Since 777 Forever is still furiously googling, I'll help him. In a nutshell, NWA went bankrupt and withheld $25m from Mesaba Airlines, while grounding half their fleet. MAIR bankrupted the Mesaba division while keeping MAIR and other sub Big Sky solvent. MAIR later sold Mesaba to NWA and the rest is history.
Delta is currently run by former NWA management.
In September, 2015, ASA (dba ExpressJet) faces the next "rate reset" when we must be the second lowest operating cost carrier in the DCI "portfolio", or Delta has the right to cut our payments to that of the second lowest cost carrier. At least half our 50 seat fleet also expires at that time. SkyWest Inc then has the right to terminate the CPA with Delta, or take the pay cut at that time.
Sound familiar? The cards are falling into place and everything is going according to plan. But don't worry, everyone at XJT will be given the preferential interviews at SkyWest Mainline.