Missouri

The St. Louis public agency helping in efforts to build a new stadium for the Rams football team is seeking clarity from the courts over whether the city can contribute financially to the project without a public vote.

Voters in Ferguson, Mo., elected two African Americans to their city council in the first city election following a controversial police shooting inspired efforts to cut Missouri governments' reliance on court fines to support budgets.

A San Francisco-based airline's April Fool's joke triggered a disclosure notice on EMMA; the trustee for bonds issued for the airport in Branson, Mo. Wanted to be sure bondholders new that Virgin America was just kidding about its plans to serve Branson.

The Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission has tapped its chief financial officer Roberta Broeker to serve as interim director of state Transportation Department as a national search continues for a new leader to replace retiring director Dave Nichols.

A Missouri city is asking a state judge to void its contract with the Missouri Joint Municipal Electric Utility Commission in the latest push back from local governments angry over higher energy costs tied to the controversial Prairie State coal plant project.

Missouri lawmakers are advancing legislation that makes clear legislative and voter authority over any borrowing, a move prompted by questions over whether Gov. Jay Nixon’s bonding proposal for a new St. Louis Rams professional football stadium requires a vote.

Investors in a federal class action lawsuit stemming from the failure of a bond-financed Missouri sucralose plant stand to recoup about 86% of the par value of their losses.

The Missouri Supreme Court took control of Ferguson’s municipal court system Monday in a move that follows a stinging federal report that accused the officials there of abusive practices designed to generate revenue for the court and city coffers.

The Missouri Joint Municipal Electric Utility Commission is selling $158 million of power refunding bonds tied to the controversial Prairie State coal plant, which recently won a round of fresh praise from ratings analysts.

The Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District would like to ask voters next year to support $919 million in new borrowing for wastewater projects and to revamp its stormwater fee structure.

The roots of Joplin, Mo. School District’s current fiscal struggles lie in the district’s post-2011 tornado recovery, according to a new state audit that took the district to task for using the same firm as advisor and underwriter on its borrowings.

Standard & Poor's has revised its outlook to positive on University of Central Missouri's A rating.

Standard & Poor’s upgraded Johnson County, Mo. To A-minus.

Ferguson police engaged in unlawful and discriminatory practices partially driven by the city's reliance on court fine revenue to support its budget, according to a stinging report by the federal government prompted by the fatal shooting of Michael Brown.

The task force leading Missouri’s efforts to keep the St. Louis has hired Columbia Capital Management LLC for advice on stadium financing issues.

Standard & Poor's revised its outlook to positive on Moberly, Missouri’s B issuer credit rating in the city's first good rating news since the sucralose factory debacle that cost it investment-grade ratings.

Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon named aide John Watson Friday to temporarily serve as state auditor following the suicide of Tom Schweich.

Municipal bond borrowing by Midwestern issuers picked up steam last year, rising by 6.9% to $63.5 billion as issuers loosened the reins a bit on new money borrowing and refundings recorded double-digit gains thanks to favorable interest rates.

Stifel Financial Corp. reportedly is in talks to buy Sterne Agee Group Inc., continuing an acquisition spree that's vaulted the St. Louis based brokerage and investment banking firm into the top 10 among municipal underwriters.

Ascension Health's sale of two Kansas City, Missouri area hospitals to a for-profit was cleared after Ascension agreed to set aside $20 million in sale proceeds to fund acute indigent medical care, Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster said.