Far West

ALAMEDA, Calif. — The Securities and Exchange Commission crossed a new threshold this week by securing financial penalties against individual city officials in a municipal bond fraud case.

SAN ANTONIO — The Securities and Exchange Commission has postponed the municipal securities field hearing it planned to hold in Chicago on Nov. 16.

ALAMEDA, Calif. — Vallejo, Calif., appointed a new interim city manager this week.

ALAMEDA, Calif. — California has closed a $6.7 billion bridge loan with six financial institutions to help the state through a cash crunch, Treasurer Bill Lockyer announced Tuesday afternoon.

WASHINGTON — The National Association of Bond ­Lawyers’ new president as of Wednesday night, John ­McNally, appears to be the right man at the right place and the right time, according to the group’s members.

WASHINGTON — California and Florida are the biggest winners of high-speed rail grants, securing $1.7 billion out of a total of $2.5 billion to help close ­funding gaps for ambitious rail projects that have already received large federal grants.

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board on Tuesday filed a proposal with the Securities and Exchange Commission to revise the Municipal Securities Representative Qualification Examination known as the Series 52.

The National Association of Bond ­Lawyers announced Tuesday that it has hired Linda Holtz Wyman as its chief operating officer.

WASHINGTON — Three hours after Standard & Poor’s announced that it had downgraded Assured Guaranty Ltd.’s two insurer platforms to AA-plus from AAA, 84 material-event notices had been filed with the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board’s online EMMA system disclosing 181 bond issues affected by the rating downgrades.

WASHINGTON — The Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago has disclosed that the Internal Revenue Service is examining $600 million of Build America Bonds it issued in August 2009 — the second IRS audit of BABs announced in less than a week.