Yvette Shields

Two Illinois based not-for-profit healthcare systems -- Northwestern Memorial Healthcare and Cadence Health – said they plan to complete their merger on Sept. 1.

Detroit has finalized an agreement with Barclays Capital Inc. for up to $275 million in financing to exit Chapter 9 bankruptcy as the city gears up for a trial next week on its confirmation plan.

Facing pressure to approve a new tribal casino in southeastern Wisconsin, Gov. Scott Walker said his administration is proceeding cautiously in its ongoing review over concerns that the state could lose $100 million in payments from nearby tribal casinos.

Detroit said it stands behind the proposed $815 million 'grand bargain" as the best solution to aid pensioners and protect the city art museum's collection, rejecting an offer from Art Capital Group for a $4 billion loan with the art collection serving as collateral.

The judge in charge of mediation in the Detroit bankruptcy case ordered a new round of talks between the city and holders and insurers of $1.4 billion of pension certificates of participation.

The trustee on $20 million of unrated bonds issued for the bankrupt Leafs Hockey Club in suburban Chicago hopes to reach a debt restructuring deal with the club by early October but the two sides remain at loggerheads over the club's fiscal prospects.

Standard & Poor's raised Detroit's water and sewer revenue bonds three levels up from junk bond territory ahead of the city's $1.8 billion sale of mostly refunding bonds, offering a more positive assessment than Fitch Ratings or Moody's Investors Service.

Detroit plans to sell $1.8 billion of water and sewer bonds Tuesday through the Michigan Finance Authority in a transaction that allows it to finance the purchase of $1.5 billion of tendered bonds and further its efforts to exit bankruptcy.

Detroit's voluntary tender program of its water and sewer revenue bonds may have provide an "optimal solution" for the market but it still represents a default, Municipal Market Advisors said Monday.

The public agency overseeing construction of a new Minnesota Vikings stadium approved a $49 million increase in the project's budget due to rising construction costs.

A federal judge upheld a bankruptcy court judgment against Bruce Cole, former head of Mamtek US Inc., finding he fraudulently obtained bond funds to finance a sucralose production plant in Moberly, Missouri.

Fitch Ratings shifted its outlook on O'Hare International Airport to stable from negative citing steady air traffic trends and more certainty over American Airlines' future at the airport after the airline's exit from bankruptcy.

Suburban Cook County, Illinois' public safety pension funds are straining under a collective $3.3 billion of unfunded liabilities, according to a recent report.

A group of ratepayers from a Chicago suburb are suing five advisors and consultants, accusing them of misrepresenting the value of participation in the bond-financed Prairie State Energy Campus to the city of Batavia.

Ratepayers from a Chicago suburb will file a lawsuit as soon as Tuesday seeking compensation for steep energy rate hikes they've paid due to cost overruns at the bond-financed Prairie State Energy Campus coal-fired power plant.

Loyola University Chicago has hired Robert A. Munson to serve as chief financial officer, filling a position being vacated by the retirement of Bill Laird after 11 years.

Illinois-based OSF Healthcare System's A3 rating is stabilizing due to recent operating improvements after a tough 2013, Moody's Investors Service said.

Standard & Poor's has revised its outlook on Springfield, Ill.'s City Water, Light & Power's electric revenue bonds to stable from negative.

A group of bondholders trying to recoup their investment in a failed Moberly, Mo. artificial sweetener plant has added as a defendant Raymond James Financial Inc. — which acquired the bond deal's underwriter and lawsuit's original target.

Hospitals in the 24 states that have opted against expanding Medicaid under federal healthcare reform stand to lose out on $168 billion over 10 years while states will lose out on more than $400 billion, a new report from the Urban Institute concludes.