Far West

"We do good work," said Mike LaPierre, president of GPM Municipal Advisors, which acts as advisor and staff to the Public Finance Authority and the California Community Housing Agency.

"Really the only chance of high speed rail in the United States in the next decade is Brightline West," said Federal Railroad Administration head David Fink.

Fitch Ratings cited Sacramento City Unified School District's fiscal challenges in downgrading its issuer default rating to junk and assigning a negative outlook.

Fitch Ratings on Monday echoed a prior move by Moody's Ratings to revise the state's outlook to negative.

Veteran public finance banker Shawn Dralle has joined Los Angeles County as assistant-treasurer tax collector.

Jay Leno, longtime comedian, TV host and car enthusiast, promoted an upcoming municipal bond deal in a video for Hollywood Burbank Airport.

Researchers examined more than 580,000 municipal bond issues and say the data shows communities with higher wildfire risk pay higher interest rates.

Fitch revised the outlook to negative from stable, citing a significant jump in leverage.

The $14.6 billion budget calls for hiring police and Olympic-focused infrastructure spending after last year's spending plan proposed layoffs.

Two rating agencies dropped their Los Angeles Unified School District outlook to negative from stable.