Yvette Shields

CHICAGO — Rating pressures on five Wisconsin school districts involved in a now-worthless $200 million investment product eased on Monday when Moody's Investors Service labeled as a credit positive their partial settlement of a lawsuit against the firms that advised and arranged the deal.

CHICAGO — Standard & Poor's late last week downgraded to D from CC its rating on $39 million of appropriation-backed bonds issued by the Moberly, Mo., Industrial Development Authority in 2010 to help fund construction of a now-abandoned artificial sweetener plant.

CHICAGO — Bids to buy the assets of an upscale continuing-care retirement community in downtown Chicago are due by April 10, with holders of its $229 million of debt hoping for a competitive auction that results in a better recovery rate than the pennies on the dollar offered by an initial bidder.

CHICAGO — An investor with a stake in $39 million of defaulted bonds issued for a failed artificial sweetener plant in Missouri has filed a lawsuit accusing underwriter Morgan Keegan & Co. and counsel Armstrong Teasdale LLP of providing false and misleading information in the offering statement.

With public ire over the former mayor's flawed $1.15 billion lease of Chicago's parking meter system still clouding the local political landscape for public private partnerships, the city is turning to a next-generation model as it eyes private dollars to fund infrastructure and lower the cost of some city services.

Moody’s Investors Service has revised its outlook to negative on the A2 rating of the Missouri Joint Municipal Electric Utility Commission’s MoPEP power pool bonds ahead of its $35.6 million issue.

Advancing a project long in the works, President Obama signed legislation last week allowing for construction of the St. Croix River bridge connecting Minnesota and Wisconsin by exempting the project from federal Wild and Scenic Rivers Act restrictions.

Moody’s Investors Service has affirmed the University of Iowa’s Aa1 rating and stable outlook for its utility system revenue bonds ahead of a $25 million sale slated for this week.

Five Wisconsin school districts settled their lawsuit against Stifel Financial Corp. that alleged the firm misled them on a risky investment to help fund their retiree health care benefits.

Holders of $229 million of debt issued for a now-bankrupt upscale continuing care retirement community in downtown Chicago would recoup just pennies on the dollar under an initial bid for the facility.

CHICAGO — The Chicago City Council on Wednesday approved more than $3 billion of borrowing in three deals slated for late spring, and Mayor Rahm Emanuel introduced an ordinance creating a new trust to serve as a financing vehicle to leverage private investment in public projects.

CHICAGO — The Illinois Finance Authority board on Tuesday advanced direct-purchase issues for two health care refunding deals and an $11 million allocation of Midwestern Disaster Area Bonds, the latest in a series of projects to tap the federal program before it expires at the end of the year.

The Minnesota Department of Transportation released a revised cost estimate of $626 million on building the St. Croix River Crossing bridge project.

The Illinois Health Facilities and Services Review Board approved Northwestern Memorial Hospital’s new $300 million, 1-million square-foot outpatient facility. The hospital hopes to complete the project by 2014. The building at the hospital’s main downtown Chicago campus will also house doctors’ offices.

Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn on Tuesday announced state funding of $32 million for the construction of a new transportation-related education center at the City Colleges of Chicago’s Olive-Harvey campus.

After it courts buyers at an investor conference set for late next month, Chicago plans to offer up more than $3 billion of new-money and refunding general obligation water revenue and airport debt.

CHICAGO — Illinois has agreed to the Illinois Medical District Commission's request that a $4.5 million capital grant be diverted to cure a debt-service coverage default and ensure bondholders receive full payment later this year on $40 million of state moral obligation-backed bonds.

A U.S. District Court judge in Chicago has dismissed the final count lodged against former Bear Stearns public finance banker P. Nicholas Hurtgen by federal prosecutors in connection with an extortion scheme involving a Chicago-area hospital seeking regulatory approval for a new hospital.

Still recovering from Gov. Pat Quinn's recent call for $2.7 billion in Medicaid cuts, not-for-profit hospitals in Illinois took a second blow when he lifted a six-month moratorium on stripping hospitals of their property tax-exemptions for failing to provide sufficient charity care.

CHICAGO — Illinois enters the market next Tuesday with $500 million of general obligation bonds for capital projects and is planning two additional new-money sales before closing the books on the fiscal year in June.