Bankruptcy

The bankruptcy filing by the owner of Sparrows Point casts yet another cloud over the future of steel-making there, but spokespeople for RG Steel and the Maryland Department of the Environment both say it should have no effect on the cleanup of longstanding toxic contamination there. "RG Steel will continue to meet environmental compliance requirements," company spokeswoman Bette Kovach said by email Thursday.  The company has continued cleanup work begun in 2010 by the mill's previous owner, Severstal North America, pumping and treating contaminated ground water to fulfill the terms of a consent decree with federal and state regulators that was agreed to in 1997 by the mill's original owner, Bethlehem Steel, which later filed for bankruptcy and sold the complex, beginning a series of handovers of the troubled facility.

The Sparrows Point steel mill stumbled into bankruptcy for the second time in 11 years as its owner filed Thursday for Chapter 11 protection from creditors as it prepares to idle operations and cut nearly 2,000 jobs at the plant next week. RG Steel LLC said in documents filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware that it owed more than $1 billion and had run out of cash, giving the first look at the privately held company's troubled finances. It also has $1 billion in assets. The company is seeking a buyer for Sparrows Point as well as its two steel plants in Wheeling, W.Va., and Warren, Ohio, and other steel-related operations, as it copes with a "liquidity crisis.

Norman Harvel is growing old under a mountain of debt. At 60, Harvel faces medical and credit card bills topping $80,000. Yet Harvel is unable to work, having been injured at a job site more a decade ago. The former building maintenance worker now lives on $904 a month in Social Security disability benefits. "I was so sick and tired of getting the bills, so I would throw them away," Harvel said from his tiny basement apartment in Dundalk. "I've had to try to tell myself that it's something I will wake up from.

Ex-Ravens running back Jamal Lewis has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Online bankruptcy records available Sunday with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court Northern District of Georgia show Lewis has assets of about $14.5 million and owes about $10.5 million. Lewis and his attorney could not immediately be reached for comment by The Baltimore Sun on Sunday. The records from Atlanta, filed last month, show Lewis has five homes, a 401K worth about $500,000 and ownership in a Columbus, Ohio, waterpark that's valued at $6 million.

The owner of an Anne Arundel County trucking company put out of business late last year by federal safety officials has filed for bankruptcy protection again, listing more than $3.3 million in debt. Mark David Gunther Sr., owner of Harmans-based Gunthers Transport LLC, filed under Chapter 11 in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Baltimore on May 15. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration called Gunthers Transport an "imminent hazard" to the public when it ordered the company's trucks off the road on Nov. 16. When the company tried to reconstitute itself weeks later as Clock Transport LLC, it, too, was ordered closed.

The parent company of Harborside Nursing & Rehabilitation Center in Baltimore, which faced state sanctions for air-conditioning failures more than two years ago, has filed for reorganization under Chapter 11 bankruptcy, according to court documents. Ravenwood Healthcare Inc., based in Baton Rouge, La., listed $10 million to $50 million in liabilities and the same amount of assets, according to documents filed late last week with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the Middle District of Louisiana.

In December, I called the hiring of Chelsea Clinton as a special correspondent for the newsmagazine "Rock Center" a "journalistically bankrupt decision by NBC News. " In February, after seeing Clinton's second report for the show, I wrote that Clinton "failed Journalism 101 -- again. " On CNN's  "Reliable Sources," I called the quote from NBC News President Steve Capus that it seemed to him as if Chelsea Clinton "had been preparing her whole life" for this job in journalism one of the most outrageous and disconnected-from-reality statements I have ever heard from the mouth of a news president in 30 years of reporting on the networks.

The prospective new owners of the Baltimore Jewish Times took over Washington Jewish Week nearly two years ago and made an array of changes to the publication, which had just turned 80 years old. They redesigned the tabloid, revamped the website and launched an email newsletter. It's not yet clear if they contemplate similar changes to the Jewish Times, a weekly that has come out every Friday for 93 years. Craig Burke, the publisher of Washington Jewish Week, said he cannot discuss specific plans until he learns more about the Baltimore company, Alter Communications Inc., which also publishes Style magazine.

It would take six years for the publisher of Washington Jewish Week to recoup the $1.26 million it bid to buy Alter Communications, based on Alter's financial projections through 2017. An affiliate of Rockville-based WJW Group LLC won the bankruptcy auction Monday for the assets of Alter, a family-operated company that's been publishing the Baltimore Jewish Times for nearly a century. The $1.26 million price tag is higher than many observers expected, including Alter's CEO. The sale still has to be confirmed by the U.S. District Court bankruptcy judge - the hearing is Thursday.