Far West

WASHINGTON - An industry group has asked regulators to disclose the factors they will use to determine which muni broker-dealers pose more risks and should undergo compliance examinations more often under a new proposed exam program.

SAN FRANCISCO - Washington lawmakers will meet in an emergency session Monday to get an early start on tackling the state's $2 billion budget gap, with an agenda that includes a half-cent sales tax increase.

WASHINGTON - The Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency has paid $12.3 million to settle tax-law violations and protect the tax-exempt status of its student loan bonds.

BRADENTON, Fla. - A newly appointed member of northwest Florida's Santa Rosa Bay Bridge Authority has filed a complaint with the Securities and Exchange Commission, citing what he calls trading irregularities in some of the agency's $116 million of defaulted bonds.

SAN FRANCISCO - Standard & Poor's downgraded the San Jose Redevelopment Agency's non-housing tax-allocation bonds to BBB from BBB-plus due to financial and legal stress.

LOS ANGELES - A judge rejected the Las Vegas Monorail Co.'s third amended plan to exit bankruptcy on Friday even though 97% of the bondholders voted in favor of it.

WASHINGTON - State and local governments have temporarily dodged a bullet, with the bipartisan supercommittee's failure to come up with $1.2 billion in spending cuts over the next 10 years, tax experts and lobbyists said Monday.

Some market participants are concerned that the current version of the Volcker Rule would hurt the municipal bond market.

SAN FRANCISCO - Washington Treasurer James McIntire is pitching a rescue plan to prevent a $42 million default, a move he says would protect other state credits from contagion effects.

SAN FRANCISCO - Robert W. Baird & Co. said it has added 23-year municipal banking veteran David Ulbricht as a managing director in its public finance division in Portland, Ore., as the investment bank continues to expand its business in the West.