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A key document PG&E filed with state regulators shows its plan to resolve the case and pay victims of fires its power lines caused comes with a price tag of $57.65 billion, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. The exit plan would be funded partly by PG&E raising more than $44 billion in new financing. State law requires PG&E to resolve its bankruptcy without raising rates. Most of the financing, about $28.5 billion, would come through new debt held at the company and subsidiary Pacific Gas and Electric Co. “This ... will be the largest capital raise in the utility industry and one of the largest in corporate history,” said Jason Wells, chief financial officer of PG&E Corp., when he was questioned on Feb. 28 at a public hearing before the California Public Utilities Commission. The comments from Wells were among many insights revealed when PG&E executives and others spent seven business days, from Feb. 25 through Wednesday, answering questions at the utilities commission’s office in San Francisco. The hearings were an essential step related to PG&E’s bankruptcy, because state regulators must sign off on the company’s plan to resolve the case. The bankruptcy exit plan would, if finalized, fund more than $25 billion in settlements related to fires blamed on PG&E, including the 2017 Wine Country wildfires and the 2018 Camp Fire in Butte County.

State legislators in California are calling on El Segundo, Calif.-based Verity Health to reverse its decision to close Seton Medical Center in Daly City, Calif., Becker's Hospital Review reported. Verity entered chapter 11 bankruptcy in August 2018. In January, the health system closed St. Vincent Medical Center, a 366-bed hospital in Los Angeles, after a deal to sell four of its hospitals fell through. Now, Verity is reportedly planning to shut down its hospital in Daly City. San Mateo County Supervisor David Canepa told a crowd at a community meeting March 4 that Verity is expected to shut down Seton Medical Center as soon as this week. A group of legislators is requesting Verity keep the hospital open, arguing that closing the facility would make it more difficult to treat future cases of the novel coronavirus.

PG&E Corp. has unveiled a proposal to pay employees up to nearly $454 million through 2022 under incentive plans that include most of its senior executives, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Ahead of a planned exit from chapter 11 protection later this year, PG&E filed papers on Wednesday saying that the compensation plans are “designed to incentivize all eligible PG&E employees to perform in line with key goals of the enterprise.” The bankrupt California utility is proposing a short-term incentive plan that would provide up to $266 million for roughly 10,000 employees, including senior executives, and a long-term incentive plan worth up to $187.8 million solely for 400 of its most senior executives. The judge presiding over PG&E’s bankruptcy has separately approved a compensation package covering Chief Executive William D. Johnson. After wildfires linked to PG&E equipment swept California starting in 2017, the company, faced with criticism, scrapped a 2018 bonus plan. Incentive compensation for most of the top brass was also temporarily suspended in 2019 after PG&E filed for chapter 11 protection, though an incentive package for 2019 later received court approval.

One of Silicon Valley’s most highly prized engineers filed for bankruptcy after Google won a $179 million award against him over his defection to Uber Technologies Inc., Bloomberg News reported. Anthony Levandowski’s understanding of self-driving cars spawned multimillion-dollar bidding wars for his talent, but he got caught between the companies’ fierce competition in the race to own the technology. Financial and legal liabilities that had steadily mounted for years finally proved too much when a San Francisco state judge refused Wednesday to release Levandowski from an award that Google won in arbitration over his violation of an agreement to not poach employees. The ruling leaves Levandowski on the hook to repay a $120 million bonus Google once paid him, and when interest and attorney fees were added, the amount swelled enough that the judge called it “pretty staggering.” Adding to the pressure, Levandowski faces criminal charges that he stole trade secrets from Google. He’s denied wrongdoing and retained top-flight lawyers to try to avoid a conviction at a trial next year that could send him to prison. One of those lawyers told a federal judge soon after Levandowski was charged that his net worth had diminished to $72 million after accounting for taxes and a divorce.

A group of McClatchy Co.’s least-protected creditors yesterday joined the federal pension agency in questioning transactions involving the local news company’s largest lender, which would take ownership under the chapter 11 reorganization plan submitted last month, McClatchy.com reported. In a brief filed in federal bankruptcy court in New York, lawyers for the “unsecured” creditors took issue with McClatchy’s request to speed the proceedings and sought time to examine what they called “suspect” financial dealings. “The Suspect Transactions … (can’t) go without independent scrutiny based on specious assertions that the Debtors are a proverbial melting ice cube that cannot afford any delay,” the filing states. In the initial hearing on Feb. 14, lawyers for McClatchy and Chatham Asset Management urged the judge to move swiftly to lift the cloud of bankruptcy and allow the media company to return to normal operations. The allegations are similar to arguments made by the government’s Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation during the opening bankruptcy hearing.

The embattled Roman Catholic Diocese of Buffalo filed for bankruptcy protection on Friday, taking another major step in its effort to recover from a clergy misconduct scandal that’s been the basis for hundreds of lawsuits, Vatican intervention and the resignation of its bishop, the Associated Press reported. The Buffalo diocese has faced particular turmoil in recent months, culminating in the Dec. 4 resignation of Bishop Richard Malone following a Vatican-mandated investigation. Malone had faced intense pressure from members of his staff, clergy and the public to step down amid criticism that he withheld the names of dozens of credibly accused priests and mishandled reports of misconduct against others. Albany Bishop Edward Scharfenberger called the bankruptcy filing “a path forward to healing.” The chapter 11 filing estimates between $10 million and $50 million in assets and between $50 million and $100 million in liabilities. The number of creditors is estimated at between 200 and 999. The diocese already has paid out about $18 million — including $1.5 million from the sale of the bishop’s mansion — to more than 100 victims under an independent compensation program established in 2018. It faces more than 250 new lawsuits filed since August, when the New York’s Child Victims Act suspended the statute of limitations to give victims of childhood abuse one year to pursue even decades-old allegations. The number of suits is expected to grow to more than 400, financial director Charles Mendolera said in a court filing. The diocese reported a $5 million loss in 2019.

The Trump administration is requiring coal-mining companies to provide more financial information about their ability to cover employees if they are diagnosed with black-lung disease after a federal oversight report determined bankrupt coal operators have shifted an estimated $865 million in liabilities to a federal fund covering workers’ medical expenses, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The Labor Department announced new reporting requirements the same week the Government Accountability Office released a report finding the department has failed to ensure coal companies it authorized to self-insure their potential black-lung liabilities have set aside adequate collateral to cover miners’ medical costs in the event they are diagnosed with the respiratory disease. The Labor Department, which allows some coal companies to self-insure rather than secure commercial insurance, told House lawmakers Wednesday that it finalized an overhaul of its approval process last July. At that time, the department required all self-insured coal producers to apply for reauthorization under the new reporting requirements, Julie K. Hearthway, director of the Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs, told lawmakers. An excise tax paid by coal producers is the primary source of funding for the trust, though the tax was scaled back at the end of 2018 and is scheduled to decrease further at the end of 2021, according to the GAO report, and the trust fund likely will need to borrow more public funds to continue providing benefits. The average cost of medical care for black lung was about $8,225 in fiscal year 2019, the report said.

California’s utilities regulator has proposed an increased $2.14 billion fine on PG&E Corp. for its role in causing the devastating 2017 and 2018 wildfires in Northern California, Reuters reported. The decision raises the penalty by $462 million and would be the largest ever imposed, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) said. It would become final if PG&E agrees within 20 days, and will modify a multi-party settlement reached by the company with the CPUC and union representatives in December. The new settlement also requires that potential tax savings in excess of $500 million be applied to the benefit of PG&E’s customers, CPUC said. The San-Francisco based utility filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in January last year, citing potential liabilities in excess of $30 billion from major wildfires sparked by its equipment in 2017 and 2018. State fire investigators in May determined that PG&E transmission lines caused the deadliest and most destructive wildfire on record in California, the wind-driven Camp Fire that killed 85 people in and around the town of Paradise in 2018. Earlier this month, the company proposed an updated reorganization plan, aimed at addressing concerns raised by California Governor Gavin Newsom, who criticized its previous plan for lacking major changes to governance and tougher safety enforcement mechanisms mandated under a recent state wildfire statute.