Far West

San Jose city leaders voted Tuesday to ask residents to decide on pension reform.

SAN FRANCISCO — The National Federation of Municipal Analysts warned Wednesday that uncertainty surrounding California redevelopment agencies' $23 billion of debt could lead to further defaults.

A dispute over the revenue projections for the Dulles Toll Road provides the backdrop for a hearing the Fairfax County, Va., Board of Supervisors is preparing to hold March 20 to decide whether to approve the next phase of construction on an associated rail line.

LOS ANGELES — Officials from Los Angeles travel to San Francisco, Chicago and the East Coast twice a year to talk to investors, but this year city officials decided to host a conference of their own and invite investors to come to them.

WASHINGTON — The number of municipal securities that traded in 2011 remained largely unchanged from 2010 and the volume of trades of less than $100,000 rose during the period, suggesting that more retail investors may be buying and selling municipal bonds.

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board proposed rule changes and interpretive guidance aimed at ensuring that underwriters and dealers comply with an issuer's instructions to sell bonds to retail investors during retail order periods.

WASHINGTON — This year, the volume of municipal debt issuance is expected to increase from the suppressed levels in 2011 caused by curtailed federal spending, federal cuts to Medicaid and Medicare, and pent-up capital requirements and borrowing needs, according to a report Moody's Investors Service released Monday.

The Senate on Tuesday voted against limiting debate on dozens of amendments lawmakers want to add to a bipartisan transportation bill, setting up more negotiations as Congress moves closer to having to resort to yet another temporary extension to the current law before it expires at the end of this month.

The National Federation of Municipal Analysts plans to release a paper outlining possible negative consequences to a California law dissolving some 400 of the state's redevelopment agencies.

SAN FRANCISCO — Stockton is not alone. The ski town of Mammoth Lakes is also using a new California state mediation law to try to avert Chapter 9 bankruptcy.