Far West

The Sacramento City Council voted Tuesday to make major cuts to police and fire services in the budget.

State Controller John Chiang said California's total revenues in May came in 5.9%, or $408 million, above estimates in the governor’s May revise budget.

California's economic recovery is still weak, according to economists.

California Gov. Jerry Brown wasted little time in vetoing Thursday the budget sent to him less than 24 hours earlier by the Legislature.

WASHINGTON — Budget cuts proposed by Republicans would foster uncertainty in the derivatives market but would not interfere with new rulemaking, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission's chairman warned members of a Senate panel Wednesday.

WASHINGTON — Martha Mahan Haines, 59, the Securities and Exchange Commission's muni chief, will retire at the end of June after 12 years in the SEC's municipal securities office.

The Internal Revenue Service is auditing $19 million of tax-increment refunding revenue bonds that were issued by Missouri's Florissant Industrial Development Authority in 2003.

An advisory committee to the Internal Revenue Service recommended that it treat conduit borrowers as taxpayers for compliance matters so it can deal with them directly and cause less unnecessary burdens for transaction participants.

WASHINGTON - The District of Columbia Council voted 11 to 2 to approve a proposed $10.8 billion budget for fiscal 2012 that would impose a local tax on non-district municipal bonds beginning on Jan. 1, 2011.

President Obama's two nominees to the Securities and Exchange Commission navigated their confirmation hearing before the Senate Banking Committee on Tuesday only to have David Vitter hold up their nominations.