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Oil and natural gas company Tri-Valley Corp . filed for chapter 11 protection on Tuesday to execute a plan that settles a dispute with investors by selling its assets, including its oil and gas wells, at auction, Dow Jones DBR Small Cap reported today. In addition to breach of contract allegations from investors that had poured $97 million into partner company TVC Opus 1 Drilling Program LP, Tri-Valley said in court documents that it is under investigation by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The SEC has subpoenaed its staff and documents relating to its financial activity since January 2002.

The historic Sparrows Point steel mill was sold to liquidator Hilco Industrial for about $72 million on Tuesday, Reuters reported yesterday. The 120-year-old Baltimore, Md., mill, where steel for the Golden Gate Bridge was forged, was one of three steelmaking assets put up for sale by bankrupt RG Steel LLC. The company was the fourth-largest U.S. producer of flat-rolled steel when it filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on May 31 due to rising costs and weak demand.

Anadarko Petroleum Corp. said yesterday that it still expects to win a case brought by paint materials company Tronox Inc. but that a settlement of the $25 billion lawsuit is less likely, Reuters reported yesterday. "Due to the change in the company's opinion as to the probable form of resolution, Anadarko is no longer setting aside $525 million to settle the case," the Andarko said in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. While the company does not expect to lose at trial, Anadarko estimated a potential loss of $1.4 billion, the filing said. Tronox has claimed that when it was spun off in 2005 by Kerr-McGee Corp, which Anadarko later bought, it had been saddled with liabilities that led to its January 2009 bankruptcy filing. Tronox emerged from chapter 11 protection in February 2011.

For more on oil and gas insolvency, be sure to pick up ABI’s latest publication, When Gushers Go Dry: The Essentials of Oil & Gas Bankruptcy, available for purchase in the ABI Bookstore. http://bookstore.abi.org/when-gushers-go-dry-essentials-oil-gas-bankrup…

Friendship Dairies LLC, a Texas-based dairy farmer, filed for chapter 11 protection on Monday after a drought forced up its operational costs, Dow Jones DBR Small Cap reported today. The majority of Friendship Dairies ' debt is owed to McFinney Agri-Finance, an Idaho company that loaned Friendship $18.4 million. It owes $16 million on the loan, which is secured by $24 million in assets.

Bankruptcy Judge Mary Walrath let LSP Energy open its bankruptcy auction for its Mississippi power plant with a $249 million lead bid from South Mississippi Electric Power Association after rival buyers argued that the bid's provisions would have made it harder for them to challenge it, Dow Jones DBR Small Cap reported today. Rival bidder TPF II LP, a private equity fund that invests in energy and power assets and is affiliated with independent power producer Tenaska Inc ., had protested the lead offer because it would have paid $7.5 million breakup fee to South Mississippi Electric Power for kicking off the auction with a $249 million bid.

Montana electronics retailer Vann's Inc. filed for chapter 11 protection blaming declining sales in a poor retail climate and two unsuccessful efforts to expand into new businesses, the Wall Street Journal reported today. The company, which listed $17.6 million in assets and $14.4 million in liabilities in court documents filed on Friday, said that it has suffered losses because of its attempts to broaden the scope of its business beyond electronics. Vann's has two secured lines of credit, one with First Interstate Bank, on which it owes $4 million, and one with GE Commercial Distribution Finance Corp. with an $8.5 million maximum borrowing amount.

Private-equity firm Advent International on Sunday said it agreed to buy a majority interest in the bedding company that owns the Simmons mattress brand and licenses the Serta brand, The Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday. The price of the transaction wasn't disclosed, but on Friday Advent was close to a deal for National Bedding's owners Ares Management, and the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan put the mattress company up for sale earlier this year in an auction run by Barclays. Under the plan announced Sunday, Ares Management and the teachers pension fund will retain a significant equity stake. The transaction is expected to be completed by the fourth quarter of 2012, subject to various closing conditions. Private-equity firms Bain Capital and Berkshire Partners had also been bidding as part of the auction.

K-V Pharmaceutical, a Bridgeton, Mo.-based company focused on women's health care products, filed for bankruptcy protection on Saturday, blaming federal actions that kept it from getting the "full value" of a drug aimed at preventing premature births, Reuters reported Saturday. The company, founded in 1942, listed debts of $728.3 million and assets of $236.6 million in a filing in bankruptcy court in New York. The company blamed the bankruptcy on its "inability to realize the full value of Makena," a drug that helps avoid premature births, because of the Food and Drug Administration's refusal to enforce orphan drug marketing exclusivity for it. The company also said it was hurt by restrictions on reimbursements imposed by state Medicaid agencies.

Total bankruptcy filings in the United States for July 2012 decreased 12 percent compared to the previous year, according to data provided by Epiq Systems, Inc. July bankruptcy filings totaled 97,073, down from the 110,173 filings registered in July 2011. Total commercial filings for July 2012 were 4,513, representing a 22 percent decrease from the 5,800 filings during the same period in 2011. The 92,560 total noncommercial filings for July represented an 11 percent drop from the July 2011 noncommercial filing total of 104,373. “The July filings continue to reflect the effects of sustained low interest rates and weak consumer spending,” said ABI Executive Director Samuel J. Gerdano. “We are still on pace for perhaps the lowest total new bankruptcies since before the financial crisis in 2008.”

Add the Postal Service to the list of problems Congress is so far unable to fix. America's mail service endured its first-ever default overnight, failing to submit a required $5.5 billion payment for future retirees' health benefits by Thursday, Fox News reported today. The unprecedented lapse prompted new questions about the fate of the Postal Service as its financial situation spirals ever more out of control, and Capitol Hill lawmakers have started a new round of fingerpointing after deadlocking over how to break the slide. The agency is expected to miss another $5.6 billion payment in September. For now, the missed mega-payments are not expected to affect day-to-day operations. The default raises questions about whether taxpayers will eventually need to step in to save an agency that historically has gotten by without taxpayer support, even though it is subject to congressional oversight. As it loses roughly $25 million a day, the agency has rolled out a plan to cut Saturday delivery, reduce low-volume postal facilities and end its obligation to pay the future retiree health payments. The House and Senate each have taken a different approach to that plan.