Michigan

Moody's Investors Service has downgraded the Detroit-area provider Henry Ford Health System one notch to A3, due to a deteriorating operating performance and struggles tied to implementation of a new electronic medical records system.

Bankruptcy Judge Steven Rhodes blocked insurer Syncora's request to question the state attorney general, and gave a limited green light to plan for the city's proposal to take the court on a bus tour of the city as part of the upcoming trial.

Investors were not reluctant to buy the Detroit name when the Michigan Finance Authority priced $185 million of bonds for the Detroit Public Lighting Authority Wednesday.

As Detroit has shown, the Chapter 9 world and the municipal bond finance world often just don't speak the same language, according to Nixon Peabody LLP attorneys.

Detroit Tuesday defended its proposal to take Bankruptcy Judge Steven Rhodes on a bus tour of the city as part of the plan of confirmation trial later this summer.

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder Monday appointed a review team to begin investigating the finances of the troubled Benton Harbor school district, a step towards a possible state takeover.

Syncora Guarantee Inc. has accused Detroit of pitting its pensioners against its financial creditors in a "torches and pitchforks" campaign, the insurer's latest salvo in a rising war of words between the two parties.

Three Detroit hospitals reached a final agreement to merge into a new $3.8 billion system that will be the largest in southeast Michigan.

Bond insurer Financial Guaranty Insurance Co. has subpoenaed Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder and Sean Werdlow, with Siebert Brandford Shank and a former Detroit CFO, for a deposition in the Detroit bankruptcy.

The board of commissioners for Macomb County, Mich., June 19 approved a measure to issue up to $300 million of bonds to pay off its retiree health care costs.

U.S. Chief District Judge Gerald Rosen, the top mediator in Detroit's bankruptcy case, has ordered the city into talks with water and sewer revenue bondholders, one of the few holdout creditors in the case.

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder Friday signed a package of bills aimed at resolving Detroit's Chapter 9 case at a triumphant ceremony where the governor and others proclaimed the end is in sight for the historic bankruptcy.

As Detroit released preliminary bond documents for next week's $185 million streetlight sale, Fitch Ratings assigned a BBB-plus to the borrowing, saying it believes the utility tax revenues pledged to the bonds are not at risk in the city's bankruptcy.

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder knew a $195 million contribution to Detroit's bankruptcy could concern analysts, but believes it is important, a spokesperson said after Standard & Poor's revised its outlook.

S&P revises Michigan's outlook down to stable from positive, citing soft revenues as well as its recent contribution to Detroit's bankruptcy.

Structural protections and a yield-hungry market are apt to boost interest in bonds for the Detroit Public Lighting Authority, despite the city's ongoing Chapter 9 bankruptcy.

Fitch Ratings said Monday it has withdrawn its D ratings on most of Detroit's debt, saying there's no reason to maintain a rating on defaulted bonds.

Two bond insurers that wrap Detroit water and sewer bonds have told bondholders to reject Detroit's bankruptcy plan of confirmation, even as the insurers fight for the exclusive right to vote on the plan.

In a major development, Detroit bankruptcy mediators announced a settlement on the treatment of the city's limited tax general obligation bonds. Terms were not immediately disclosed.

The Michigan Legislature adjourned for the summer on June 12 after failing to reach an agreement on new transportation funding despite weeks of intensive effort and support from business and labor groups and Gov. Rick Snyder.