Alabama

BRADENTON, Fla. — The long-awaited pay-to-play trial of Birmingham, Ala., Mayor Larry Langford is slated to start Monday with jury selection.

BRADENTON, Fla. — The Alabama Public School and College Authority next week plans to sell $775.8 million of revenue bonds, much of which will refund outstanding debt associated with swap options that the issuer is challenging in federal court.

The Birmingham City Council on Tuesday approved an ordinance extending the city’s lease with the Birmingham Airport Authority giving it nine more years to operate Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport and allowing it to issue debt for improvements.

Bill Johnson, a Republican candidate for governor in Alabama, said he plans to propose that the state create a Bond and Public Financing Oversight Commission.

Fitch Ratings Tuesday downgraded $236 million of outstanding Alabama State Port Authority revenue bonds to BBB-plus from A-minus and said the outlook is stable.

A federal judge in Birmingham has set Nov. 12 as the new date that former Jefferson County commissioner Mary Buckelew will be sentenced for obstruction of justice for lying to a federal grand jury about receiving gifts from Montgomery-based bond dealer William Blount when the county’s sewer debt was refinanced in 2002 and 2003.