The New York State Supreme Courtruled that BearingPoint
Inc., a McLean consulting firm, had defaulted
on $200 million in bonds. While criticizing the decision
and noting it would appeal, the company said the
ruling could affect continued operations of the company,
which has faced several accounting problems during
the last two years and was sued by a group of bondholders
last fall. (The Washington Post)
Dominion Resources Inc., a Richmond
energy company,was fined $4.25 million for
providing false and inaccurate information to reporting
firms in the natural gas industry from December 2000
to November 2002. Dominion agreed to settle the allegations
without admitting or denying any findings by the Commodity
Futures Trading Commission. (Richmond Times-Dispatch)
The Rowe Cos., a McLean-based furniture manufacturer
and retailer, field for bankruptcy protection in federal
court. While long-term plans call for the sale of its Storehouse retail
chain, which Rowe bought in 1999, operations of Storehouse
and Rowe's manufacturing facilities will continue as
normal. The company blamed rising expenses and declining
sales for the need to file for bankruptcy. (Richmond
Times-Dispatch)
The ports of Hampton Roads will
now be considered as a single port facility, not
two, by the Department
of Homeland Security. The decision is expected to help
Hampton Roads receive security grant funds. A year
ago the region's ports received none of the department's
port security grant money when the region was administratively
judged as two port operations, one in Newport News and one in Norfolk-Portsmouth. (Daily
Press)
