GM To Declare Bankruptcy Today
With time running out on its June 1st restructuring deadline, GM expected to file for bankruptcy today. ABC World News reported last night it is a "foregone conclusion" that GM "will file for bankruptcy" Monday, "all in an effort to survive." One "estimate of best case scenarios predicts that GM and Chrysler's bankruptcies together will cost individuals more than $13 billion. Local governments, more than $5 billion."
NBC Nightly News reported "all the pieces are in place for General Motors to go bankrupt" after "54% of those holding $27 billion in GM bonds agreed to swap that debt for a stake in the new GM, clearing the path for a potentially smoother, quicker GM bankruptcy." The Detroit Free Press also reports that "a deal with bondholders not to oppose GM's bankruptcy plan was seen as an important step to helping speed GM's bankruptcy process." According to USA Today, "the U.S. government will invest an additional $30.1 billion in General Motors (GM) to finance its bankruptcy reorganization to be filed Monday, President Obama's auto task force said in a statement."
In a front-page story, the Washington Post says the restructuring plans call for "about 60 percent of the new GM" to "be owned by the United States, about 12 percent by the governments of Canada and Ontario, a union health trust would own 17.5 percent, and the company's current bondholders would get 10 percent." Although GM "now joins Chrysler as the bankrupt duo of Detroit's once-formidable Big Three," the Los Angeles Times points out that "the Obama administration is touting the bankruptcy filing as the beginning of a new era for GM, a painful but necessary court-supervised restructuring that will make the company profitable again and a leader in producing fuel-efficient vehicles."Chrysler Could Exit Bankruptcy As Early As Monday
The Wall Street Journal reports on its website, "Chrysler LLC could exit bankruptcy reorganization as soon as Monday, after barely a month in Chapter 11 protection," as "Judge Arthur Gonzalez of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manahattan is expected to approve the sale of most of Chrysler's assets on Monday to its alliance partner, Fiat SpA."
Sotomayor
Roll Call reports that "Republicans acknowledge that conservatives – particularly" Gingrich, former Rep. Tom Tancredo and Limbaugh, "put the party in a difficult position with their accusations that Sotomayor is a 'reverse racist' and with their attacks on the civil rights group La Raza." A Los Angeles Times analysis, however, takes the view that "GOP senators showed "they too are ready to make race a key focus of the nomination battle as they settle on a touchy question: Can a woman who says her views are shaped by her gender and ethnicity make fair decisions when it comes to white men?"
Meanwhile, NBC Nightly News notes that in an exclusive interview, President Obama said, "I think it's very important for my former colleagues in the Senate to stay focused on, you know, judging this person on the merits, and not engaging in the kinds of, you know, political silliness that have come to surround the Supreme Court these days."
In Cairo Speech, Obama Seeks Reconciliation
Howard Fineman, in his column for Newsweek, writes, "Barack Obama believes in his voice and his life story. Autobiographical speeches powered his campaign. ... Now comes the ultimate test of autobiographical speechmaking. Obama this week speaks at Cairo University, in the hub of Muslim-Arab culture." Obama "has privately told friends that his goal is far higher: nothing less than to help 'reconcile Islam and modernity.' ... He also will draw on the by-now-familiar story of his own life. A Christian son of an African-Muslim father, he spent years in Muslim-majority Indonesia, attending a public school run by, but not suffused with, the teachings of Islam."
Stimulus Spending Said To Lack Oversight
US News Weekly reports when President Obama "promised transparency and accountability in the $787 billion stimulus package, the idea hinged largely on providing full disclosure on who would be spending which portions of the government's money." But the "concept that the information should be made public effectively applies to less than two thirds of the law's total price tag: namely, the act's direct spending allocations, funneled through grants and loans to projects like school renovations and nuclear site cleanups." For the "remaining $288 billion, ensuring transparency and accountability will be a far trickier beast. That's because that sum goes to tax cuts and credits, a different kind of government expenditure that's protected by privacy laws and under the jurisdiction of the Internal Revenue Service."
US, Cuba To Resume Talks
News that the US and Cuba have agreed to resume negotiations on immigration and the resumption of direct mail service received brief coverage on the two network broadcasts that aired Sunday night, as well as in major newspapers and newswires.
Prospective 2012 GOP candidates include Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) and ex-Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (R). In other GOP presidential news, The Politico reports Mitt Romney, "widely believed to be eying" a 2012 bid, "rejected reports on Sunday that he is planning to make his permanent residence in New Hampshire to position himself for the state's first-in-nation presidential primary."
Latest From Late Night Comedians
Jay Leno: "As you know, this is our last show. ... I want to thank all the people that made it possible: Michael Jackson; Monica Lewinsky; Bill Clinton."
Jay Leno: "Do you realize when I started this show, my hair was black and the President was white?"
Jay Leno: "There were some tense moments yesterday here in Los Angeles with President Obama. A female reporter...carried, kicking and screaming, away from Air Force One after she insisted on handing President Obama a letter. They picked the woman up, forcibly, carried her away. Same thing they did when Joe Biden tried to get on the plane."
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