Yvette Shields

Standard & Poor’s this week announced it had raised the ratings on 11 school districts in Missouri and Wisconsin following a review based on revised credit criteria for smaller districts.

Fitch Ratings last week downgraded Resurrection Health Care one notch to BBB-plus due to operating losses.

CHICAGO — The Clare at Water Tower, an upscale ­high-rise senior-living community in downtown Chicago that has struggled to meet financial ­projections due to cost ­overruns, construction delays, and ­faltering occupancy rates, drew $554,000 from its debt-service reserves to cover its Nov. 15 debt-service payment.

CHICAGO — The Chicago Board of Education plans to enter the market as soon as next week with a $254 million unlimited-tax general obligation issue that will tap its full qualified school construction bond allocation for 2009.

Fitch Ratings last week stripped the Chesterfield Valley Transportation Development District’s 2006 sales tax bonds of their investment-grade rating as the issuer is expected to tap debt service reserves to fully cover its April payment.

The Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission last week signed off on a resolution designed to keep the National Football League’s Minnesota Vikings in the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome for an extra two years.

Moody’s Investors Service has downgraded Grand Rapids, Minn.’s one notch to A2 due to credit challenges that include a tax base that is highly concentrated and dependent on one local corporation.

CHICAGO — The St. Louis convention center hotel complex now owned by bondholders formally asked late last week to extend the deadline for a payment in lieu of taxes it owes the city at the end of the year to help stave off a shortfall in working capital expected this winter.

CHICAGO — The board of the Regional Transportation Authority of Illinois late last week approved the issuance of up to $166 million of bonds to free up federal capital funds to help trim a Chicago Transit Authority budget deficit and stave off a fare increase.

CHICAGO — The Illinois State Toll Highway Authority tomorrow enters the market with its second Build America Bond sale of the year — a $280 million revenue bond issue that marks the final borrowing needed for the agency’s five-year-old $6 billion rebuilding and expansion of the Chicago-area toll highway system.

CHICAGO — The recession and market downturn has profoundly affected the funded status of state pension plans, driving up some states’ overall debt levels and putting some credits at risk, Loop Capital Markets LLC analysts warn in new report.

CHICAGO — The Chicago City Council yesterday approved up to $2.85 billion of general obligation and airport bonds slated for sale in early 2010 and signed off on a settlement with a neighboring suburb that ends its litigation against the $8 billion expansion of O’Hare International Airport.

CHICAGO — Triple-A rated Hennepin County, Minn., today competitively sells $80 million of new-money general obligation bonds to raise funds for an ongoing five-year capital program that was scaled down to $757 million from $900 million to help address a budget crunch.

The Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority on Monday announced that it would likely cut about 20% of its employees to help trim a budget shortfall estimated at nearly $29 million.

Chicago and Bensenville on Monday announced a $16 million settlement that ends opposition to the city’s $8 billion expansion of O’Hare International Airport.

CHICAGO — Kansas City, Mo.-based George K. Baum & Co. last week re-established a physical presence on the other side of the state in St. Louis with a bang — hiring former Wachovia Securities’ head of public finance Amelia A.J. Bond, whom the firm believes will elevate its local position and bolster its national ­reputation.

CHICAGO — Kansas City, Mo.-based George K. Baum & Co. Friday announced its expansion into St. Louis with the hiring of prominent municipal banker Amelia A.J. Bond, who led the former A.G. Edwards & Sons/Wachovia Securities public finance banking group.

CHICAGO — Kansas City, Mo.-based George K. Baum & Co. this morning announced its physical expansion into St. Louis with the hiring of prominent municipal banker Amelia A.J. Bond, who led the former A.G. Edwards & Sons/Wachovia Securities public finance banking group.

CHICAGO — Menasha, Wis., will call $6.9 million of general obligation notes issued for its now-shuttered steam utility plant next month as officials weigh an offer from WPPI Energy to purchase the utility’s distribution assets in a deal that would help the city repay $23 million of defaulted bond anticipation notes.

CHICAGO — An already cash-strapped Illinois would subsidize debt service payments on $166 million of borrowing by the state’s Regional Transportation Authority under a plan announced by Gov. Pat Quinn yesterday to stave off fare hikes proposed by the Chicago Transit Authority.