Far West

The Southern California Logistics Airport Authority of Victorville, Calif. defaulted for the fifth time on bonds issued to redevelop the airport from military to civilian use.

Nearly 20 mayors and vice mayors sent a letter to Mayor Chuck Reed, urging him to call off his 2014 statewide pension ballot initiative.

Twenty of the 52 initiatives outlined in the District of Columbia's five-year economic development strategy have been completed during the first year of its implementation, though bond and infrastructure-bank initiatives have yet to be completed, district officials announced Tuesday.

Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., will introduce a bill phasing in a 15 cent increase in the federal gasoline tax, currently at 18.4 cents per gallon.

Standard & Poor's has upgraded the Washington cities of Kent and Centralia to AA-minus ratings from A-plus.

A House committee chairman made clear at a hearing on Monday that it may take Congress years to determine whether to amend a nearly 100-year-old law to allow the District of Columbia to raise the heights of some buildings to accommodate increased growth and obtain more tax revenue.

The Internal Revenue Service has chosen to audit $65 million of general obligation, limited tax, school improvement bonds issued by the Washoe County, Nev. School District in 2007.

The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority will conduct a $452 million combination new money/refunding competitive sale Dec. 4 to pay for cost overruns on several projects.

The merger of American Airlines and US Airways Group can proceed as scheduled after a federal bankruptcy judge's clearance of the airlines' federal anti-trust settlement.

An arrangement in which an authority issued bonds to finance facilities that are leased to a state would not cause the bonds to be private-activity bonds, according to a recent IRS private letter ruling.