Far West

WASHINGTON — Industry groups are urging the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board to abandon a proposal to alter its Rule G-37 that would require municipal securities dealers to disclose the names of political action committees controlled by bank holding companies or other affiliates.

ALAMEDA, Calif. — Rice Financial Products Co. has added two municipal bond market veterans to its California ranks and plans to open a Los Angeles office by the end of 2010, the firm announced Friday.

ALAMEDA, Calif. — Maui County, Hawaii, is trying some new things this week in the pricing of $74 million of general obligation bonds.

ALAMEDA, Calif. — Two rating agencies delivered a split verdict Monday on California’s upcoming sale of $10 billion of revenue anticipation notes.

SAN FRANCISCO — California issuers are unleashing a torrent of bonds this week — about $3.6 billion of debt.

Vallejo, Calif., City Council members will weigh a plan to emerge from bankruptcy later this month, but the city is still likely more than half a year away from exiting the largest municipal bankruptcy in more than a decade.

Robert Dean Pope, a partner at Hunton & Williams in Richmond, Va., was elected president of the American College of Bond Counsel at the group's annual meeting late last month in San Antonio.

Securities and Exchange Commission member Elisse Walter wants Congress to do away with the exemptions for municipal debt in the federal securities laws, but probably would not want the SEC to collect bond documents from issuers prior to issuance, according to bond attorneys familiar with the matter.

Late budgets will be a thing of the past, a key California lawmaker promised Wednesday, a day after the state's voters approved a measure that allows spending plans to pass the Legislature with a majority vote instead of two-thirds.

The prospects for a comprehensive climate-change bill favored by public power utilities is presumed dead following Tuesday's election because Republicans, who will control the House in January, have opposed such measures, sources said Thursday.