When General Motors Corp. emerges from bankruptcy protection, it will technically be a brand new, privately held company—yet it will be more publicly owned than ever, with taxpayers holding a 60 percent stake. GM executives say the company will continue to release regular financial statements after it goes private, even though technically it no longer will have an obligation to do so.

Partners no more, bankrupt automakers and small-town car dealers who are being stripped of their livelihood brought the anguish of their sinking fortunes into the halls of Congress yesterday and sparred over the companies’ plans to slash franchises nationwide. “This is our last chance to get it right,“ General Motors Corp. President Fritz Henderson warned testy lawmakers.

General Motors Corp. took a key step toward its downsizing yesterday, striking a tentative deal to sell its Hummer brand to a Chinese manufacturer while also revealing that it has potential buyers for its Saturn and Saab brands. China’s Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery Co. said it had reached an agreement to acquire the rugged SUV brand from GM for an undisclosed amount.

Americans bought more cars in May than in any other month this year, drawn by fire-sale prices that pushed General Motors and Chrysler’s sales above expectations despite their forays into bankruptcy protection. Overall sales were still 34 percent lower than a year ago. But low gas prices encouraged the sale of bigger gas guzzlers while small cars stacked up on dealer lots. That could be a problem for the Obama administration, if the demand for more fuel-efficient vehicles drops just as it is forcing the U.S. auto industry to produce more of them.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. - General Motors has become the second of NASCAR’s four manufacturers to enter Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, but industry leaders remain confident support will continue as the automakers shore up their finances. “I’ve never wanted to race anything else, and I have every confidence that we will continue to celebrate victories together for many more seasons to come,“ team owner Rick Hendrick said yesterday, a day after Jimmie Johnson gave him his 180th win in NASCAR’s top series with a victory at Dover International Speedway.

In a defining moment for American capitalism, President Barack Obama ushered General Motors Corp. into bankruptcy protection yesterday and put the government behind the wheel of a company that once symbolized the nation’s economic muscle.

Though General Motors’ headquarters is in Detroit and the bankruptcy case will be heard in New York, Virginia will feel the pain of the automaker’s restructuring acutely. “It means the loss of hundreds, possibly thousands of jobs around the commonwealth,“ said Donald L. Hall, president of the Virginia Automobile Dealers Association. One victim yesterday was GM’s powertrain plant near Fredericksburg, the company’s only Virginia operation. The manufacturer said the plant was one of nine it will shut as it works to reinvent itself.

General Motors Corp.‘s filing for bankruptcy protection yesterday highlights what many companies today face: the ugly scenario of having debts that far outweigh their assets. That means they can’t pay their bills or their creditors in a timely fashion. And so, in many cases, they turn to the bankruptcy court for cover—either to liquidate or to reorganize their businesses.

If you are a current or retired GM employee or a longtime customer, let us know what the automaker’s bankruptcy means to you. Contact staff wrier Louis Llovio at (804) 649-6348 or e-mail

Automaker’s bankruptcy filing today is the fourth-largest in U.S. history and the largest for an industrial company. GM pledges continued warranty coverage, service and customer support.

With the clock ticking on the June 1 government deadline to restructure, General Motors Corp. worked yesterday to shore up its global businesses to clear the way for a speedy reorganization in bankruptcy court. Bondholders agree: In a deal viewed as crucial to reorganization, a large group of institutional bondholders, representing 54 percent of GM bondholders, announced yesterday that they had agreed to exchange their unsecured bonds for a 10 percent stake in a newly restructured company, plus warrants to purchase a greater share later. The bondholders had balked at an earlier offer that gave them 10 percent of the company without the warrants.

With an almost certain bankruptcy filing days away, General Motors is beginning its reinvention, planning to retool one factory to make its smallest vehicles ever in the U.S. and rid itself of the biggest. As GM’s board yesterday began two days of meetings to make a final decision on the company’s fate, its main union overwhelmingly approved dramatic labor cost cuts. A deal to sell its rugged but inefficient Hummer brand also appeared on the horizon.

Chrysler CEO Robert Nardelli said he expects the sale of the bulk of Chrysler’s assets to a group headed by Italy’s Fiat Group SpA to close today, assuming the judge overseeing the automaker’s bankruptcy protection case approves the deal.

Government Motors. A new name for Detroit’s weakened auto giant GM is making the rounds, sometimes with irony, sometimes with dread, suggested by the deepest Washington industrial intervention in a half-century. The Obama administration is planting itself at the wheel of General Motors with a major ownership stake—and all that goes with it for the U.S. taxpayer.

General Motors Corp. has nearly all the pieces lined up for an orderly restructuring that would save it from bankruptcy, except for one: persuading the holders of some $27 billion in bonds to exchange their debt for stock. The deadline for GM’s bondholders to tender their debt was midnight last night, and GM said it would announce the results today. If bondholders representing 90 percent of GM’s unsecured debt—about $24 billion—don’t agree to the exchange, GM has said it will file for bankruptcy protection.