Caitlin Devitt

The Ohio Senate last week approved a $7.6 billion, two-year transportation budget that includes authority to issue $1.5 billion of bonds backed by a new Ohio Turnpike credit to generate up to $3 billion for transportation projects.

Moody's Investors Service last week downgraded to A3 from A2 its rating on Adena Health System, Ohio and revised the outlook to negative from stable.

County executives in southeast Michigan made their final appointments to a newly created four-county Regional Transit Authority.

Standard & Poor's Friday boosted its outlook on junk-rated Detroit to stable from negative, saying the state's appointment last week of an emergency manager bodes well for the city's future fiscal position.

Medicaid and Medicare funding cuts under the new federal health care law could force states to choose whether to compensate hospitals with their own dollars or let hospitals' credit quality decline, Moody's said.

Michigan firm Miller Canfield Paddock and Stone PLC is expected to continue to serve as Detroit's local outside counsel as it embarks on a large-scale restructuring, with Ohio-based Jones Day serving as national restructuring counsel.

Gov. Rick Snyder Thursday appointed Jones Day bankruptcy attorney Kevyn Orr as Detroit emergency financial manager. Orr warned creditors that he's willing to use bankruptcy.

Louisville-based Hilliard Lyons hired a pair of Michigan public finance veterans by buying their firm Great Lakes Capital Markets as it continues to expand in the Midwest and Southeast.

Detroit officials at an appeals hearing in Lansing Tuesday said Michigan should craft a stronger consent agreement to help stabilize the city instead of taking Detroit over by appointing an emergency financial manager.

Moody's Investors Service last week downgraded to Baa1 from A2 its rating on Romulus Community Schools, a suburban Detroit school district with declining enrollment and pressured financial position.

Detroit Mayor Dave Bing chose Cleveland-based law firm Jones Day to serve as counsel for the city's restructuring plan.

Indiana University Health, one of the state's largest health care providers, announced this week it is taking "a step back" on a planned new patient tower that carried a price tag as high as $500 million.

Former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick headed straight to jail Monday just hours after a jury found him guilty of 24 counts in a months-long federal corruption trial.

S&P and Fitch Ratings this week held conference calls to detail the criteria driving their BBB ratings on Tuesday's sale of $641M of private activity bonds that will finance what is one of the only publicly rated public-private partnerships that features an availability-payment structure.

Standard & Poor's last week downgraded its rating to B-minus from B on the Detroit suburb of Allen Park, a once-wealthy city that is now under emergency management, due in part to $31 million of bonds issued for a failed film studio.

The Cincinnati City Council Wednesday narrowly approved a controversial plan to lease the city's parking system for an upfront payment to offset a budget shortfall - but a judge almost immediately issued an injunction to halt the deal.

Detroit Mayor Dave Bing said Wednesday he would not fight the state's plan to appoint an emergency financial manager to take over the city, just an hour after the city council formally requested a hearing to appeal the appointment.

The Ohio House last Thursday passed legislation that would allow the state to issue $1.5 billion of bonds backed by a new Ohio Turnpike credit.

Fitch Ratings last week affirmed its B rating on Midland University and revised its outlook to stable.

A new casino that opened Monday in Cincinnati, Ohio is expected to pressure nearby riverboat casinos in southeast Indiana, Moody's Investors Service said.