Far West

SAN FRANCISCO — Standard & Poor's downgraded Vallejo's certificates of participation to an underlying C rating from B yesterday as the California city inched closer to completing a bankruptcy restructuring that may include a debt-service moratorium.

WASHINGTON — Senate Banking Committee chairman Christopher Dodd yesterday introduced a massive, reworked financial regulatory reform bill that would require the head of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s municipal securities office to report directly to the SEC chairman, significantly raising the profile of the muni market.

WASHINGTON — The Build America Bonds program would be extended for three years, but the direct-pay subsidy rate would shrink from the current 35% of interest costs to 33% in 2011, 31% in 2012 and 30% in 2013, under a draft of a second jobs bill unveiled yesterday by House Ways and Means Committee chairman Sander Levin, D-Mich.

A third former employee of CDR Financial Products — Douglas Alan Goldberg — has pleaded guilty to three criminal counts for participating in bid-rigging and fraud conspiracies in connection with municipal finance investment and other contracts, the Justice Department announced yesterday.

SAN FRANCISCO — Now that ­Nevada’s governor has signed jobs legislation that emerged from the recent special legislative session, officials in the southern part of the state say they are prepared to hit the debt market to finance the projects that will create those jobs.

WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service is seeking public comments on two matters related to private-activity bonds: final regulations for those issued to finance power facilities and the form issuers must file to elect a carryforward of unused volume cap.

WASHINGTON — The District of Columbia tomorrow will issue $160 million of revenue bonds for the country’s largest non-commercial radio broadcaster, National Public Radio Inc., which has bolstered its listener base over the last 10 years, showing a steady increase in audience in contrast to other mainstream media companies.

A tax bill amendment that was introduced last week by Sens. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., and Byron L. Dorgan, D-N.D., would establish a pilot program for six airports to collect potentially unlimited passenger facilities charges.

WASHINGTON — A new jobs bill expected to be introduced today by House Ways and Means Committee chairman Rep. Sander Levin, D-Mich., will include an 18-month extension of the Build America Bonds program, a committee spokesperson said.

WASHINGTON — A second former employee of CDR Financial Products Inc., Matthew Adam Rothman, has pleaded guilty to participating in bid-rigging and fraud conspiracies with other firms that provided investment agreements to states and localities, the Justice Department announced late Thursday.