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ABI's latest podcast features incoming Robert M. Zinman ABI Resident Scholar for the Spring 2016 semester Prof. Melissa Jacoby of the UNC School of Law talking with Prof. Mark Roe of Harvard Law School about recent efforts to to postpone legislative action on a proposed omnibus appropriations rider that would amend the Trust Indenture Act of 1939. Last week, Prof. Roe joined 18 law professors on a letter sent calling for postponement to allow for legislative hearings or the opportunity for public comment on the proposed amendment. Click here to listen to the podcast. 

Click here to read the academics' letter to Congress. 

Prof. Roe is also featured in the New York Times DealBook blog today discussing the recent legislative action on the Trust Indenture Act. 

Millennium Health LLC’s chapter 11 plan cleared a major hurdle on Friday when a bankruptcy judge brushed aside objections to the plan, which funds a $256 million settlement of fraud accusations with the Justice Department, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday. Judge Laurie Selber Silverstein approved the bulk of a reorganization strategy designed as a fresh start for the drug-testing company. Millennium hasn’t admitted to civil charges that it fraudulently billed taxpayers. The judge withheld her signature while pondering the form of the order she is being asked to sign. Assuming she grants confirmation at a hearing on Tuesday, lenders will take over from the existing owners, including James Slattery, who founded Millennium, and TA Associates, a private-equity firm that owns a minority stake in the company. At a hearing on Friday in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del., Judge Silverstein cited a looming Dec. 30 deadline for Millennium to cover the settlement or face revocation of its right to bill Medicare and other government programs.

Coal miner Walter Energy Inc. reached a settlement with creditors after a bankruptcy judge said that the case would “crash and burn” if an agreement wasn’t secured, Bloomberg News reported today. The accord with a committee of first-lien lenders and the unsecured creditors’ committee allows the company to move forward with the scheduled Jan. 5 auction of its assets. The opening bid is an offer by lenders to exchange $1.25 billion in debt and $5.4 million cash for assets. Under the global settlement, the stalking-horse bidder agreed to assume up to $122 million in liabilities as part of the sale, unsecured creditors will get a 1 percent equity in the buyer, according to court documents. The unsecured creditors said that it would agree to the sale motion.

Tribune Publishing Co. says that it is working to put together an offer for Freedom Communications Inc., one that would top a bid from the existing owner of the Orange County Register publisher, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Tribune is performing due diligence that will ultimately lead to “a stalking-horse offer that Tribune Publishing is optimistic will be viewed as the highest and best offer” for Freedom, the company said in a document filed with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Santa Ana, Calif. The court filing, a term sheet for a bankruptcy loan, was made public as part of an objection from Tribune, which publishes the Los Angeles Times and other newspapers, to Freedom’s currently proposed bankruptcy financing. That financing, from hedge fund Silver Point Capital LP, provides $3 million to Freedom but also refinances an additional $19 million in pre-bankruptcy debt owed to Silver Point.

Energy & Exploration Partners Inc. filed for chapter 11 protection on Monday, following several other oil and gas drillers into bankruptcy, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. The company’s bankruptcy petition listed debt of $1 billion to $10 billion and assets of $500 million to $1 billion. The Fort Worth, Texas oil and gas driller’s federal bankruptcy filings convert an involuntary bankruptcy petition filed Nov. 25 by creditors Baker Hughes Oilfield Operations Inc., Cactus Pipe & Supply and Schlumberger Technology Corp. to a voluntary petition, according to court papers. In addition, to fund its operations during the restructuring process, Energy and Exploration said that it secured commitments for up to $135 million of new debtor-in-possession financing from a group of its senior lenders.

For futther analysis of oil and gas bankruptcy proceedings, be sure to pick up a copy of ABI's When Gushers Go Dry: The Essentials of Oil & Gas Bankruptcy.

Wireless venture LightSquared LP said it reached a settlement yesterday with Deere & Co. over spectrum use that will provide support for the company as it emerges from bankruptcy, Reuters reported yesterday. The agreement could potentially lead to further settlements with other GPS providers over interference between LightSquared's spectrum and GPS signals. LightSquared officially exited chapter 11 protection on Monday after the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) agreed to allow the transfer of its valuable wireless spectrum into a newly-formed company, ending one of the longest and most litigious chapter 11 cases in recent years. The company was planning to build a nationwide wireless network when the FCC proposed to suspend indefinitely its terrestrial spectrum authorizations, pushing it into bankruptcy in May of 2012 and bitter litigation with stakeholders vying for control of its valuable spectrum. Under the new deal with Deere, LightSquared will reduce out-of-band emissions and forego terrestrial use on parts of its spectrum closest to GPS.

Arizona's largest solar power plant will remain in operation despite its parent company's recent financial meltdown, a U.S. Department of Energy official said, the Associated Press reported yesterday. Abengoa, the Spanish company that owns Solana Generating Station near Gila Bend, is on the verge of liquidating assets in preparation for possible bankruptcy. Solana, which earns revenue by selling power to Arizona Public Service Co., was built thanks to a $1.5 billion loan from the U.S. The U.S. is still protected if Abengoa goes into bankruptcy, Energy Department spokesman Bart Jackson said. According to Jackson, the loan was made to Abengoa Yield Plc and Liberty, a company separate from the parent company. Abengoa S.A., however, is the largest investor in Abengoa Yield.

A Delaware judge won’t let Murray Energy Corp. use a loophole to avoid cashing out creditors of Foresight Energy LP, saying the move breached an agreement to buy back $600 million in bonds, Bloomberg News reported on Saturday. Friday’s ruling comes in a lawsuit brought by a bond trustee alleging that Foresight altered Murray’s purchase from a controlling 80 percent to a minority stake of 34 percent to avoid triggering the payment under a debt agreement. Murray acquired 34 percent of the voting rights in Foresight in April as part of a $1.37 billion takeover, while maintaining a 50 percent economic interest in the company. Murray, seeking to expand its presence in low-cost mining regions such as the Illinois coal basin where Foresight operates, revised the terms after struggling to raise the required debt to fund the deal.

A federal appeals court on Monday upheld a decision rejecting claims of fraud by Harbinger Capital Partners, the equity owner of bankrupt wireless venture LightSquared, against Deere & Co. and other GPS firms, Reuters reported yesterday. Hedge fund Harbinger had accused Deere, Garmin International, Trimble Navigation Ltd., and a GPS industry group of misleading LightSquared about interference concerns and hastening the wireless spectrum's plunge into bankruptcy. But the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit affirmed a ruling by the Manhattan federal court in February, saying that Harbinger's arguments were "without merit." LightSquared has separately brought claims against the parties, which are currently being litigated in the Southern District of New York. While the Second Circuit’s decision is a blow for Harbinger, it comes just three days after the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approved LightSquared's request to transfer its valuable wireless spectrum into a newly-formed company.

Proposed changes to an obscure Depression-era law are causing a ruckus among the Wall Street investment funds that are battling over the debt restructuring at Caesars Entertainment and other companies, the New York Times DealBook blog reported yesterday. Tucked away in the omnibus spending bill in Washington, D.C., is an amendment to that law, the Trust Indenture Act of 1939, that critics say would hand a victory to Apollo Global Management, which owns the casino company, at the expense of some bondholders. Hedge funds and other bondholders have been at odds in the Caesars restructuring, which concerns about $10 billion in bond indentures. Six other restructurings could also be affected if the amendment is approved, including that of for-profit college operator Education Management Corporation, which is backed by the private equity giant Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Company.