Free Republic

Hartford has hired a lawyer as city officials begin navigating the complex system of bankruptcy. The city is facing a $65 million shortfall this year and it remains unclear whether it will receive any additional state aid. Standard & Poor's downgraded Hartford debt to junk bond status late Tuesday, less than a week after the financially troubled capital city hired a New York law firm with expertise in restructuring municipal finances. The Wall Street ratings agency downgraded most city of Hartford outstanding debt to BB, a level that's classified as speculative, also known as non-investment-grade, or junk, from BBB-. That...

Children's clothing seller Gymboree Corp. is closing 350 stores as its works to restructure in bankruptcy. The San Francisco-based company said Tuesday that it's mostly closing Gymboree and Crazy 8 stores. It also operates Janie and Jack stores. The company will have more than 900 locations after the stores are shut down. Gymboree filed for bankruptcy protection in June. Traditional retailers have been struggling to deal with strong competition from online companies and slowing mall traffic.

Cold Case: Bankruptcy Reopened More Than 80 Years Later (Can only be linked to)

illegal immigration costs Illinois $3.85 billion per year. This number is a low estimate in a particularly low year because of the budget crisis happening in Illinois currently. So let’s put that number in perspective. As mentioned above, Illinois is in a budget crisis and on the verge of bankruptcy. Their state debt is upwards of $64 billion. Their credit rating is a BBB-, which is one notch above a junk/non-investment rating. They are also projected to have their credit further downgraded. Illinois also has unpaid bills upwards of $15 billion (with $800 million per year just in interest payments)...

While one deal struck by Jane O’Meara Sanders during her time as Burlington College’s president has triggered a federal investigation, another arrangement she engineered is breeding claims of nepotism and allegations of veiled threats against her husband’s presidential campaign. Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’ wife, Jane Sanders, is facing criticism over a “sweetheart deal” granted to a school founded by her daughter while president of the now-defunct Burlington College. Carol Moore, who served as the final president of the college from 2014 until its closure in May 2016, says Jane Sanders approved a deal for the college with Vermont Woodworking School...

Illinois is now spending over 100% of its monthly revenue and talk of Chapter 9 bankruptcy has begun; Congress has yet to step in, but chatter predicts it may not be much longer. The problem remains that until Illinois (and more specifically Chicago) changes its economically suicidal policies, there is almost nothing that can be done to stop the spiral. Major ideology changes will be blocked constantly, but there is something they can do that will keep all sides relatively happy. People have been talking about Illinois going bankrupt for years (in fact it seems to be an almost annual...

OFFICE OF THE COMPTROLLER FORECASTS SEVERE FINANCIAL STRAIN BEGINNING IN JULY As Illinois' Chief Fiscal and Accountability Officer, my Office is responsible for managing the state's financial accounts as well as providing the public and the state's elected leadership with objective and timely data concerning the state’s difficult fiscal condition. As you are quite aware, I have been very vocal regarding these issues and the budgetary impasse since assuming office six months ago; however we are now reaching a new phase of crisis. Accordingly, I must communicate to you at this time the full extent of our dire fiscal straits...

Illinois is grappling with a full-fledged financial crisis and not even the lottery is safe – with Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner warning the state is entering "banana republic" territory.   Facing billions in unpaid bills and pension obligations, the state is hitting a cash crunch that is rare even by Illinois standards. A top financial official just warned 100 percent of the state's monthly revenue will be eaten up by court-ordered payments. Rauner is calling a special session of the Democrat-led General Assembly in a bid to pass what he hopes will be the first full budget package in almost three...

Puerto Rico's governor announced that the U.S. territory has overwhelmingly chosen statehood in a nonbinding referendum Sunday held amid a deep economic crisis that has sparked an exodus of islanders to the U.S. mainland. Nearly half a million votes were cast for statehood, more than 7,600 for free association/independence and nearly 6,700 for the current territorial status, according to preliminary results. The participation rate was just 23 percent with roughly 2.26 million registered voters, leading opponents to question the validity of a vote that several parties had boycotted. Gov. Ricardo Rossello shows his ballot at the San Jose Academy during...

When the US territory of Puerto Rico filed for bankruptcy last week, we took the opportunity to identify the most likely candidates among US states to follow the new legal precedents that are now being set by its example. The editorial board of a leading newspaper in one of those states, Illinois, argues that Puerto Rico’s bankruptcy filing represents the “frightening ghost” of that state’s debt-laden future. Here are some excerpts from the Chicago Tribune‘s editorial. They first set the stage: Puerto Rico is the terrifying Ghost of Illinois Future: a worst-case example of what happens when a government no...

Pension plans continue to blame poor market performance for their continuing dire straits of massive underfunding. Irrespective of all time market highs, their actuarial assumption of 8% has been impossible to achieve and continues to be way out of reach. Municipalities around the country are entering the summer season with expectations of violence not seen in several decades. Yet many are cutting back on police and fireman, for lack of money, just at the moment they seem to need them the most. Finally, the repairing of roads and bridges, popularly known as infrastructure, continues to be postponed by the “City...

Former "Dance Moms" star Abby Lee Miller has been sentenced to a year and a day in prison for bankruptcy fraud and for taking $120,000 worth of Australian currency into the country without reporting it. A federal judge in Pittsburgh ordered Miller to pay a $40,000 fine and spend two years on probation following her release. Miller pleaded guilty in both cases last year.

Last week, Puerto Rico took another step in its long, mostly futile attempt to stabilize its economy and budget when it filed for a modified version of municipal bankruptcy. It was the latest chapter in a 20-year struggle that began when an odd coalition of budget hawks, statehood advocates, and critics of corporate giveaways convinced Congress to phase out tax benefits that businesses could garner by locating operations in Puerto Rico. Since then, efforts to make Puerto Rico’s economy more independent and sustainable have come to little, in part because the 1996 reforms were incomplete, leaving in place tax advantages...

Puerto Rico's financial oversight board on Wednesday filed for a form of bankruptcy protection under last year's federal rescue law known as PROMESA, touching off the biggest bankruptcy in the history of the U.S. municipal debt market. The move comes a day after several major creditors sued the U.S. territory and its Governor Ricardo Rossello over defaults on the island's $70 billion in bonds. The request came under Title III of the PROMESA law is an in-court debt restructuring process akin to U.S. bankruptcy protection, as Puerto Rico is barred from traditional bankruptcy because it is a U.S. territory. The...

Puerto Rico is set to file the largest public sector bankruptcy in history after vulture capitalist hedge funds that bought big pieces of the island’s $73 billion in defaulted debt for pennies-on the-dollar refused to take $24 billion haircut.

But don’t blame the oil bust. Commercial bankruptcy filings, from corporations to sole proprietorships, spiked 28% in March from February, the largest month-to-month move in the data series of the American Bankruptcy Institute going back to 2012. They’re up 8% year-over-year. Over the past 24 months, they soared 37%! At 3,658, they’re at the highest level for any March since 2013. Commercial bankruptcy filings skyrocketed during the Financial Crisis and peaked in March 2010 at 9,004. Then they fell sharply until they reached their low point in October 2015. November 2015 was the turning point, when for the first time...

The filing, signed by HelioPower President Maurice Russo, says that despite borrowing nearly $3 million from its parent company Sierra Nevada Solar (SNS) over a period of years, its current revenues are not enough to keep up with its debt obligations. In fact, HelioPower has borrowed $182,218 from SNS so far in 2017 just to meet its payroll obligations.

Solar company Suniva Inc. filed for bankruptcy Wednesday after receiving millions in government subsidies to manufacture solar panels. Suniva blamed its bankruptcy on competition from cheap Chinese-made solar panels, but the company received about $20 million in support from federal and state taxpayers, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “For many years, Chinese manufacturers of solar cells have benefited from favorable, state-sponsored financing and lower labor costs, allowing them to flood the United States market for solar cells and modules with cheap imports,” David Baker, the company’s restructuring officer, said in a statement. “This has negatively impacted manufacturers based in the...

Sungevity’s sudden and startling fall from grace came to a quiet end yesterday after a Delaware bankruptcy court approved the sale of its assets to Northern Pacific Group for $50 million.

Two weeks after laying off 131 employees without notice and closing its module plant in Michigan, one of the largest U.S. solar manufacturers has filed for bankruptcy.