Far West

California Gov. Jerry Brown issued an executive order to make many statewide temporary conservation measures permanent, saying that El Niño rainfall hasn’t solved the state’s drought problems.

The Port of Oakland said today that containerized export volume increased 7% last month from a year ago, the fourth consecutive month of increases.

With the House Natural Resources Committee planning to release a new Puerto Rico bill on Wednesday and vote on it a week later, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew traveled to the commonwealth to hold meetings to drum up support for a legislative solution.

Colorado Senate has approved a $3.5 billion road note package that could go to voters in November.

Municipal industry experts on Thursday urged analysts to continue focusing on how the presence of statutory liens can change the treatment of debt in bankruptcy proceedings and ratings analyses.

A one-day strike by the faculty of the San Francisco Community College District is a bad sign because it shows a strong resistance to the district’s efforts to balance its books, Moody’s Investors Service said Thursday.

The par amount and number of municipal securities trades rose in the first quarter of this year, compared to both the previous and same quarters last year, according to Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board statistics posted Thursday. But the number of continuing disclosure documents received dropped to 46,623 in the first quarter of this year from 47,934 during the same period last year.

California is spending big on water and sewer infrastructure, with multiple large deals from state and local issuers, including transactions with green bond certifications.

A regulatory official and market participants sparred over the merits of the Securities and Exchange Commission's voluntary continuing disclosure enforcement initiative during a panel here on Wednesday while acknowledging the need to improve municipal disclosure.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew said concern for the people of Puerto Rico is the primary reason he wants lawmakers to adopt restructuring legislation for the commonwealth.