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In the latest blow for retired employees of the bankrupt Bethlehem Steel Corporation, a US Bankruptcy Court Judge ruled yesterday that the company can proceed with its plans to terminate the health care and life insurance benefits of its retired employees. Many Bethlehem Steel retirees had already suffered a reduction in their pensions when the quasi-federal Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation (PBGC) took over the pension plan their employer had massively under funded (see WIT for Jan. 31, 2003). Lawyers for the corporation had argued that the burden of retire benefits would have doomed a buyout of the company by the International Steel Corporation---which in a chillingly similar story bought out steel company LTV Corp. a year ago and eliminated retiree's health insurance after defaulting on their pension plan (see WIT for Feb. 18, 2003).