United Again Denied U.S. Aid to Emerge
From Chapter 11

The third attempt by United
Airlines to get a package of government loan guarantees failed
yesterday, the New York Times reported. United now faces the task
of emerging from chapter 11 bankruptcy protection without the federal
aid it was counting on. To persuade lenders and investors to put up the
money it needs, the airline is expected to turn to its workers for new
cuts in jobs, wages and benefits on a scale approaching the $2.5 billion
a year that they have already accepted since the airline filed for
bankruptcy in 2002. The 3-to-0 vote by the Air Transportation
Stabilization Board ended nearly two years of efforts by United to
secure loan guarantees, the newspaper reported.

Democrats Urge SEC Chief to
Adopt Ballot Access Rule

Key Democratic lawmakers are
urging the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to adopt a
controversial rule that would help dissatisfied investors more easily
nominate board members at public companies, the Washington Post
reported. Citing financial scandals at Enron Corp., WorldCom Inc. and
HealthSouth Corp., the legislators recently told SEC Chairman William H.
Donaldson there is 'no better time' to 'bring democracy to the
boardroom.'

The issue of shareholders'
access to the ballot is an intensely fought item on the SEC's agenda
this year. The Business Roundtable and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce
oppose changes to the way board members are selected, arguing that
special interests could 'hijack' the process. But shareholder rights
groups, including labor-backed pension funds, are pushing for an
alternative to the expensive proxy battles that investors currently must
undertake to bring change to corporate boardrooms, the newspaper
reported.

Delta's Lenders Establish a Committee

Delta Air
Lines Inc. creditors, taking another step to
protect their interests and prepare for a possible bankruptcy-court
filing, formed a committee to pursue restructuring talks with the
airline, the Wall Street Journal
reported. The committee includes Delta debtholders, vendors and its
pilots union, which has been in wage-cut talks with the airline for a
year, said Jonathan Rosenthal, partner at Saybrook Capital LLC, an
investment company hired as financial adviser to the committee, the
newspaper reported.

More U.K. Firms To Cut
Pensions As Costs Bite-Study

More British firms are moving
existing employees from defined benefit pension schemes and the pace of
closure is likely to accelerate, according to a survey published today,
Reuters reported. Some 16 percent of firms did not offer current staff a
defined-benefit pension in 2004, up from 11 percent in 2002, according
to the survey of 186 of Britain's top 350 listed companies by
consultants Towers Perrin, the newswire reported.

Jurors Begin Deliberations in Adelphia
Fraud Trial

Jurors began deliberations
yesterday at the fraud and conspiracy trial of John J. Rigas, two of his
sons and another executive by asking for 17 documents and a dozen
excerpts of testimony, Bloomberg News reported. The panel of seven women
and five men reached no verdict on its first day of weighing evidence
against the Rigases and the company's former assistant treasurer. The
men are accused of looting Adelphia, hiding $2.3 billion in debt and
lying about revenue and operations, the newswire reported.

Bankruptcy Rises With Health
Costs

A recent report for Washington
state by the Working for Health Coalition gauges the impact of soaring
health-care costs through personal bankruptcy trends,
the Seattle Times reported. The conclusion is that the high
cost of health care is driving a growing number of Washington families
to bankruptcy. As the report by the coalition of health care, labor,
faith, children's and education organizations estimates, the number of
personal bankruptcies in the state has tripled since 1991. Nearly half
of the financial failures were caused by medical debt. The report found
half of the people who declared bankruptcy due to medical debt had
health insurance, the newspaper reported.

Hawaiian Air
Pilot Removes Bankruptcy Trustee from Flight

Joshua Gotbaum, the trustee
overseeing Hawaiian Airlines' reorganization, was thrown off a flight
from Honolulu to San Francisco last Thursday by the pilot who said
Gotbaum's presence made him uncomfortable, Reuters reported.

'The pilot informed Gotbaum
that he wasn't comfortable having him on the plane. They had a brief
discussion, but rather than delay the flight, Gotbaum took another
flight,' airline spokesman Keoni Wagner said, without elaborating.
Federal policy gives pilots discretion to remove passengers or refuse to
let them board for safety reasons, but they rarely do so. 'This was an
isolated case of a pilot mistakenly thinking he had the right to pick
and choose his passengers, when in fact he doesn't,' Hawaiian President
Mark Dunkerley said through a spokesman. 'It's never happened before at
Hawaiian, and I trust it won't happen again,” he said, the
newswire reported.

Air Canada Court Monitor
Recommends Cerberus Deal

The monitor for Air Canada's
restructuring under bankruptcy protection recommended on Monday court
approval of a C$250 million ($185.5 million) equity investment in the
insolvent airline by a unit of New York's Cerberus Capital Management,
Reuters reported. In its report prepared for the Ontario court
overseeing Air Canada's restructuring, Ernst & Young Inc. said the
preference share investment from Cerberus brings the new equity capital
available for the insolvent airline to C$1.1 billion.

Ernst & Young said it
expects Air Canada to file its plan of arrangement with creditors by
June 30. The Montreal-based airline aims to emerge from court protection
on Sept. 30, the newswire reported.

2 Senators Ask CFTC to Boost
Oversight of Energy Market

Two Democratic senators on
Monday asked the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to
assert more jurisdiction over energy markets to prevent manipulation of
the kind attempted by bankrupt energy trader Enron Corp., Reuters
reported. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Sen. Maria Cantwell
(D-Wash.) cited new audio tape evidence of conversations during the
2000-01 power crisis in the western United States in which Enron traders
discussed ways to gouge California customers.

'It appears that the CFTC
either did not use its authority, or it did not have the authority, to
prevent the manipulation from occurring in the first place,' the
senators said in a letter to CFTC Chairman James Newsome, the newswire
reported. Feinstein has sponsored legislation to boost CFTC authority,
which has failed to pass the Senate. The CFTC has said no additional
oversight is necessary. The Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000
set the stage for a deregulation boom in energy trading by excluding
firms like Enron from the act's jurisdiction, and from CFTC
oversight.

Mississippi Chemical to Get
$182.5 Million DIP Funding

Mississippi Chemical Corp., a
producer of nitrogen and phosphorus products used as crop nutrients,
said on Monday the bankruptcy court approved $182.5 million of
debtor-in-possession financing, Reuters reported. The Yazoo City,
Miss.-based company, which filed for bankruptcy protection in May of
last year, said the federal Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District
of Mississippi has entered an interim order approving replacement
financing. The credit facility will be provided by New York-based
lenders Citigroup Global Markets Inc., an affiliate of Citigroup, and
Perry Principals Investments LLC, an affiliate of Perry Capital, the
newswire reported.