Far West

WASHINGTON - Market participants are split over public pension-disclosure guidance floated earlier this year by a bond lawyers' group, with analysts saying they need more information about a plan's future funding status and issuers and pension experts balking at providing speculative information about future liabilities.

WASHINGTON — The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority fined SunTrust Robinson Humphrey Inc. and SunTrust Investment Services Inc. a total of $5 million for disclosure and other failures related to underwriting and selling auction-rate securities.

WASHINGTON - State and local groups on Monday urged congressional leaders and the Obama administration to quickly reach a long-term solution to the debt-limit crisis, warning it has stalled key legislation.

SAN FRANCISCO - The city of Vallejo, Calif., could see its plan to exit bankruptcy sail through a final hearing Thursday with only one objection from two individuals.

WASHINGTON - The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board Thursday warned that the variable-rate demand obligation market "may be under pressure" over the next year and a half as bank credit facilities expire.

The chairwoman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee said Thursday that she wants the panel to approve a bipartisan, two-year $109 billion transportation reauthorization bill before Congress leaves for its August recess.

WASHINGTON - The Securities and Exchange Commission is probing a number of governmental entities about the adequacy of their public pension disclosures, chairwoman Mary Schapiro told lawmakers Thursday.

SAN FRANCISCO - The majority of California redevelopment agencies will likely survive new laws aimed at shrinking or eliminating them, but some worry about outstanding bonds issued by the agencies and what market access they will have in the future.

Washington Treasurer James McIntire said the state successfully pulled off its first retail-bond negotiated offering in more than 14 years, booking orders for more than $89 million worth of the debt.

Online retailer Amazon.com has filed papers to try to get a referendum in the June 2012 California election in an effort to overturn a new online tax-collection law.