California

SAN FRANCISCO — Stockton is not alone. The ski town of Mammoth Lakes is also using a new California state mediation law to try to avert Chapter 9 bankruptcy.

LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles Controller Wendy Greuel has released an economic forecast projecting a $200 million deficit next year and recommending that the city focus on structural budgetary changes instead of relying on one-time revenues and expenditure deferrals.

SAN FRANCISCO — Standard & Poor's downgraded Stockton, Calif., for the third time in less than two weeks, to "selective default" from CC.

A Superior Court judge on Wednesday denied a request for an injunction from a San Diego hotel workers union seeking to block a vote on a special tax to fund the San Diego Convention Center expansion.

Though plentiful doubts remain about California's ability to balance its budget, those concerns were no deterrent to bond investors recently.

A 25-year-old San Diego utility customers advocacy group is disbanding in the wake of a federal grand jury investigation into its business practices and leadership.

The Los Angeles City Council on Wednesday approved a diluted version of a bill that would have forced the city to stop doing business with banks that had poor lending records in the city.

Sacramento, Calif., leaders and the owners of the National Basketball Association’s Sacramento Kings announced a tentative deal Monday to build a new arena in the city.

Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s Investors Service further downgraded Stockton, Calif., bonds this week after its City Council voted to delay bond payments and enter negotiations with creditors to try to avoid bankruptcy.

SAN FRANCISCO — The Stockton, Calif., City Council voted Tuesday night to default on payments tied to $330 million of bonds and begin negotiations to try to avoid Chapter 9 bankruptcy.

LOS ANGELES — Officials at Downey Regional Medical Center are probably wondering if five will be their lucky number after the bankrupt Southern California hospital announced the fifth postponement of a planned bond buyback Monday in a disclosure filing.

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and House Transportation Committee chairman John Mica traded jabs over the funding of California's high-speed rail project Wednesday, the latest public display of the rift between House Republicans and the Obama administration over the future of American transportation.

LOS ANGELES — A Los Angeles County district attorney's office spokeswoman confirmed that prosecutors launched an inquiry in November into an ethics complaint made by a private citizen against county assessor John Noguez.

Stockton, Calif.'s announcement that it may cease general fund payments toward debt service on hundreds of millions of dollars in bonds, and take initial steps towards bankruptcy, is still shaking out in the market.

Stockton, Calif., City Council members will be asked Tuesday to stop making general fund payments toward several bond issues and to take the first step toward a Chapter 9 bankruptcy filing, according to a disclosure statement filed Friday on the MSRB's EMMA website.

LOS ANGELES — California Controller John Chiang and state Sen. Kevin de León, D-L.A., unveiled legislation on Tuesday to recast a bond-based program encouraging cost-effective retrofits of commercial buildings throughout the state.

Two moves to block San Diego’s comprehensive pension-reform initiative from going to the voters were rejected this week by Superior Court judges, according to city attorney Jan Goldsmith.

California’s 24 local pension systems are underfunded to the tune of $135.7 billion, according a new report from the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research.

The Stockton City Council on Tuesday is expected to take what would be an initial step toward bankruptcy, according to published reports.

LOS ANGELES — The two-month-old Los Angeles chapter of Women in Public Finance has announced its inaugural luncheon, "Roundtable on Current Topics for Municipalities," March 2 from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the downtown Los Angeles office of Squire Sanders, located at 555 S. Flower Street, 31st Floor.