Far West

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board announced Friday that it has tapped John Petersen to serve as a public representative on its 21-member board.

ALAMEDA, Calif. — California Gov. Jerry Brown has extended the state of fiscal emergency declared by his predecessor, Arnold Schwarzenegger.

In an effort to prevent the Federal Reserve from bailing out state and local governments in fiscal distress, Rep. Randy Neugebauer, R-Tex., has introduced a bill that would prevent the Fed from buying or selling their municipal bonds.

ALAMEDA, Calif. — Washington priced more than $452 million of general obligation bonds Wednesday in competitive deals that drew multiple bids, even as lawmakers continued to haggle over the state’s growing budget deficit.

VALLEJO, Calif. — Officials said Thursday that Vallejo is nearing a deal with its largest creditor and is looking at curbing employee benefits as it struggles to climb out of bankruptcy.

WASHINGTON — The Securities and Exchange Commission approved two sets of rules for asset-backed securities Thursday, including one that would apply to certain municipal securities in early 2015.

WASHINGTON — The Utah Housing Corp. has filed a lawsuit against two brokers — CDR Financial Products Inc. and Investment Management Advisory Group Inc. — and eight providers of guaranteed investment contracts, claiming they knowingly engaged in bid-rigging activities to artificially suppress interest rates on investment agreements it purchased for its housing bond proceeds.

WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service on Thursday allocated $400 million of qualified zone academy bonds to states and U.S. territories for 2011.

Fitch Ratings downgraded San Jose redevelopment bonds four notches Tuesday, lowering $1.7 billion in San Jose Redevelopment Agency tax allocation bonds to BBB-minus from A. At the same time, the agency’s housing set-aside tax allocation bonds were downgraded to A from A-plus.

Gov. Sean Parnell wants to tinker with Alaska’s cash cow, offering lower tax rates on petroleum production in the hope of attracting more investment from oil companies.