April 23, 2004

Frist, Daschle Agree To More

Asbestos Talks



Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) said yesterday he hoped more

negotiations on the asbestos liability bill would break a 'legislative
impasse ' on the contentious issue,
CongressDaily reported.  Frist and Minority Leader Tom
Daschle (D-S.D.) agreed that talks should begin next week and initially
focus on the financial aspects of the legislation.

A cloture motion to limit
debate on the asbestos liability bill failed yesterday in a
near-party-line, 50-47 vote. The bill would replace the current
asbestos-litigation system with a federally administered trust fund of
up to $124 billion to compensate victims of asbestos-related illnesses.
Democrats and labor unions say the fund is too small and might not
provide enough compensation to victims.

Judge Approves International Steel's Purchase of Weirton

A bankruptcy court judge
approved the sale of bankrupt steelmaker Weirton Steel Corp.'s assets to

International Steel Group Inc. (ISG), Weirton said yesterday, Reuters
reported. Weirton Steel had asked U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Edward
Friend to approve International Steel Group's bid after ISG beat out a
group of Weirton's debtholders in a bankruptcy auction last week.
Weirton did not immediately disclose the value of International Steel's
final bid for its assets; but in February, ISG bid $158 million, plus
debt assumption, for Weirton, the newswire reported.

Treasury's Snow Teaches New
York Kids How to Save

U.S. Treasury Secretary John
Snow handed out autographed bills to fifth-graders in New York City on
Thursday to teach them the importance of saving money, Reuters reported.

In an effort to get Americans to start saving early in life, Snow
brought the eighth annual National Teach Children To Save Day to Public
School 50 Vito Marcantonio in East Harlem.

The largest group of bankruptcy

filers in 2002, other than businesses, were people between the ages of
18 and 24, mostly minority students, said John Bryant, founder of
Operation HOPE, which works to bring economic self-sufficiency to
inner-city residents. Bryant said his goal is to teach five million
students in the next five years how saving money can make a difference
in their lives, the newswire reported.

Adelphia Board, Under
Pressure, Will Explore Sale

Under pressure from creditors, the board of Adelphia
Communications Corp. voted to explore a possible sale of the company, a
deal that could bring over $20 billion and trigger another round of

consolidation in the cable industry, the Wall Street Journal
reported. Analysts expect broad interest in the cable operator in terms
of subscribers, which was forced to seek chapter 11 protection in
June 2002 after an accounting and fraud scandal erupted. The company's
operations, which serve 5.4 million households, earned $3.59
billion in revenue last year.

Stelco May Seek Ottawa Aid
After Plan Delays

Stelco Inc. has fallen behind
schedule in its plan to emerge from bankruptcy protection and might have

to seek government aid, the company's chief executive said on Thursday,
Reuters reported. The CEO of the steelmaker said problems could develop
if the plan is delayed much more. 'We're behind where we liked to be --
about a month behind where we liked to be,' said Courtney Pratt. 'It's
not a huge crisis yet, but the message I'm trying to put out there is:
any more delays and it really is going to be a problem,' he said, the
newswire reported.

Moody's Cuts Exide
Technologies Ratings

Moody's Investors Service
lowered the ratings originally assigned on October 17, 2003, for the
debt facilities proposed in conjunction with Exide Technologies Inc. and

certain of its domestic subsidiaries' reorganization out of chapter 11
bankruptcy, Reuters reported. The company's first plan of
reorganization, on which the original post-bankruptcy rating assignments

were based, was subsequently denied by the bankruptcy court due to a
determination that the $1 billion enterprise valuation used to calculate

recoveries of the various creditor classes was too low. Exide then
followed up with a new consensual plan of reorganization, assigning a
higher $1.5 billion enterprise valuation that was confirmed by the
bankruptcy court on April 21, 2004. Read the release at 
href='http://www.moodys.com/'>www.moodys.com.

PG&E

Pacific Gas and Electric
Says To Pay Out $100 Million In Refunds

California's largest utility,
Pacific Gas and Electric Co., said its customers will receive refunds of

around $100 million, in total, under an electricity rate reduction plan
that was part of its recent emergence from bankruptcy, Reuters reported.

The one-time refund for customers will range from an average of $61,000
for the largest business customer to an average of $10.64 for qualified
residential customers. Pacific Gas and Electric is a unit of PG&E
Corp.

National Energy & Gas
Faces Objections to Chapter 11 Plan

Despite reporting Tuesday that
more than 98 percent of voting creditors supported its turnaround plan,
National Energy & Gas Transmission Inc. is still facing a number of
objections to the plan's confirmation from regulators, creditors and the

parent company it plans to split from as part of its reorganization.
Ahead of a hearing on confirmation of the plan, scheduled for April 28,
a number of objections to the plan were filed, including ones from
PG&E Corp., King Street Capital LP, the U.S. Trustee's Office and
the California Department of Water Resources.

As reported, the plan provides
for National Energy to be split from PG&E and issue unsecured
creditors all of its new equity, as well as $1 billion in notes and
excess cash. The company also intends to sell its Gas Transmission
Northwest Corp. unit to TransCanada Corp. for about $1.7 billion,
subject to higher bids, and is evaluating other asset sales, National
Energy has said.

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