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The Philadelphia Inquirer is being pushed back to the auction block by warring owners who can't agree on how to run the newspaper operation or how to break the impasse at the top of the company, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported today. New Jersey political power broker George Norcross III and ally Joseph Buckelew, who own 58 percent of the company that owns the Inquirer, Philadelphia Daily News and the associated digital news operation, have turned to a Delaware court for aid, saying that they are countering a move by minority owner Lewis Katz, a parking lot and sports mogul, that "presents a real risk of another bankruptcy and additional job losses" for the publications.

Fisker Automotive, the bankrupt maker of a plug-in hybrid sports car, asked a federal judge to approve its proposed sale to a Hong Kong tycoon rather than a Chinese suitor that Fisker alleged was to blame for its failure, Reuters reported yesterday. A courtroom showdown is set for Jan. 10 that will determine the future of the defunct car maker, which was launched with a controversial U.S. government loan. Bankruptcy Judge Kevin Gross must decide if Fisker's business will be put to open auction or sold to an affiliate of Richard Li as the company has proposed. The hearing was originally scheduled for Friday, but was postponed one week as a major snowstorm threatened to disrupt travel throughout the eastern U.S.

KidsPeace Corp., the operator of a psychiatric hospital and residential treatment centers for children, filed a reorganization plan that includes a settlement of $100 million in potential liability that is owed to the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corp. (PBGC), the Wall Street Journal reported today. According to the proposed reorganization plan filed in bankruptcy court last week, KidsPeace would pay PBGC $13.5 million to settle what the federal agency claims is a $100 million shortfall in its terminated pension plan. KidsPeace won a "distress termination" agreement from PBGC, which will move the duty to pay retirees off its balance sheet. The settlement pays $450,000 in cash up front to PBGC and the remaining $13.05 million will be paid with an interest-free note, under which KidsPeace will make $225,000 payments quarterly.

Ambulance operator Rural/Metro Corp., which is poised to emerge from chapter 11 protection in the coming weeks, has agreed to pay $2.8 million to the federal government to settle civil allegations of Medicare fraud, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported today. John S. Leonardo, the U.S. Attorney for Arizona, said yesterday that his office has agreed to a deal with Rural/Metro to settle allegations that the company violated the federal False Claims Act by submitting false bills to Medicare between 2007 and 2011. The settlement resolves allegations that various ambulance companies owned by Rural/Metro billed Medicare for transporting patients from one hospital to another on an emergency basis when, in fact, the calls were not emergencies.

W.R. Grace & Co said that it has settled the only remaining appeal for its chapter 11 plan with a group of bank lenders, paving the way for the U.S. chemicals maker to emerge out of bankruptcy protection after 12 years, Reuters reported today. The company reached a settlement with holders of its pre-petition bank debt, who have been demanding a higher interest rate on their loans, according to a court filing yesterday. Grace will pay the lender group $1.1 billion, comprising $971 million of principal and undisputed interest through Dec. 31, and $129 million in settlements, removing the last remaining obstacle to its emergence out of bankruptcy protection. Grace filed for chapter 11 protection in 2001, making it one of the longest bankruptcies in U.S. history, after an asbestos leak at one of its mines led to a slew of lawsuits.

Nortel Networks Inc., a defunct telecom company, has reached a deal that will cut more than $3 billion from what was allegedly owed to former Nortel entities in Europe, marking what it called a "significant milestone" to ending its five-year bankruptcy, Reuters reported yesterday. In return for withdrawing the claims, administrators of insolvent Nortel entities in Europe and a pension trustee in Britain would each receive high-priority administrative claims for $37.5 million, according to a court filing yesterday. The parties also agreed to work together to try to resolve how to divide $7.5 billion in cash that was raised from liquidating the former Canadian telecommunications equipment maker, according to the documents.

Two major investors who bought some of the $540 million worth of U.S. bonds issued by Chinese solar-panel maker Suntech Power Holdings Co. are fighting a bid by a smaller group of bond investors to force the company into bankruptcy, Dow Jones Newswires reported today. Investment firms Clearwater Capital Partners LLC and a Spinnaker Capital Group affiliate told a bankruptcy judge on Monday that allowing the chapter 7 bankruptcy for Suntech to move forward would result in a smaller recovery than under the restructuring plan that's in the works for the company, which was once the world's largest solar panel maker, according to papers filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan.

Creditors of Death Row Records and Marion “Suge” Knight may soon see their first payment in nearly eight years, although one obstacle could come from rapper Dr. Dre, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Lawyers representing the rapper, whose given name is Andre Young, recently notified a bankruptcy judge that they’d file a $3 million claim on the rapper’s behalf in the bankruptcy cases of the record label and its founder, Mr. Knight. The claim seeks payment for records sold during the bankruptcy case, according to court papers. Dr. Dre’s lawyers said that they’d ask that the claim be paid ahead of those of other creditors, which they acknowledged could “significantly impact” an ongoing effort to get a payment out to those creditors soon. R. Todd Neilson, the bankruptcy trustee overseeing the liquidations of Death Row and Mr. Knight, is slated to ask a Los Angeles bankruptcy judge next week for permission to distribute more than $4 million to creditors, among them the mother of deceased rapper Tupac Shakur.

Bankruptcy Judge Shelley C. Chapman yesterday allowed LightSquared to move forward with its lawsuit against Dish Network Corp. and Chairman Charlie Ergen over his purchases of LightSquared debt before Dish bid for the wireless satellite company's assets, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported today. Judge Chapman denied a bid by Dish and Ergen to dismiss the suit, allowing LightSquared to go after Ergen on its charge that he bought the debt on behalf of Dish and not himself. Such purchases would have been illegal under LightSquared's credit agreement, which prohibited competitors from buying the debt.

Edison Mission Energy 's bondholders are hiring a team led by TXU Corp.'s former chief executive to help them navigate a coming legal battle in Edison Mission's bankruptcy, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported today. Bankruptcy Judge Jacqueline Cox on Thursday authorized Edison Mission to pay the bills of Bluescape Advisors LLC as Bluescape advises the bondholder group in connection with possible litigation against Edison Mission's parent, Edison International.