Yvette was a senior reporter, covering the Midwest. She earned a bachelors in journalism from Columbia College Chicago, began her reporting career at the storied City News Bureau of Chicago, and joined the Bond Buyer in 1997 leading Midwest coverage from her hometown Chicago.
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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.
July 17 - Illinois
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.
July 16 - Minnesota
Minneapolis-based Northland Securities Inc. has hired veteran municipal professional James Kubik to help lead its expansion in the central states region.
July 13 - Indiana
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.
July 13 -
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.
July 12 -
Illinois-based Hospital Sisters Services, Inc. is gearing up to sell more than $400 million of new-money and refunding bonds this fall as it undertakes various upgrades to existing facilities and opens a replacement critical access hospital.
July 11 -
IllinoisWith a $500 million new-money issue in the works, Moody's Investors slapped the Chicago Public Schools with a downgrade and warned of further negative action due to mounting fiscal challenges and the district's plan to dig deeply into reserves as a budget fix.
July 11 -
A retired state judge has filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of a new Illinois law that overhauls the state's retiree healthcare program and shifting more of the funding burden for premiums to beneficiaries.
July 10 -
Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn signed several pieces of legislation authorizing $1.6 billion in new state borrowing to finance transportation and transit projects and extending an increase in the Regional Transportation Authority of Illinois' working cash notes limits.
July 10 -
Top Illinois finance officials are on the road to sell institutional investors on the tidy structure of the state's sale issue next week of $1.5 billion of double-A rated unemployment bonds that are insulated against the state's well-publicized liquidity and budget struggles.
July 10 - Minnesota
Moody's Investors Service downgraded Hennepin County, Minn.'s first lien sales tax revenue bond credit to Aa1 from Aaa in connection with the agency's new rating methodology for debt backed by special tax revenues.
July 10 -
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel has submitted his nominations for the new Chicago Infrastructure Trust to the City Council.
July 10 - Illinois
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Cook County Board of Commissioners President Toni Preckwinkle announced that $33 million in savings were achieved in the first year of collaboration on some services and initiatives.
July 10 - Missouri
Top-rated Missouri - a rare borrower - will take competitive bids this summer on two refunding deals that will achieve significant present-value savings and provide $44 million in fiscal 2013 budget relief.
July 9 - Illinois
The financially-strapped Chicago Public Schools system released a $5.2 billion proposed budget for fiscal 2013 that closes a $665 million gap with a property tax hike, operating cuts, and by digging deeply into reserves and draining its unreserved fund balance.
July 6 - Illinois
The Lombard, Ill. Public Facilities Corp. drew $1.8 million from reserves to cover debt-service owed this month on $190 million of hotel and conference center debt.
July 3 -
Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn signs a $33.7 billion general fund budget for new fiscal year that includes $2.7 billion Medicaid restructuring, makes $1.3 billion dent in overdue bills, and cuts discretionary spending. Quinn is pushing lawmakers to act on pension reforms to stabilize state fiscal house.
July 2 - Illinois
Illinois plans to sell $1.5 billion of highly-rated unemployment bonds in Mid-July to repay federal government while Gov. Pat Quinn intends to sign a new $33.7 billion budget on Saturday as state closes out fiscal 2012 owing as much $9 billion in unpaid obligations.
June 29 -
Illinois State Toll Highway Authority board approved a pool of four financial advisory firms as it gears up to begin borrowing for a $12 billion capital program.
June 28 - Illinois
Chicago-based veteran bond attorney William Corbin returns to roots at Chapman and Cutler from Perkins Coie
June 27
