Yvette Shields

CHICAGO — American Airlines and United Airlines on Tuesday sued Chicago to block its financing of remaining projects under an $8 billion expansion program at O’Hare International Airport ahead of the city’s planned sale of $1.1 billion of passenger facility charge-backed bonds next month.

CHICAGO — While the Illinois General Assembly’s move to bolster income taxes dominated headlines last week, lawmakers also jacked up the bonding capacity by $5 billion for capital projects and followed California’s lead by requiring underwriters to disclose their credit-default swap positions on state debt.

CHICAGO — American Airlines and United Airlines on Tuesday sued Chicago to block its financing of remaining projects under an $8 billion expansion program at O’Hare International Airport ahead of the city’s sale of $1.1 billion of passenger facility charge-backed bonds next month.

Former Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle is joining Foley & Lardner LLP, the state’s largest law firm and its frequent bond counsel, where he will work on national health care and energy policy issues, according to published reports.

Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton named former state lawmaker Ted Mondale last week to serve as head of the Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission board. The post puts him at the center of negotiations with the Legislature and the National Football League’s Minnesota Vikings, who want a new stadium.

CHICAGO — As Gov. Pat Quinn signed legislation Thursday increasing Illinois’ income tax, his debt manager met with rating agencies while the state plans to issue $3.7 billion of pension bonds next month and may resurrect a failed $8.75 billion borrowing to pay bills.

CHICAGO — Veteran Minnesota-based financial adviser Kristin Hanson will take the reins of debt management for the state’s Office of Management and Budget, commissioner Jim Schowalter announced this week.

CHICAGO — Fitch Ratings on Wednesday lowered its rating on O’Hare International Airport’s upcoming $1.1 billion issue of passenger facility charge bonds by two notches due to the airport’s increased leverage as Chicago seeks to fund remaining projects under an $8 billion expansion without airline support.

CHICAGO — As rating agencies and investors digested details of the Illinois General Assembly’s vote increasing state income taxes by two-thirds, Gov. Pat Quinn defended the action Wednesday as being necessary for the state to dig itself out of its fiscal crisis.

CHICAGO – Illinois lawmakers narrowly approved an income tax increase to ease the state’s fiscal crisis and $3.7 billion of bonding to cover pension payments, but rejected other key pieces of a fiscal bailout plan including a $1 cigarette tax hike and an $8.75 billion borrowing to pay off mounting bills.

CHICAGO — Using a structure that bypasses airline approval, Chicago will enter the market early next month with a long-planned sale of $1.1 billion of debt for O’Hare International Airport.

Illinois’ establishment of a program linking state vendors with private ­investors willing to purchase overdue vouchers underscores the severity of its chronic bill-payment deferrals, but shouldn’t impact its credit standing, according to a recent report from Moody’s Investors Service.

CHICAGO — Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn was sworn into office for his first full term Monday, with the clock ticking on a budget deal being pushed by Democratic leaders in the final days of a lame-duck session to raise taxes and borrow more than $12 billion to tackle a looming $15 billion deficit.

CHICAGO — San Francisco-based Grigsby & Associates Inc. last year added to its investment banking team in Chicago, New York City, and San Francisco and its sales and trading desk group in New York as it seeks to bolster its ability to serve as a senior manager

CHICAGO — With a round of positive credit action to tout, DePaul University in Chicago will enter the market this month with $165 million of debt that will include its first new-money sale to fund capital projects in more than a decade.

CHICAGO –Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn and legislative leaders have reached a tentative agreement to shore up the state’s balance sheet by raising the income and cigarette taxes and leveraging a portion of the new revenue to borrow $8.5 billion to pay off overdue bills. The plan also anticipates borrowing $3.7 billion to cover the state’s fiscal 2011 pension payment.

CHICAGO — Wisconsin will competitively sell $430 million of 20-year general obligation bonds Thursday to fund bricks-and-mortar capital projects in the new administration’s first debt issuance, according to capital finance director Frank Hoadley.

CHICAGO — Struggling to remain afloat, Iowa’s Xenia Rural Water District is working on a final debt restructuring plan to submit to its board and may do so later this month, officials said Wednesday.

CHICAGO — The Minnesota attorney general’s office and lawyers representing state retirees in a lawsuit challenging benefit cuts will lay out their cases by the end of the month in summary judgment motions that seek a quick ruling.

CHICAGO — The new governors of neighboring Minnesota and Wisconsin, in their inaugural addresses this week, offered similar pledges to tighten their states’ belts and focus on job creation, but veered far apart on the issue of tax increases.