Yvette Shields

The public agency that owns the Edward Jones Dome — home of the National Football League's St. Louis Rams — has tapped Goldman Sachs to advise it on stadium finance issues.

Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn signed supplemental fiscal 2013 budget legislation that authorizes $1.5 billion in spending for transportation, group health insurance payments, and for an array of other areas.

Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton defended his dramatic and controversial tax overhaul as the most "balanced" means to put the state on a structurally sound fiscal path and called on critics to offer up an alternative.

Minnesota hospitals provided $509 million in uncompensated care in 2011, up from $496 million a year earlier, according to the Minnesota Hospital Association's annual community benefits report.

Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn pressed lawmakers Wednesday to act on a pension reform package that merges House and Senate proposals with the goal of improving the legislation's chances of withstanding a legal challenge by unions.

The trustee for bankrupt American Airlines Inc.'s $1.4 billion of New York City airport revenue bonds hopes to submit a final settlement agreement after a majority of bondholders endorsed the terms.

Moody's affirmed Midway International Airport's single-A level ratings and said it should not see a significant credit impact from Chicago's effort to privatize the airfield.

Fitch Ratings has placed Springfield, Mo,-based CoxHealth's A rating on Rating Watch Negative due to the system's impending new debt issuance.

Standard & Poor's has lowered its rating on Davenport, Iowa' general obligation debt by three notches to A from AA over the city's liquidity woes as it prepares to enter the casino business.

Fitch Ratings downgraded Elmhurst Memorial Healthcare, Ill. – which is preparing to merge with the higher rated Edward Hospital and Health Services -- one notch to BBB due to its weak operating performance.

An arbitration panel has picked the St. Louis Rams' estimated $750 million renovation of the Edward Jones Dome over the St. Louis Convention and Visitors Commission's more modest plan as the only option that meets a lease requirement to bring the stadium into top-notch condition.

The Chicago Infrastructure Trust has tapped Stephen S. Beitler, a founder and managing director at a Chicago area private equity investment and advisory company, to serve as its first executive director.

The Chicago Infrastructure Trust has formally launched a search for private market interest in providing up to $100 million of financing for energy efficient upgrades to city facilities and schools.

Rochester, Minn.-based Mayo Clinic hopes to land $500 million of state bonding help over the next two decades to support a proposed $5 billion capital improvement and economic development plan that aims to both improve its own facilities and remake its home city.

Fighting headwinds from a downgrade and headlines over failed pension reform efforts, Illinois postponed its competitive sale of $500 million of general obligation bonds over concerns it would pay too steep an interest rate penalty.

Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon unveiled a proposed $25.9 billion budget for fiscal 2014 that bolsters education spending and provides a conditional endorsement of new borrowing if funds are carved out to repay it.

Wisconsin is readying up to $246 million of transportation revenue bonds as lawmakers tackle an agenda that includes funding for the state's pressing transportation needs.

Standard & Poor's has revised its outlook on St. Louis-based St. Anthony's Medical Center's A-plus rating to negative from stable due to operating losses.

Unions that represent state employees want Gov. Pat Quinn and the General Assembly's leaders to join in on a "summit" slated for Feb. 11 to discuss pension reforms.

Chicago collected more than $100 million in hotel taxes last year, a record level, Mayor Rahm Emanuel said last week.