LOUISVILLE, Ky. - A Louisville lawyer whose firm filed bankruptcy with $16.6 million in debt would pay most of his creditors less than 2 cents on the dollar, under a proposed settlement.

Federal regulators said in court records that the $394,583 settlement would allow Ron Sheffer to “purchase” a discharge.

People work hard only to be screwed over by low life’s that run up unbelievable debts like this and then only have to pay a pittance back. It’s not right!!

Sheffer, 67, has been blocked from discharging his debts because a federal bankruptcy judge ruled that he fraudulently diverted assets to his wife.

The b@#’~~d, owes millions, but tries to rip off his creditors. I hope they take this low life to the cleaners.

The U.S. Bankruptcy Trustee said allowing Sheffer to settle his case would violate public policy and bankruptcy law. Sheffer’s lawyer and the creditors who support the deal say it is the fairest and least expensive way to resolve the case.

My friend doesn’t think that, he’ll loose a lot of money!

They said that Sheffer could retire, leaving creditors with no wages to garnish if he is barred from discharging his debts through bankruptcy.

A hearing is scheduled for June 27 in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Louisville.

Under the proposed agreement, Sheffer would pay $80,000 to Ohio Valley and $114,583 to Franklin Bank & Trust Co. of Simpson County. Sheffer’s wife, Anne, and his son, Tom, would pay $200,000 to the Chapter 7 trustee, who would divide it among other creditors.

In court papers, the U.S. Bankruptcy Trustee said that would be unfair because Ohio Valley would be paid 32 percent of the amount it is owed and Franklin 4 percent, while the other creditors, who are owed a combined $13.7 million, would get only 1.4 cents on the dollar.

Typical, the small guys get the crumbs. Everything about this just stinks and should not be happening.

My friend expects to do badly out of this one, bankruptcy shouldn’t be so easy.

Article source www.kentucky.com

We made it as far as Sullivan, Missouri last night, spent the night and drove on in. My aunt and uncle have often come here for a vacation, and we have long wanted to come here ourselves. Upon arriving, I must admit that I was rather disappointed.

It was certainly obvious that the city had grown significantly just during the last few years or so, but the city had a air of cheapness about it that was apparent even before one came near the city. Indeed, I had joked on the way here that this was the “redneck’s Broadway,” and it seemed that the longer we were here the town did its best to reinforce that impression.

The first show we went to was Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. The show is, of course, one of the most famous Broadway shows, and I was looking forward to seeing it. Unfortunately, the show was not in fact a true Broadway production, but a “Branson version” that starred many people from the local area. The show’s most notable cast member was Kellye Cash, the great-niece of Johnny Cash, and formerly Miss America.

Despite the delight of finally being able to see the show, the show was not exactly what Mom and I are used to. For instance, theatergoers were allowed to wear anything they wanted into the theater, and some went so far as to wear shorts and even cheaper T-shirts. Audience members were also allowed to purchase popcorn and candy, and this gave me some idea of what kind of “Broadway show” we were to expect.

The theater itself was huge, but nowhere near as lavish as something like the Majestic in San Antonio, and I said as much to Dad when he commented on how “well” the building was built. Remembering the farce at Riva’s in which I was told to remove my cap after I had put it back on in frustration, which I have so far not written about, I thought this entire scene was especially funny. Dad fell asleep several times during the show, although he insists that he did not. The huge theater (the American Mansion) must have been only 1/10 full.

I freely admit that despite these somewhat good-natured criticisms, we did have a lot of fun. Only one cast member, though–the one who played Joseph–received a standing ovation, and Mom and I are not quite sure that even he deserved it. After the show, we went to a nice place called Ribs ‘n’ Bibs or something or another and ate. Having about two hours left before we had to be at the next show, we went to the hotel and took a quick nap.

Upon awaking, Dad told us that he didn’t feel like going to the other show and preferred simply to stay in the room and sleep. This was disappointing and disheartening since Dad was the person who wanted to come here in the first place, but Mom and I told each other that Dad would merely end up nodding off again.

The new theater was just as kitschy–this being the word that best describes everything in this town–and the anteroom was decorated in such a way as to resemble–if only so slightly–the Italian sotto in su paintings one sees in Venice and other places. The men and women in the painting, looking somehow Southern and thus probably modeled on local performers, had angel wings and poorly drawn putti fluttered around them. Even the doors were painted to look like they had gold on them. Kitschy indeed.

Fortunately, the show was not as large a disappointment. The show was called Broadway and consisted of selections from several famous Broadway shows such as 42nd Street, Oklahoma!, and so forth. Most of the cast spoke with a noticeably foreign accent, although they could feign an American one well.

The show doubles with Spirit of the Dance, either a third installment of the Riverdance series or a cheap imitation–I have not been able to figure out which. Regardless, the cast had certainly had professional dance training, and during the performance of “Memory” from Cats, two of the cast members performed a beautiful ballet duet that should have received a standing ovation.

Mom and I were originally on the eighth row, and, after the performance of “There’s No Business Like Show Business,” we made our way to the back of theater and waited for the end. When it appeared the show was about to end–at the performance of “New York, New York,” if I recall correctly, we jumped from our seats and headed to the car as fast as we could and were the second car out of the parking lot.

The traffic that greeted us was utterly horrible. By now it was 10 PM and evidently all the shows had ended at the same time. We had barely made it three blocks before we came across a car with Wisconsin plates attempting to pull out in front of me.

Originally, I was not going to let him in, but seeing the driver’s determination and his absurdly angry face, I let him in, laughing. His number plate read “B OVERLY” and I joked to Mom that he “be overly rude!” I somewhat regretted allowing him to get in front of me not long after, as he was apparently determined to allow passage to every single person who wanted to get in front of him.

Sick of the traffic, we pulled into an ice cream parlor and bought two ice cream cones. Mom bought a sherbet, and both of us heard some man behind us mutter, “Why come in here if you’re going to buy a sherbet?”

Having never eaten sherbet and not knowing the “proper” places in which one must eat it, I frankly didn’t understand it, and, what’s more, we were riled that someone would even say such a thing.

Not much else happened, and by the time we were done traffic had cleared enough to make it easy to go home. When we arrived back at the hotel, I realized that I had lost my card key somewhere. I’m still quite sure that it’s in the car, but the parking lot was so crammed that it was difficult to open the car door and I decided to cease the search until morning.

The majority of people here are either rednecks or retirees (often both), but they tend to be amusing rather than disgusting.

We have often found ourselves wondering why the storm hit us so much more badly than it hit many of our neighbors, and we sometimes wonder whether a small twister touched down on us. The O’Reillys, for instance, appear to have sustained very little damage on their property. Last night in town, during a small conversation Mom managed to have with her, another neighbor reported that the only real damage she had on her property was a couple of broken trees.

We are still having difficulties getting the refrigerator to work, but at least the power throughout the rest of the house appears to be working. For a few hours this morning we had a few glimpses of sunshine. I took advantage of it and made a few trips down to the swimming pool with a 5-gallon bucket to procure water for the toilet.

While I was at the swimming pool, I saw again the mass of leaves piled on the bottom and resolved to return to the pool and get them out before they could stain the bottom. After I dumped the water in the toilet, I made my way back out and managed to get a few loads of leaves out of the pool before hearing a distant roll of thunder. The southern sky was almost black, and the wind was picking up.

The clouds have now caught up with us, this being the reason for my taking the time to update my journal. I must now return to my job at the pool, for although it rained for about five minutes ago, things do not appear to be worsening.

12:05
Battery on Palm is starting to get to very low levels. Not long after I posted my last entry, my brother arrived from East Texas with his wife and infant son to help us recover. The first thing we did was get the chainsaw in order to remove the huge mesquite that had fallen down and blocked entry via the front gate. This did not take long. I was able to put the ranch sign back in place since it had only broken one of the welded chains (leaving something like a hook in its place), and Chris righted the ostrich that had been bent back by the wind.

Apparently the battery on the front gate had run down overnight, so we simply removed the opening device so we could open by hand. As we were doing so, the lady who lives on the ranch up the road drove by and told us that we were now able to buy gas from one of the local convenience stores.

It began raining, and we decided to head back to the house. About that time Mr. Saltieri showed up and informed us that he was heading to Cuero to buy supplies. We also learned that he was making the trip in order to fill his diesel cans so he could keep his generator running, and I went to the shop and lent him four 5-gallon cans.

Incidentally, this was the first time that he had actually seen Delilah, since we previously had kept her locked up whenever he and his family came by to visit. After he left, Dad burnt up one of our chainsaws while attempting to cut down the tree that had fallen down and ruined the cattle guard.

Most mercifully, Rick Goertz arrived with his backhoe and we were able to tree away from the guard and in the meantime we were able to find a chainsaw that we rarely used anymore. Being called. Must go.

1:15
Dad, my brother, and Rick have continued to work at cutting up the trees that have fallen in front of the house, and, perceiving that I was of no use since the third chainsaw (Rick had brought another one) had been destroyed, I went back to my previous job of cleaning out the pool.

The sky to the south and directly overhead has become an eldritch black, more so than it was before, and lightning has started to streak across the entire sky. Although this sight may promise another bad bout, it is somewhat comforting that the wind, light as it is, is coming from the direction of the coast, and in that regard, things have again returned to “normal.”

While I was at the west end of the pool, I happened to look up while I was dumping the leaves on the grass and saw a beautiful, tall buck grazing in the small oak thicket in the back of the yard looking at me. I enjoyed the sight for a few moments, and then, so as not to scare him off, returned to my work of cleaning out the pool. Sitting at the table in the sun room now, from my view to the west, it appears that the aforementioned storm is now largely headed in that direction, if only very slightly.

I should note before I leave that at last we have managed to get the refrigerator running again by using the generator, but, in order to do so, we had to cut all power off to the other areas of the house. Rick was telling us about a relative of his who had come up here from Corpus Christi to “get away from the storm.”

He told me that it both a comical and sad sight to see her eyes when he said after she arrived, “I hate to tell you, but that thing’s coming straight for us.” As I have been in here a bit too, long, I am now returning to work.

11:15 PM
I am writing this entry by the light of an electric desk lamp and while being comforted by the ceiling fan, but even these comforts are the result of a new, powerful; generator that Mrs. Donaldson–our neighbor–bought for us while she was in Victoria (this not being a free gift, but one for which we gladly repaid her).

It was, in fact, the first time that we had ever really talked with her, and everyone in the family was both surprised and touched by this sudden display of neighborliness. About an hour before, a hose had exploded on the backhoe/bulldozer that Rick had brought to the house while we were trying to tear down a hackberry tree so we could get in the back yard and remove the tree that had fallen on the house.

As the massive machine now being utterly useless, we realized that we needed to go to Victoria to see if we could replace the part. So my brother, Dad, and I climbed into Dad’s white work truck and dropped off Rick, who informed us that he was going to church for the evening. Since Dad was still tired from his trip from Tulsa, I ended up driving, although I had informed Dad that I had left my license at home. This didn’t seem to bother him.

The next few paragraphs could very well turn into a lengthy catalog of what we saw on the way to Victoria, but as much of it would be repetitive (and also because I am tired), I will content myself with mentioning but a few noteworthy examples.

Almost everywhere we went we saw buildings that had sustained some kind of heavy roof damage, and many fences–particularly those that we made of wooden planks–had been knocked down by the wind. Perhaps the most humorous sight was that of the little portable building at the weigh station on 59 at which the state troopers weigh the 18 wheelers: it had rolled over the the point at which it was upside down, and a hole in the side indicated that the air conditioning system was no longer in the building–we strongly suspect someone has stolen it.

A word now about how we must go to the restroom in these troubled times; I just returned from doing so. Urination poses no problem, at least for me, being a man, but in order to “No. 2″ some different measures must be taken.

Yesterday afternoon I had remedied the problem by just going behind a distant tree and taking some toilet paper with me, but Mom cannot do this. Not believing that the storm was going to be very bad, we had neglected to fill the bathtub with water before the storm hit. However, after thinking of other possible sources of clean water, I quickly remembered our swimming pool.

Going “No. 2″ now consists of taking a 5-gallon water bucket down to the pool, filling it, and waddling the 80 steps back to the house with it in hand. Once back in the house, one fills the bowl up to the faint water line with water, does his business, and then flushes it, saving the remainder of the water for later or for a toilet in another room. It must be noted here that our toilets are not “normal” and operate by a pump apparatus rather than by filling the tank on the back of the toilet.

In other news, our phone lines are dead. This happened at about 4:00. We are now being told that the lines will not be restored until the 24th or thereabouts and we are now restricted to the use of our cell phones, which have never exhibited good reception during the entire time that we have lived here.

This news circulated as a type of dark joke throughout the household, its humor springing from the fact that this calamity did not occur during the hurricane itself. I myself joked–or rightly guessed–that a tree that had been leaning precariously on the wires finally must have given up the ghost and severed the wires.

My brother and his wife are spending the night at Super 8 in Victoria. The hotel has power, but many of the buildings around it do not. The same situation is seen throughout the entirety of Victoria: one pulls up at a working stoplight and then the next one would be dead. It is almost as if the blocks alternate as to whether or not they have power.

I am getting along very well with my nephew: my brother and his wife are both are surprised at how much he seems to like me; indeed, how much he seems to enjoy the entire family.

After eating at Ryan’s, we drove home down roads normally beaming with lights but now dark as though nothing but trees lurked within their shadows. Indeed, tonight alternates between cloudy and cloudless, and at the cloudless points it is astonishing how dark and clear the sky is and how brilliantly the stars shine without the usual light pollution, even as minimal as it usually is here. I considered pulling out my telescope, but by the time I made it to the front door, a cloud had already marred my view.

At this point I cease my narrative for tonight; I am much too tired to continue. I know I have left some important things out, but perhaps I shall find some time to add them at another time.

She has just yelled to me from the den that the storm is picking up again.