Far West

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board has filed a rule change with the Securities and Exchange Commission that increases the price of a one-year historical transaction-data report to $2,500 from $600.

The Department of Transportation is expected to launch TIGER III during the next few weeks, ultimately awarding grants for capital projects from $528 million that was provided for the program in the recently enacted fiscal 2011 budget compromise.

Under fire from congressional Republicans to slow down derivatives rulemaking, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission voted Wednesday to reopen and extend by 30 days the public comment period on proposed derivatives rules under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.

WASHINGTON — This year will be the “toughest year so far” for state and local governments since the economic plunge began in 2008, with rating downgrades expected to outnumber upgrades, according to Moody’s Investors Service.

WASHINGTON — Market participants slammed the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board’s new draft Rule G-43 for broker’s brokers, calling it everything from irresponsible to anti-competitive.

Asset managers, a state pension fund, investment advisers, and a consumer group are urging the Securities and Exchange Commission not to eliminate references to credit ratings from its Rule 2a-7 on money market funds, warning that funds and investors would be harmed as a result.

The Internal Revenue Service is auditing the bonds of two issuers based in Florida — a health care provider and a community development district.

SAN FRANCISCO — Vallejo’s steep road out of bankruptcy has begun to level off, after one of its strongest opponents stopped fighting the California city’s plan to exit bankruptcy.

WASHINGTON — The Great Recession significantly widened states’ pension and retiree health care funding shortfalls, the Pew Center on the States concluded in a report released Tuesday.

SAN FRANCISCO — The city of Montebello in Los Angeles County, with more than $100 million in debt, may go bankrupt if it is unable to get a bridge loan in the next six months, according to a city official.