WSJcomBankruptcyBeat

In the latest installment of The Examiners, our panel of restructuring experts tackles a battle that’s currently being waged in courts throughout the country: whether General Motors Co.’s bankruptcy cleansed it of liability for claims related to its faulty ignition switches.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has hit Exide Technologies with a notice of violation for air contamination at a California plant that serves as a cheap source of lead for its battery-making business. The Wall Street Journal has the Daily Bankruptcy Review article here.

Energy Future Holdings Corp. has agreed to discuss an alternative bankruptcy loan offer from a group of bondholders it’s trying to win over as it pushes ahead on a multi-front restructuring strategy.

The bankruptcy loan offer comes from the smallest and possibly least perturbed group of unhappy creditors in the Chapter 11 case, but the agreement to negotiate is a sign of progress in Energy Future’s effort to reshape its balance sheet in bankruptcy.

When Hurricane Sandy hit the northeast in late 2012, devastating parts of New York and New Jersey, many turned to local organizations asking for ways to help those that didn’t weather the storm well.

As residents up and down the East Coast came together to collect debris, rebuild homes and nail down boardwalk planks, members of the Turnaround Management Association of New York saw a group that had largely been left to fend for itself: small businesses.

Creditors have raised questions about what happened in the final days before Coldwater Creek handed over the keys to its 330-store chain to liquidators in bankruptcy. The Wall Street Journal has the Daily Bankruptcy Review article here.