Far West

Los Angeles officials bumped up the cost projections by $40 million for a new wing on the Los Angeles convention center planned in conjunction with a proposed football stadium.

Approval was seen as likely for a plan by the University of California, Los Angeles to build a conference center and 250-room hotel in the heart of its campus.

California Controller John Chiang said recent audits of Hercules, Calif. found $50 million of questionable charges to its redevelopment agency.

California revenues came in $434 million higher in August than projections in the state's fiscal 2013 budget, according to Controller John Chiang.

State Treasurer Catherine Provencher will embark on a "road show" to educate local finance directors and elected officials about disclosure and methodology changes to pension liabilities approved by the Governmental Accounting Standards Board.

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board launched a series of free online training videos Thursday to help dealers and issuers submit primary- and secondary-market disclosures to the board's EMMA system.

California Gov. Jerry Brown signed Wednesday a pension reform bill that should help ease the burden of rising retirement costs on the state and local governments over the long-term.

The House Financial Services Committee passed a municipal advisor bill Wednesday after striking a requirement that MAs have written agreements with issuers, one of the bill's most contentious provisions.

State treasurers voted Monday to urge Moody's Investors Service to carefully consider the consequences of its proposed changes to analyzing public-sector pension data, warning it will muddy already complicated pension issues for the public and financial markets.

Virginia Treasurer Manju Ganeriwala has been elected president of the National Association of State Treasurers for 2013.