch.aspx?storyID=256084%2B31-Oct-2005%2BRTRS&srch=diocese'>Read
more.
id='6'>$222M
Cablevision Suit Gets Green Light
A judge gave the
go-ahead
yesterday to a suit seeking $222 million from Cablevision over the
bankruptcy
of its former subsidiary, the Wiz, Newsday.com reported today. U.S.
Bankruptcy
Court Chief Judge Mary Walrath, sitting in Delaware, denied
Cablevision’s
request to dismiss the action. The suit alleges that Cablevision
repeatedly
offered assurances that Wiz vendors would be paid despite the
chain’s financial
difficulties. Instead, it alleged, Cablevision refused to stand behind
those
promises, leading to the Wiz’s bankruptcy filing and sale to a
liquidator. The
bankruptcy left the Wiz’s liquidator owing creditors $85
million, including
$1.4 million to the New York Yankees for advertising at Yankee
Stadium.
href='http://www.newsday.com/business/ny-bzcabl014493183nov01,0,5285266.story'>Read
the full story.
id='7'>Buehler
Foods Grocery Chain Delays Filing Reorganization Plan
Buehler Foods Inc.,
which
owns and operates grocery stores in five states, has delayed filing
its bankruptcy
reorganization plan, the Associated Press reported yesterday. The
grocery was
originally expected to submit its plan to the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in
Evansville,
Ind., in August. The company now says that the reorganization plan and
a final
financing agreement with the company’s biggest creditors will be
submitted by
Nov. 15. Buehler Foods attorneys have said that the extra time was
needed to
come up with a plan that would appease creditors and reorganize
Buehler’s $67
million-plus debt. Buehler Foods is Indiana’s largest privately
owned, independent
food retailer. When it filed for bankruptcy, the company had more than
3,000
employees.
href='http://www.wave3.com/Global/story.asp?S=4052813&nav=0RZF'>Read
more.
id='8'>Wisconsin’s
Cold Stone Creamery Files for Bankruptcy
The owner of three
Cold Stone
Creamery locations in the Madison, Wis., area filed for bankruptcy
last week,
causing the stores to close temporarily, the Daily Cardinal
reported
today. After 72 hours, one Cold Stone store re-opened under the
ownership of
Cold Stone corporate.
href='http://www.dailycardinal.com/article.php?storyid=1027439'>Read
more.
id='9'>Radio
Sex Therapist Shop Files for Bankruptcy
Ottawa sex
therapist Sue
McGarvie has declared personal bankruptcy after the sudden closure of
her Love
and Romance shop earlier this year, the Ottawa Business Journal
reported
Friday. Paperwork issued by trustees Ginsberg, Gingras and Assoc.
regarding
the notice of bankruptcy is dated Oct. 19, and shows that Ms. McGarvie
owes
at least $1,084,883 to 67 different creditors. The amount of debt for
six creditors
is listed as unknown, so this figure could grow. The documents show
that Ms.
McGarvie has assets totaling $2,851 and she claims a monthly income of
$100.
Ms. McGarvie, who lists her profession as self-employed sex therapist,
is best
known in Ottawa for her radio show Sex with Sue. She opened her first
Love and
Romance store on Rideau Street in 2003 and began to franchise her
operation
in late 2004.
href='http://www.ottawabusinessjournal.com/284576676005776.php'>Read
the full story.