Shelly Sigo

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.

The Alabama Senate last week approved a bill that would let voters decide on Nov. 2 if the state should take $1 billion from its biggest savings account over the next decade to pay for road, bridge, and rail projects.

BRADENTON, Fla. — The Orlando-Orange County Expressway Authority in central Florida expects to be in the market today with retail pricing of up to $375 million of revenue bonds.

BRADENTON, Fla. — The Miami-Dade County Commission today will review a financial crisis that has enveloped the public health system whose flagship is Miami’s Jackson Memorial Hospital.

BRADENTON, Fla. — Miami, which tangled with the Securities and Exchange Commission over financial disclosure issues earlier this decade, has hired the law firm of Morgan, Lewis & Bockius to represent it in the SEC’s latest probe.

BRADENTON, Fla. — The South Florida Water Management District yesterday unanimously extended a key contract deadline for its controversial plan to purchase land owned by U.S. Sugar Corp.