Franchise Group, the company at the heart of a troubled management buyout that has devastated the stock of B. Riley Financial, has filed for bankruptcy — but plans to keep open most of its retail brands, including Vitamin Shoppe.

The retailer filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Sunday, announcing it already had a deal with about 80% of its senior secured lenders that would allow them to convert their debt into ownership stakes and continue operating the businesses.

The company’s chains also include Pet Supplies Plus and Buddy’s Home Furnishings. Its fourth retailer, discount furniture and appliance seller American Freight, will be closed. American Freight operates more than a dozen stores in California, including outlets in Torrance, West Covina and Palmdale.

Westwood-based B. Riley took the Delaware, Ohio, company private last year in a $2.8-billion management-led buyout that turned disastrous amid slowing sales for Franchise Group and a scandal involving ties between its founder, Brian Kahn, and Prophecy Asset Management, a hedge fund that federal prosecutors allege defrauded investors of $294 million. Kahn has denied any wrongdoing.

B. Riley took on $600 million in debt to underwrite the deal and lent Kahn $200 million over the years to establish Franchise Group and take it private — with most of the loan secured by shares of the retailer. B. Riley founder and co-ceo Bryant Riley has denied knowledge of any wrongdoing, but his firm’s dealings with Kahn are the subject of a Securities and Exchange Commission investigation.

Riley, in a letter Monday to employees, said he felt “personally sick about this result,” which would likely result in a total loss of any equity stakes in Franchise Group for the company, 69 employees and others, including wealth clients and institutional investors.

He added that the downturn in consumer spending and the scandal involving Prophecy could not have been foreseen, but that B. Riley is in “far better shape than folks give us credit for.”

B. Riley has already announced that it would mark down its investment in Franchise Group by up to $370 million and record a loss of up to $475 million when it files its second quarter earnings, which it has yet to do.

Shares of B. Riley were down 13% to $4.95 Monday on the Nasdaq. The stock traded close to $90 three years ago.

Riley told The Times in September that the firm had lowered its debt related to the deal to about $380 million and was carrying $1.9 billion in total debt.

The financial services company has since been selling off assets to continue cutting its debt. Riley, in his letter, said that debt related to the Franchise deal would lower to $125 million by the end of the month.

In September, B. Riley said it had sold a majority stake in its Great American appraisal and liquidation business for about $203 million to Oaktree Capital Management, while retaining a 47% stake valued at roughly $183 million in a new holding company it formed with the L.A. distressed asset manager.

The company also sold off its its interests in a number of apparel brands and the former mall retailer Brookstone for about $236 million.

A few days ago, it said it had sold off a small portion of its wealth management business to Stifel Financial Corp. for up to $35 million in cash. Some 40 to 50 advisors, along with the associated customer accounts, are expected to move to Stifel early next year.

San Francisco —  Jet airplanes spew enormous amounts of greenhouse gases and noxious chemicals, but the industry insists it wants to clean itself up.

Some of the largest commercial airlines and airborne cargo carriers in the U.S. have banded together to help solve the problem under their trade group Airlines for America. On Wednesday, the group announced a partnership with the California Air Resources Board to set policy to pave the way for wide adoption of sustainable aviation fuels, or SAFs.

Those fuels today are based on food waste and farm crops, although alternatives including hydrogen lie on the horizon. United Airlines started using some SAF in 2015. But SAFs’ share of the market is tiny, and they’re two to three times as expensive as jet fuel — basically kerosene — from refined oil.

Biofuels also draw criticism from many environmentalists because their supply chain still contributes carbon to the atmosphere, and much of what’s burned today is a mix of SAF and fossil jet fuel. And, they say, land used to grow corn and other fuel ingredients could be put to better use.

CARB and the airlines will “work together with sustainable aviation fuel producers, aviation stakeholders, and the federal government to ensure that at least 200 million gallons of cost-competitive options are available for use by airlines within California by 2035,” the air board said in a press release. “A Sustainable Aviation Fuel Working Group of government and industry stakeholders” will be created.

The major focus will be on state and federal financial incentives and permit reform.

The plan was announced at a news conference at San Francisco International Airport on Wednesday. CARB Chair Liane Randolph said that “California is once again demonstrating that smart climate action is good for the environment and good for business.”

“This partnership with the nation’s leading airlines brings the aviation industry onboard to advance a clean air future and will help accelerate development of sustainable fuel options and promote cleaner air travel within the state,” she said.

The 200 million gallons “seems like a pretty modest goal to me,” said Aaron Smith, an agriculture and resources economist at UC Berkeley.

The federal government is aiming to create a supply of 3 billion gallons by 2030, which most industry observers consider an aggressive target.

The passenger airlines and cargo carriers working with the state are Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, Atlas Air Worldwide, Delta Air Lines, FedEx, Hawaiian Airlines, JetBlue Airways, Southwest Airlines, United Airlines, UPS and Air Canada.

On the corner of a busy intersection in Culver City, an oversize inflatable witch and racks of costumes draw in customers to Robinson Beautilities.

Inside, overflowing bins of accessories sit among packaged costumes and novelty items. Although the shop’s costume rental service is open year-round, business triples in October, co-owner Dan Levin said.

For many Angelenos, Halloween is a celebration of autumn and a chance to embrace beloved whimsical traditions. It’s also an opportunity to spend as the holiday brings with it a retail frenzy — one that hit record levels last year as consumers across the country spent $12.2 billion on candy, costumes, decorations and more.

This year’s Halloween spending is expected to reach $11.6 billion, according to a National Retail Federation survey. Consumers will spend an average of $103 on the holiday, the survey found, totaling around $3.8 billion on costumes, an equal amount on decorations and slightly less on candy.

Costume hunters at his store typically spend around $150, Levin said. Gary Garland, a Pacific Palisades resident shopping for a costume earlier this week, said he would spend that amount on a costume alone, plus more on other Halloween merchandise.

“Halloween is our favorite holiday,” said Garland, who has two children ages 17 and 22. “We’re all in.”

Many customers are willing to splurge on Halloween, Levin said, especially because the holiday is so popular in Los Angeles.

“They definitely go way all out because you have the Hollywood creative community here,” he said. “This is where movies are made and this is where people dress up.”

Packaged costumes in Levin’s shop sell for around $70, while rental costumes, which are higher quality and more theatrical, range from $80 to $200. Countless more costumes are available at chain retailers including Party City and Spirit Halloween, which offers a Harley Quinn costume for $39.99 and a Catwoman costume for $59.99.

“I don’t think money is an issue, as long as it looks really good and they feel good,” Levin said of his customers. He has noticed an increased focus on accessories and costume details in recent years, he said, especially from shoppers particularly invested in the holiday.

At a Spirit Halloween in Culver City two days before Halloween, customers of all ages roamed the aisles and inspected rubber masks, body paint and wigs. Some shelves were already picked clean.

The National Retail Federation survey found that nearly half of Halloween shoppers begin their spending before October because they’re looking forward to the season and want to avoid the stress of last-minute shopping.

“Halloween marks the official transition to the fall season for many Americans, and consumers are eager to get a jump start on purchasing new seasonal decor and other autumnal items,” NRF Vice President of Industry and Consumer Insights Katherine Cullen said in a statement.

Spirit Halloween, which operates about 1,500 seasonal stores around the U.S., opens their doors at the end of the summer and stays open until early November.

“A lot of people come in early to get ideas,” Levin said of his store. “Because we’re here year-round, they know they can get the items they want.”

Seventy-two percent of survey respondents said they plan to celebrate Halloween this year by partaking in modern holiday traditions, including handing out candy, decorating their home, dressing in costume and carving pumpkins.

Those traditions cost money, and as they’ve become more popular, Halloween spending has gone up. According to the NRF, national spending has increased by $4.2 billion over the last decade, jumping from $7.4 billion in 2014 to $11.6 billion this year.

The commercialization of Halloween is nothing new, and modern practices such as trick-or-treating became popular in America in the 1920s and 1930s, according to Smithsonian Magazine.

The holiday’s origins date to the 8th century Celtic festival of Samhain, which was intended to ward off the ghosts of the dead that were said to return the night before the fall harvest on Nov. 1. Festival participants wore costumes made from animal skins and lighted huge fires to burn crops as a sacrifice to the deities.

For Garland in the Pacific Palisades, modern Halloween is worth every dollar, even if his family sometimes goes overboard.

“My wife does some of the shopping,” he said. “I don’t want to know what she spends.”