Yvette Shields

Kathleen L. Brown, former California State Treasurer and Goldman Sachs' retired Midwest chair for investment banking, is joining the Los Angeles office of Manatt Phelps & Phillips LLP.

Chicago cancelled its effort to privatize Midway International Airport after bidders dropped out and it became clear the city might not fetch the money it sought for the public-private partnership.

Midwestern financial advisory firm Columbia Capital Management LLC hired veteran public finance banker and advisor Courtney Shea to lead its push for Chicago area and state of Illinois business.

Warning that the state's top ratings and spending on public services are endangered, Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon campaigned against a possible override of his veto of a tax cut bill.

Increased debt service from Illinois’ recent round of borrowing is coming closer to exhausting revenues available in a special capital projects account, a report said.

Illinois' public universities are burdened by the weight of state inaction on pension reform, declining aid and tight in-state tuition regulations, according to Moody's Investors Service.

Moody's Investors Service has revised its outlook on Rush University Medical Center Obligated Group's A2 rating to positive from stable due to good operating margins.

Standard & Poor's raised the Illinois Housing Development Authority's issuer credit rating and all debt supported by its general obligation pledge to AA-minus.

A federal judge sided with American Airlines in agreeing to set a November trial date for the federal government's civil antitrust lawsuit against the airline's merger with US Airways Group.

Former Chicago Comptroller Amer Ahmad – who faces federal corruption charges stemming from a previous job with the Ohio Treasurer -- played no role in city bond underwriting assignments, Mayor Rahm Emanuel said.

Lawyers for bankrupt Detroit and creditors opposed to its proposed interest-rate swap settlement met with a mediator Thursday as the city prepared to raise debtor-in-possession financing.

A federal bankruptcy judge did not rule on American Airlines’ confirmation plan but indicated he was leaning towards such a move despite a federal antitrust lawsuit.

The Chicago Board of Education unanimously approved a $6.6 billion budget for fiscal 2014 that dips deeply into reserves — including a first time draw on a debt service account — to help erase nearly $1 billion in red ink.

Moody's assigned a negative outlook to the Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago's A1 rating, citing fiscal pressures that include sexual misconduct settlements and rising cemetery maintenance liabilities.

The Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago lost its top rating from Moody's over its growing unfunded pension burden, the latest in a series of downgrades to hit Chicago area governments.

In 1996 Wall Street trailblazer Muriel F. Siebert had just a small hand in public finance through the brokerage she founded. That changed over steaks at Manhattan's Post House restaurant when a handshake between Siebert, Napoleon Brandford III, and Suzanne Shank launched the country's largest minority-and women-owned firm, Siebert Brandford Shank & Co. Siebert died over the weekend at age 84.

The U.S. Department of Transportation has finalized Chicago's $288 million Transportation Infrastructure Finance Innovation Act loan to help fund an $817 million intermodal facility at O'Hare International Airport.

Moody's Investors Service has revised its outlook to negative from positive on Edward Health Services Corp.'s A2 rating due to challenges posed by its new affiliation with Elmhurst Memorial Healthcare.

The strong accord of creditors and others behind American Airlines’ confirmation plan could be jeopardized should the plan’s approval be delayed over the federal government’s move to block American’s merger with US Airways Group, an unsecured creditors’ committee warned.

Presence Health in Illinois will privately place up to $215 million of bonds in a deal that restructures outstanding debt of the two Chicago area systems that joined in 2011 to form the new system.