Chapter 11

Outdoors and military surplus store Sunny's Surplus is back in business less than a year after declaring bankruptcy for the second time in a decade - though on a much smaller scale. The retailer has opened three stores in Annapolis, Westminster and Frederick. It had 15 stores in January when it sought Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. It closed all of the stores at the time. Michael Weinman, who was the majority stockholder of Sunny's parent company and a member of the founding family, created an entity called New Sunny's to buy the company's remaining assets after most of them were sold in going-out-of-business sales earlier this year.

W.R. Grace & Co., the Columbia chemical maker in bankruptcy protection since 2001, lost exclusive rights to file its reorganization plan after a federal judge ruled against the company yesterday. Judge Judith K. Fitzgerald of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del., denied Grace's 10th request for exclusive rights to file its reorganization plan. The move, which is unusual in bankruptcy proceedings, means any creditor may file a competing reorganization plan. Grace filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in April 2001 to protect itself from 135,000 asbestos claims spanning several decades.

LOS ANGELES -- Veg-O-Matic king Ron Popeil used to love to say, "But wait, there's more!" But only barely, it turns out, at least in regard to the company he founded. Ronco Corp., based in California's Simi Valley, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, declaring it had $32.7 million in debts and $13.9 million in assets. Popeil, 72, an irrepressible pitchman who created "infomercials" to sell products as wide ranging as the Pocket Fisherman, Showtime Rotisserie, the Buttoneer, Mr. Microphone and GLH spray-on hair, is the company's largest creditor.

New Century Financial Corp., once the largest independent maker of mortgages to high-risk borrowers, sank into bankruptcy proceedings yesterday, swamped by demands that it buy back defaulted loans. The Irvine, Calif., company said it would eliminate 3,200 jobs, or about half its work force. Its fall epitomizes the collapse of the subprime lending business, which made $1.3 trillion in higher-cost mortgages over the past two years to shaky borrowers. In recent months, forced sales and outright shutdowns of lenders have beset the industry - woes that threaten to depress the entire housing market.

Sunny's Great Outdoors Inc., a local retailer that got its start selling military surplus in the aftermath of World War II, has filed for bankruptcy for the second time in a decade and is closing its stores, according to court documents. The Elkridge-based company, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last week in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Baltimore, has 15 stores around the Mid-Atlantic region and employs 150 full-time and part-time workers. "The unseasonably warm fall and winter seasons wreaked havoc on ... sales," Sunny's says in its bankruptcy filing.

PHILADELPHIA -- US Airways, fresh off one merger that is still unfinished, offered yesterday to buy struggling Delta Air Lines for $8 billion, a deal it said would create the nation's largest domestic airline. US Airways said its proposal would give Delta's creditors $4 billion in cash and 78.5 million shares of US Airways' stock, valued at about $4 billion at recent prices. The combined operation would use the Delta name. Delta said that it would review US Airways' proposal, but that it also would continue to work on its own plans to emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection as a stand-alone company.

LOS ANGELES -- Air America Radio, the liberal talk network started two years ago in a bid to counter the influence of conservative radio personalities like Rush Limbaugh, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Friday. The network and its corporate parent, Piquant LLC, filed after an owner of stations that carried Air America programming took legal action to freeze its bank accounts as part of a dispute over unpaid bills. Last month, the network's backers said they would no longer provide cash to subsidize its operating losses, according to an affidavit filed by Air America in connection with the bankruptcy.

ATLANTA -- Pilots bought cash-strapped Delta Air Lines some financial breathing room yesterday by ratifying a second round of double-digit wage cuts, but a deadline for a more comprehensive and potentially divisive labor deal still looms. Rank-and-file pilots approved the union-backed measure 58 percent to 42 percent. It immediately slashes pilot pay 14 percent and saves Delta $143 million a year. The latest concession is part of $3 billion in annual savings Delta is seeking to emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy court protection.

I have a GMAC bond that is supposed to mature in October 2006. I have been getting the interest every quarter. Do you think that I will have any problems getting the money at that time? The fact that you have been receiving interest every quarter means nothing. What matters is the future. The key will be whether GMAC is forced to go into bankruptcy because parent General Motors Corp. winds up filing. So far, neither is in bankruptcy, and GM has insisted that it has no plan to file for Chapter 11 protection.

Cars and bonds have nothing in common. You probably are thinking that any fool knows that. But on an emotional level, investors missed that point the past few years. They bought bonds of General Motors Corp. and its General Motors Acceptance Corp. financial services subsidiary, figuring they were as rock solid as the cars they've seen on the street all their lives. Familiarity with the GM name and its vehicles bred complacency. But with GM's financial problems a mainstay of business headlines lately, retirees have sought assurances from me that they will be able to count on income from their bonds and preferred stock.