Washington

RBC Capital Markets LLC will pay $30.4 million to settle charges filed Tuesday by the Securities and Exchange Commission accusing the firm of misconduct for its role in the sale of unsuitably risky investment products to five Wisconsin school districts.

The fiscal condition of cities is continuing to weaken in 2011 and isn't likely to improve in 2012, the National League of Cities concluded in a report released Tuesday.

NEW YORK - The Internal Revenue Service is planning to begin full-blown audits of advance refunding bonds and focused audits of tax and revenue anticipation notes and multifamily housing bonds, an IRS official said at a seminar here Monday.

House Transportation Committee chairman Rep. John Mica, R-Fla., has been given the go-ahead by leadership to include $15 billion more for transportation programs in his multi-year bill, if he can find the revenue, sources said.

With support from the president, members of both parties in both houses of Congress, think tanks and financial institutions, creation of a national infrastructure bank might seem like a slam dunk.

WASHINGTON - Underwriters may need to withdraw from a competitive transaction if they uncover inaccurate disclosure and the issuer cannot resolve their concerns, a dealer group said in guidance released last week.

WASHINGTON - States' unfunded liabilities for health care and other non-pension post-employment benefits totaled $545 billion in fiscal 2010, Standard & Poor's said in a report issued Thursday.

WASHINGTON - A bond lawyers' group is urging the Securities and Exchange Commission to allow issuers to disclose interim financial action without fear of possible enforcement action by the agency.

With tax revenues continuing to sputter, Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire Thursday announced that she will call legislators in for a special session, beginning Nov. 28.

WASHINGTON - Small, independent municipal advisors asked the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board for an exemption from its proposed $300 per head annual assessment, while dealers criticized as burdensome and costly the board's survey designed to obtain compensation and income data for the assessments.

WASHINGTON - State and local governments issuing new muni bonds are disclosing that President Obama's proposed 28% cap on tax-exempt interest for higher-income taxpayers, if enacted, could lower the value of the bonds or impair their marketability.

WASHINGTON - Issuers vowed to resist a draft bill that would authorize the Securities and Exchange Commission to require them to disclose primary and secondary market bond documents and direct the content and timing of those documents, saying it would open the door to unfettered regulation of their disclosures.

The Internal Revenue Service has completed an audit of $51.1 million of auction-rate securities the Orange County, Fla., Health Facilities Authority issued in 2005 for an Orlando health care provider without changing the tax-exempt status of the bonds.

WASHINGTON - Rep. Mike Quigley, D-Ill., has drafted legislation that would authorize the Securities and Exchange Commission to both require issuers to disclose primary and secondary market bond documents directly or indirectly through dealers or others, and to direct the content and timing of those documents.

President Obama has signed the bill extending Federal Aviation Administration and highway funding.

The Securities and Exchange Commission chairman told House committee members that the agency proposed an overly broad definition of municipal advisor, while the top Democrat on the panel said the Dodd-Frank Act went too far by authorizing the creation of a new SEC muni securities office.

WASHINGTON - House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, on Thursday said the Joint Committee on Deficit Reduction "is a jobs committee" that should also lay the groundwork for broad tax reform.

WASHINGTON - Transportation industry and government groups have not found a lot to like in President Obama's American Jobs Act, and they are particularly unhappy about the proposed infrastructure bank.

WASHINGTON - Dealers and municipal advisors are criticizing the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board's proposal for a permanent 21-member board.

WASHINGTON - President Obama's jobs bill proposal to cap tax-exempt interest for higher-income taxpayers surprised muni bond market participants and was seen as a betrayal by some issuers who, according to one analyst, could have to pay about $10 billion more in added interest costs over the life of their muni bonds if the proposal is enacted.