Shelly Sigo

BRADENTON, Fla. — A federal judge in Alabama has denied former Jefferson County Commission president and Birmingham mayor Larry Langford’s request to remain free on bond while appealing his federal conviction on pay-to-play charges.

BRADENTON, Fla. — Orlando, Fla., next week expects to price its second round of direct-subsidy Build America Bonds using tax-increment financing after being the first to successfully use such a structure last fall.

BRADENTON, Fla. — Standard & Poor’s Tuesday said it removed Jefferson County, Ala.’s sewer and general obligation warrants from negative credit watch. The agency affirmed its C rating on the sewer warrants with a negative outlook and its B rating on the GOs with a “developing” outlook.

In light of dismal revenue collections, Tennessee got some welcome news Monday when the U.S. Department of Education awarded it $500 million from the Race to the Top stimulus program.

A Republican candidate for governor is promising to create a state bond oversight commission to help overcome difficulties Alabama issuers face due to the sewer debt crisis in Jefferson County.

Former Jefferson County commissioner and Birmingham mayor Larry Langford is scheduled to report to prison Monday to begin a 15-year sentence. But his attorneys have asked that he be allowed to post bond and remain free pending an appeal of his federal pay-to-play conviction before the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta.

BRADENTON, Fla. — Tennessee’s Division of Local Finance will merge with the Division of Bond Finance on Thursday, state Comptroller Justin Wilson announced yesterday.

A year ago, Florida Division of Bond Finance director Ben Watkins was one of the biggest skeptics of Build America Bonds, mostly because the taxable debt structure didn’t fit into the tax-exempt mold.

BRADENTON, Fla. — Miami will close out fiscal 2009 with a $53.6 million deficit and faces a projected deficit of $28 million by the end of the current fiscal year if actions are not taken to cut the budget, commissioners learned late last week.

BRADENTON, Fla. — Florida’s largest ever public-private partnership — a $1.8 billion, limited-access toll road in Jacksonville — will begin moving forward soon.

BRADENTON, Fla. — Three Louisiana issuers have seen movement in their federal lawsuits against insurers and underwriters that were involved with their failed variable- and auction-rate securities.

BRADENTON, Fla. — A biomedical institute on Florida’s east coast is exploring replacing its planned conduit issuer in hopes of lowering the cost of selling $70 million of bonds to finance the construction of a research ­facility.

The Atlanta Development Authority last week named Ernestine Garey as interim president until a permanent replacement is found. The change came after current president Peggy McCormick submitted her resignation. She will remain at her post until Wednesday.

Faced once again with less revenue to support the state’s general fund budget, Florida lawmakers are looking at taking money set aside for transportation projects for the second year in a row.

Jefferson County commissioners last week failed to support a measure that would have explored whether the county could sell $26.8 million of recovery zone economic development bonds for public capital projects allocated to it under the federal stimulus program.

BRADENTON, Fla. — With President Obama’s signature barely dry on the massive health care reform bill, Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum Tuesday filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Treasury Department and the Department of Labor, alleging that the bill is unconstitutional.

Standard & Poor’s last week raised the Jones County School District’s underlying general obligation bond rating to A-plus from A-minus.

Moody’s Investors Service on Monday removed the negative outlook that was assigned to the Hancock County School District’s general obligation bonds following Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

The Kentucky House last week passed a $17.5 billion general fund budget for fiscal 2011 and 2012 that would plug a projected $1 billion shortfall.

A federal judge Friday sentenced John Katopodis, a former Jefferson County commissioner and Birmingham City Council member, to three years and 10 months in jail on fraud convictions linked to his theft of taxpayer money intended for a poor children’s charity.