California

SAN FRANCISCO — A public employee union is suing to block a California public-private partnership that would design, build, operate, and maintain a six-lane link between San Francisco and the Golden Gate Bridge.

ALAMEDA, Calif. — California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger announced plans to call a special session of the Legislature to deal with the state’s budget deficit when its new members are sworn in Dec. 6.

SAN FRANCISCO — San Jose, Calif., has been forced to piece together bank backing for short-term notes that have helped pay for a more than $1 billion airport terminal.

ALAMEDA, Calif. — The war between California’s state and local governments over money is probably not over — and may be exacerbated by the grim budget picture painted this week by the Legislative Analyst’s Office.

ALAMEDA, Calif. — California’s Legislative Analyst’s Office just raised the price tag for solving the state’s persistent budget deficits.

SAN FRANCISCO — The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency is inching closer to becoming a bond issuer and could offer its first deal as early as next year.

ALAMEDA, Calif. — California has firmed up its schedule for issuing almost $14 billion of debt before the Thanksgiving holiday.

ALAMEDA, Calif. — Rice Financial Products Co. has added two municipal bond market veterans to its California ranks and plans to open a Los Angeles office by the end of 2010, the firm announced Friday.

ALAMEDA, Calif. — Two rating agencies delivered a split verdict Monday on California’s upcoming sale of $10 billion of revenue anticipation notes.

SAN FRANCISCO — California issuers are unleashing a torrent of bonds this week — about $3.6 billion of debt.

Vallejo, Calif., City Council members will weigh a plan to emerge from bankruptcy later this month, but the city is still likely more than half a year away from exiting the largest municipal bankruptcy in more than a decade.

Late budgets will be a thing of the past, a key California lawmaker promised Wednesday, a day after the state's voters approved a measure that allows spending plans to pass the Legislature with a majority vote instead of two-thirds.

California local finance expert Michael Coleman reported that local school bond and tax measures had their worst showing Tuesday since he began tracking them in 2001.

City Council members of the scandal-plagued city of Bell voted unanimously Tuesday to hold a special election for their own recall.

SAN FRANCISCO — The University of California will sell $760 million of mostly taxable Build America Bonds next week to help finance upgrades to three medical centers.

ALAMEDA, Calif. — Two years after voters north of San Francisco approved a sales tax to finance a new commuter rail line, the start of construction is in sight and the Sonoma Marin Area Rail Transit District prepares for its first bond issue.

SAN FRANCISCO — California cities and counties could conceivably issue clouds of bonds backed by more than $1 billion a year in marijuana-related tax revenue if Proposition 19 passes Tuesday, transforming a decades-old pipe dream into reality.

ALAMEDA, Calif. — California Treasurer Bill Lockyer, after jousting with credit ratings agencies for most of his first term, says he’ll carry on if he wins re-election Tuesday.

SAN FRANCISCO — Chevron Corp., the second-largest integrated oil company in the United States, will benefit from a record amount of tax-exempt recovery zone facility bonds next month to upgrade the biggest refinery in the lucrative California energy market.

ALAMEDA, Calif. — The Securities and Exchange Commission crossed a new threshold this week by securing financial penalties against individual city officials in a municipal bond fraud case.