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Germantown Settlement, a venerable Philadelphia social-service agency overwhelmed of late by apparent fiscal mismanagement, has filed for bankruptcy. In a filing seeking Chapter 11 protection while reorganizing, Settlement and a key subsidiary reported more than $11 million of debt. The subsidiary, Greater Germantown Housing Development Corp., is Settlement's community-development arm. It filed for bankruptcy, as well. Both filings were made Thursday. Settlement and its subsidiaries face more than $2 million in liens for unpaid city, school district, state, and federal taxes dating to 2007.

ATX Communications Inc., of Bala Cynwyd, a regional phone and Internet service provider that has tried for three years to cut its debt, filed yesterday to reorganize under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The company employs 1,200 people - nearly half of them in the Philadelphia area - and serves 300,000 residential and 30,000 business customers from here to the Midwest and New York. It does not anticipate laying off any workers as a result of the filing, said Grant Evans, a company spokesman.

Brighten Health Group L.L.C., a Bryn Mawr skilled-nursing and rehabilitation group, and five of its nursing homes have filed for reorganization under Chapter 11 in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Philadelphia. Company representatives and their attorneys were not available late yesterday afternoon to respond to questions about how residents would be affected at the homes. When a company files for reorganization under Chapter 11 bankruptcy, it typically remains in business during the proceedings, often gaining access to new sources of credit.

You may have bought Madonna's book without blushing, but would you have the nerve to ask for a videotape called Bankruptcy? And even if you did, would the clerk accept your charge card? Seriously, personal bankruptcy is an option that millions of consumers face every year, and the right person to advise you on this course is your lawyer. But there's no reason to approach him or her in a state of ignorance. One way to prepare for that initial visit is to review the federal laws discussed in Bankruptcy (100 minutes, $39.95)

Sam Truell, a retired Chester policeman, has been supplementing his pension with monthly income from Advanta investment notes. "It helps me along quite a bit," Truell, who has been living off his retirement income for 17 years, said yesterday. But Advanta Corp.'s weekend bankruptcy filing in Delaware is snatching away that extra income, leaving Truell and thousands of other retail investors with gaping holes in their budgets. Bankruptcy court will now determine the amount and timing of any further payments.

Two Butcher & Co. real estate partnerships that own the Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables, Fla., have filed for bankruptcy protection from creditors. Butcher's Deilwydd Corp. and Sovereign Group Ltd. 1986-1 filed for protection under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankrutpcy Act in U.S. District Court in Philadelphia last Friday. Deilwydd Corp. is the general partner of the limited partnership that owns the property. David Lloyd, president of Sovereign Group, Butcher & Co.'s real estate subsidiary, yesterday said hotel revenues had increased, but not enough to pay off its debt to a Florida bank that was about to foreclose.

This will be one of the last chapters in the Timothy McVeigh saga. I hope for this survivor from now on it will not be Timothy McVeigh. It will be Timothy Who? - Bombing survivor Paul Heath, who attended Wednesday's hearing, in which U.S. District Judge Richard Matsch denied a stay of execution for Timothy McVeigh. I believe that we have satisfied the responsibility, completely and fairly, that the system operate innocently and fairly ... and it is an appropriate ruling, for which I am grateful.

Describing Philadelphia as "one of our strongest markets," a spokesman for Best Products Inc. said Thursday that customers of its two Philadelphia stores - including one of its largest at Roosevelt Boulevard and Comly Road in the Northeast - should expect business as usual despite the company's recent filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. If anything, said Ross Richardson, corporate communications director, shoppers might find shelves better-stocked now than before the holidays.

Packard Press Corp. of Philadelphia and its New York-based parent, Basix Corp., have filed for protection from creditors under Chapter 11 of the federal bankruptcy code. In a petition for reorganization filed Monday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York, Basix Corp. and 12 of its subsidiaries, including Packard Press, sought protection while they continue efforts to restructure the parent company's debts. Company executives yesterday emphasized that Packard, the principal subsidiary of Basix and one of Pennsylvania's largest commercial printers, is solvent, profitable and doing business as usual.

Pennsylvania Frederick Cooper, doing business as Fred's Water Ice, also known as Frederick Augustus, 5349 Chester Ave., Philadelphia; Chapter 13; no schedules available. Phoenix Horizons Inc., doing business as Northeast Community Center, 2840 Holme Ave., Philadelphia; Chapter 11; no schedules available. New Jersey 16 N Osbourne LLC, 16 N. Osbourne Ave., Margate; Chapter 11; Assets, $531,000; Liabilities, $771,000. SOURCE: The Legal Intelligencer, U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of New Jersey.

Residential Capital L.L.C., which was a big subprime mortgage lender and still employs 1,385 in Fort Washington, filed for bankruptcy protection Monday in New York. The move, which analysts had been expecting for months, is a reminder of the distress that festers in some corners of the financial industry following the bursting of the home mortgage bubble five years ago. Ally Financial Inc., the owner of Residential Capital (ResCap), said that unloading the money-losing mortgage subsidiary and shedding certain other operations would enable it more quickly to repay the $12 billion it still owes the federal government from bailouts in 2008 and 2009.

United Way of Southeastern Pennsylvania in Philadelphia and six other United Way charities in the region, mostly in South Jersey, are merging, the groups announced Monday. The goal of the new United Way of Greater Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey is "greater impact across our region," not cost-saving, said Jill Michal, president and chief executive of United Way of Southeastern Pennsylvania, who has been named to the same position in the new organization. The merger is part of a slow trend toward consolidation nationally, she said.

These are not your father's New Jersey Devils, even if guys your father's age will figure prominently in the Flyers' second-round series. Jaromir Jagr was the fifth pick in the 1990 NHL entry draft. Martin Brodeur was the 20th pick. Both of them will be Hall of Famers. All things considered, they should probably be in the Hall of Fame already. Instead, they are still playing. That year, the Flyers took Mike Ricci one spot ahead of Jagr. Ricci had a good career with four organizations.

The Passage Of Power The Years of Lyndon Johnson By Robert A. Caro Alfred A. Knopf, 712 pp. $35. Reviewed by Dan DeLuca   Long live Robert Caro. Loyal readers of the biographer's now four-volumes-and-counting, truly epic political history and character study, The Years of Lyndon Johnson, will understand that I mean that quite literally. As in, "Please let the two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning author, who's now 76 and has finally, in The Passage of Power, gotten to the point where LBJ has fulfilled the prediction he made as a teenager that he would one day be president, live long enough to get to the end of his page-turning saga.