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A Colorado wolf sanctuary filed for bankruptcy, blaming the devastation from the High Park wildfire that scorched roughly a third of the 162-acre property where its 30 wolves roam, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Sanctuary officials had to leave the nonprofit’s LaPorte, Colo., property for nearly a month after the fire broke out in June 2012, said W.O.L.F. Sanctuary (Wolves Offered Life & Friendship) executive director Shelley J. Coldiron. The fire—one of the worst in the state’s history—burned about 87,000 acres and destroyed more than 250 homes. The sanctuary lost several sheds and storage facilities to the blaze and is still fighting an insurer to pay for $60,000 to cover the damage.

New York’s highest court weighed in yesterday on a dispute over a plan by a bankruptcy trustee to sell the rent-stabilized apartment of an 80-year-old East Village woman to her landlord, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Arguments before the Court of Appeals focused on whether such leases were considered transactions like any leases, or public benefits conferred by the state legislature that should be protected from bankruptcy court. Some judges on the Court of Appeals sharply questioned a lawyer for Mary Santiago, the East Village woman. He argued that a state law that listed exemptions from bankruptcy for “public-assistance benefits” meant to include rent-stabilized leases, though the law doesn’t specifically mention them. Several judges seemed sympathetic to another argument, raised by lawyers for Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and Mayor Bill de Blasio, that rent stabilized leases couldn’t be considered property at all, since they couldn't be legally bought and sold by tenants. Under a bankruptcy court ruling, Santiago would have been permitted to live in her apartment at the same rent for the rest of her life but would give up the right to pass the apartment to her son. Santiago appealed. The state court was asked by the Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to step in and examine the state law setting exemptions for state residents from bankruptcy.

U.S. Steel Canada said yesterday that it has reached a tentative deal with union leaders on a contract for workers at its Hamilton Works operations in Ontario, Reuters reported yesterday. U.S. Steel Canada, a wholly owned subsidiary of parent U.S. Steel Corp, was recently granted creditor protection by the Ontario Superior Court as it attempts to restructure its operations. The terms of the tentative agreement were not disclosed and the deal remains subject to ratification by members of United Steelworkers Local 1005.

A bankruptcy judge said that he will rule on Friday whether to allow the owner of the Trump Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey to shed its labor pact in order to clinch a $100 million rescue deal with billionaire Carl Icahn, Reuters reported yesterday. Parent company Trump Entertainment Resorts Inc. has said that trimming $14.6 million from its annual union pension and health care costs is key to save the casino from becoming the fifth to close this year in the seaside resort. Bankruptcy Judge Kevin Gross said that he would read his ruling during a teleconference at 3 p.m. EDT on Friday. Atlantic City has lost thousands of jobs this year and Trump Entertainment has warned it could be forced to begin winding down the Taj Mahal operations as soon as next week.

A plan by cooperative food distributor Associated Wholesalers Inc. to pay executives more than half a million dollars in bonuses has met the resistance of a federal bankruptcy watchdog, who says that the extra pay doesn't require enough work on the part of the employees, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported today. Associated Wholesalers proposes paying 12 members of senior management $246,254 for staying with the company until it is sold. Another $320,186 has been set aside to pay 15 senior managers if the company meets or exceeds certain financial projections. U.S. Trustee Roberta DeAngelis took issue with the bonuses in a filing on Friday, saying that both plans fail to meet the standards outlined in federal bankruptcy laws.

Endeavour International Corp., a Houston-based oil and gas company, filed for bankruptcy protection on Friday as part of a debt-for-equity swap with bondholders that will slash about $568 million in debt off the company's books, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported today. The chapter 11 filing comes after the company reached the terms of a restructuring pact with more than two-thirds of its bondholders, court papers said. The company has been negotiating with its bondholders for months, with the latest round of talks taking on renewed urgency after Endeavour skipped a $33.5 million interest payment on Sept. 2.

GT Advanced Technologies Inc. asked for bankruptcy court permission to shut down its synthetic-sapphire operations, citing terms of a contract with Apple Inc. that it called “oppressive” and “burdensome,” Bloomberg News reported on Friday. GT Advanced, based in Merrimack, N.H., filed for bankruptcy last week, less than a year after announcing an agreement to supply sapphire to Apple. The substance is used to make screens on mobile devices more durable. The company told the court on Friday that it was going through cash too fast and must halt operations in Mesa, Arizona, and Salem, Massachusetts, by Dec. 31, at a cost of 890 jobs.

Alco Stores Inc. filed for chapter 11 protection yesterday with plans to liquidate or sell the 113-year-old retail operation, the Wall Street Journal reported today. The filing came not long after the board of directors was replaced as the result of a proxy fight that saw shareholders clamoring for improved results at Alco, which operates 198 discount general merchandise stores in 23 states. In court papers, Alco blamed the effects of the “lingering economic slowdown” on its customers, many of whom are living on fixed or low incomes in rural areas. While it has positioned its stores to avoid head-to-head competition with larger discount chains, Alco said it couldn’t escape the effects of economic distress in the U.S. The bankruptcy filing puts about 3,000 jobs on the line, most of them in stores in areas of Texas, Kansas, Colorado and other states, located in small communities and sparsely populated regions. Alco has lined up a stalking-horse liquidation bid from a joint venture made up of Tiger Capital Group, LLC, SB Capital Group, LLC, and Great American Group WF, LLC, court papers say.

GT Advanced Technologies Inc. yesterday revealed that it intends to wind down sapphire production, cutting short its once-promising bid to supply the scratch-resistant material for Apple Inc's iPhones and other mobile devices, Reuters reported today. Scant information has emerged since GT Advanced filed unexpectedly for bankruptcy on Monday, wiping out most of its market value and triggering speculation as to what may have soured its Apple relationship and torpedoed its prospects. At the first public hearing since Monday's filing, lawyers for GT Advanced argued that it could not reveal why it sought bankruptcy and asked a court to keep crucial documents sealed, a highly unusual move that may keep investors in the dark for now about its financial implosion. A lawyer for the company said a confidentiality agreement prevented it from revealing its chapter 11 reorganization plan. Apple, which zealously guards the secrecy of its product pipeline, has been known in general to place strict confidentiality requirements on its many suppliers.

The union for more than 1,100 workers at Atlantic City, N.J.’s Trump Taj Mahal casino who are rallying to save their health-care and pension benefits are now fighting in two places: in the courtroom and on the streets, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Several hundred protesters plan to block a major traffic intersection near the Atlantic City Expressway yesterday to draw attention to pressure that workers who are unionized through Unite Here Local 54 face, said union spokesman Ben Begleiter. Billionaire Carl Icahn promised to take over the struggling casino, whose owner filed for bankruptcy last month and put $100 million into its operations. But that offer stands only if casino officials can deliver about $15 million worth of cuts from workers and property tax relief from Atlantic City. Casino officials want to stop contributing money to worker pensions and to end their health care coverage.