Far West

ALAMEDA, Calif. — California Treasurer Bill Lockyer has appointed Eileen Marxen to serve as executive director of the California Industrial Development Financing Advisory Commission.

SAN FRANCISCO — The Asian Art Museum Foundation and San Francisco city officials said they reached a deal Wednesday with JPMorgan Chase & Co. and insurer MBIA to restructure $120 million of variable-rate bonds, securing the financial stability of the largest collection of Asian art in the Western world.

ALAMEDA, Calif. — Southern California’s LA/Ontario International Airport could soon be under new management.

SAN FRANCISCO — Having already experienced a public employee pension-funding crisis, San Diego may emerge ahead of the reform curve as it works to clean up its financial house.

WASHINGTON — The federal debt limit must be raised by the end of March to avoid the suspension of federal programs such as state and local government series securities that municipal issuers purchase for advance refunding escrows, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner warned Thursday.

WASHINGTON — House members voted 240 to 191 Wednesday to adopt Republican-approved rules for the 112th Congress that transportation and business groups claim will hurt funding for programs and possibly curb the ability of states to finance projects with bonds.

WASHINGTON — Issuers and their attorneys are fighting a provision in the Securities and Exchange Commission’s proposed rules for municipal advisers that would require appointed board members of municipal entities to register with both the SEC and the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board if they advise on the issuance of municipal ­securities.

ALAMEDA, Calif. — Rocked by the recession, the rural California city of Chowchilla has stopped making payments on the bonds it used to finance its city hall.

WASHINGTON— A federal judge in New York has denied a request by David Rubin, founder of CDR Financial Products, to transfer a bid-rigging case against him, his firm and two other former CDR officials to a federal court in Los Angeles.

Kimberly Betterton, a municipal bond and tax lawyer, has joined Ballard Spahr LLP in Baltimore, the firm announced Tuesday.