Paul Burton

With a bankruptcy in Central Falls and pension-debt problems engulfing her state, Rhode Island General Treasurer Gina Raimondo has announced a bond sale for next week, accompanied with a marketing campaign.

Fitch Ratings late Wednesday afternoon downgraded New Jersey's general obligation bond rating to AA-minus from double A.

The Monroe County, N.Y., Industrial Development Corp. is scheduled to issue $161 million of fixed-rate, tax-exempt revenue bonds on Thursday following a one-day retail order period, to benefit 19 projects at the University of Rochester.

The New Hampshire Higher Education Loan Corp. has scheduled a sale of $522.6 million of taxable student loan-backed notes for this week.

Issuers in the Northeast sold $36.1 billion of municipal bonds in the first six months of 2011, down 38.8% from the same period a year earlier, according to Thomson Reuters.

The dominoes continue to fall in Rhode Island as Moody’s Investors Service downgraded East Providence to Baa1 from A1, while on the same day it lowered to A2 from Aa3 the Rhode Island Health and Educational Building Corp.’s revenue bond financing program.

Puerto Rico received 12 responses from infrastructure funds, U.S. private-equity firms, Canadian pensions, and developers based in Spain and India to a request for qualifications for a privatization of up to 50 years of its principal airport, near the capital, San Juan.

The Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority sold $201.6 million of tax-exempt capital grant receipts bonds, Series 2011.

The Dormitory Authority of the State of New York on Wednesday approved $426 million of health care bonds for the North Shore-Long Island Jewish Obligated Group. The 30-year bonds will be sold through negotiated sales.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo named a search committee to recommend candidates for the next chairman and chief executive of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

New York Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli proposed establishing an industry-supported fund to recover damages caused by accidents related to Marcellus Shale natural gas drilling.

Fitch Ratings upgraded Massachusetts’ special obligation highway revenue bonds to AA-plus from AA with a stable outlook. The agency said the move was part of its continuous surveillance effort.

Harrisburg Mayor Linda Thompson warned that without a fiscal recovery plan in place, Pennsylvania's capital city would be unable to pay its nearly 500 workers in mid-September.

Though the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey didn't say so directly in its statement announcing stunningly high fare-hike proposals, the message was clear: the authority is worried about its bond rating.

Moody's Investors Service downgraded Puerto Rico's general obligation rating Monday to Baa1 from A3, with a negative outlook, one day before the Puerto Rico Public Building Authority's planned pricing of $981 million of bonds.

Moody’s Investors Service said Monday it has downgraded the general obligation rating of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico to Baa1 from A3. The outlook is negative.

Ron Davis only recently found out about Central Falls' predicament."Somebody sent me an e-mail two days ago," Davis, the mayor of Prichard, Ala., said Thursday in a telephone interview.But his city of 23,000 residents along Alabama's Gulf Coast and the Rhode Island city in bankruptcy court, both with similar population sizes, have experienced major struggles with pension-debt gridlock.

The U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Rhode Island in Providence has designated the Chapter 9 bankruptcy filing by Central Falls as historical, according to a court filing.

Moody’s Investors Service confirmed the Aa1 long-term letter-of-credit-backed rating of Philadelphia’s Series 2009B general obligation multi-modal refunding bonds, affecting $100 million of debt.

Pittsburgh’s City Council has tabled a $91.7 million bond proposal aimed at saving about $3.6 million.