Yvette Shields

Veteran Chicago-based public finance attorney Chuck Katz has joined Polsinelli PC as the firm continues to build its business nationally across legal practices.

Illinois' balance sheet remains strained with a more than $4 billion deficit looming in the coming years as the expiration of a temporary income tax hike saps revenues.

Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn signed into law pension reforms aimed at stabilizing the Chicago Park District's struggling system; other local governments including Chicago are hoping for similar legislation this year.

Minnesota will sell $468 million of state general fund appropriation bonds next week to raise funds for the public share of building a new $975 million football stadium for the Minnesota Vikings.

Three complaints have been filed challenging the constitutionality of the pension overhaul Illinois passed in December, and others are expected to follow ahead of the law's effective date in June.

The University of Chicago was among six institutions to which the not-for-profit Ludwig Cancer Research organization awarded $540 million grants to fund cancer research.

The cash-strapped Chicago Public Schools announced plans to relocate its administrative headquarters later this year in a move estimated to save $60 million over the next 15 years.

Moody's Investors Service revised the outlook on Illinois-based Memorial Health System's A1 rating to negative from stable ahead of its sale of $60 million of revenue bonds.

The Missouri Supreme Court upheld a lower court decision dismissing the city of Moberly and its industrial development authority as defendants in a bondholder lawsuit targeting the underwriter of $39 million of city bonds issued for a failed artificial sweetener plant.

Bondholders who took ownership of the St. Louis convention center hotel complex four years ago hope to close next month on the sale of the complex's two hotels in separate transactions totaling about $29 million.

Bankrupt Detroit will shave about $65 million off its costs to terminate interest-rate swaps under a new settlement agreement reached with its bank counterparties the day of Christmas Eve.

A bond insurer and Detroit's two pension funds are among five appointees to the committee named to represent the interests of unsecured creditors as the city proceeds through Chapter 9.

The Chicago Infrastructure Trust has delayed to January from December the timeline for bringing its inaugural deal to the City Council for approval.

Former Ohio Deputy Treasurer Amer Ahmad, recently Chicago's comptroller, pleaded guilty in federal court to charges he orchestrated a kickback scheme involving state investment business.

The Lombard, Ill., village board rejected a request to cover a shortfall in the January debt service payment on bonds issued for a hotel and conference center.

Detroit's federal bankruptcy judge urged the appellate court to reject an appeal of his recent rulings on the city's eligibility for Chapter 9 and declined to recommend an expedited appeal process.

CHICAGO – The Detroit City Council approved two of three measures needed to advance plans for a partially bond-financed $650 million downtown development that includes a new hockey arena and entertainment district.

CHICAGO - Detroit told the bankruptcy court Friday it may sue its interest-rate swap counterparties without a revised settlement to terminate the swaps under more favorable terms. The warning raises the stakes on mediation.

CHICAGO –Indianapolis lost its top issuer credit rating from Standard & Poor's Tuesday over the rating agency's recent changes to its local general obligation credit criteria; it was dropped two notches.

Detroit's mayor-elect, Mike Duggan, will manage the bankrupt city's day-to-day operations under an agreement with the city's emergency manager, Kevyn Orr, that was announced Thursday.