California

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.

ALAMEDA, Calif. — Vallejo, Calif., appointed a new interim city manager this week.

ALAMEDA, Calif. — California has closed a $6.7 billion bridge loan with six financial institutions to help the state through a cash crunch, Treasurer Bill Lockyer announced Tuesday afternoon.

WASHINGTON — California and Florida are the biggest winners of high-speed rail grants, securing $1.7 billion out of a total of $2.5 billion to help close ­funding gaps for ambitious rail projects that have already received large federal grants.

ALAMEDA, Calif. — The California treasurer’s office is firming up details for a temporary cash-flow loan it expects to close next week, allowing the state to resume paying tax refunds and catch up on payments due to local agencies.

SAN FRANCISCO — California’s Bay Area Toll Authority will sell $800 million of taxable and tax-exempt debt this week to help fund massive modernization projects that include replacement of the eastern span of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge.

ALAMEDA, Calif. — A civil jury in Sacramento rejected professional negligence claims last week against attorneys and a pension consultant involved in setting up a controversial pension system for Sacramento City Unified School District administrators.

ALAMEDA, Calif. — California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed a bill that would have allowed local governments to use bonds to securitize the state’s promise to repay them for the cost of implementing unfunded mandates prior to 2004

SAN FRANCISCO — State and local transportation agencies have penciled in the winning bid to design, build, finance, operate and maintain the Presidio Parkway Project, California’s first public-private partnership.

ALAMEDA, Calif. — The Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating bonds issued by the city of Bell.

SAN FRANCISCO — California’s first public-private project got a $1.1 billion boost from the recently passed state budget, which will fund construction of a new six-lane roadway linking San Francisco and the Golden Gate Bridge.

Most municipal analysts bristle at the claim that California will “become the next Greece.”

SAN FRANCISCO — San Francisco is laying the foundation for a $600 million-plus rehab of 69 acres of waterfront that will need a big chunk of public financing.

ALAMEDA, Calif. — The California attorney general’s office plans to seek a court order placing the troubled city of Bell under some sort of receivership or monitoring.

ALAMEDA, Calif. — The recently adopted California budget dumps a huge problem into the lap of the next governor and Legislature, according to the state’s independent Legislative Analyst’s Office.

ALAMEDA, Calif. — California has picked a winning bidder for its plan to sell 11 office buildings and lease them back in a deal that will lead to the redemption or defeasance of more than $1 billion in outstanding lease-revenue debt.

SAN FRANCISCO — Vallejo, Calif.’s bankruptcy ordeal has served as a harsh, precedent-setting example that will keep other cities from filing despite rising fiscal pressures, officials said Friday.

SAN FRANCISCO — Now that ­California has a budget in place after a 100-day delay, finance officials in ­Sacramento are turning their attention to putting long- and short-term borrowing plans into place.

Education and information have become a more valuable tool in the municipal bond market since the meltdown of 2008, participants in The Bond Buyer's California Public Finance Conference said Wednesday.

The panel kicking off Thursday's events at The Bond Buyer's California Public Finance Conference focused on reforming the state's government, but neither the panelists nor those who came to hear them thought that road would be an easy one.