Yvette Shields

Voters in Ferguson, Mo., elected two African Americans to their city council in the first city election following a controversial police shooting inspired efforts to cut Missouri governments' reliance on court fines to support budgets.

With the election now behind him, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel needs to make quick headway on solving the city's severe pension and budget woes if he hopes to avoid a rating downgrade, Standard & Poor's warned Thursday.

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel has little time to savor his election victory as the city and the municipal market look for solutions to the city's daunting financial problems.

Counterparty Wells Fargo has so far refused to lower the rating threshold for three Chicago swaps that reached termination events through recent downgrades, a source said.

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel won a second term Tuesday, fending off rival Jesus "Chuy" Garcia after casting him as ill-prepared to tackle the city's deep fiscal woes. Emanuel took 56% of the vote compared to Garcia's 44%.

Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton unveiled an $842 million bond-financed capital budget, promoting it as a means to create thousands of jobs while improving the state's infrastructure and economy.

Moody's Investors Service April 6 stripped Illinois' North Chicago School District No. 187 of its investment grade rating as the district struggles with property tax valuation declines and operating deficits.

A San Francisco-based airline's April Fool's joke triggered a disclosure notice on EMMA; the trustee for bonds issued for the airport in Branson, Mo. Wanted to be sure bondholders new that Virgin America was just kidding about its plans to serve Branson.

Chicago voters head to the polls to pick their next mayor Tuesday after a seven-week runoff contest where the city's fiscal ills have taken center stage in an election in which neither candidate is willing to talk about property tax increases.

The Chicago Board of Education will return to the market on April 21 with the second phase of a planned borrowing that was delayed by a stinging round of downgrades and headline risks over the mayoral run-off.

The Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission has tapped its chief financial officer Roberta Broeker to serve as interim director of state Transportation Department as a national search continues for a new leader to replace retiring director Dave Nichols.

Struggling Illinois local governments should have the option of municipal bankruptcy, one mayor told lawmakers during the first airing of legislation that would add Chapter 9 to the state's statutes.

Municipal market observers aren’t impressed by the Chicago Public Schools’ move to drop Moody’s Investors Service in favor of an agency that assigned a higher rating.

Standard & Poor's raised its rating on Silver Cross Hospital in Illinois by one level to BBB as it prepares to pull its rating at the hospital's request.

Moody’s Investors Service said it considers Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner’s appointment of a task force to look at local government consolidation and overhauling unfunded mandates to be a positive credit measure

A Missouri city is asking a state judge to void its contract with the Missouri Joint Municipal Electric Utility Commission in the latest push back from local governments angry over higher energy costs tied to the controversial Prairie State coal plant project.

The Illinois Municipal Electric Agency heads into the market as soon as Tuesday with a $585 million revenue bond issue that will refund debt sold to help finance its participation in the controversial Prairie State coal-fired project and for an ownership stake in a Kentucky-based coal plant.

Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago won an upgrade from Standard & Poor’s as it fiscal books remain on the upswing.

Wisconsin's tab to repay $220 million in proposed borrowing for a new Milwaukee Bucks basketball arena ranges from $324 million to $488 million, according to a legislative report.

Chicago received a first time rating of A-minus with a stable outlook from Kroll Bond Rating Agency.