Caitlin Devitt

Standard & Poor’s revised its outlook to negative from stable on debt issued for Memorial Health System in South Bend.

Fitch Ratings has upgraded the Cook County Forest Preserve District’s general obligation debt to AA-minus from A-plus in recognition of improved finances.

CHICAGO — Just months after it implemented a series of reforms meant to reduce pension costs, Cincinnati will now need to triple its annual pension contribution in order to meet its annual required contributions.

CHICAGO — Michigan lawmakers will have another month to tackle a $2.8 billion deficit after they approved a 30-day interim budget following a brief government shutdown early Thursday morning amid disagreements over a permanent 2010 budget.

CHICAGO — Gov. Ted Strickland has proposed delaying a planned income-tax cut for two years to fill an $850 million hole that opened up in the budget last week following an Ohio Supreme Court decision that requires the state seek voter approval for a gaming expansion plan.

CHICAGO - A weak economy, slow housing market, and too much variable-rate debt took their toll on continuing-care retirement communities over the last year and are expected to continue to trouble the sector throughout next year, Fitch Ratings said in a report released yesterday.

CHICAGO - American Municipal Power Inc. in Ohio will enter the market today with $480 million of taxable revenue bonds in a transaction that will nearly complete the utility's financing of its share of the $4.36 billion coal-fired Prairie State Generation Station.

William Beaumont Hospital outside Detroit this week said it would cut 353 jobs, its third round of layoffs in a year.

A week after Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm declared the city of Ecorse to be in a state of financial emergency, the Federal Bureau of Investigation arrested the mayor and city controller on charges of public corruption.

The Flint-based McLaren Health Care System announced this week it would build a proton beam radiation therapy center, putting it ahead of five other systems that have battled for more than a year to be the first to build the potentially lucrative cancer center in the state.

CHICAGO - Indianapolis Public Schools plans to enter the market Wednesday with $130 million of debt that will feature a mix of Build America Bonds, qualified school construction bonds, and a small piece of traditional tax-exempt debt.

CHICAGO - The Wayne State University Board of Governors plans to enter the market this week with $112 million of fixed-rate bonds to refund outstanding debt and terminate a pair of interest rate swaps.

CHICAGO — Ohio State University’s board of trustees this week approved a $1 billion expansion plan of the school’s medical center campus that will rely on $925 million of new-money bonds.

CHICAGO - As Michigan legislators continue to wrangle over a 2010 budget, a group of environmental and transportation activists this week urged officials and Gov. Jennifer Granholm to drop plans to build a new $1.8 billion border crossing between Detroit and Windsor, Ontario.

Standard & Poor’s yesterday revised its outlook to negative from stable on Ohio following a state Supreme Court ruling earlier this week that a key gaming expansion plan is subject to voter referendum.

CHICAGO - Like most cities in Ohio, Columbus is struggling with a decline in income tax revenue, its main revenue source. But unlike in other cities, officials there last month lobbied for and won an increase in the income tax rate - a move that was followed shortly by a reaffirmation of the city's coveted Aaa rating from Moody's Investors Service.

Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson said this week that Detroit’s financial woes threaten the county’s triple-A bond rating.

The Marion County Health and Hospital Corp. on Nov. 3 will ask voters in Indianapolis and Marion County to approve a $754 million bond proposal to finance a new facility that would replace Wishard Hospital.

CHICAGO — The Ohio Supreme Court ruled yesterday that Gov. Ted Strickland’s budget-balancing plan to install video lottery terminals at the state’s race tracks must go to voters.

CHICAGO - Kent State University in Ohio plans to enter the market tomorrow with $225 million of fixed-rate refunding bonds in a transaction that will reduce the school's variable-rate debt by nearly three-fourths and eliminate most of its outstanding swaps and letters of credit.