The Daily Docket: Caesars Puts Operating Unit Into Bankruptcy

Gambling giant Caesars Entertainment Corp. put its largest unit into Chapter 11 protection in Chicago early Thursday morning, leaving it to a judge to settle the bitter dispute among the company’s creditors and the investment firms whose buyout left the unit with $18.4 billion in debt, The Wall Street Journal reports. 

Bonus: Why did the Las Vegas-based gambling company file for bankruptcy in Chicago, rather than New York or Delaware’s popular courts? WSJ’s Peg Brickley said it could be because of an appeals court decision in an old telecom bankruptcy case that could make it easier for ailing companies to force creditors to drop lawsuits against entities outside the bankruptcy––such as company leaders who were calling the shots—even though they themselves aren’t under bankruptcy protection.

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Struggling electronics retailer RadioShack Corp. is preparing to file for bankruptcy as early as next month, The Wall Street Journal reported. The retailer, which employed 24,000 people late last year, has made clear it is running dangerously low on cash after posting losses in each of the last 11 quarters.

The Supreme Court appeared open Wednesday to clarifying the powers of nearly 1,000 judges in the federal court system, a group whose constitutional authority has come into question since a 2011 high-court decision involving the late Playboy playmate Anna Nicole Smith, WSJ’s Sara Randazzo reports.

A Kentucky company that is brewing ice tea inspired by Uncle Si on “Duck Dynasty,” the hit A&E reality TV show, has filed for bankruptcy, accusing the show’s stars of breaking their promises to promote the beverage, WSJ’s Personal Journal reports.

A former employee is suing the bankrupt Mineral Park Mine in Arizona on behalf of more than 350 employees who were abruptly laid off beginning on Dec. 29, HavasuNews.com reports.

What else is getting in the way of Detroit’s grand revitalization? The Motor City has the highest auto-insurance premiums in the country, Bloomberg reports.

A Delaware bankruptcy judge said that Texas power giant Energy Future Holdings can move forward with its plan to auction off its Oncor transmission arm, The Dallas Morning News reports.

Lawyers who represent ex-Freedom Industries President Gary Southern say federal prosecutors are unfairly and prematurely punishing him by seizing his property, including a 2012 Bentley, The Charleston Daily Mail reports.

Creditors of the bankrupt and shuttered HomeMade Pizza Co. are expected to be paid a fraction of what the ready-to-bake pizza chain owes them, The Chicago Tribune reports.

The parent company of Connecticut’s Johnson Memorial Hospital filed for bankruptcy with a plan to sell itself to another health care company, The Hartford Courant reports.

Bidders are expected to gather Thursday for the bankruptcy auction of Georgia’s Rome News-Tribune newspaper and several other publications, the newspaper’s website reports.

Write to Katy Stech at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter at @KatyStech