Bankruptcy

As finances unravel and the pressure builds, it's easy to feel you're the only one going through a crisis, or that there's no way out. The reality is just the opposite. If you're having money troubles, you're far from alone. Plus, there are plenty of programs - many of them free - to work out most financial problems. And if that doesn't give you some encouragement, remember this: If you suffer a setback now, it's only money. You can rebound. We're a nation that believes in second, third and more chances.

Vick must appear at bankruptcy hearing nfl Fallen NFL star quarterback Michael Vick has to appear at a bankruptcy hearing next month but should pay his own way from the Kansas prison where he is serving time for his role in a dogfighting conspiracy, a judge ruled yesterday in Norfolk, Va. At an hourlong hearing, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Frank J. Santoro rejected the government's suggestions that he either postpone Vick's April 2 bankruptcy confirmation hearing...

Proponents call it the crucial missing tool needed to get us out of the national foreclosure morass. Critics say it could be disastrous - pushing up interest rates on all future mortgages, even for people with excellent credit, and creating huge new losses for already-ailing banks. Wherever you come down on the griddle-hot issue of home mortgage "cramdowns," the reality is this: Congress is poised to pass legislation empowering bankruptcy court judges to reduce the loan balances of potentially large numbers of financially distressed owners to affordable levels, and to lower their interest rates and monthly payments.

Towson-based Baci Management Inc., which left the Lyric Opera House and other theaters in the lurch recently after its subscription-series touring shows were abruptly canceled, has filed for bankruptcy. All but three of the eight Broadway-style productions that Baci had booked for Baltimore's Lyric between last September and this May were called off, hurting the theater and aggravating customers. The Maryland attorney general's office said it is trying to mediate 77 complaints about Baci.

Bailout rewards profligate spenders With President Bush's proposed bailout for many of those who fell victim to rampant greed in the subprime mortgage debacle, he displays his ignorance not only of world politics but also of the free-market financial world ("Mortgage aid plan puts limit on relief," Dec. 7). I'm sorry, but I find it hard to sympathize with the mortgage companies and all the others who logged huge profits while property values soared. They, in turn, lured more greedy financial victims into this house of cards by offering investment packages that bundled all these mortgage securities together.

Kaiser Aluminum Shares climbed $4.05 to $62.69 after the company said higher metals prices and lower operating costs produced a second-quarter profit. The firm left bankruptcy protection in July 2006.

NEW YORK -- Adelphia Communications Corp.'s plan to end more than four years of bankruptcy protection and distribute $15 billion in cash and stock to creditors was officially confirmed yesterday by a judge in New York. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Robert E. Gerber signed a confirmation order ratifying the exit plan in one of the biggest bankruptcies in U.S. history. Gerber said Wednesday that he would confirm the plan, which is to take effect in 10 business days, barring an appeal. "The plan is hereby confirmed," his 53-page order said.

A Baltimore bankruptcy judge said yesterday that furniture seller Scan International, which filed for Chapter 11 protection this week, could pay employees the money they're owed and indicated that he soon would approve the company's borrowing plan so it could fill hundreds of outstanding customer orders. During yesterday's proceedings, Judge James F. Schneider also set a hearing for next week to approve Rockville-based Scan's going-out-of-business, liquidation-sale plans. The company, which has two retail locations in Virginia and three in Maryland, expects to begin selling off its merchandise early next month to raise funds.

The court-appointed bankruptcy trustee and the lawyer representing Baci Management Inc. - the company that stranded hundreds of patrons when shows failed to arrive at the Lyric House Opera - offered ticketholders some hope yesterday. Baci and its Baltimore entity, Performing Arts Productions, which booked a subscription series at the Lyric, filed two bankruptcy petitions last week in Maryland federal court. Bankruptcy trustee George W. Liebmann said there are roughly 300 consumer deposit claims (primarily from ticketholders)

WILMINGTON, Del. -- W.R. Grace & Co. asked the judge overseeing its bankruptcy case to bar asbestos-related lawsuits against Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway Co. over the railroad's objections to the legal protection. Grace's effort to resolve more than 100,000 asbestos claims it faces would be more difficult if Burlington, known as BNSF, starts defending itself against 113 lawsuits involving the railroad's transportation of vermiculite ore in Libby, Mont., Grace attorney David M. Bernick contended yesterday in court.

The bankruptcy proceeding of Erickson Retirement Communities has understandably upset the 23,000 residents of the company's 19 communities and their families. People who live with Erickson at Charlestown, Oak Crest, Riderwood and other places have a substantial investment in the communities in the form of their apartments. When residents die or move out of a community, Erickson has always paid back the "entrance fees" for the apartments, which can run up to $600,000. Residents want to know if the bankruptcy will affect Erickson's ability to do that.

Chemical company W.R. Grace & Co. had expected to emerge from bankruptcy in December, but said Thursday that it won't happen until next year. The Columbia-based company, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2001 because of asbestos-related lawsuits, said that closing arguments in the case are scheduled for Jan. 6-7. The company now estimates it could emerge from bankruptcy in the third or fourth quarter of next year. "It's not any indication of any problems we're having, it's just a lot of paperwork," Hudson LaForce, the company's chief financial officer, said in a phone interview.

A top Baltimore City police official, who had been suspended and was recently cleared to resume moonlighting as a civil attorney, resigned Wednesday after meeting with Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III. Kim Y. Johnson, head of the Police Department's equal employment opportunity commission, was investigated earlier in the year for working as a defense attorney for suspects arrested by city police and in other jurisdictions. Johnson, who was paid $94,000 by the city last year, had also filed dozens of bankruptcy claims on behalf of private clients in addition to her work for the city, and her name was invoked last week in a flap over claims of a falsified discrimination complaint.

Facing hundreds of millions of dollars in potential liability for sex abuse claims, the diocese that ministers to Eastern Shore Catholics filed for federal bankruptcy-law protection hours before the civil trial of a former priest was to have started Monday. Bishop W. Francis Malooly described the Chapter 11 petition filed late Sunday as a difficult but necessary step that would enable the Diocese of Wilmington, Del., to "fairly compensate all victims through a single process established by the bankruptcy court."

Magna Entertainment Corp., owner of Pimlico Race Course and Laurel Park, has asked a bankruptcy judge for permission to auction its Maryland racetracks early next year, under the condition that potential buyers promise not to move the cherished Preakness out of the state. The prospect of Maryland's marquee horse-racing event being ripped away by out-of-state buyers prompted state lawmakers to pass a law earlier this year granting the government rights to seize the Preakness under eminent domain - and Magna alleged in court papers last week that state intervention is unconstitutional and creates a "chilling effect" on its efforts to sell the Maryland tracks.

A year ago, when a group of GM executives came to The Baltimore Sun to meet with the editorial board, they couldn't stop talking about the Chevy Volt. Still in the conceptual stages, the plug-in electric hybrid was their answer for the future and repentance for years of gas-guzzling SUVs that, at the time, had been made unattractive by sky-high fuel prices. They seemed to pine for it, like a baseball team trailing badly in the bottom of the ninth might wish for a six-run homer. A lot has changed since then.

It was, the auctioneer said, "a very unusual opportunity" - 12 renovated rowhouses in and around Baltimore's Patterson Park neighborhood, for sale in whirlwind back-to-back auctions. But then, the reason they were up for grabs is very unusual, too. They belonged to the Patterson Park Community Development Corp., a nonprofit group that helped the East Baltimore neighborhood take a stunning U-turn from rapid decline into a hot place to live. The group countered blight and flight by snapping up vacant homes, rehabbing the properties and selling some while renting out others.

Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc., which had said it might be forced to file for bankruptcy protection because of substantial debt coming due, said it has reached a tentative deal to pay off nearly $438 million in convertible notes. Under an agreement reached with a committee of note holders, Sinclair subsidiary Sinclair Television Group would issue notes that would mature in 2014 and be secured by a second lien on assets securing the television group's bank credit facility. The broadcaster would use the proceeds to repurchase outstanding debt from note holders who are entitled to exercise options in May 2010 and January 2011.

Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc., faced with falling advertising revenue from automakers amid the recession, said it might consider filing for bankruptcy protection if the company cannot pay substantial debt coming due. The Hunt Valley-based owner of television stations, which depends heavily on automotive advertisers for revenue, said it might be obligated to pay $488.5 million of its total outstanding debt within the next 18 months. The company said it had $1.3 billion in total debt outstanding as of March 31. If note holders exercise options in May and January 2011, "We do not have the cash necessary to meet our [debt]

3 Md. companies pay fines over lead paint in toys Nine importers, manufacturers and retailers of children's products, including three based in Baltimore County, will pay more than $500,000 in civil penalties for violations of the federal lead paint ban, according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. The commission has provisionally accepted the settlement of findings that these companies knowingly made or sold toys that contained high levels of lead in 2007 or 2008. Though they deny violating the law, Cardinal Distributing Co. Inc. of Rosedale must pay $100,000.