Far West

WASHINGTON — A federal judge in Manhattan has ruled that a group of 11 California localities, including Los Angeles, may go forward with their civil cases against Goldman, Sachs & Co., Citigroup, and several other high-profile firms because they may have participated in an alleged conspiracy to rig bids for municipal investment contracts and derivatives.

WASHINGTON — At a meeting today and tomorrow in Philadelphia, the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board plans to discuss proposed rule changes that would dictate the priority of retail and other customer orders in primary offerings, as well as where the board stands on its push to provide rating changes over its EMMA site.

Smaller airports, transfer hubs, and airports with a large proportion of business from only one or two airlines will be most vulnerable if the remaining U.S. legacy airlines continue to consolidate, Fitch Ratings said in a report issued yesterday.

After telling state and local officials that there was nothing they could do to adjust a much-maligned formula used to allocate $25 billion of recovery zone bonds, Treasury Department officials are now referring the governments to legislation pending in the Senate that would allocate another $25 billion of the bonds using new criteria.

WASHINGTON — Never before in the U.S. has there been such a push to develop high-speed rail, with Congress and the Obama administration providing funds and new programs that could ultimately get the trains up and running here as they are in other advanced countries.

WASHINGTON — Senate Democrats Tuesday failed for the second straight day to garner the 60 votes they needed to move forward with consideration of a massive financial regulatory reform bill by the full Senate.

A federal judge in Manhattan has refused to dismiss lawsuits four California issuers filed against Wells Fargo & Co., JPMorgan, and other banks, broker-dealers, and investment brokers, charging they conspired to rig bids and fix prices of guaranteed investment and derivatives contracts in the municipal market.

The National Association of Bond Lawyers is urging Congress to fix a number of glitches and provisions with unintended consequences that it has identified in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act enacted last February.

ALAMEDA, Calif. — Idaho is a state of few Build America Bond deals and few competitive bond offerings.

California’s general obligation bonds have caught fire since Moody’s Investors Service and Fitch Ratings slapped higher ratings on the state’s credit earlier this month.