I am writing today to announce the closure of the Michigan Messenger. After four years of operation in Michigan, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news into a single site, The American Independent at Americanindependent.com. This is part of a shift in strategy, towards new forms [...]
An abstinence-only presentation provided to numerous school districts in Calhoun and Eaton Counties in October of this year provided false and misleading information to students about HIV, experts allege.
Two county registers of deeds filed a class action lawsuit Monday on behalf of Michigan’s 83 counties alleging that the Mortgage Electronic Registration Services owes millions of dollars in property title transfer taxes.
Despite evidence of the impact of mercury on children and public health, Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette last month joined with 24 other state attorneys general in filing a lawsuit to scuttle new EPA regulations that would reduce mercury emissions from power plants.
The New York Times reports that President Obama’s auto taskforce has told GM officials to begin preparations to file for bankruptcy by June 1 in case ongoing negotiations with bondholders and the UAW fail to produce enough concessions to allow the company to remain viable while restructuring out of court.
The Treasury Department is directing General Motors to lay the groundwork for a bankruptcy filing by a June 1 deadline, despite G.M.’s public contention that it could still reorganize outside court, people with knowledge of the plans said during the weekend…
The goal is to prepare for a fast “surgical” bankruptcy, the people who had been briefed on the plans said. G.M., which has been granted $13.4 billion in federal aid, insists that a quick restructuring is necessary so its image and sales are not damaged permanently.
The preparations are aimed at assuring a G.M. bankruptcy filing is ready should the company be unable to reach agreement with bondholders to exchange roughly $28 billion in debt into equity in G.M. and with the United Automobile Workers union, which has balked at granting concessions without sacrifices from bondholders.
As we reported earlier, there is still talk of such a surgical bankruptcy being packaged to create a good GM and a bad GM. Under that scenario, a new, leaner GM would emerge very quickly from bankruptcy proceedings, keeping all of the valuable assets the company has (the Chevy and Cadillac brands and the facilities associated with them). The less valuable assets would then be packaged as the “bad GM,” which would then be liquidated over the long term.
There is no indication yet how the problem of pension plans and healthcare would be handled. As we reported earlier, GM has $13.5 billion in unfunded pension liabilities. The Times agrees with the statement I made last week on a taping of Tim Skubick’s Off the Record that, with or without bankruptcy, the federal government will likely have to extend as much as $70 billion in funds to the company.
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