Joerg begins today’s video by saying, "As you know, I don’t like witches." And in fact, I did not specifically remember this preference of his. But I can believe it. After watching a Harry Potter rerun this week, Joerg finally realized the hazard that quidditch and other flying broom sports pose to our safety. And he decided to make a 6.5 foot slingshot to better defend himself and his family from this imminent threat.
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By Nick Brown
July 21 (Reuters) – With more than $18 billion at stake in Detroit’s restructuring, big law firms and other advisers are clamoring to represent the city’s many creditors – including some advisers not exactly known for municipal work.
The city, which filed the largest-ever U.S. municipal bankruptcy on Thursday, tapped high-priced lawyers from Jones Day, financial advisers from Ernst & Young and restructuring consultants from Conway MacKenzie, court papers show.
For creditors and related parties, there is clearly a lot at stake. That means bondholders, insurers, retirees and others are sure to be accompanied in court by platoons of lawyers.
Detroit owes more than $8 billion in bond debt, and the insurers likely on the hook for those costs have already retained big-name law firms to take their cases.
Federal Guaranty Insurance Co tapped Weil Gotshal & Manges, according to a source close to the matter, who declined to be named because the information was not public as of Saturday. An attorney for Weil declined to comment.
David Dubrow, a lawyer at Arent Fox, confirmed on Saturday that he has been tapped by Ambac Financial Group.
And, according to the court’s electronic docket, Syncora hired Kirkland & Ellis, known for its corporate bankruptcy work, while Assured Guaranty retained Winston & Strawn, and National Public Finance Guarantee Corp hired Sidley Austin.
Bond insurers will play a key role in Detroit’s case. While a portion of the city’s $1.13 billion in general obligation bonds are secured by city assets, about $651 million of it is secured only by the ability to raise taxes. The city’s emergency manager, Kevyn Orr, has said he will treat that portion of the debt as an unsecured claim.
That classification, which has been largely untested in federal courts, is likely to be hotly contested and possibly litigated by bondholders or their insurers.
Detroit also owes $5.7 billion in unfunded healthcare and other benefits to retirees, and has asked the judge to form a committee to look out for their interests. The Department of Justice may also appoint a committee of unsecured creditors in the case. Both moves would mean opportunities for professional advisers.
The city needs to negotiate new labor deals with unions, and its pension funds are underfunded by $3.5 billion, providing yet more opportunities for attorneys to advise creditors.
Chapter 9, the section of the bankruptcy code that governs municipal bankruptcies, is attractive for advisers, provided there is money to pay them. Unlike in Chapter 11, where billing is subject to court and regulatory review, Chapter 9 allows bills to stay between the adviser and its client.
In corporate restructurings, creditors, judges and the Justice Department pore over fees line by line, and can raise objections to unnecessary or overpriced items. Over the past few years, the Justice Department has ramped up its policing of high fees and has required bankruptcy lawyers to disclose more.
In municipal bankruptcies, fees could be subject to disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act, but they do not need to be reported publicly in court.
“You’re used to being in a world where you have to explain yourself, and suddenly you don’t anymore,” said a bankruptcy lawyer, who asked not to be named.
The catch is that, unlike in corporate bankruptcies, there is no mechanism under Chapter 9 to make the bankrupt entity pay certain creditors’ fees. And corporate bankruptcies are generally more lucrative for advisers because there is often more money to go around.
But with $18.5 billion in debt, Detroit is an outlier among municipal bankruptcies, where advisers see the potential for high fees without the hassle of having to justify them in court.
A NEW FRONTIER
In the past, only a small handful of professionals were known for having expertise in municipal restructuring. But a recent slew of Chapter 9 filings has yielded many new faces, and Detroit’s bankruptcy will only continue that trend.
“Every time a case gets bigger, there are new players,” said Richard Levin, a partner at Cravath Swaine & Moore who is representing the Detroit Institute of Arts in the restructuring.
Chapter 9 filings are rare, with only about 650 cases filed in the 75 years to 2012, mostly involving small municipal entities like sewer districts. But, the last three years have seen filings by the city of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Jefferson County, Alabama and the California cities of Stockton and San Bernardino.
And a concurrent lull in corporate bankruptcies has put strain on big restructuring firms like Weil Gotshal, which last month laid off 170 associates and support staff, driving professionals toward municipal work.
“Chapter 9 is not something I started out doing,” said George South, a partner at DLA Piper who has become well-versed in the arena, representing creditor groups in the bankruptcies of both Harrisburg and Jefferson County.
PLENTY OF CONSTITUENCIES
In addition to general obligation bonds, Detroit owes nearly $6 billion in revenue bonds and $1.43 billion in pension certificates. Even though the bond insurers are likely to be the ones on the hook, the bondholders themselves will also “lawyer up.”
Subsets of the holders may even band together to form committees if they feel a united front would better serve their interests, providing yet another potential path for advisers.
A number of other large law firms, including Brown Rudnick, Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe and DLA Piper, are involved in the case or looking for ways in, according to people familiar with the matter.
Even if advisers lose out on big-money clients, Detroit’s restructuring calls for a slew of projects and transactions that will require their own armies of professionals.
“There’s all kinds of consulting opportunities,” said Levin, whose client, the Detroit Institute of Arts museum, is at the center of a dispute over whether the city can sell the museum’s art collection.
Orr, the emergency manager, has outlined in court papers his plans to create a new water and sewer management authority, transfer Detroit’s Belle Isle Park to the state of Michigan, and restructure Coleman A. Young airport, which has not serviced commercial jets in 13 years but which the city must maintain to keep some federal subsidies.
Each of those moves will require lawyers, consultants and financial advisers to strategize the most cost-efficient execution, said Kenneth Klee, a Chapter 9 expert and bankruptcy lawyer at Klee Tuchin Bogdanoff & Stern.
“Chapter Nines require complete expertise in the area of municipal finance,” Klee said. “If you only have bankruptcy expertise, that’s not enough.”
Eventually, hedge funds and other investment vehicles could find ways into the case, as Orr has stressed the importance of new investment, particularly with respect to the proposed new water and sewer authority, which could finance its operations with new bond issuance.
The case could be a boon for smaller law firms, too.
While large, corporate creditors are apt to tap similarly colossal law firms with whom they have preexisting relationships, smaller or locally-based stakeholders may opt to hire attorneys native to Detroit.
“There are a lot of talented lawyers in Detroit,” Levin said. “I would think pensions and unions, for example, might opt for those guys.”
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More on Detroit Politics
Scroll down to watch Neil deGrasse Tyson go face to face with the outer reaches.
(Credit: Screenshot by Christopher MacManus/CNET)
Explore the outer reaches of the universe in a new trailer for “Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey” — an upcoming space and science spectacular hosted by the popular astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson.
Arriving on Fox and National Geographic channels in spring 2014 as part of a 13-episode series, “Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey” builds off Carl Sagan’s groundbreaking series of a similar name (subtitled “A Personal Voyage”) seen on PBS more than 30 years ago.
The trailer indicates that Fox spared little expense on the effort, as there’s an extraordinary amount of high-end special effects and animation seen throughout the tease. In many scenes, deGrasse Tyson appears to control a sexy spaceship that drops in and out of spectacular stars.
There’s a lot of geek cred behind the refreshed “Cosmos,” as Sagan’s widow Ann Druyan, who played a major role in the production of the original series, serves as an executive producer and writer for the new episodes. Astronomer and original writer Steven Soter makes a return, too.
WAITSFIELD, Vt. — Some Vermont farmers want to plant hemp now that the state has a law setting up rules to grow the plant, a cousin of marijuana that’s more suitable for making sandals than getting high.
But federal law forbids growing hemp without a permit, so farmers could be risking the farm if they decide to grow the plant that the Drug Enforcement Agency basically considers marijuana.
The “Beverly Hills Cop” TV spin-off planned for CBS seemed to be a foregone conclusion, with a star in place (Brandon T. Jackson), a TV vet as the new police chief (Christine Lahti), and even the promise of occasional visits from original star Eddie Murphy as Detective Axel Foley. But in May, it was announced that CBS had passed on the hour-long drama, leaving the pilot’s future up in the air.
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Year after year Nicolita draws crowds eager to see the brand’s fun, theatrical take on runway shows.
Saturday crowds included Ms. Florida and “Real Housewives of Miami” stars Alexia Echevarria and Marisol Patton, all expecting a show that is a refreshing break from the otherwise more serious line-up at Swim Week Miami.
Beyond a good show, the line’s designer, Nicole Di Rocco, creates conservative yet sexy swimwear with curve-flattering styles that are designed with the curvaceous Latina figure in mind.
By Nick Masuda, Golfweek
Tiger Woods has four victories in 2013, yet his season is being scrutinized for its three losses – the Masters, the U.S. Open and now the Open Championship.
Woods has always defined his success by major championship victories, aiming for Jack Nicklaus’ record of 18 since he was a young boy staring at a poster of Nicklaus in his room.
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Two days ago, we found out that Homer Simpson and the rest of Springfield will be featured in an episode of “Family Guy.” And today, fans of Matt Groening’s animated comedies were given some big news: “The Simpsons” will host a different crossover installment, and it involves… “Futurama.”
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Flexible circuitry is frequently a one-way affair — we’ve seen bendy displays and touch layers, but rarely both in one surface. UC Berkeley is at last merging those two technologies through a plastic skin whose display reacts to touch. By curing a polymer on top of a silicon wafer, the school’s researchers found that they could unite a grid of pressure sensors with an OLED screen; they just had to remove the polymer to create a flexible skin. As the film-like material can be laminated on just about anything, it maylead to touch displays in places where they were previously impractical, or even very thin blood pressure sensors. It could also be easy to produce — since the skins use off-the-shelf chip manufacturing techniques, commercial products are well within reach.
Filed under: Science
Via: Phys.org
Source: UC Berkeley
PROVINCETOWN, Mass. — The Coast Guard says singer Kelly Rowland was among the passengers on a private boat escorted back to Cape Cod after the captain became disoriented.
Lt. Ruairi White tells the Cape Cod Times that the boat’s captain was following a commercial whale-watching vessel Friday, lost sight of the boat and became disoriented north of Provincetown.
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