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The Pittsburgh Athletic Association (PAA) yesterday filed for chapter 11 protection, the Pittsburgh Business Times reported today. The voluntary filing in Pittsburgh bankruptcy court includes the Pittsburgh Athletic Association as well as the Pittsburgh Athletic Association Land Co. Its clubhouse, near the Cathedral of Learning in Oakland, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It has been a part of Pittsburgh's social life for nearly 110 years. A news release from Pittsburgh law firm Tucker Arensberg, which represents PAA, said the organization had gotten $750,000 debtor-in-possession financing to continue operation while it reorganizes. The Allegheny County Treasurer had issued a judgment in March against the PAA for failure to pay beverage and hotel occupancy taxes for more than a year.

Bankrupt Westinghouse Electric Co LLC, the U.S. nuclear technology firm owned by Toshiba Corp., has stopped making pension payments to former executives, Reuters reported yesterday. The move comes as the company scrambles for cash and works to extract itself from two U.S. power plant projects, the first new nuclear plants in three decades, which are years behind schedule and billions of dollars over budget. Westinghouse spokeswoman Sarah Cassella said in a statement that in chapter 11 bankruptcy, the company is not permitted to make pension payments to retired executives because it is a non-qualified plan. Unlike "qualified" plans for rank-and-file workers that are funded from money set aside in a trust, Westinghouse's executives receive their payments from the company's ongoing operations. The plan covers around 75 former managers, according to a court filing by Ronald Gellert, a Delaware lawyer who was hired to represent the plan participants. It includes retired senior vice presidents, directors, regional presidents and at least two former chief executives.

Discount retailer Payless ShoeSource is investigating whether its leveraged buyout by private equity firms and the dividend payments they received led to its bankruptcy, according to court papers, Reuters reported yesterday. The company disclosed its investigation on Wednesday in a filing aimed at persuading Bankruptcy Judge Kathy Surratt-States in St. Louis to reject a request by an official committee of creditors to hire an expert to review pre-bankruptcy transactions. Creditors have said in court filings that San Francisco private equity funds Golden Gate Capital and Blum Capital, which together hold 98.5 percent of the company and control its board, received more than $350 million in dividends in recent years. Payless, which has 4,000 stores around the world, said in court papers that a separate investigation could hinder its goal to recapitalize and emerge from bankruptcy in August.

21st Century Oncology Holdings Inc., which bills itself as the world's largest operator of cancer treatment centers, filed for chapter 11 protection yesterday citing changes in insurance reimbursement rates and uncertainty caused by political changes, Reuters reported. The Fort Myers, Fla.-based company said that the bankruptcy would not impact its 179 treatment centers with locations across 17 U.S. states and Latin America. Paul Rundell, the interim chief executive officer, said in a statement the company entered bankruptcy with an agreement with lenders and bondholders that would reduce its debt by $500 million. The company's lenders agreed to provide $75 million for working capital during its bankruptcy and a group of creditors agreed to invest $75 million into the reorganized business.

Westinghouse Electric Co. has fielded interest from those looking at buying Toshiba Corp.’s majority stake in the bankrupt U.S. nuclear contractor and expects to begin a sale process in late summer, according to Westinghouse’s interim chief executive officer, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. While Westinghouse has already received interest, it’s too early to be having conversations with potential buyers, interim CEO Jose Emeterio Gutierrez said yesterday. The sale process will begin after Westinghouse gains approval of a business plan that it expects to file in bankruptcy court in early July, he said. Tokyo-based Toshiba put Westinghouse into bankruptcy on March 29 and has warned it may not be able to continue as a going concern because of losses from the business. “We will start in late summer the process to sell the company,” said Gutierrez, adding that it’ll be part of a “very structured process” and that the company expects it’ll be sold before exiting bankruptcy or at the time of emerging.

Offshore drilling services company Seadrill Ltd. has made "significant progress" with its banks on the terms of a debt restructuring plan that will likely require filing for bankruptcy in the U.S. or U.K., Dow Jones Newswires reported yesterday. Seadrill said yesterday that it is in advanced talks with secured lenders and third-party investors on the terms of a "comprehensive recapitalization." Absent an additional extension from creditors, Seadrill faces a July 31 deadline for implementing a restructuring plan. "While discussions with our secured lenders and certain investors have advanced significantly, a number of important terms continue to be negotiated and no assurance can be given that an agreement will be reached," Seadrill said. A restructuring will likely involve converting Seadrill's bond debt into equity. Any recovery for existing shareholders would be minimal at best, the company said.

Westinghouse Electric Co. told a U.S. court yesterday that the nuclear power company had reached a deal to borrow $800 million after allaying creditors' concerns that the money would be flowing to non-bankrupt affiliates overseas, Reuters reported. Westinghouse, a unit of Japan's Toshiba Corp., filed for bankruptcy in March following billions of dollars in cost overruns at two nuclear power plants it designed and is constructing in Georgia and South Carolina. An attorney for Westinghouse said in bankruptcy court that cash from the loan would allow the company to complete its business plan by July 27 and move toward exiting bankruptcy. The Pittsburgh-based company has also said that it needs cash to shore up its profitable overseas businesses, which provide nuclear fuel and services and also decommission power plants. The company has said that those affiliates add value to its bankrupt business.

A relatively paltry $16 million has ignited a skirmish among bondholders over who will get paid first and who does not in Puerto Rico’s $74 billion bankruptcy, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. The dispute revolves around interest that’s due June 1 to holders of sales-tax bonds known as Cofinas. Mathematically, the $16 million is barely a rounding error. About $400 million collected from sales taxes is being held in trust — enough to cover next week’s payment more than 20 times over. The problem is that Puerto Rico probably won’t have enough cash to pay back all of the $17 billion of Cofinas, so senior and junior holders are concerned that this small payment will set the pattern for who gets reimbursed. Additionally, holders of the island’s general-obligation bonds are watching closely because they’ve made claims on the same stream of revenue. The General Obligation and Cofina groups each contend that they have first priority to be repaid, and say their rivals should get little or nothing because those bonds were issued illegally. Bank of New York Mellon Corp., the Cofina trustee caught in the middle, filed court papers earlier this month asking the judge for guidance on what it should do on June 1, if anything. A hearing is scheduled for May 30 in New York with U.S. District Judge Laura Taylor Swain. Read more.

For more news and analysis of Puerto Rico's debt crisis, be sure to visit ABI's "Puerto Rico in Distress" webpage.