News roundup, 25 April 2025

- Gunfire was reported on the India-Pakistan border following escalating tensions over the massacre of tourists in Kashmir. India accuses Pakistan of shooting first; Pakistan has not commented on whether this is the case or not.

- The Hudson Bay Company, having filed for creditor protection last month, will be liquidating all of its merchandise at the six stores that had previously been spared this fate, after concluding that there was little chance of finding a buyer for those stores. More alarming to First Nations, historians, and UNESCO alike is the prospect of valuable historical artifacts being auctioned off. A court has just ruled that they can go up for auction; a lawyer representing the attorney general's office has requested that a catalogue of the artifacts be provided to him as well as to the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs before proceeding with such an auction.

- Russian authorities say a senior military officer, Yaroslav Moskalik, was killed in a car bombing in the city of Balashikha, near Moscow. The bomb was reportedly detonated remotely in a car parked along a route where Moskalik routinely walked. One hopes the Trump regime is paying attention to the kind of thing that happens when you try to take over a country whose citizens can easily pass for your own.

- Pierre Poilievre uses the word "woke" a lot, but he seems unable, or more likely unwilling, to give a clear and concise definition of it. The things that the word gets applied to can range from common decency to some things that actually are annoying, but if he doesn't want to tell you where his use of the word lies on that spectrum, you can guess pretty easily. He's also warning that the country will "face nothing but despair" if the Liberals win. That might well be true, but current polls suggest that most Canadians recognize that it's going to be even worse if the Conservatives win.

- Peel Regional Police officers summoned to the scene of a dispute at Pearson International Airport fatally shot a man, allegedly after he pointed a gun at them.

- As of the first of May, Manitobans will be legally able to do what residents of most other provinces (except Quebec) have been able to do for years - grow their own pot. One activist, however, thinks the change isn't good enough, because you're only allowed to grow it indoors. He argues that keeping it out of sight reinforces the "stigma" around cannabis. The thing is, even if it were allowed I don't think it would be such a great idea to grow pot outside - it's likely to be stolen anyway.

- Winnipeg's partnership with the 529 Garage bike registry has led to a 19% increase in the recovery rate of stolen bicycles.

- A Russian-born scientist at Harvard Medical School was detained by ICE and had her visa cancelled because she had neglected to declare biological specimens (specifically frog embryos) in her luggage as she returned from France. She says that this was an error, though a Homeland Security representative alleges that she had deliberately concealed them. She fears persecution if sent back to Russia due to her opposition to the war in Ukraine.

- Quebec's language watchdog has ordered Montreal's transit system, STM, to stop displaying slogans such as "GO! Canadiens GO!" on its buses - because "go" is an English word. Undaunted, STM has changed the slogan to "Allez! Canadiens Allez!"

News roundup, 25 March 2025

- The Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs is calling for the search of Prairie Green Landfill to continue, in the hope of finding the remains of the woman known as Mashkode Bizhiki'ikwe ("Buffalo Woman"). This may be a tall order, since the information publicly available only gives the approximate time of her murder (mid-March 2022) and the approximate location where she was dumped (a bin behind a business on Henderson Highway, though it's possible that the police know which business and haven't made it public). But it's definitely worth looking further into. 

- Danielle Smith is coming under considerable criticism for the interview she gave to far-right news site Breitbart, in which she asked that Trump hold off on the tariffs until after the election so as to improve the Conservatives' chances. Whether the publicity over this interview will help the Cons is another question. It's not likely to help Smith, but she isn't up for reelection for a couple more years so maybe she hopes Albertans will have forgotten by then.

- Democratic Congresswoman Jamine Crockett made a statement in support of the "Tesla takedown" rallies, which happen to coincide with her birthday on the 29th of March. But when she said that "all I want to see happen on my birthday is for Elon to be taken down", this led to a statement by Attorney General Pam Bondi that Crockett should "tread very carefully" with such statements. 

- Jeffrey Goldberg, who writes for the Atlantic, got added to a Signal discussion group that included several prominent figures in the Trump regime, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. He ended up becoming privy to secret plans for bombing in Yemen in advance of the raid after Hegseth casually spilled the beans in the discussion group. One wonders if Hegseth is keeping his promise to quit drinking if appointed.

- Prepac, a manufacturer of ready-to-assemble furniture founded in Delta, BC in 1979 has shut down its Canadian manufacturing, citing "an altered economic environment" for the move. Unifor, which represented the workers at the Delta plant, is calling for a nationwide boycott of the company. Prepac was family-owned until Torquest, a private equity company, snapped it up in 2019; two years later it opened a plant in North Carolina, which will become their main site.

- DNA testing firm 23andMe has filed for bankruptcy, having apparently been unable to recover from the bad publicity resulting from a data breach two years ago. This has led to fears that people's genetic data might fall into the hands of folks who might have other things in mind than people's wellbeing (like, say, health insurance companies). The company's privacy policy says that any company buying the company's data is bound by the same policy; the only problem is, when they adopt 23andMe's privacy policy, they adopt the line in said policy that says it can be changed at any time. That doesn't sound reassuring. California's attorney general has even released a consumer alert complete with instructions on how to delete your account.

- The concept of a "Dyson swarm", in which vast numbers of solar collectors are placed around the Sun to form a huge spherical shell, has been around for a long time. The question of what that would do to the Earth's climate hasn't really been looked at until recently. But it seems that if such a swarm were placed just outside Earth's orbit, it would heat the planet's surface by an average of 140 K (or 140°C), enough to boil the oceans. If it were placed further out, say just past Mars, it would still heat the Earth by about 3°C, and building all those solar collectors would require about 10²³ kg of silicon, meaning a heck of a lot of asteroid mining.

- A woman was run down in the parking lot of a kids' recreational facility in suburban Winnipeg over the weekend, after standing in an open parking spot to hold it for another person. Apparently a 40 year old woman became so incensed at this that she ran her over, then backed out and fled the scene.

And then there were two?

Phil Edmonston thinks Chrysler's days are numbered:

When it comes to predicting the future of the Detroit Three automakers, outspoken consumer car critic Phil Edmonston doesn't mince words:

Chrysler Group LLC "is doomed." General Motors, if it survives, will be ratcheted down to one brand -- probably Chevrolet, and Ford, "has a future, for the time being."

Edmonston's pessimistic outlook is included in his 2010 Lemon-Aid New Cars and Trucks guide, which has been a key reference for new vehicle buyers over the past four decades. A former NDP member of Parliament, Edmontson, 65, has been a thorn in the side of automakers -- domestic and foreign -- taking them to task and, in some cases, to court over substandard quality and mechanical defects.

As U.S. and Canadian automakers and dealers face bankruptcy and unprecedented downsizing, the task of buying a car has become more precarious than ever, said Edmontson.

"These are treacherous and challenging times," Edmonston said in a phone interview from his home in Panama. Especially if you're considering buying a vehicle from a GM or Chrysler dealer, he warned.

"Chrysler buyers face huge risk of becoming orphan buyers," Edmonston said. The Auburn Hills, Mich., automaker -- which received billions in U.S. and Canadian bailout funds -- has no hope of long-term survival despite its partnership with Italian auto giant Fiat SpA.

"Chrysler hitching its wagon (and minivans) to Fiat will be like two drunks propping each other up," he said. "Both of them have inherent quality problems, and Fiat cannot 'Fiatize' Chrysler because you're looking at different platforms, different cultures.

From the Vancouver Sun.

Future uncertain for McNally Robinson

This was one of the bigger shockers of the holiday season locally. The company seemed to be doing just fine, but evidently not:

Analysts believe the company that once famously stuck its finger in the eye of the book-retailing giant, Chapters Indigo, probably fell victim to circumstances beyond its control.

McNally Robinson Booksellers and the husband and wife owners, Paul and Holly McNally, had been heralded among the great entrepreneurial success stories in the province.

But in filing for bankruptcy protection, many believe the company succumbed to a combination of the sudden surge in e-book sales and an ill-fated foray into southern Ontario that coincided with a dramatic drop in consumer confidence in that region.

From the Winnipeg Free Press. Hopefully the remaining stores will stay open (and not be bought out by Chapters), but it's hard to say.

And speaking of car crashes...

... or rather, car manufacturer crashes:

NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--Credit markets weathered an uneasy Wednesday punctuated by word that beleaguered General Motors Corp. (GM) won't make a scheduled $1 billion interest payment.

From the Wall Street Journal, via Sapiens in this iTulip thread. More details here.

So what does this mean? Bankruptcy seems almost certain now; and they've announced that they're closing their US plants for 9 weeks this summer. Meanwhile, Ford seems to be doing a lot better:

April 22 (Bloomberg) -- Ford Motor Co. rose 13 percent in New York trading after Goldman, Sachs & Co. advised buying the shares, citing likely bankruptcy filings for General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC.

Ford will gain U.S. market share from GM and Chrysler, and the stock may climb 58 percent to $6 within 6 months, Patrick Archambault, a New York-based analyst, wrote in a research report. Goldman previously had a “neutral” rating on the second-largest U.S. automaker.

“The stage is set for a sea change in the structure of the U.S. auto industry,” Archambault wrote. “We do not foresee bankruptcy at Ford, which we believe has sufficient liquidity to make it through to 2010 without additional funding.”

As for Chrysler, the question is probably better not asked. Ford may well end up being the last US automaker standing. If nothing else, there might be some huge bargains on houses in Windsor, St. Catharines, and Oshawa pretty soon...

More economic chaos...

More trials and tribulations in the US auto industry:

Chrysler LLC may be sending a message to President Barack Obama’s autos task force by saying the “best option” for survival is a merger with General Motors Corp. that both sides have labeled dead.

Chrysler, propped up like GM with federal aid, is suggesting a new appraisal of a tie-up in hopes that the auto panel meeting for the first time today might force a “shotgun marriage,” said Brian Johnson, a Barclays Capital analyst in Chicago.

“I can’t imagine GM doing that without being forced into it by the government, but that’s a possibility,” said Kimberly Rodriguez, a principal at consulting firm Grant Thornton LLP in Southfield, Michigan.

Obama’s task force will start reviewing $21.6 billion in new loan requests that include Chrysler’s comment on the advantages of a GM combination. GM, the biggest U.S. automaker, abandoned merger talks in November and said it is focused on its own survival, not hooking up with No. 3 Chrysler.

From Bloomberg. Meanwhile, other big industries aren't much better off:

New York Times Co., the third-largest U.S. newspaper publisher, will stop paying a dividend for the first time in its 40-year history as a public company.

The publisher said in a statement today it suspended its quarterly dividend of 6 cents a share to help reduce debt, three months after slashing the payout. It joins McClatchy Co., owner of the Sacramento Bee, and Media General Inc. in halting dividends.

The suspension will save New York Times about $34.5 million annually, based on shares outstanding. The publisher is cutting jobs and selling assets as advertising dwindles. It’s seeking buyers for its stake in the Boston Red Sox baseball team and is in talks about a sale-leaseback on its Manhattan headquarters.

“It’s going to be very challenging for them to generate much free cash flow even after this cut,” said Mike Simonton, a credit analyst at Fitch Ratings. “It’s certainly a prudent move to preserve liquidity in light of the difficult credit market and their heavy debt burden.”

From Bloomberg once again. I guess companies at all levels are slashing their advertising budgets, which is bad news for commercial media. It's happening in Canada too:

Leonard Asper is scrambling to secure a financial lifeline for CanWest Global Communications Corp. before the end of the month to prevent his family-run media empire from sliding into bankruptcy protection.

Yet even if he is successful, the price of that lifeline could be steep. Some potential investors - including Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd.- want to take control of CanWest away from the Asper family in exchange for any cash infusion.

At least one investor weighing a proposal said it would insist that Mr. Asper step aside as chief executive officer and that he and his siblings eliminate the dual-class share structure that gives them control of the company, according to sources familiar with the matter.

Officials at some of CanWest's main creditors believe that if the company cannot find access to hundreds of millions of dollars in new credit within the next few weeks, it could be forced to seek protection from lenders and restructure under the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act. CanWest, which owes $3.9-billion, and its primary adviser, RBC Dominion Securities, have approached numerous institutional investors to gauge their interest in a deal.

The response from potential backers has been lukewarm, not merely because of CanWest's economic woes brought on by the recession, but because several creditors are jockeying for protection in any restructuring process.

CanWest's borrowing capacity was put on a tighter leash this month when a senior credit facility was cut back to $112-million from $300-million by Bank of Nova Scotia. The new limit is about $20-million above what CanWest has already drawn.

From the Globe and Mail. Can't say I'm shedding too many tears for the Asper family, and in any case I don't think they're going to end up living at the Main Street Project or anything. On the other hand, it would be a shame if Manitoba's second largest city were to lose its only TV station:

Another local Canadian television station has been tossed on the auction block, and could be shut down if a buyer isn't found by next month, signalling major changes in the broadcasting industry.

This time it's CTV Television Inc. that's putting CKX-TV Brandon in western Manitoba up for sale, while warning that it will pull the plug on the station if another broadcaster doesn't fork over the sufficient cash.

The announcement follows a decision by Canwest Global Communications Corp. to place five of its local E! network stations on the market after eroding advertising sales dashed its profits.

"Whether we like it or not, we are seeing the beginning of the end for small market TV stations in Canada," said Kaan Yigit, an media analyst at Solutions Research Group in an e-mail.

"They are costly to run and maintain and were having difficulty providing a decent return on investment even in good times."

From the London Free Press. I'd like to see some local media co-op form and buy the station, but I wouldn't bet on that happening.

GM, Chrysler buy a bit of time

How much is a matter of debate, though:

U.S. automakers are calling on the government to provide even more funding to ensure the survival of General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC.

General Motors on Tuesday said it could need up to $30 billion from the U.S. Treasury Department to continue operating.

Included in that amount is $13.4 billion the company has already received. Previously, GM had said it could need as much as $18 billion.

GM said it could run out of money by March without the new funds from the government.

From the CBC. So they're staving off bankruptcy for the time being, though they're cutting things to the bone. For instance, check out what's happening at GM:

A total 26,000 of the cuts will come from outside the U.S. as GM downsizes its global operations. It is not yet clear what the impact will be in Canada. The cuts are expected to be made by the end of 2009.

The company may be eliminating its Hummer brand and said it will make a final decision by March 31.

GM is also considering selling its Pontiac and Saab brands and the Saturn brand is being phased out, officials said. The Saturn plant will remain in operation until the end of its current life cycle in 2011, officials said.

The changes will see GM focusing its efforts on Chevrolet, Cadillac, GMC and Buick.

Kind of a shame about Saturn actually; I kind of liked some of their lineup (though Phil Edmonston and others question their quality control). I know my friends in Waterloo who are on their third Saturn will be disappointed. Saab might well get taken over by the Swedish government (which wouldn't be a bad outcome actually). As for Hummer, good riddance. Meanwhile, at Chrysler they're doing the same:

It plans to cut 3,000 jobs and three models — the PT Cruiser, Dodge Durango and Chrysler Aspen — as part of its restructuring plan. None of Chrysler's job cuts are expected to impact its Canadian operations.

No great loss lineup-wise, though it's a bit of a surprise that the PT Cruiser is on the list given the number of the things I see on the streets. Maybe sales have fallen off more dramatically than other vehicles in their lineup, or maybe they never sold as well in their core markets as they have in Canada.

Speaking of the PT Cruiser, one of my disreputable friends once told me she had an idea to get a black PT Cruiser and tell people it was a hearse for midgets. Her original idea was to say it was a hearse for babies, but she figured that would annoy too many people.

On a clear day you can see General Motors...

...spiralling inexorably earthwards:

General Motors Corp [GM-N], nearing a Tuesday deadline to present a viability plan to the U.S. government, is considering as one option a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing that would create a new company, the Wall Street Journal said in its Saturday edition.

"One plan includes a Chapter 11 filing that would assemble all of GM's viable assets, including some U.S. brands and international operations, into a new company," the newspaper said. "The undesirable assets would be liquidated or sold under protection of a bankruptcy court. Contracts with bondholders, unions, dealers and suppliers would also be reworked."

Citing "people familiar with the matter," the story said that GM could also ask for additional government funds to stave off a bankruptcy filing.

GM declined to comment, the story said.

From the Globe and Mail. Of course, talk of bankruptcy might be simply another tactic to scare the government into handing them more bailout money, but it's noteworthy that Ford has not yet asked for money. But then, Ford's product line of late has been better than GM's, especially in Europe (a lot of people lament the fact that the European version of the Focus isn't sold on this side of the pond).

Even if GM files for Chapter 11, the company might continue running, though that would likely render their contracts with the UAW null and void... not a good situation if you've been working for them for 25 years and were hoping to retire on your pension. But consider this comment to the story:

Allan VCR from Vancouver, Canada writes: Best Option;
Chapter 11 for GM & Chapter 7 for Chrysler

Chapter 7, of course, means liquidation. It's possible under such circumstances for some divisions (e.g. Jeep) to be sold off as units and thus stay open, but the effect of this would still be dramatic, to say the least. And this sounds decidedly plausible; I bet the folks at Cerberus are kicking themselves for buying it, at least.

Thing is, though, the car industry is going to have to shrink, whether we like it or not; we can't afford the energy that goes in or the pollution that comes out. Too bad, but as Ray from Trailer Park Boys would say, "That's the fuckin' way she goes."

US bank failures increasing exponentially

Canadian Silver Bug has pointed out something interesting:

I just noticed that the several banks when under last Friday and I decided to go to the FDIC home page and get a total count for the year. While I was there I decided to look at other years failures to point out the trend and this is what I found

2007 1 lone failure
2008 24 failures
2009 9 already and its only Feb 9th

If this trend continues at only the average of 4.5 every month we could be heading for over twice last years failures, however if we go with the higher number of 1.5 banks a week so far this year we are looking at 78 failed banks.

Of course, they have the FDIC, and they'll have no choice to bail it out, but how long can this go on? There's just too many things that they have to spend money on. The increasing indebtedness of the US should, by rights, have seriously weakened their currency by now, but so far it has not; the US dollar is holding its own against most currencies. Perhaps it's because the rest of the world depends on the US dollar retaining its value, though that can't be relied upon to continue. After all, all it takes is for some large economy to think that other large economies are about to unload their dollars, and the fan will be hit by a larger chunk of shit than has already hit. (Where's Jim Lahey when you need him anyway?)

If nothing else, this might put a stop to America's foreign military adventures for a little while. On the other hand, it could just as easily drive them to try harder...

The end of Nortel

It was a long time coming, I suppose:

Nortel Networks Corp., North America’s biggest maker of telephone equipment, filed for bankruptcy protection in a U.S. bankruptcy court.

Nortel, based in Toronto, had more than $1 billion in assets and debt, according to today’s Chapter 11 filing of its U.S. subsidiary in Wilmington, Delaware.

Nortel has lost almost $7 billion since Chief Executive Officer Mike Zafirovski took over in 2005, leaving him struggling for the funds to operate the company. Bank of New York Mellon was listed as Nortel’s largest unsecured creditor in its role as trustee on more than $3.8 billion in notes.

From Bloomberg. Glad I never invested in that one...

Investors betting against GM

The bailout may be too little, too late:

General Motors Corp. Chief Executive Officer Rick Wagoner said the biggest U.S. automaker got “what we asked for” with $9.4 billion in U.S. loans over the next 24 days. Investors bet that it’s not enough.

GM slid 6.8 percent today in early New York trading to extend yesterday’s 22 percent plunge. Credit-default swaps on the company’s bonds jumped 2 percentage points in a sign of increasing concern that the Bush administration’s bailout may end in a default.

The stock-price slide erased the 23 percent gain on Dec. 19, when Detroit-based GM received a federal aid package to help the automaker stay in business until March 31 while it crafts a plan to shut plants, shed brands and reduce debt.

“It’s almost impossible for a management that invested in the assets, that hired the people, that put forth the strategy, to change so dramatically in such a short period of time,” Edward Altman, a New York University finance professor who created the Z-score formula to measure bankruptcy risk, said in a Bloomberg Television interview.

There is a “high” likelihood of a GM bankruptcy, Standard & Poor’s said yesterday in reducing the rating on the company’s unsecured debt to C, or 11 grades below investment quality. Robert Schulz, an S&P analyst in New York, said creditors can expect “negligible recovery” should the automaker default.

GM has slashed output and won union concessions since saying Nov. 7 it may run out of operating cash by year’s end. The automaker said it would need as much as $18 billion in aid or face a possible bankruptcy.

From Bloomberg. No information about Chrysler, but then it's no longer publicly traded so they don't have to disclose as much information. Ford is apparently doing considerably better; they could well end up being the last survivor of the American automakers. But all of the automakers are hurting; even Toyota is facing its first operating loss in 70 years. The brutal truth is, cars simply can't continue to occupy the central place that they occupy in today's economy. The energy, environmental, and infrastructure demands are too great. They won't go away, of course (many people still live in areas where public transit is unfeasible) but they're going to have to be much more of a niche item than they are now. Which means a lot fewer people making their living building them.

Knock Out: CNBC Confirms Lehman CEO Punched at Gym

Expect more of this sort of thing in the near future:

It seems anxiety from the financial crisis is reaching new highs, but the tipping point for one individual came at the Lehman Brothers gym in the midst of the company’s collapse.

While former Lehman CEO Richard Fuld was testifying before the House Oversight Committee Oct. 6, CNBC reported he had been punched in the face at the Lehman Brothers gym after it was announced the firm was going bankrupt. CNBC and Vanity Fair contributor Vicki Ward said Fuld was attacked at the gym on a Sunday following the bankruptcy.

“Frankly, I sat there and listened and I’m with the guy who apparently, the day before Barclays announced they were coming in and Lehman had already filed for bankruptcy, went over to him in the gym and punched him because that’s how I feel when I, you know, when I watched that,” Ward said on the Oct. 6 “Power Lunch.” “I didn’t think he was contrite at all, I thought he was arrogant.”

From here, via Doug in this babble thread.