Missouri

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.

Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon on Tuesday announced agreements that would help pave the way for the future construction of a new St. Louis Rams football stadium at a site just north of downtown St. Louis.

The Missouri Senate will vote Thursday on legislation tightening limits on how much local governments can rely on court-related fines to prop up their operating budgets.

Missouri will soon be in the market for a new transportation leader following the announcement that Department of Transportation Director Dave Nichols plans to retire May 1.

Triple-A Missouri would issue its first new money general obligation paper in eight years under Gov. Jay Nixon's proposal to tap $70 million in voter approved bonding authority to finance water system projects.

Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon unveiled a fiscal 2016 budget that begins drawing on existing bonding authority to fund more than $300 million in projects at state facilities and public higher education institutions as the new legislative session kicks into high gear.

Weakening gasoline tax revenues will force Missouri to concentrate limited financial resources to road work on major arteries.

Bondholders will learn later this month how much they stand to recoup from a settlement that ended a trial accusing Morgan Keegan & Co. Inc. of misleading them on a bond deal that soured after the failure of an artificial sweetener plant project in Moberly, Mo.

A settlement was announced Wednesday to end a federal civil trial stemming from a bond default triggered by the collapse of an artificial sweetener plant project in Moberly, Mo; the former Morgan Keegan & Co. Inc. was among the defendants.

Jury selection began Tuesday in a federal class action lawsuit accusing the former Morgan Keegan & Co. Inc. of securities fraud for its role in underwriting $39 million of defaulted bonds for a failed artificial sweetener plant in Moberly, Mo.

A coalition opposed to public funding for stadiums is warning that the proposed St. Louis Rams stadium funding scheme would require a public vote.