Solyndra to get bankruptcy hearing today

President Obama meets with Arnold Schwarzenegger, then governor of California, at Solyndra's construction site in Fremont, Calif., in May 2010.

(Credit: Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

The California solar manufacturing company to which the federal government loaned $528 million--and which closed its doors, laying off hundreds of workers--will be in a U.S. bankruptcy court in Delaware this morning.

The proceeding is likely to shed more light on Solyndra, which closed abruptly just a few weeks ago, reports CBS News correspondent John Blackstone.

At today's bankruptcy hearing, Solyndra will ask for permission to auction off its state-of-the-art factory built with more than $500 million from the federal government.

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Last Friday, before a congressional committee, Solyndra's two top executives pleaded the Fifth, on the advice of their well-paid attorneys.

In bankruptcy court filings Solyndra lists nearly a dozen attorneys being paid from $255 an hour to $950 an hour. The company also wants more than $300,000 a week to pay about 100 employees still working there.

But 900 laid-off workers are looking to the bankruptcy court to help them collect severance pay they didn't get when the company suddenly shut down.

Alan Harper worked as a maintenance technician at Solyndra for three and a half years. Now he's going to job fairs.

But when President Obama visited the Solyndra factory last year, Harper was convinced the company had a bright future: "If it hit big, then it hit big. But it didn't," Harper said. "Oh well, I took a chance."

But Solyndra, now under FBI investigation, took a chance with a half-billion taxpayer dollars, and lost.

This story originally appeared on CBSNews.com.