Far West

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board will offer a live webcast of its market outreach event with the Municipal Advisory Council of Texas on March 7 in Dallas. This is the first time the board has webcasted an outreach event.

Stockton, Calif.'s unhappy bond market creditors will get a trial starting March 25 to challenge the city's eligibility for Chapter 9 bankruptcy protection.

Stockton, Calif., in the midst of Chapter 9 bankruptcy proceedings, announced Tuesday that it had reached an agreement with Ambac.

The Securities and Exchange Commission will hold a public roundtable on Tuesday, May 14, to discuss the SEC's December staff Report to Congress on Assigned Credit Ratings, which reviews possible conflicts of interest that arise under the so-called "issuer pay model" and recommends regulatory and statutory changes.

California lawmaker Bob Wiekowski introduced legislation for Treasurer Bill Lockyer to curb private contractors running conduit issuers in the state, including California Statewide Communities Development Authority.

Peabody Energy Corp., which led efforts to develop the mostly bond-financed, joint power agency-owned Prairie State Energy Campus, has received a subpoena from the Securities and Exchange Commission on the coal-fired plant's development.

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board has moved its library of electronic disclosures of dealers' political contributions to the EMMA system, the board announced Monday.

With sequestration looming, and the tax-exempt bond threatened, market experts at the National Municipal Bond Summit believe that alternative financing can be achieved with taxable bonds.

The successor agency to Monrovia, Cali's redevelopment agency refunded a five-year note that went into default last summer during the months it took to get approval from the state to refinance.

The sequestration cuts scheduled to take effect March 1 could throw the muni market into uncertainty and slam the air transport sector, according to market groups and public officials.