Far West

A coalition of publicly traded, non-bank corporations that own billions of dollars of illiquid student loan auction-rate securities is pushing for a federal liquidity backstop so they can sell the ARS and have money to invest in their businesses.

Appearing before the California Assembly Budget Committee, Treasurer Bill Lockyer this week restated warnings he has issued about the state's rising debt-service costs.

House Democrats have scuttled plans to include a $1.8 trillion boost to the national debt limit in the upcoming defense appropriations bill, and instead plan to propose separate legislation that would raise the limit by $200 billion and allow the Treasury Department to continue issuing debt for two more months.

Public power utilities are facing the prospect of increased costs and riskier credit profiles due to the Environmental Protection Agency's recent movement toward regulation of coal plant and other carbon-based emissions, analysts said yesterday.

Robert Bradbury, the former chairman and chief executive officer of the now-defunct underwriting firm Dolphin & Bradbury Inc., was sentenced by a federal judge in Philadelphia yesterday to a 366-day prison sentence and ordered to pay a $10,000 fine in connection with his pleading guilty to one criminal count of securities fraud.

The Senate and House have both approved an omnibus appropriations bill for fiscal 2010 that provides funding for high-speed rail projects and grants to states for transportation infrastructure.

California has named global real estate services company CB Richard Ellis to market the 11 state office buildings it plans to sell to investors.

Scott DeFife is leaving the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association as its senior managing director of government affairs early next year to take on a similar post at the National Restaurant Association, the two trade groups announced yesterday.

SAN FRANCISCO — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has chosen to replace California's outgoing finance director Michael Genest with one of his chief deputies, Ana Matosantos. The ­governor made the appointment Monday.

More than a year after Moody's Investor Service announced that it was postponing the recalibration of its U.S. municipal rating scale amid the financial crisis, the agency may be close to announcing its plans to move forward on the changes once again.