Yvette Shields

Moody’s Investors Service affirmed the Western Minnesota Municipal Power Agency’s A1 rating and revised its outlook to positive from stable ahead of a $140 million new-money and refunding sale to finance its share of transmission expansion projects.

Moody’s Investors Service affirmed the Minnesota Municipal Power Agency’s A3 rating but revised its outlook to stable from positive ahead of a $100 million revenue bond sale slated for next week.

A Cook County Circuit Court judge earlier this month denied Chicago’s motion to dismiss a lawsuit that challenges the legality of its $1.15 billion, 75-year lease of its parking meter system to Chicago Parking Meters LLC.

CHICAGO — Wisconsin’s budget deficit going into the next fiscal biennium ranges from $1.5 billion to $3 billion, depending on who is interpreting the figures.

CHICAGO — Minnesota’s Counties Transit Improvement Board last week advanced plans for a $110 million bond sale by Hennepin County that would mark the first borrowing repaid by a special quarter-cent sales tax imposed in 2008 on the five-county Twin Cities region to support transit.

CHICAGO — Hoping to capitalize on the lull in supply slated for this week, Wisconsin will take competitive bids Monday on $200 million of transportation revenue bonds in a deal that includes a mix of tax-exempt securities and taxable Build America Bonds.

CHICAGO — The Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago board of commissioners on Thursday advanced the plans for a $500 million sale of mostly Build America Bond in mid-December, though officials said the timing, size, and mix of securities hinge on interest rates.

CHICAGO — The Chicago City Council overwhelmingly approved Mayor Richard Daley’s $6.15 billion budget for 2011, with only a handful of members attacking it as fiscally irresponsible because of a heavy reliance on reserves and other one-shots to eliminate a $654 million deficit without tax increases.

CHICAGO — The Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago is expected to vote Thursday on an underwriting team, led by JPMorgan, for its sale next month of up to $500 million of mostly taxable Build America Bonds.

CHICAGO — The Illinois Municipal Electric Agency plans to enter the market Thursday with $130 million of mostly taxable Build America Bonds to finance its share of $1 billion in cost overruns for the controversial $4 billion Prairie State coal-fired power plant under construction in Washington County, Illinois.

CHICAGO — Chicago Mayor Richard Daley on Tuesday named Terry Mazany, the head of a prominent city community foundation, to lead the Chicago Public Schools system on an interim basis as the city awaits election of a new mayor next year.

The Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission recently named engineer Kevin Keith as director of the Missouri Department of Transportation.

Moody’s Investors Service has revised its outlook on Edward Health Services Corp.’s A2 rating to positive from stable in recognition of its improving operations, affecting $282.4 million of debt.

Moody’s Investors Service has upgraded Rush University Medical Center’s Obligated Group rating by one notch to A2 due to its improved operating performance in recent years.

The Federal Aviation Administration on Monday said it would fund the design and construction of a second new control tower at O’Hare International Airport as part of an $8 billion runway expansion.

CHICAGO — Illinois lawmakers return to work Tuesday for their annual fall veto session with a full plate that includes a proposed income-tax hike, a pension borrowing plan, and a gaming expansion bill — all to help address the state’s fiscal crisis.

CHICAGO — Aurora Health Care Inc. in Wisconsin enters the market as soon as Tuesday to refund $140 million of outstanding debt in a deal officials scaled down from $377 million due to rising long-term interest rates.

CHICAGO — The Illinois Railsplitter Tobacco Settlement Authority hopes to sell investors on its $1.46 billion tax-exempt tobacco bond issue early next month by using a more conservative structure than seen on past deals that ensures bondholders are repaid even if cigarette consumption falls annually by 10% in the coming years.

CHICAGO — Repayment of $46.6 million of taxable tribal gaming revenue bonds issued for the Lac du Flambeau tribe in Wisconsin is in the hands of a federal appellate panel after lawyers for the tribe and bondholders laid out their arguments in a dispute over whether the trust indenture required federal approval.

CHICAGO — The Illinois Finance Authority board this week approved the first tranche of private-activity borrowing planned by CenterPoint Joliet Terminal Railroad LLC to finance ongoing construction at its intermodal freight-transfer facility in Joliet under a $15 billion federal government pilot program.