Washington

WASHINGTON - An industry group on Tuesday will unveil a revised edition of a one-volume treatise on municipal bonds, citing significant changes in the market since the last edition went to press 10 years ago.

WASHINGTON — Touting the success of the Treasury Department’s New Issue Bond Purchase Program, a group of local housing finance agencies is urging the Obama administration to modify and extend it, this time allowing the Treasury to exchange mortgage-backed securities it holds in its portfolio for MBS that wrap NIBP bonds.

SAN FRANCISCO — Standard & Poor's said it downgraded the short-term rating on debt issued by a public arena in Wenatchee, Wash., to D from SP-3 after a $42 million default.

BRADENTON, Fla. - The Securities and Exchange Commission has opened what appears to be a sweeping investigation into the new, largely bond-financed stadium for Major League Baseball's Miami Marlins.

The Governmental Accounting Standards Board will propose that state and local governments report five-year projections of cash inflows, outflows, and future financial obligations as supplementary information, following the notes to their financial statements.

WASHINGTON — An issuer group urged the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board to adopt suitability standards preventing the sale of inappropriate financial products to state and local governments.

PHILADELPHIA — The Securities and Exchange Commission is preparing procedures that it will use to conduct examinations of independent, non-dealer municipal advisors to see if they are complying with federal laws and rules pertaining to municipal securities, , an SEC official said Thursday.

SAN FRANCISCO — A Washington judge has dismissed a lawsuit that tried to void the state's $519 million bond deal for a floating bridge project.

SAN FRANCISCO — An arena in eastern Washington is headed for a $42 million default Thursday after state lawmakers failed to pass a rescue bill in time during an emergency session.

WASHINGTON — Broker-dealers from midsize regional firms converged on Capitol Hill and the Securities and Exchange Commission Wednesday to vent frustration with regulatory delays and what they see as an uneven playing field for dealer financial advisors and independent FAs.

Broker-dealers are not obligated to conduct Internet searches about a particular municipal security before selling it to customers in the secondary market, the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board said Wednesday.

State and local governments are urging Congress to allow them to collect sales taxes from online retailers, saying this will close a tax gap costing states billions of dollars per year and level the playing field for brick-and-mortar retailers.

WASHINGTON — States are facing a "big squeeze" of slow economic growth, the need for increased spending on Medicaid and other programs, the loss of federal funds and requests for help from cash-strapped local governments, two groups said in a report released Tuesday.

A health care issuer and borrower in Mississippi are discussing the possibility of entering into a voluntary agreement with the Internal Revenue Service to settle tax law violations that occurred after some bond-financed equipment was sold to a private group.

Veteran Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., an architect of the most sweeping financial reform legislation since the Depression and a muni bond investor, said he will retire from Congress next fall and use his remaining time in office to defend the new law against Republican counterattacks.

WASHINGTON - An industry group has asked regulators to disclose the factors they will use to determine which muni broker-dealers pose more risks and should undergo compliance examinations more often under a new proposed exam program.

SAN FRANCISCO - Washington lawmakers will meet in an emergency session Monday to get an early start on tackling the state's $2 billion budget gap, with an agenda that includes a half-cent sales tax increase.

WASHINGTON - The Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency has paid $12.3 million to settle tax-law violations and protect the tax-exempt status of its student loan bonds.

BRADENTON, Fla. - A newly appointed member of northwest Florida's Santa Rosa Bay Bridge Authority has filed a complaint with the Securities and Exchange Commission, citing what he calls trading irregularities in some of the agency's $116 million of defaulted bonds.

WASHINGTON - State and local governments have temporarily dodged a bullet, with the bipartisan supercommittee's failure to come up with $1.2 billion in spending cuts over the next 10 years, tax experts and lobbyists said Monday.