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A natural gas-fired power plant in California that earlier this year warned it might need to shut down filed for chapter 11 protection yesterday, blaming "inhospitable" regulations and a shift toward renewable energy for power generation, Reuters reported. La Paloma Generating Co LLC, a 1,200 megawatt combined cycle plant about 110 miles northwest of Los Angeles, filed for chapter 11 in Delaware yesterday citing $524 million of debt. In its filing, La Paloma said market factors including slower-than-expected growth in electricity demand and a rise in renewable generation resources in California were "exacerbated by an inhospitable regulatory environment." La Paloma is owned by Rockland Capital LLC, one of several California plant owners that has asked the state for help in offsetting losses, arguing that it is in the state's interest to support the natural gas plants because they provide stability and reliability to the power grid.

Paper packaging supplier Werthan Packaging Inc. filed for bankruptcy protection with a plan to sell itself to a rival company, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Cash-strapped Werthan, based in White House, Tenn., filed for chapter 11 and plans to sell itself to competitor Gateway Packaging Co. LLC for $7.2 million, according to papers filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Nashville, Tenn. The company is asking a bankruptcy judge to sign off on a speedy sale. Court papers say that the sale procedures must be approved within 10 days of the bankruptcy filing, and the sale itself needs to be approved within a month.

A central Florida businessman who made a name for himself as a debt counselor during the Great Recession has filed for chapter 7 bankruptcy, listing more than $100 million in liabilities, the Orlando Sentinel reported today. Timothy McCallan, of Melbourne, Fla., was hit with a judgment in February for $107 million in an Alabama bankruptcy for a large debt settlement law firm — Allegro Law — that was shut down by a judge six years ago as a massive fraud. Now McCallan is telling a court in Florida that he needs protection from that claim and other claims, via his bankruptcy filing. Court investigators in the Allegro case have been pursuing McCallan, because his companies, Americorp and Seton Inc., provided record-keeping and data services to Allegro.

Platinum Partners’ flagship hedge fund on Monday secured a legal shield that puts on-hold litigation accusing the troubled fund of looting Texas oil and gas company Black Elk Energy Offshore LLC, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Bankruptcy Judge Shelley Chapman said during a court hearing in Manhattan that she will grant the Platinum fund and a separate feeder fund recognition under chapter 15, the section of U.S. bankruptcy law dealing with international insolvencies. Her decision gives breathing space to the funds’ Cayman Island liquidators. The funds were placed in liquidation in the Cayman Islands over the summer with “a large amount of investor redemptions remaining unpaid past their due date,” according to filings by the liquidators made with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York.

Big Apple Circus filed for bankruptcy after several years of declining interest, following the failure of a last-ditch fundraising drive, Reuters reported yesterday. The nonprofit circus sought chapter 11 protection from creditors on Sunday from the U.S. bankruptcy court in Manhattan, four months after cancelling its 2016-17 season. In a court filing, Executive Director Will Weiss said that the circus plans to sell its equipment, as well as its storage and training facilities in Walden, N.Y., with the hope a new owner with greater resources can restart the one-ring show. Weiss also hopes to find non-profits to run community programs serving hospitals, nursing homes and schools, including "Clown Care" for seriously ill children in hospitals. Big Apple Circus reported $3.8 million in assets and debts of $8.3 million.

Dozens of former writers and editors at Gawker will receive a legal shield designed to protect them from lawsuits arising from stories they wrote for the entertainment and gossip website in return for backing the company’s liquidation plan, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Gawker and its sister sites had been the focus of a series of damaging lawsuits over posts it had published. One of those stories, which featured a sex tape involving former professional wrestler Hulk Hogan, resulted in a $140 million judgment that ultimately forced the company into bankruptcy. The mechanics of the arrangement with former editorial workers are laid out in Gawker Media Group Inc.’s proposed chapter 11 plan to pay its creditors including Hulk Hogan, whose real name is Terry Bollea. The arrangement, according to the court-filed plan, would allow the team of legal professionals now overseeing the Gawker estate to resolve indemnification claims brought in the bankruptcy on behalf of 62 writers, editors, freelance contributors and former officers and move a step closer to winding down the company’s affairs and, ultimately, distributing assets to creditors.