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Guam's clergy sex abuse survivors could start getting compensation from the Archdiocese of Agana by early to middle of 2020, now that parties are set to go into mediation that will be followed by a reorganization plan, the Pacific Daily News reported. U.S. District Court Chief Judge Frances Tydingco-Gatewood gave the archdiocese more time to figure out how much it's going to pay the nearly 280 clergy sex abuse survivors and other claimants. Since the Aug. 15 bar date had passed, the archdiocese hopes that the mediation scheduled for Oct. 30-31 on Guam "will be successful and a plan of reorganization will be created which will reflect the settlement and the parties' intent going forward." Church attorneys said that more time is needed to deal with a "moderately complex and large case." The federal judge granted the archdiocese's request for a second extension of its deadline to file its reorganization plan and disclosure statement, to Jan. 16, 2020. That will be the first anniversary of the archdiocese's filing of chapter 11 bankruptcy, following an avalanche of clergy sex abuse claims totaling more than $1 billion.

Frustrated by PG&E Corp.’s California blackouts and its existing options for exiting bankruptcy, the mayor of the state’s third-biggest city is proposing something radically different: turning the company into the nation’s largest customer-owned utility, the Wall Street Journal reported. San Jose hopes to persuade other California cities and counties in coming weeks to line up behind the plan, which would strip PG&E of its status as an investor-owned company and turn it into a nonprofit electric-and-gas cooperative, Mayor Sam Liccardo said. The buyout proposal by San Jose, the largest city served by PG&E with more than a million residents, amounts to a revolt by some of the utility’s roughly 16 million customers as PG&E struggles to keep the lights on and provide basic services while preventing its aging electric equipment from sparking wildfires. Liccardo said the time has come for the people dependent on PG&E for essential services to propose a new direction. A cooperative, he said, would create a utility better able to meet customers’ needs because it would be owned by customers—and answerable to them.

Nearly four years after filing for bankruptcy, the Diocese of Duluth (Minn.) will go before a judge today for final confirmation of a reorganization plan that would provide approximately $40 million in compensation to victims of child sexual abuse, the Duluth News Tribune reported. Bankruptcy Judge Robert Kressel will review the proposed settlement at an 11 a.m. hearing at the federal courthouse in Duluth. If he signs off, up to 125 survivors who filed claims could soon begin receiving payments, and the diocese would finally emerge from bankruptcy protection. The diocese voluntarily filed for chapter 11 protection in December 2015 in the wake of a $4.9 million jury verdict. That award came in the first lawsuit in the state to go to trial under the Minnesota Child Victims Act, which opened a three-year window for victims of decades-old abuse cases to file suit. An onslaught of claims followed in the bankruptcy process. The case, however, was mired in litigation for years as the diocese sued to force coverage from five insurance companies — a matter complicated by the fact that the abuse claims date as far back as the 1940s. All five insurers eventually settled, with contributions ranging from $250,000 to $15 million. Under the reorganization plan announced in May, the diocese itself would provide more than $10 million to a distribution trust, with contributions expected from most or all of its 75 parishes as well as other Catholic entities. Insurers are covering the remaining sum.

Johnson & Johnson, which has spent years insisting that its baby powder is safe, recalled 33,000 bottles of the product on Friday after the Food and Drug Administration discovered evidence of asbestos, a known carcinogen, in one of the bottles, the New York Times reported. The recall, the first time Johnson & Johnson has pulled baby powder from store shelves over asbestos concerns, could undercut its defense against a swarm of allegations that its talc-based products caused cancer. It comes as the company, which reaches into the lives of millions of people through brands such as Tylenol, Band-Aid and Rogaine and reported nearly $82 billion in sales last year, is entangled in numerous legal battles over the safety of its products. The company has settled some claims — and is still fighting others — involving its role in the nationwide opioid crisis. On Thursday, Johnson & Johnson agreed to pay $117 million in a settlement over the deceptive marketing of transvaginal pelvic mesh implants, and a jury this month ordered it to pay $8 billion to a Maryland man who accused the company of playing down the risks associated with the antipsychotic drug Risperdal. In total, the company faces more than 100,000 lawsuits over its products.

PG&E Corp. said that it was considering more power cutoffs, which would be much smaller than the recent outage, as the bankrupt California power producer warned about severe weather risks later this week, Reuters reported. The company said that it activated its emergency operations on Sunday night to keep an eye on a possible “strong and dry offshore” wind likely to hit 17 counties across northern and southern California later this week. PG&E is considering implementing a public safety power shutoff (PSPS) and turning off power across portions of the counties, adding that as of late Sunday no PSPS had been called. The potential power cutoffs will be “significantly smaller” than the Oct 9-12 PSPS event, the company said. The primary phase of weather risk is expected to last about 18 to 24 hours from Wednesday evening through the middle of Thursday, according to the statement issued on Sunday. PG&E’s handling of recent power outages has been criticized for being conducted on too large a scale with insufficient communication with customers.

Noteholders of PG&E Corp. and a committee for victims of the wildfires that pushed the power producer into bankruptcy filed a formal reorganization plan yesterday for the company, proposing they get effectively all of its new shares, Reuters reported. The plan, filed with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in San Francisco over PG&E’s wishes, proposes that the noteholders buy $15.5 billion in new shares, giving them 59.3 percent of equity. The plan also proposes issuing 40.6 percent new PG&E stock to fund a fire victims trust valued at $12.75 billion. This month, Bankruptcy Judge b>Dennis Montali issued an order allowing the noteholders and wildfire victims’ committee to file a reorganization plan for PG&E after the noteholders offered to put $29.2 billion in new money, in a combination of equity and debt, into the San Francisco-based power producer. The committee backed the noteholders’ plan because it expected the proposal to provide more than the $8.4 billion in compensation PG&E has proposed for wildfire victims. PG&E is developing a plan, backed by major shareholders, that would use $34 billion in new debt and $14 billion in equity commitments to reorganize.

The CEOs of McKesson Corp., Cardinal Health Inc. and two other companies seeking to settle legal claims over their handling of opioid painkillers were summoned to meet with a judge in hopes of hammering out a final deal, Bloomberg News reported. U.S. District Judge Dan Polster in Cleveland, who is overseeing the first federal trial over the U.S. opioid epidemic, demanded that the chief executive officers appear in his court today to discuss their settlement proposals. In a sign that talks may be entering their end-game, Judge Polster made his demand on Wednesday as jury selection got underway in the trial. Opening statements are scheduled for Oct. 21 in the first case to test local governments’ claims that opioid makers and distributors fanned demand for the highly addictive pain medications. The four companies -- McKesson, Cardinal Health, AmerisourceBergen Corp. and Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. -– are seeking to resolve all opioid suits filed against them by U.S. states, cities and counties. If their settlement proposals are accepted, they’d be removed from the current trial and any further opioid litigation.

Three major drug distributors are in talks to pay $18 billion to settle sweeping litigation brought by state and local governments blaming them for fueling the opioid crisis, the Wall Street Journal reported. The three distributors — McKesson Corp., AmerisourceBergen Corp. and Cardinal Health Inc. — would collectively pay $18 billion over 18 years under the deal currently on the table. Johnson & Johnson is also involved in the discussions to contribute additional money. Players up and down the pharmaceutical supply chain, including drugmakers, distributors and pharmacies, have been sued by virtually every state and thousands of city and county governments. Over 2,000 lawsuits allege that the industry’s overly aggressive marketing of prescription painkillers and lax oversight over drug distribution contributed to widespread opioid addiction. If finalized, the settlement would be the first to achieve a broad resolution of the opioid lawsuits outside of bankruptcy. OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma LP filed for bankruptcy last month to try to implement a settlement valued at around $10 billion to $12 billion but faces opposition from some states that say its owners — members of the Sackler family — should contribute more to the deal. Read more. (Subscription required.) 

In related news, Johnson & Johnson has offered to pay $4 billion to settle all claims accusing the company of helping fuel the U.S. opioid epidemic as part of a potentially larger deal involving drugmakers and distributors that could top $20 billion, Bloomberg News reported. It’s the first time J&J has put substantial money on the table to end its opioid liability. The drugmaker agreed earlier this month to pay $20.4 million to two Ohio counties to avoid a federal trial, but that didn’t extend to any other opioid claim. Some analysts say it may take as much as $150 billion to resolve all the opioid cases on file. Read more. 

Johnson & Johnson persuaded a Missouri appeals court to throw out a $110 million jury award to a woman who said she got cancer from the company’s baby powder, Bloomberg News reported. It was the fourth appellate win in the state for J&J, which faces thousands of U.S. damage claims related to the product. Lois Slemp should not have been allowed to bring her ovarian-cancer lawsuit to trial in St. Louis because she is a resident of Virginia, the intermediate appellate court concluded Tuesday. The court cited the same reasons for throwing out two other baby powder cases, which allege that talc in the product was tainted with asbestos. The decision came the same day J&J officials said there was no need to set aside legal reserves to deal with the more than 15,000 consumer lawsuits targeting its talc-based powders for allegedly causing different kinds of cancer.