California

Standard & Poor's Tuesday announced that it had upgraded 19 school districts in California, plus one in Washington.

Californians will soldier on for a while longer with a void in the lieutenant governor's office.

The California Assembly voted unanimously Monday to advance a bill to clear up legal concerns that have prevented the issuance of more than $770 million of qualified school construction bonds.

Standard & Poor's and Moody's Investors Service downgraded Sacramento County yesterday, as California's eighth-most populous county prepared to sell $129 million of certificates of participation.

Federal officials, citing a failure to adequately study the civil rights impacts of the project, have followed through on a threat to withdraw a $70 million stimulus grant that was to help finance a rail link between Oakland International Airport and the nearest Bay Area Rapid Transit District train station.

SAN FRANCISCO — Voters in two counties north of San Francisco gave overwhelming support in 2008 to a ballot measure taxing themselves to build a new commuter train line.

The rating agencies may be poised to give California bondholders a breather. The bond market is not.

SAN FRANCISCO — Issuers in the Far West sold almost $95 billion in municipal bonds during 2009, up more than 29% from 2008, including almost $19 billion of taxable Build America Bonds.

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration’s proposal to lower the subsidy rate for Build America Bonds to 28% is creating investor uncertainty and could hinder the program, California Treasurer Bill Lockyer warned Sen. Barbara Boxer this week.

SAN FRANCISCO — Two former San Bernardino County, Calif., officials were charged with bribery, conspiracy and corruption yesterday for their role in helping to approve a lawsuit settlement that was paid with $103.8 million of judgment obligation bonds.

SAN FRANCISCO — The Los Angeles Unified School District plans to sell $1.8 billion of general obligation bonds next week, forging ahead with one of the nation’s most ambitious school building plans as it cuts hundreds of millions of dollars from its operating budget.

SAN FRANCISCO — Former public finance banker Nathan Brostrom has been promoted to executive vice president of business operations of the University of California system.

SAN FRANCISCO — Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa late Thursday ordered administrators in the nation’s second-biggest city to begin cutting 1,000 jobs to help close a $212 million general fund budget deficit in the fiscal year that ends in five months.

SAN FRANCISCO — Officials in Marin County, Calif., have reportedly approved an electricity purchase agreement that marks a major milestone their effort to implement a public power program known as community choice aggregation.

SAN FRANCISCO — Despite this week’s downgrade of the rail corridor that connects them to the nation, the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles are beginning to show signs of growth again, adding to evidence that the Great Recession is easing, analysts, economist and port officials say.

SAN FRANCISCO — Moody’s Investors Service downgraded the Alameda Corridor Transportation Authority’s senior and subordinate debt yesterday, citing declines in trade volumes at the Los Angeles-Long Beach port complex.

SAN FRANCISCO — San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders said California’s second-most populous city has no need for Chapter 9 bankruptcy in an op-ed article published in the San Diego Union-Tribune Sunday.

SAN FRANCISCO — After appearing to close a long debate in December with the decision to award construction contracts for a rail link to the Oakland International Airport, the Bay Area Rapid Transit District now faces the threat of losing $70 million in federal stimulus funding on civil rights grounds.

SAN FRANCISCO — San Francisco International Airport plans to refund $215.9 million of fixed-rate debt with variable-rate demand obligations next week, as it seeks to pair debt with forward swaps it agreed to enter before the financial crisis.

WASHINGTON — High-speed rail proponents rejoiced yesterday after President Obama announced the Federal Railroad Administration has awarded 31 states with a total of $8 billion of high-speed rail grants, the largest of which will go to California, Florida, and the Midwest region.