Far West

WASHINGTON - The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board would for the first time require broker-dealers to disclose to state and local governments that they are not fiduciaries and would prohibit underwriters from telling issuers not to hire financial advisors, under revised rule changes it filed Thursday.

SAN FRANCISCO - California's plan for a bond-funded high-speed train system just got more expensive. Fifty billion dollars more expensive.

Standard & Poor’s Monday lowered its rating on the San Diego Unified School District’s general obligation bonds to AA-minus from AA and gave the district a negative outlook.

A San Diego taxpayers’ watchdog group released a report Tuesday that says the Southern California Metropolitan Water District has accumulated more than $600 million in unfunded liability for retirees since 1999, according to published reports.

Santa Monica planned to sell $41 million of lease-revenue bonds this week to fund renovations of a parking garage to serve the city’s downtown shopping area and to refund existing bonds.

Adventist Health closed a deal Monday to take over the formerly bankrupt Sierra Kings Heath Care District’s Central California clinics and hospital.

Vallejo officially exited from Chapter 9 bankruptcy protection on Tuesday after finally satisfying the conditions of its plan that was approved in early August by a bankruptcy judge.

WASHINGTON - Secondary market trading volume surged to more than $851 billion in the third quarter of 2011, the highest so far this year, but still fell 8.5% short of the almost $931 billion reached during the same period last year, the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board said Wednesday.

LOS ANGELES - The Reno Redevelopment Agency in Nevada recently went into technical default on a bond issue, and its larger fight for solvency has triggered a funding squabble with Washoe County.

New municipal issuance should rebound next year, given low interest rates, pent-up demand for projects, and improved finances among states and localities, market observers with the Bond Dealers of America said Tuesday.