MKD LAW

Howard Stern is threatening to leave Sirius Inc. This threat probably seems less daunting to Sirius now that it once would have. The company and Stern are getting set to enter into contract talks in 2010.

Sirius Radio Inc. formerly wanted Stern much and so they gave him the most lucrative radio contract ever. The contract was started in 2006 which was a five-year deal and paid him $500 million in cash and stock.

Stern does not have many places left to go, if he wants another huge payday. Now a days free radio stations are struggling with high debts and drops in advertising. As a result, they will probably not able to pay top dollar to get Stern back to the medium where he began.

Sirius closely avoided needing bankruptcy protection by getting $530 million in financing from Liberty Media corp. Now the question for Sirius is how much less they can pay to Stern to still keep him.

Citadel broadcasting Corp., one of the largest radio broadcasting companies, filled for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Sunday to restructure its hefty debt load. The company continues to face declining advertising revenue.

Citadel has 224 radio stations in all major markets that produce news and talk radio programming for 4,000 station affiliates and 8,500 program affiliates.

Turn around specialist Alvarez & Marsal North America was retained by Citadel to help them restructure their hefty debt load.

Under the terms of its bankruptcy reorganization, secured creditors of Citadel will get a share of the new loan and 90 percent of the new common stock in the reorganized company. Citadel board approved the bankruptcy protection filing on Dec. 18.

West valley city Utah – Susan Powell was mysteriously disappeared Dec. 7. She is a 28 year-old mother of two young children. She was last seen a day earlier.

Her husband claims to have gone camping with the couple’s boys, ages 2 and 4 in the middle of the night on Dec. 7. The 4-year-old boy was interviewed by West Valley city police after his mother was reported missing. According to Powell’s husband, the camping trip simply coincided with her disappearance.

The family had filed for bankruptcy in 2007. For the most part, their marriage seems to have been characterized as normal, with the usual ups and downs.

Susan Powell’s family members held a news conference in Washington State where her parents live. In this conference eight members of Susan Powell’s family were present.

More than 500 people across Washington State and throughout the Pacific Northwest have filed claims against Jesuits. These claims vary in severity, and span both decades and wide Claims have been made by Native Alaskan village children to students at Gonzaga Prep. In cases there is some allegation of Jesuits sexually abusing children.

The federal judge imposed a deadline to file allegations by November 30, 2009 while overseeing the Chapter 11 bankruptcy of the Oregon province of the Society of Jesus.

The Jesuits have successfully settled approximately 200 additional sex-abuse claims. Of these, there were 110 claims from Alaska Natives, who settled for $50 million last year.

Washington – The month of October appears to be further evidence that manufacturing sector is beginning to recover.  Orders for many US factories rose in the month of October. This will help support the whole economy.

According the Department of Commerce, orders to US factories rose to 0.6 percent.  Several factors led to this jump, including demand for commercial aircraft and petroleum products.

Nondurable goods rose 1.6 percent as growth in demand for petroleum, plastic, and food products led the way

Although cautious, economists are hoping that the badly hit manufacturing sector is finally beginning to show signs of a recovery after this bruising recession. The second bit of good news is that the Labor Department reported the smallest monthly increase in the unemployment rate since the recession began in December 2007.