Monthly Archives: March 2014

Judge approves officer to head next steps of Freedom bankruptcy

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The chief restructuring officer that Freedom Industries may hire to help wind down business after its leak contaminated the water for 300,000 West Virginians won't come cheap.

The chief restructuring officer that Freedom Industries may hire to help wind down business after its leak contaminated the water for 300,000 West Virginians won't come cheap.

According to a motion filed by Freedom, Mark Welch will be paid either an hourly rate of $425 or a fixed weekly fee of $17,000 for the first six weeks and $12,750 after that, whichever is less.

Welch said his work will actually result in efficiency and savings.

He said the company will save about $1 million by hiring him.

Freedom's motion was approved Tuesday by U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Ronald Pearson.

Pearson said Welch's hiring marks a “substantial change in management” for Freedom. Welch said he doesn't know how much additional services will be needed of the company's current president Gary Southern.

At the beginning of the hearing, Pearson asked why existing officers couldn't handle the wind down process. Welch responded Southern has been a “very good operator” and has stabilized operations. However, he said the next phase will be more difficult.

“It's hard to balance the balls in the air in a short period of time,” Welch said, noting eliminating the amount of responsibilities would greatly help.

The court did not take up Southern's Saturday motion to get paid. A committee of unsecured creditors intends to file an objection to this motion.

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Judge approves officer to head next steps of Freedom bankruptcy

TODAY: Judge approves officer to head next steps of Freedom bankruptcy

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Bankruptcy court approves Mark Welch as chief restructuring officer to wind-down the company

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- The chief restructuring officer that Freedom Industries may hire to help wind down business after its leak contaminated the water for 300,000 West Virginians won't come cheap.

According to a motion filed by Freedom, Mark Welch will be paid either an hourly rate of $425 or a fixed weekly fee of $17,000 for the first six weeks and $12,750 after that, whichever is less.

Welch said his work will actually result in efficiency and savings.

He said the company will save about $1 million by hiring him.

Freedom's motion was approved Tuesday by U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Ronald Pearson.

Pearson said Welch's hiring marks a "substantial change in management" for Freedom. Welch said he doesn't know how much additional services will be needed of the company's current president Gary Southern.

At the beginning of the hearing, Pearson asked why existing officers couldn't handle the wind down process. Welch responded Southern has been a "very good operator" and has stabilized operations. However, he said the next phase will be more difficult.

"It's hard to balance the balls in the air in a short period of time," Welch said, noting eliminating the amount of responsibilities would greatly help.

The court did not take up Southern's Saturday motion to get paid. A committee of unsecured creditors intends to file an objection to this motion.

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TODAY: Judge approves officer to head next steps of Freedom bankruptcy

Chief restructuring officer approved for Freedom Industries

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CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- The hiring of a chief restructuring officer means a "significant change in management" for Freedom Industries, a bankruptcy judge said Tuesday.

The company responsible for a chemical leak that fouled the drinking water for 300,000 West Virginians for days got approval to hire Mark Welch to head its finances while it winds down operations. Welch is a "turnaround consultant" with Morris Anderson in Chicago, he said in court Tuesday.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- The hiring of a chief restructuring officer means a "significant change in management" for Freedom Industries, a bankruptcy judge said Tuesday.

The company responsible for a chemical leak that fouled the drinking water for 300,000 West Virginians for days got approval to hire Mark Welch to head its finances while it winds down operations. Welch is a "turnaround consultant" with Morris Anderson in Chicago, he said in court Tuesday.

Freedom filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Jan. 17, eight days after Crude MCHM seeped out of a tank and into the Elk River at the company's Barlow Drive location. Welch said Tuesday he's been involved with Freedom since that day.

Chapter 11 allows a company to reorganize, but Freedom plans to close. Operations will end by the end of this week, Welch said during a bankruptcy hearing Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Charleston.

A bankruptcy trustee appointed by the U.S. Department of Justice to Freedom's case said the Office of the U.S. Trustee doesn't usually like a company to hire chief restructuring officers. But David Bissett, the trustee handling Freedom's case, told U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Ronald Pearson that he was OK with Welch's hiring "based on the strong support from the unsecured creditors committee."

Bissett's office appointed an official committee of unsecured creditors in the case last month. Unsecured creditors are those who are close to the bottom of the list to get paid and don't have, for example, the power to file a lien to ensure they get paid.

Pearson agreed before he approved Welch's hiring. The people who have money at risk "believe it's the best course of action to bring objectivity," the judge said.

Reach Kate White at kate.wh...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-1723.

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Chief restructuring officer approved for Freedom Industries

UMd. exhibit explores eugenics during Holocaust

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A new traveling exhibit at the University of Maryland Baltimore campus focuses on the Holocaust and Adolf Hitler's deadly plan to create his master race.

Officials said while it's an exhibit that chronicles a point in time that's hard to look back on, it's also important to remember.

Learn more: Deadly Medicine: Creating the Master Race

The exhibit is on loan from the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C., and is called Deadly Medicine: Creating the Master Race. It starts with the history of eugenics, which is the process of sterilizing or eliminating people who are deemed undesirable.

"It really explores from the very beginning the idea of eugenics and how Hitler copied that idea to make it something that would allow him to lead to the extermination of Jews, gypsies and homosexuals," said M.J. Tooey, the executive director of the UMB Health Sciences and Human Services Library.

Tooey said Hilter started using eugenics to create his ideal of the master race in the early 1930s, before the concentration camps were created and even before World War II began.

"When eugenics was just a theory and a science, Hitler set out through the Nazis to identify people who were mentally unfit or who were homosexual. Eventually, he extended to the Jews, and he actually started exterminating these people prior to what we think of in the concentration camps," Tooey said.

Staff at the UMd. Baltimore location thought it was important to bring the exhibit to the library because it explores the role of science and medical professionals.

"It definitely looked at the science of eugenics and how doctors and physicians and researchers were involved in validating this awful thing," Tooey said.

The hope is for people to see it and learn from past mistakes so history never repeats itself.

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UMd. exhibit explores eugenics during Holocaust

GTA 5 Online Random Funny Moments Gameplay #11 (Epic Stunts, Beaches, and More!) – Video

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GTA 5 Online Random Funny Moments Gameplay #11 (Epic Stunts, Beaches, and More!)
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GTA 5 Online Random Funny Moments Gameplay #11 (Epic Stunts, Beaches, and More!) - Video

Best beaches in the US

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Looking to beat those dreary cold-weather blues? Take a trip to one of the world's best beaches--at least according to TripAdvisor users.

The online travel review site just announced the winners for top beaches in the U.S. and world ranked by traveler reviews and ratings on the TripAdvisor website over a 12-month period.

Baia do Sancho on the island of Fernando de Noronha, a volcanic archipelago off the coast of Brazil, took the top spot for the world ranking, followed by Grace Bay in Turks and Caicos and Flamenco Beach, Culebra in Puerto Rico.

In the U.S., Florida made a showing, but users considered six out of the top 10 beaches in America to be in Hawaii.

The full list ranks over 322 beaches around the world.

Check out the first 10 U.S. beaches below and dont forget to pack your swim trunks.

TripAdvisor

Although a few beach savvy tourists advise to stay away from the weekend crowds, this beach receives top marks for the pristine white sand and miles of gentle waves. Popular activities include kayaking and snorkeling.

TripAdvisor

For swimming, snorkeling and just catching rays, this popular Maui beach can't be beat. Reviewers said they loved the hotel options nearby and couples enjoyed taking in a romantic sunset.

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Best beaches in the US

Astronomy and Music: The Connection?

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The connection between music and astronomy has deep historical roots. Matthew Whitehouse will present a lecture-recital in which he will play some of his compositions on pipe organ and talk about the connection between astronomy and music. He holds a doctorate in organ performance from The University of Arizona and is presently the Observatory Manager at the S.C. State Museum.

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Wayne State Professor Receives Prestigious NSF Early Career Award; Research to Impact Metro Detroit Schools' Astronomy …

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Newswise DETROIT A Wayne State University researcher has been awarded a National Science Foundation (NSF) Early Career Development (CAREER) Award, the agency's most prestigious award for up-and-coming researchers in science and engineering.

The five-year, $550,000 grant was awarded to Ed Cackett, Ph.D., assistant professor of physics & astronomy in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, for the project Reflection and reverberation in neutron star low-mass X-ray binaries.

According to Cackett, neutron stars are extreme stars about the mass of the sun, but only the size of a city containing ultra-dense material, many times the density of an atomic nucleus. These stars are so dense that the velocity needed to escape a neutron star's gravity is about 30 percent of the speed of light, said Cackett.

Cackett studies these stars in binary systems where a sun-like star orbits a neutron star. He will apply cutting-edge techniques to understand how the strong gravity around these objects pulls material from the companion star toward it a process known as accretion.

This NSF award also will allow Cackett to develop a program to provide access to solar telescopes to metro Detroit-area schools to add a hands-on daytime observing aspect to their science curricula. In addition, he will provide curricular materials and conduct workshops for high school teachers for this program, as well as review all astronomy topics in the high school science standards.

Cackett received his Ph.D. from the University of St. Andrews (UK) and held postdoctoral fellowships at the University of Michigan and University of Cambridge (UK) before joining the Wayne State University faculty in January 2012.

The award number for this NSF grant is 1351222.

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Wayne State Professor Receives Prestigious NSF Early Career Award; Research to Impact Metro Detroit Schools' Astronomy ...