Far West

President Obama has announced that he will appoint Michael Mundaca as the Treasury Department’s assistant secretary for tax policy during the congressional recess, citing “months of Republican obstruction to administration nominees” as the reason for bypassing the Senate.

SAN FRANCISCO — When ­Wisconsin’s insurance regulator divided Ambac Assurance Corp.’s insurance portfolio into good and bad policies last week, municipal bonds issued for the bankrupt Las Vegas Monorail were the only muni debt placed into the Ambac rehabilitation account, which consists largely of the toxic mortgage-related securities that brought the company to its knees.

WASHINGTON — One year after the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act fundamentally altered the municipal landscape, market participants are pressing lawmakers to extend and expand its provisions.

WASHINGTON — The Justice Department’s antitrust investigation has found dozens of firms and individuals conspired for at least six to eight years to secretly control the bidding for municipal bond investment and other contracts in more than 250 transactions, according to documents filed with a federal court in Manhattan.

SAN FRANCISCO – The Los Angeles City Council unexpectedly shot down Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s plan to raise electricity prices to fund city electric utility’s transition to renewable energy late Friday.

WASHINGTON — John Kendrick, the former Southwest Securities Inc. banker who is being charged in a Securities and Exchange Commission administrative proceeding for allegedly violating pay-to-play restrictions, wants to reach a settlement with the SEC but is considering taking legal action against his former employer.

WASHINGTON — The House Thursday voted 276 to 145 to approve a bill that would increase the maximum allowable passenger facilities charge that airports can collect to $7.00 from $4.50.

WASHINGTON — A federal judge in Manhattan has refused to dismiss class action claims filed by local governments alleging that Wells Fargo & Co. and 15 other banks, broker-dealers and investment brokers conspired to rig bids and fix prices of guaranteed investment and derivatives contracts in the municipal market.

SAN FRANCISCO — A Nevada Supreme Court opinion earlier this year has thrown a big question mark into the Southern Nevada Water Authority’s plans to build 306 miles of pipeline to pump groundwater out the state’s rural northeast into metropolitan Las Vegas.

WASHINGTON — Legislation that would extend the Build America Bonds program until April 2013 at gradually reduced subsidy rates was approved by a vote of 246 to 178 in the House yesterday.