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On October 3, Garden Fresh Restaurant Corp., which owns Souplantation and Sweet Tomatoes, filed for bankruptcy. The company, owned by private-equity firm Sun Capital Partners, said it will close 20 to 30 of its 124 locations and put itself up for sale. On September 30, Restaurants Acquisitions, the operator of Black-eyed Pea and Dixie House restaurant chains, converted its Chapter 11 filing to Chapter 7 liquidation. The bankruptcy court order noted the company had shuttered its restaurants and management had resigned. On September 29, Cosi Inc., a fast-casual chain with 1,100 employees filed for bankruptcy. It closed 29 of its...

A panel assembled by Michigan State University’s Institute for Public Policy and Social Responsibility will discuss reforms to the emergency manager law. Any attempt to change this law ought to first understand its purpose. This law is meant to be used as a last step in a long series of attempts to ensure that Michigan’s local governments can pay their bills. Michigan local governments are creations of the state. The state defines their authority and writes the rules under which they operate. One rule is this: All local governments must be able to pay what they owe. The state has...

Moody's analysts say Sears and Kmart don't have enough money — or access to money — to stay in business. In a note published Wednesday, the analysts downgraded Sears' liquidity rating, saying the company is bleeding cash and will have to continue to rely on outside funding or the sale of assets, such as real estate, to sustain operations. "We recognize the risks associated with relying on these sources and continued shareholder support to finance its negative operating cash flow which is estimated by Moody's to be approximately $1.5 billion this year," the analysts wrote. Kmart in particular is...

The roads in Illinois are in decay. This may be the first state to go bankrupt. The question is not if, but when. State unions are so greedy that they are destroying the very state. This is exactly how Rome fell — government employees against the people. Seven states have constitutional provisions that state employee pensions must come BEFORE everything, including debt payments. Since the legislature in New Jersey was Democrat, they fought Governor Christie on pension reform. Their solution? On the ballot in November, there will be a provision to amend the state Constitution to put employee pensions before...

Minnesota's crop, livestock and dairy farmers are suffering with continuing rock bottom prices for their commodities, driving some into bankruptcy. John Quaal, 71, operates a dairy farm near Fergus Falls and tells Minnesota Public Radio News (http://bit.ly/2b5RcoD ) that it's nearly impossible to break even producing milk. "For almost two years now we've been going backwards," said Quaal. "You've got to learn to deal with it I guess. It's just the way it is." Quaal said his farm has lost as much as $40,000 in a single month and figures the family operation lost a total of $300,000 last year....

Owes millions to part owner Tencent, according to filings Fireforge, the California developer responsible for the recent Ghostbusters tie-in game, has filed for bankruptcy, owing debts of over $12 million according to papers associated with the case. The firm originally filed for voluntary chapter 7 bankruptcy on July 15, but further filings were completed on July 29. According to documents seen by Kotaku, Fireforge owed considerable amounts of money to several parties, but the majority of its debt, believed to have been accrued prior to the development of Ghostbusters, is owed to partial owner Tencent, which controls 37% of the...

Logan's Roadhouse restaurant chain has filed for bankruptcy. The filing was made Monday with U.S. bankruptcy court in Wilmington, Delaware. The plan, according to the company is "designed to restructure the company's balance sheet" while providing it with the "capital needed to turnaround operations." The Nashville, Tennessee-based steakhouse chain best known for its western flair and peanuts on the floor will close 18 restaurants as part of its restructuring. The chain operates 250 locations nationwide, including 23 in Alabama....

<p>Deficits and unfunded pension liabilities as far as the eye can see. Seated in his office here, wearing neither a necktie nor a frown, Republican governor Bruce Rauner is remarkably relaxed for someone at the epicenter of a crisis now in its second year and with no end in sight. But, then, stress is pointless when the situation is hopeless. Besides, if you can ignore the fact that self-government is failing in the nation’s fifth-most populous state, you can see real artistry in the self-dealing by the Democrats who, with veto-proof majorities in the state legislature, have reduced this state they control to insolvency.</p>

Top Story: Mobile provider is locking U.S. soldiers out of their phone service | Komando.com http://www.komando.com/happening-now/368529/top-story-mobile-provider-is-locking-u-s-soldiers-out-of-their-phone-service?utm_medium=nl&utm_source=notd&utm_content=2016-08-05-article-title August 5, 2016 Top Story: Mobile provider is locking U.S. soldiers out of their phone service By Mark Jones, Komando.com Top Story: Mobile provider is locking U.S. soldiers out of their phone service Life in the United States military can be tough. Your life can be put in danger at any moment, whether you are in a war zone, or simply patrolling a U.S. base. It's stressful for you, your family and everyone who cares about you. Having access to reliable phone service is...

New York's famous Plaza Hotel is set to go on sale in an auction next month and experts believe that the five-star hotel could sell for more than $1billion. Billionaire brothers David and Simon Reuben hold the mortgage for the storied five-star hotel and scheduled a foreclosure auction for April 26. The auction was prompted after the hotel's 75 per cent owner Sahara India Pariwar — whose chairman went to prison in 2014 for defrauding investors — defaulted on loan agreements... < snip > Foreign investors are pouring capital into New York hotels at a historic rate. Much of the...

Germany’s largest lender is set to shut over a quarter of its branches across the country as the company goes through a major restructuring process. The closures are set to take place over the next few months, with 188 of Deutsche Bank’s 723 branches nationwide due to close their doors. […] After recording colossal losses of around €7 billion in 2015, the Frankfurt lender is desperately seeking ways to cut costs. […] The bank said it hopes to redirect funds to digital banking, in which it hopes to invest €750 million by 2020. …

In a blow to General Motors Co (GM.N), a federal appeals court on Wednesday reversed part of a bankruptcy court ruling that protected the automaker from some lawsuits over an ignition switch defect that prompted the recall of 2.6 million vehicles in 2014. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan said barring plaintiffs from suing the automaker over crashes and lost vehicle value stemming from the faulty switch would violate their constitutional rights to due process, since they had not been notified of the defect prior to GM's 2009 bankruptcy. The ruling effectively rebuffs GM's attempts to shield...

Twitter and zero hedge reporting Gawker has filed for bankruptcy.

Many dairy farmers work long hours though their pay is dropping and a growing number of farms are going bankrupt. They have a low opinion of subsidies. […] Michael Greshake is struggling with low market prices for the dairy products put out by his farm in Velbert, in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. His main buyer, a Dutch company, has contractually agreed to buy a set amount of milk. However, Greshake’s farm assumes the risk for overproduction. If contracted farms such as Greshake’s suddenly produce a surplus — and demand fails to grow — purchase prices sink. That is why...

Hillary Clinton is a lawyer, unlike most of the population out there, and KNOWS Trump never liquidated creditors in a typical bankruptcy. Every media report repeated her lie dozens of times yesterday. People think there is one kind of bankruptcy and have no clue about Chapter 11 reorganization to PAY OFF THE CREDITORS. (photo) Donald Trump has NEVER filed personal bankruptcy! Law Dictionary: How is Donald Trump Able to File for Bankruptcy So Many Times? http://thelawdictionary.org/article/how-is-donald-trump-able-to-file-for-bankruptcy-so-many-times/ Written by James Hirby | Fact checked by The Law Dictionary staff People might ask "How is Donald Trump able to file for bankruptcy...

Undocumented illegal aliens are having a documented effect on New York City's finances. New York's flailing left-wing mayor is proposing $2 billion for the city's hospitals as part of an $82 billion budget. A budget that the city can't afford. What's driving the costs? Illegal aliens and ObamaCare. Closer to home, de Blasio said the growth in tax revenue that has swelled city coffers is starting to slow — with projected growth of 3.6% in 2016 and 1.9% in 2017, compared to an average of 7% in the last five years.

Aeropostale used to be one of the most popular teen retailers. Cheaper than Abercrombie & Fitch, and less bohemian than American Eagle, the brand was the go-to for teens who still wanted to fit in with the trends. But those days are gone. The retailer has filed for bankruptcy protection, though it says it will be out of debt in six months. Last June, Crain's New York reported that the retailer lost 95% of its value in just five years. The brand has plans to close 113 stores in the US and all 41 stores in Canada. According to Reuters,...

Later this week or next, Congress will take up legislation to rescue the commonwealth of Puerto Rico from its financial crisis that is getting worse by the day. Puerto Rico faces more than $70 billion of debt and the government is already in technical default on many of its bonds. Billions more come due in weeks ahead and the government says they are out of money to repay. These debts don’t even include an additional $43.2 billion of unfunded pension liabilities. Add it all together and the debt reaches at least 150 percent of GDP. That’s a lot of weight...

Why Sports Authority is throwing in the towel and closing all of its stores When struggling retailer Sports Authority filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last month in the face of more than $1 billion in debt, the company indicated that it had two options going forward. One of those was to shed underperforming stores and emerge from bankruptcy as an intact, but pared-down company. The other was to sell everything and cease operating. On Tuesday, the company appeared to choose the latter. . . . “With the minimum wage going up to $15 an hour and more people turning to...

Core Media Group, the company behind "American Idol" and "So You Think You Can Dance," has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in New York. According to court papers, the company says it owes $398 million. That includes money owed for loans, back payments to former employees, and investors, according to The Hollywood Reporter. "American Idol" was the company's biggest breadwinner. And now that the show has ended at Fox, the company is unable to find a similar source of revenue. The company has been seeing losses from a decline in "American Idol" ratings for several years now, however. In 2014,...