Far West

Lawmakers are concerned about the Securities and Exchange Commission's extensive use of administrative proceedings to enforce securities laws in the wake of the Dodd-Frank Act, a trend that has not extended to municipal cases.

Ports on the West Coast are recovering from the cargo backup that developed during a recent labor dispute and are turning their attention to long-term strategic threats from ports in other regions.

Water utility executives from 47 states stormed Capitol Hill to urge lawmakers to repeal a ban on the use of tax-exempt bonds for projects already benefiting from certain federal assistance.

Issuers in Colorado and Nevada separately disclosed this week that the Internal Revenue Service is conducting routine audits of bonds they issued in 2006.

Richard Jones has been tapped to head Nixon Peabody LLP's public finance practice.

California's Foothill/Eastern Transportation Corridor Agency failed again to get approvals from a water board needed to move ahead on a five-mile extension of one of its toll roads.

The muni market may learn more about how issuers fared under the Securities and Exchange Commission's Municipalities Continuing Disclosure Cooperation initiative after they respond next month to a survey from the Government Finance Officers Association.

A federal ruling against states may set a precedent for risky local spending on broadband, credit analysts said.

Phillip Washington, chief executive of the Regional Transportation District in Denver, was named to head the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

The official decline in the number of fiscally-stressed California schools is a credit positive, according to Moody's Investors Service.