Yvette Shields

Minnesota enters the market next week with a small, but rare, revenue issue for refunding savings and plans to return on Aug. 8 with $658 million of new-money general obligation bonds. Both are competitive issues.

The Joplin School District borrows $35 million Tuesday to kick into high gear its rebuilding effort following last year's devastating tornado.

Struggling to repay $113 million in debt that financed its privately-owned and operated airport in Missouri's Ozark Mountains, Branson Airport LLC has won a reprieve against enforcement actions from bondholders in the form of an extended forbearance agreement.

The St. Paul, Minn. City Council advanced plans to provide a $17 million subsidy for a new St. Paul Saints ballpark.

Illinois collected about $576 million more in fiscal 2012 than earlier predicted, the Illinois Commission on Forecasting and Accountability reported in its review of fiscal year-end results.

Moody's Investors Service said this week Chrysler's improved performance and production at its Belvidere plant in the Rockford, Ill., metropolitan region is a credit positive for the area.

Moody's knocked $6.5 billion of Chicago O'Hare international Airport general airport revenue bonds down one notch due to the airport's high leverage, narrow financial margins, and economic and construction risks tied to its ongoing $8 billion expansion.

The Chicago region could unsnarl its traffic mess and generate $2 billion in economic activity by 2040 by undertaking 11 major road construction projects with a $52 billion price tag paid for with new toll and user fees, according to a report from the California think tank the Reason Foundation.

Wisconsin posted a help wanted notice this week: Director, Capital Finance Office as the longtime standard bearer of the state's debt management -- Frank Hoadley -- prepares to retire.

The former - and first - head of the Illinois Finance Authority Ali Ata received probation from a federal judge this week for his role in a state public corruption scandal that eventually landed former Gov. Rod Blagojevich in prison.

Law firms interested in working on future state of Wisconsin bond sales have until August 6 to submit their qualifications for review.

Top-rated Washington University in St. Louis will sell about $200 million of taxable new-money and refunding bonds on Wednesday,

Louisville-based Hilliard Lyons is extending its public finance banking reach into Ohio with the hiring of former RBC Capital Markets banker Scott Stubbins.

Minnesota closed out fiscal 2012 on June 30 with $336 million more in revenue than predicted when the annual February forecast was released.

Moody's Investors Service earlier this month downgraded Chicago's $578 million of sales tax-backed bonds to Aa3 from Aa2, due primarily to a lack of legal separation between the pledged sales tax revenues and the city's general operations.

Fitch Ratings raised the Rush University Medical Center Obligated Group one notch to A in recognition of its consistently strong profitability and the completion of its new patient tower, eliminating construction risks on the credit.

Rising tax revenues helped Illinois chip away at the unpaid obligations on its books going into the new fiscal year July 1 but the number remained at a staggering $7.5 billion to $8 billion, Comptroller Judy Baar Topinka reports.

Minneapolis-based Northland Securities Inc. has hired veteran municipal professional James Kubik to help lead its expansion in the central states region.

Indianapolis-based City Securities Corp. has hired former Raymond James/Morgan Keegan banker and group manager Linda Matkowski to manage its public finance banking team as the 86-year-old firm seeks to expand its reach deeper into the Midwest.

Nearly three-quarters of the tobacco settlement bonds rated by Moody's Investors Service will default if smokers keep up their current pace of kicking or cutting back on their habit, the agency warns in a new report.