Bankrupt Tribune Co. Asks For Bonus Bucks…

Thursday, July, 23, 2009 by Mel Phillips.

They may be bankrupt and in the process of selling off everything they own, but that hasn’t stopped the Tribune Co. from asking a federal bankruptcy judge to approve its plan for employee bonuses.  The company that owns WGN, the Chicago Tribune and Los Angeles Times is seeking permission to continue its incentive plan that rewards its top 10 executives and more than 700 other management employees.  It gets better.  The incentive plan calls for paying up to $35 million in a pool, would pay 23 leaders of key operations a total of $9.3 million and another $3.1 million in all to nine of its top 10 executives.  Uh, by the way, this is the company that filed for bankruptcy in December needing to restructure about $13 billion in debt.  It’s a good thing they’re about to unload the Cubs, otherwise they would be asking for another $25 million.  If you look up the word “chutzpah” in your Funk and Wagnalls, you’ll no doubt find “The Tribune Company”…

Reuters is the news source that’s giving us all this fun Tribune stuff to talk about for days on end.  They also report that a hearing on the Tribune Co. request is scheduled for August 11 in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware.  Unless it’s the honorable Judge Ito hearing the request, its even-money that the request will be denied…

I was incensed when I first heard this story but since have had time to reflect and report on it, another emotion has taken over — envy.  I wish I worked at the Tribune Company… 

10 Timeline Memories:

1. 1715] Gotta Light?: The 1st lighthouse in America is authorized for construction at Little Brewster Island (MA). Boston Light will open in 1716…
2. 1827] Do the swim: The 1st swimming school in the U.S. opens in Boston…
3. 1886] Brodie does it: Saloonkeeper/Bookmaker Steve Brodie must have been sampling the schnapps. Brodie jumps from the Brooklyn Bridge and survives…
4. 1904] One scoop or two?: The ice cream cone is invented by Ernest Hamwi during the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis…
5. 1986] Wedding Bells: Britain’s Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson walk down the aisle at Westminster Abbey in London. They will divorce 10 years later…
6. 1997] Lost and found: Police find the body of Andrew Cunanan, the suspected killer of designer Gianni Versace, on a houseboat in Miami Beach. Cunanan was believed to be a suicide…
7. 2000] Baby Tiger: Tiger Woods becomes the youngest pro to complete a career Grand Slam when he wins the British Open at 24…
8. 2000] Vive le Lance: Lance Armstrong wins his second Tour de France…
9. 2003] Clergy bust: The Massachusetts Attorney General issues a report citing that members of the clergy and others in the Boston Archdiocese probably sexually abused more than 1,000 people over a period of 6 decades…
10. 2007] The Price was right: Drew Carey is announced as the replacement for the retiring Bob Barker as host of “The Price Is Right“…

Music Memories:

• 1950] Debuted on this date: “The Gene Autry Show” on CBS-TV.  The show will last 6 seasons…

“Happy Birthday…happy birthday“: Daniel Radcliffe aka Harry Potter (20), NOMAH! Nomar Garciaparra (36), Omar (”House”) Epps (36), Monica Lewinsky (36), Alison Krauss (38), Philip Seymour Hoffman (42), Slash (44), Woody Harrelson (48), David Essex (62), Tony Joe White (66), Don Imus (69) and Gloria DeHaven (84)…

Timeline Countdown: Today is the first day NFL training camps begin to open, 3 days until MLB HOF induction, 16 days until NFL HOF induction, 46 days until Labor Day and 49 days until the NFL opener… 
     

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