Far West

SAN FRANCISCO — The Sacramento Municipal Utility District has joined the ranks of public agencies filing civil lawsuits alleging a bid-rigging conspiracy in the municipal derivatives market.

WASHINGTON — Brazos Student Finance Corp. wants to be the first student loan lender to ask institutional investors to voluntarily tender, at a discount, illiquid auction-rate securities in exchange for new floating-rate notes, about a year after a much larger and more complex offer failed.

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Energy is asking governments and development finance authorities to participate in the first stage of a new federal loan guarantee program for alternative energy projects, which is expected to be used in conjunction with municipal bonds and will guarantee at least $50 billion of debt.

State, regional, and local transportation toll authorities will steadily issue debt as the economy recovers in order to pay for infrastructure maintenance and construction projects that cannot be funded from state and federal coffers, Moody’s Investors Service predicted in a report issued late last week.

WASHINGTON — The Securities and Exchange Commission will likely vote to adopt final changes to its Rule 15c2-12 on disclosure “very early” next year and will then meet with lawmakers to see what can be done to expand its authority over the muni market, SEC chairman Mary Schapiro said this week.

WASHINGTON — The Securities and Exchange Commission’s settlement last week with JPMorgan over payments former bankers made to get municipal bond and swap business from Jefferson County, Ala., as well as other recent enforcement actions, show the SEC is not afraid to pursue complex and difficult financial crimes, the agency’s head of enforcement said yesterday.

SAN FRANCISCO — The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power will bring its first Build America Bonds to market as part of a $500 million deal next week.

WASHINGTON — California tops the list of 10 states that have been so severely hit by the recession there could be “potentially damaging consequences for the entire country,” the Pew Center on the States warned in a new report.

The Port of Seattle’s commissioners Tuesday agreed to move forward with a solicitation for financial advisory services.

A developer of cow manure-to-natural gas facilities financed by tax-exempt debt is continuing to negotiate with bondholders as it attempts to keep its business afloat, according to a news release announcing its third-quarter results.