Far West

Peter Roberson has left his position as a senior policy adviser to the House Financial Services Committee to become vice president of government relations at IntercontinentalExchange Inc., which operates futures and over-the-counter derivatives exchanges and clearinghouses.

Senate Banking Committee chairman Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., is expected to unveil a revised financial regulatory reform bill by the end of the week, but it is not expected to include any changes to the municipal market-related provisions floated in the original version in November.

WASHINGTON — Local government defaults and bankruptcies could be higher this year than the historical norm, but are expected to remain rare, Moody’s ­Investors Service said in a report released yesterday.

WASHINGTON — The Senate on Monday agreed to limit debate on a $15 billion jobs bill that includes an expansion of the Build America Bond program and extensions of surface transportation funding. The motion for cloture was approved by a vote of 62 to 30 after 6:00 p.m.

The Internal Revenue Service’s attempt to provide answers to frequently asked questions about Build America Bonds led to even more questions last week, as bond attorneys worried that one of the answers appeared to ban any premium on BABs sold with “make-whole calls.”

A federal judge yesterday reluctantly approved the Securities and Exchange Commission’s $150 million settlement with Bank of America Corp., calling the agreement “better than nothing,” but “half-baked justice at best.”

SAN FRANCISCO — Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and the City Council took an ax to the city’s workforce late last week, reacting to warnings that the nation’s second-biggest city faced budget deficits of almost $700 million over the next 17 months.

SAN FRANCISCO — With legislation in the works designed to help California manage its choppy cash flows, the state is preparing to return to the long-term municipal bond market.

WASHINGTON — The total budget hole for state and local governments in fiscal 2011 is “approaching $150 billion,” Mark Zandi, chief economist and co-founder of Moody’s Economy.com, said in an interview Thursday.

INDIAN WELLS, Calif. — The Internal Revenue Service plans to audit some Build America Bond issues to determine if they meet the tax requirement on issue price, an agency official said here last week.