Michigan

The Detroit branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People filed a lawsuit Monday saying Michigan's new emergency management law violates the voting rights of African Americans.

Putting bondholders on notice, Detroit Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr said restructuring the city's debt is essential to the city's survival and outlined four options he is currently considering in a new report released Sunday.

The Michigan State Building Authority, a key state bond issuer that last entered the bond market in mid-2011, approved the issuance of $535 million of new-money and refunding bonds.

Detroit's Emergency Manager is expected to unveil his highly anticipated report on how to restructure the city's operations and debts on Monday.

Detroit Emergency Manager Keyvn Orr Monday issued his sixth executive order, approving funding for the newly created Public Lighting Authority.

A judge last week ordered Detroit Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr, the state budget director and another state official to be deposed in a lawsuit contesting Orr's appointment.

Six months after announcing a proposed merger, Trinity Health and Catholic Health East said Thursday they've closed the deal, which will create the second-largest health care provider in the country.

After two years of running the troubled Detroit Public Schools, Roy Roberts announced Wednesday morning he will step down from the post in two weeks.

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder said Tuesday that the Detroit suburb of Ecorse has recovered enough to remove its emergency manager, though a three-member board will continue to cover significant financial operations.

The executive committee of the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments, which oversees the region's transit plans, voted last week to switch to a new funding formula that will mean the loss of significant funding for Detroit.

Detroit Mayor Dave Bing last week announced that private donations totaling $14 million will allow the city's parks and services to remain open through the summer.

Moody's Investors Service said Wednesday that it is closely watching several key events throughout 2013, including five scheduled debt-service payments, for any impact on the city's already junk-level credit rating.

As Detroit embarks on a massive restructuring of its long-term debt, the city's decisions over the years to wrap nearly all its bonds with insurance may prove as much a benefit to the city as to its bondholders.

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder appointed a financial review team to examine the finances of the city of Hamtramck after a preliminary review found a serious financial condition.

The city of Flint this week announced it will pull out of the Detroit water system, a move that will hit the bottom line of one of Detroit's strongest assets.

After years of struggling with $13 million of bonds for a failed development, voters in Sylvan Township approved a ballot measure to more than quadruple their township tax rate, then threw all elected officials connected to the original bond issue out of office.

Moody's Investors Service last week downgraded to A1 from Aa3 its rating on Michigan Technological University, affecting just under $80 million of outstanding debt.

Michigan law firm Miller Canfield Paddock and Stone PLC has named long-time Detroit based public finance attorney Michael McGee as its new CEO.

Construction could start as early as 2015 on a long-planned, largely bond-financed $3.5 billion trade bridge between Detroit and Windsor, the busiest trade route in the U.S.

Detroit's CFO said the $380M structural deficit that remains unsolved in Mayor Dave Bing's proposed $1 billion 2014 budget is actually good news because the deficit is "increasing at a decreasing rate."