Yvette Shields

Fitch Ratings has downgraded Wartburg College’s Series 2005A private facility revenue bonds to BB from BBB-minus with a negative outlook due to a weakened financial profile. The bonds were sold in 2005 through the Iowa Higher Education Loan Authority.

Chicago Mayor Richard Daley last week replaced his chief of staff Paul Volpe with Raymond Orozco, who had led the Office of Emergency Management and Communications. Volpe will become budget director of the Chicago Transit Authority.

CHICAGO — New York City-based M.R. Beal & Co. has hired former Fitch Ratings analyst Joseph O’Keefe to promote its Chicago-area banking efforts as it seeks to carve out a larger piece of Midwestern business, especially in a senior manager’s position.

CHICAGO — After escaping punishment from rating agencies for dipping into reserves to erase its budget deficit, Chicago will enter the market this week with $770 million of new-money and refunding general obligation bonds in a transaction that marks the city’s first use of federal stimulus bonding programs.

CHICAGO — St. Louis-based Stern Brothers & Co. this week announced four new additions to its analytic staff, institutional sales team, and health care banking groups, with an eye toward adding more than a dozen additional professionals to its various groups as the year progresses.

CHICAGO — The battle for the Democratic nod in the Illinois governor’s race centered on state finances yesterday as Comptroller Dan Hynes — Gov. Pat Quinn’s primary rival — issued a warning over the state’s dire fiscal condition, including $5.1 billion in unpaid bills and the looming repayment of $2.25 billion of cash-flow notes.

CHICAGO — After spending the week in a heavy marketing campaign that includes international buyers, Illinois on Thursday or Friday will price nearly $3.5 billion of taxable general obligation bonds with a five-year maturity to help cover its fiscal 2010 pension payments.

The resilience of Wisconsin’s economy in recent years and the state’s proven ability to adjust its budget when faced with revenue fluctuations supports its AA rating, analysts said in a recent state review from Standard & Poor’s.

Fitch Ratings late last month downgraded Brentwood’s tax increment financing refunding and improvement revenue bonds issued for its Brentwood Square Project to BBB-plus from A-minus due in part to the project’s exposure to retail volatility. The action affects $9.3 million of outstanding debt sold in 2005.

Standard & Poor’s last month revised its outlook to stable from negative on Decatur Memorial Hospital’s A credit due to the restoration of profitability.

Fitch Ratings has upgraded the Northwestern Medical Faculty Foundation’s rating to A-plus from A in recognition of its sustained operating profitability and positive volume trends.

CHICAGO — Chicago-based Women in Public Finance will recognize three industry professionals — a rating agency analyst, the deceased founder of a prominent financial advisory firm, and the deputy treasurer of California — at its annual awards reception later this month.

CHICAGO — Redwood Capital Investments LLC’s successful bid Wednesday to acquire most of bankrupt Erickson Retirement Communities’ assets did not include the Monarch Landing, Sedgebrook, and Linden Ponds facilities so the fate of their municipal debt now becomes the focus of a new round of negotiations.

CHICAGO — Redwood Capital Investments LLC’s successful bid Wednesday to acquire most of bankrupt Erickson Retirement Communities’ assets did not include the Monarch Landing, Sedgebrook, and Linden Ponds facilities so the fate of their municipal debt now becomes the focus of a new round of negotiations.

The Skokie, Ill.-based health care advisory firm Kaufman Hall & Associates Inc. will close out a busy 2009 with two new partners after promoting its head of the mergers and acquisitions group, Kit Kamholz, to the senior status and earlier this year hiring former banker James Blake.

Chicago's $8 billion expansion of O'Hare International Airport won a major court victory late last week that paves the way for its acquisition and relocation of a cemetery now in the path of a planned runway.

Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland last week signed a bipartisan agreement that avoids dramatic school funding cuts by delaying a 4.2% income tax cut to help plug an $850 million budget shortfall in education funding.

The St. Louis County Council earlier this week approved putting a half-cent sales tax increase for the Metro transit agency on the April ballot.

Missouri's top credit benefits from its economic diversity, good financial management, strong reserves, and a low debt burden, according to a new report from Standard & Poor's.

Moody's Investors Service downgraded Jackson County's implied general obligation rating one notch to Aa3 and warned of further action by assigning a negative outlook due to the county's fiscal challenges.