| Feb 6, 2012 20:09:07 | UPDATE 1-TBS International files for pre-packaged bankruptcy Feb 6 (Reuters) - TBS International Plc, which provides shipping services, filed for prepackaged Chapter 11 bankruptcy as part of a debt restructuring agreement with its lenders. |
| Feb 6, 2012 19:27:33 | Liggett Stashower closes doors, files for Chapter 7 bankruptcy "We had hoped to reorganize and rebuild the agency, but that unfortunately did not come to pass," said Liggett Stashower President and Managing Partner David Moore "We had hoped to reorganize and rebuild the agency, but that unfortunately did not come to pass," said Liggett Stashower President and Managing Partner David Moore |
| Feb 6, 2012 19:16:18 | Business Digest: Furniture retailer RoomStore closing both its Austin stores; Austin-based Luminex reports revenue up for fourth quarter RETAIL Furniture retailer RoomStore closing both its Austin stores Dallas-based RoomStore, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in December, says it plans to close 25 of its 63 stores nationwide, including both stores in Central Texas. |
| Feb 6, 2012 14:18:59 | MF Global shortfall worsened as bankruptcy neared Feb 6 (Reuters) - The trustee liquidating MF Global Holdings Ltd's broker-dealer unit said the shortfall in commodity customer accounts began five days before the company's bankruptcy and grew in the days leading up to the Chapter 11 filing. |
| Feb 6, 2012 14:16:15 | Norwood real estate LLC files for Chapter 11 A Norwood real estate entity that registered as a corporation just two weeks ago has filed for protection on Chapter 11 of the federal bankruptcy code. 34 Day Street (Norwood) LLC listed assets in the range of $1 million to $10 million and liabilities in the same range. The manager is listed as Arthur Tenaglia. Tenaglia is listed as a creditor owed $60,000 for a "loan." The LLC is represented in the bankruptcy proceedings by lawyer Ronald W. Dunbar Jr. of Boston. |
| Feb 6, 2012 10:45:38 | As military cuts, Global Aviation files bankruptcy * Defense spending cuts, too much debt, labor costs blamed |
| Feb 6, 2012 08:49:39 | Opponents trap Florida Senate ethics bill in committee By Brittany Alana Davis, Times/Herald Tallahassee Bureau TALLAHASSEE — A proposal to ban state lawmakers from influencing bills that could earn or cost them money is headed to the cutting-room floor for the fifth consecutive year. Why? Because of the process, not the policy. Senate President Mike Haridopolos and his staff effectively deep-sixed the ethics bill for 2012 by assigning it to five different committees before the beginning of the legislative session. That means to get to the full Senate the measure would have to first pass five different committee stops, an impossibly high hurdle in a nine-week session. The ethics proposal, sponsored by Sen. Paula Dockery, R-Lakeland, would prevent senators from proposing, participating or voting on bills that could provide special, private benefit for themselves, their families, their employers or their colleagues. Rules that ban conflict-of-interest voting exist in the House and in 44 other state Legislatures. Local government officials also can't vote in such cases. "There used to be a feeling of shame up here where you wouldn't want to propose something from which you would personally benefit … I don't see that anymore," Dockery said. The bill, SB 552, passed its first committee unanimously but is not scheduled for a second hearing. A look at committee assignments for other bills — which is left to the discretion of Haridopolos — explains the behind-the-scenes power play. A weaker ethics bill, SB 1650, sponsored by Sen. John Thrasher, R-St. Augustine, was assigned to three committees. And the proposal to privatize South Florida prisons appeared before just two committees, despite the fact that it faced scant debate last year and was inserted into the budget in the final weeks of session, a process a judge later ruled illegal. Senate and House leaders often stall bills if they have distaste for the legislation or for the bill's sponsor, said Peter Butzin, state chair of Common Cause Florida. Dockery made enemies of Haridopolos, R-Merritt Island, and others by vocally opposing bills on the creation of SunRail, prison privatization and reapportionment, he said. She was the only Republican to vote against the Senate's redistricting plan last month. "Leadership in the Senate and the House are so powerful and the rest of the legislators are really just pawns in the process," Butzin said. "Paula Dockery found herself on the wrong side of leadership." Haridopolos denied foul play and said he agreed with his staff's suggestion to place Dockery's bill in five committees because it touches on that many subject areas. "If she's concerned about the bill, she can come and visit with me," Haridopolos said. "I fully support John Thrasher's bill." The Thrasher bill requires that senators place assets that may pose a conflict into blind trusts. But it doesn't forbid senators from debating or from "participating" by making threats and deals, Dockery says. "Just voting isn't that big of a deal," she said. "It's the arm-twisting and the amount of pressure, especially if the legislator is someone important and powerful." Senate rules require that legislators disclose conflicts within 15 days but place few other restrictions. Conflicts are inevitable because lawmaking is a part-time job that usually pays about $30,000 per year, and most legislators have other jobs and businesses. Sen. Greg Evers, R-Baker, filed notice of a voting conflict on the prison privatization bill awaiting a vote on the Senate floor. His wife is a lobbyist for four groups that oppose privatization. But Evers has 3,000 correctional officers and 15 state-run prisons in his district, so he plans to vote, he said. In 2009, Rep. Baxter Troutman, R-Winter Haven, did not vote on legislation to create SunRail because his family's distribution center and warehouse owned land near a proposed rail hub and did business with CSX Transportation, the company involved in the deal. In the Senate, budget chairman JD Alexander, Troutman's cousin and head of the company, voted for the same bill. Alexander, R-Lake Wales, also has faced questions about his reorganization of the Florida Citrus Commission and overhaul of the citrus code in light of the fact that his he and his family are key players in the state's citrus industry. That would be legal, even under Dockery's bill, which only forbids lawmakers from influencing special, private benefits. "If you're an insurance agent, and you do a bill that impacts all insurance agents, that's okay," she said. "It just can't benefit you personally." Brittany Alana Davis can be reached at bdavis@tampabay.com. |
| Feb 6, 2012 05:34:00 | County mental health system has many traveling for care <b>Mending Iowa's mental health system:</b> Reorganizing services into regions would boost efficiency, backers say.</a><ul class="gb"><li><a href="http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20120205/NEWS/302050038"><b>More:</b> Autistic man struggles in Iowa's mental health system</a></li></ul> advertisment Nate Breitfelder, 34, of Dubuque must have all his mental health services approved by officials in neighboring Jackson County because it was considered his ?county of settlement? at the time he became ill. Here, he spends time with his bird Mason at his Dubuque apartment. (Mary Chind/The Register) The question of who is responsible for Nate Breitfelder?s mental health services comes down to a couple of hundred yards. Breitfelder, 34, has lived in Dubuque, the county seat of Dubuque County, ever since he was diagnosed with schizo-affective disorder 14 years ago. But because his parents? house is over the Jackson County line, authorities in Maquoketa pay his bills and decide which public services he may use. His Jackson County case manager drives the 30 miles from Maquoketa about once a month to check on Breitfelder in Dubuque. She coordinates his care, including regular appointments with a psychiatric nurse practitioner, health checkups at his apartment and help keeping track of his finances. Iowa legislators want to change the system, which holds residents? home counties responsible for their mental health care. The system, one of the last of its kind in the country, is rooted in 19th century times, when many people with mental illness or disability lived at county homes. These days, most money for mental health services comes from the federal and state governments instead of from county property taxes. But responsibility and oversight is determined by people?s ?county of settlement,? meaning where they were living when they became ill. In Breitfelder?s case, that means Jackson County, because he was a college student who was financially dependent on his parents when his hyper-fast, disjointed speech showed that something had gone wrong with his mind. Breitfelder appreciates the assistance he?s received from Jackson County ? help that has allowed him to live a fairly normal life, including having a part-time job and his own place. But he notes that when he needed inpatient care, he had to go to a nursing home in rural Jackson County, where he knew no one, instead of to a familiar facility in Dubuque, which he considers his home. He also wonders about the piles of paperwork needed for one county to oversee care in another county. ?It seems like money could be directed toward the care instead of all the hierarchy of it all,? he said. Most people who work in the system agree. Deb Schildroth, who coordinates mental health services for Story County, said the process of determining which county is responsible can take months? worth of research and dickering. ?For all the time it takes to figure out, it really has no benefit to the client,? she said. ?I think people should be able to get services wherever they live.? Local officials worry about state fundingSchildroth wants to see more details about how the counties would make the transition, but she believes the change would ease headaches and inefficiency. The county-of-settlement system was supposed to protect populous counties, which tend to have more resources and better services for people with mental illnesses or disabilities. The fear was that people would move to urban counties for those services, putting an unfair burden on the taxpayers there. But the top mental health official in Polk County, which is Iowa?s most populous county, said those concerns are overblown. Lynn Ferrell, who has overseen mental health programs for more than 20 years, said the number of Polk County residents receiving services elsewhere nearly equals the number of other counties? residents receiving services in Polk. The hassle of figuring out who belongs to which county is not worth the cost, he said. He joins other local mental health officials in applauding the plan to dispense with the county-of-settlement process. However, many local officials are skeptical of legislators? larger plan to take oversight away from counties and give it to new regional organizations. The skeptics fear the new organizations will add bureaucracy without bringing in much more money for services. Ferrell participated in earlier reform efforts that failed to fix the main problems. ?All of the previous redesigns have fallen flat, because they haven?t been adequately funded,? he said. ?When I start hearing things like, ?We?ll do such-and-such five years from now? ? you know, we?ve heard that before.? Ferrell and other local officials express doubts that regional systems would be able to cut much cost. He said many people with mental illness or disability need help in the towns where they live. ?Most of our clients are very poor and have little access to transportation,? he said. ?You can?t expect them to travel 70 miles for services.? Inequalities will persist, skeptics fearThe system statewide serves at least 75,000 to 90,000 Iowa adults and children who receive mental health or intellectual-disability services that are paid by Medicaid. The counties oversee many of those services, plus help for thousands more people who don?t qualify for Medicaid. Ferrell?s agency helps 8,000 to 9,000 people per year. He?s concerned that the state?s drive for equity could mean that urban counties will have to cut some of the extra services they provide. In Polk County, such services include special employment programs for people with mental illness or disability and extra training for care providers faced with tough-to-handle cases. Ferrell and other local officials say that without extra state money, counties at the bottom of the scale won?t be able to add such services. Wapello County Supervisor Steve Siegel also is skeptical of the proposed arrangement. ?We?re just going to go from county inequities to regional inequities,? he said. ?We?re going to create a whole new bureaucracy. To what end? I don?t know.? Siegel noted that the state decided in the mid-1990s to freeze the amount of money counties could raise from property taxpayers to pay for mental health services. That has fueled the inequalities, he said, because some counties have struggled more than others to serve growing populations with the same amount of money. State officials note that their proposal would allow the new regional administrators to continue offering services beyond what would be required. And state officials say that the new regional system should be more efficient, which would bring savings that could be used to improve services, and it could allow smaller counties to benefit from the expertise and resources of larger counties. They say that some efforts, including preventing the jailing of people for misbehavior caused by mental illness, could quickly save money that could be used to improve services. State system wasn't seriously consideredRick Shults, who leads the Iowa Division of Mental Health and Disability Services, said most officials across the state seem to agree on the need for an updated list of services that must be provided no matter where residents live. The main disagreement is over how to organize those services, he said. Shults said Iowa leaders never seriously considered setting up a single, statewide system to replace the county-by-county arrangement. The regional plan was needed, he said, because counties probably will continue to contribute millions of dollars of property tax money toward the care of people with mental illnesses or disabilities. County supervisors would have balked at a statewide plan that gave them no oversight into how their constituents? tax money was spent, he said. The new regional boards would include supervisors from each county. State Sen. Jack Hatch, a Des Moines Democrat helping lead discussion of the reforms, said local officials have legitimate concerns about whether the state will provide enough money to meet the goal of providing solid services across the state. ?We have to pay for this equalization,? he said. ?We really want to raise expectations, raise the standards, and let Iowans have a fair chance at getting healed.? Hatch noted that eight counties in north-central Iowa already have formed a regional mental health system. They?ve saved money and improved services by sharing resources and expertise, he said. Other Iowa counties should see similar results once they form regional authorities, he said, and people with mental illnesses or disabilities should benefit. Hatch also noted that the counties? property tax levy for mental health services, which raises about $125 million per year, is set to expire in 2013. The system still needs that money, he said, but there could be a debate in the Legislature about whether to continue the tax. advertisment
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| Feb 5, 2012 23:29:10 | UPDATE 1-Global Aviation files for bankruptcy Feb 5 (Reuters) - Global Aviation Holdings Inc , the largest commercial provider of charter air transportation for the U.S. military, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy to achieve "industry competitiveness" by cutting costs and debt load. |
| Feb 5, 2012 16:51:53 | American Airlines: Bankrupt Victim of Weak U.S. Dollar Policies As is well known now, American Airlines filed for bankruptcy toward the end of last year. In one certain sense this shouldn?t surprise us given how its legacy competitors did much the same earlier in the new millennium. |
| Feb 5, 2012 14:55:00 | Rally to address possible bankruptcy filing by Christ Hospital in Jersey City A community group that opposed the now-scuttled sale of Christ Hospital to a for-profit California chain will hold a rally on Tuesday to address the hospital's announcement that it might file for bankruptcy A community group that opposed the now-scuttled sale of Christ Hospital to a for-profit California chain will hold a rally on Tuesday to address the hospital's announcement that it might file for bankruptcy |
| Feb 4, 2012 03:00:00 | Sacramento developer Kolokotronis files for Chapter 7 bankruptcy Sacramento developer Sotiris Kolokotronis filed for personal bankruptcy Friday following years of legal battles over a failed Elk Grove housing complex. |
| Feb 4, 2012 02:00:00 | Chapter 11 for building owner The owner of two prominent office buildings near the RBC Center in West Raleigh has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. |