Florida

Standard & Poor's dropped the rating of G-Star School of the Arts, a Florida charter school focusing on film and entertainment, to B-plus from BB.

A federal judge has issued an order for mediation between the City of Miami, Fla. and the Securities and Exchange Commission, a step the SEC said is required for its securities fraud case against the city and its former budget director.

Florida's Citrus Memorial Hospital is poised to be sold to a for-profit chain, and redeem its junk bonds with proceeds from the deal.

A grassroots group is asking Florida Gov. Rick Scott to delay further legal action against Georgia over water use in the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint River basin.

Broward County plans to target south Florida's retail investors in selling $434.2 million of bonds for Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport's $2.3 billion capital program.

Florida filed a lawsuit Tuesday seeking an injunction from the U.S. Supreme Court to stop Georgia's "unchecked and growing consumption of water," state officials said.

Bond lawyers were wrong to suggest that South Miami’s disclosure of a bond-related tax settlement with the Internal Revenue Service triggered Securities and Exchange Commission enforcement action.

Build America Mutual Assurance Co., the start-up mutual municipal bond insurer, is open for business in Florida.

For the first time in four years, Miami has a budget without declaring a fiscal emergency but the city faces legal hurdles, including a federal lawsuit filed by the SEC.

Florida's projected $845 million surplus in fiscal 2015 could erode because of action on the federal budget and debt ceiling, state lawmakers learned Wednesday.

Florida is preparing to sell $390 million of revenue bonds for seaport and transportation projects after getting the OK from top elected officials Sept. 24.

St. Augustine, Fla.'s Glenmoor continuing care retirement community in World Golf Village filed for bankruptcy owing municipal bondholders more than $57.1 million.

Large federal flood insurance rate increases starting Oct. 1 threaten to derail the slowly improving economy in Southeastern Gulf coast states, said regional officials.

With Southeast issuers facing big-ticket costs to rehab water and sewer systems under federal court orders, doubt about the future of munis is raising concern.

Jennifer Montero will be the new chief financial officer of Florida's state-run Citizens Property Insurance Corp. and John Rollins will be the new chief risk officer.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged the operator of Miami-Dade County, Fla.'s largest hospital with defrauding investors by failing to disclose its financial woes prior to an $83 million bond offering.

Florida's economists project that the state will have a windfall of $845.7 million to spend in 2015, and Gov. Rick Scott wants to spend $500 million on tax cuts.

The Securities and Exchange Commission, Miami, Fla., and the city's former budget director agree they are unlikely to settle a bond-related securities fraud case and that the trial will be lengthy, according to a joint scheduling report they filed with a federal court in Miami.

The Florida Department of Transportation is seeking proposals from investors and developers to finance, design, and build the state's first privately operated tolled expressway.

S&P has junked the rating of Florida's Learning Gate Community School to BB citing liquidity and operating performance at the long-time charter school.