Shelly Sigo

With a tight deadline ahead, the Jefferson County Commission Tuesday voted to declare the entire county a recovery zone to qualify for the issuance of recovery zone bonds under the federal stimulus program.

BRADENTON, Fla. — The Securities and Exchange Commission sent the Florida State Board of Administration a one-paragraph letter last week stating that the agency will not recommend enforcement action regarding the meltdown of what was one of the largest local government investment pools in the country.

ORLANDO, Fla. — Alabama federal Judge Scott Coogler Friday sentenced former Jefferson County Commission president Larry Langford to 15 years in federal prison for his role in a long-running play-to-play scheme centering around the county’s now-failed $3.2 billion of sewer warrants and swaps.

ORLANDO, Fla. — Two members of Florida’s congressional delegation Friday said more federal funding is on the way for high-speed rail for the state and other areas of the country.

ORLANDO, Fla. — Alabama federal judge Scott Coogler today sentenced former Jefferson County Commission president Larry Langford to 15 years in federal prison for his role in a long-running pay-to-play scheme centering around the county's now-failed $3.2 billion of sewer warrants and swaps.

ORLANDO, Fla. — Florida will need full funding to build a high-speed rail network from Tampa to Orlando, and eventually on to Miami, Nazih Haddad, chief operating officer for the state’s new Florida Rail Enterprise program, said yesterday.

BRADENTON, Fla. — Federal prosecutors in Alabama Wednesday recommended that former Jefferson County Commission president Larry Langford be sentenced to a minimum of 24 years and four months and a maximum of 30 years and five months in prison.

BRADENTON, Fla. — The Florida Legislature will consider implementing the state’s first-ever intercept program designed to provide credit enhancement for municipal bonds.

The official groundbreaking took place last week in Broward County on the Interstate 595 Express Corridor Project, a nearly $2 billion public-private partnership with I-595 Express LLC, a subsidiary created by ACS Infrastructure Development.

Standard & Poor’s last week raised its rating on the Huntsville Solid Waste Disposal Authority’s solid-waste revenue bonds to AA-plus from AA.

BRADENTON, Fla. — The bond financing for Nashville’s proposed new convention center has been delayed pending action on a bill by the Legislature that, if passed, would grant an exception to Tennessee’s usury law regulating interest rates on municipal debt.

BRADENTON, Fla. — The Georgia Department of Transportation on Friday released its solicitation for qualified firms to do the state’s first public-private partnership, a plan called the West by Northwest Project that is designed to bring needed traffic-congestion relief to metropolitan Atlanta.

BRADENTON, Fla. — A federal judge in Alabama Friday sentenced Montgomery bond dealer Bill Blount to four years and four months in prison and lobbyist Al LaPierre to four years in prison for their pay-to-play roles in the refinancing of Jefferson County’s $3.2 billion of now-failed sewer warrants.

BRADENTON, Fla. - A federal judge in Alabama today sentenced Montgomery bond dealer Bill Blount to 52 months in prison and lobbyist Al LaPierre to 48 months in prison for their pay-to-play roles in the refinancing of Jefferson County’s $3.2 billion of now-failed sewer warrants.

BRADENTON, Fla. — A Jefferson County, Ala., circuit court judge Thursday ordered U.S. Bank to release $27.4 million so the county could make an arbitrage rebate payment on the 2004 fixed-rate school warrants that the county defaulted on earlier this month.

BRADENTON, Fla. — A myriad of options, including the use of pension bonds, are being considered in Atlanta, where spending on retirement benefits has soared to 20% of the city’s $523 million annual operating budget and the unfunded liability is now $1.5 billion.

In a special report Monday, Fitch Ratings said negative rating actions against Florida credits last year outpaced positive actions by three-to-one, but the agency expects ratings to stabilize in 2010.

Palm Beach County commissioners Tuesday selected Ruden McClosky Smith Schuster & Russell PA to be bond counsel and to perform related legal services related to the development of a planned convention center hotel.

A long-planned project to expand the Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Complex with a domed stadium may be slowed once again because of the recession.

BRADENTON, Fla. — Former Montgomery, Ala., bond dealer William Blount and lobbyist Albert LaPierre are scheduled to be sentenced Friday in Alabama federal court after pleading guilty to pay-to-play charges related to Jefferson ­County’s troubled sewer debt.