Washington

With one month to go until opening day, Standard & Poor’s Rating Services on Friday raised its underlying rating on the District of Columbia’s baseball park revenue bonds to BBB+ from BBB.

States will share $1.15 billion of federal funding for freight-related highway projects in fiscal 2016.

Washington’s historic Arlington Memorial Bridge over the Potomac will be closed in 2021 without $250 million of repairs.

The first bill Washington Gov. Jay Inslee signed this session may be a big step for the state toward complying with a court order that has been hanging over its finances for years.

Federal officials expect to have construction agreement with private partner for a new FBI headquarters by end of 2016.

Reps. Randy Hultgren, R-Ill., and Dutch Ruppersberger, D-Md., have launched a Municipal Finance Caucus made up of House members from both political parties who will fight to protect the tax-exempt status of municipal debt and ensure there is a robust market for municipal securities.

Understanding your culture is a priority for the Financial Institution Regulatory Authority. While some doubt FINRA can do this, there are steps your firm can take to demonstrate adherence to rules and regulations that have an impact on the objective "indicators" of FINRA's cultural assessment.

Lisa Washburn, the new chair of the National Federation of Municipal Analysts, wants NFMA this year to become more proactive in collaborative industry efforts to improve municipal bond disclosure and address changes in the municipal market.

The Internal Revenue Service is preliminarily challenging the tax-exempt status of bonds issued in December 2010 by the Three Rivers Solid Waste Authority in South Carolina to provide permanent financing for a system to treat and deliver methane gas from a landfill site to Kimberly-Clark Corp.

Legislators are coalescing around a federal oversight authority for Puerto Rico that could take concerns over the commonwealth’s debt, pension, and economic crises and forge unique solutions using congressionally approved oversight and restructuring capabilities.

Republican lawmakers contend that President Obama is breaking last year's budget agreement with his fiscal 2017 DOT proposal.

Far West issuers sold $83.6 billion of municipal bonds in 2015, a 26.5% increase over the prior year, as refundings continued to drive volume.

Hunton & Williams LLP has hired David Horner as a partner to work in the firm's infrastructure public-private partnerships practice.

Georgia's recently enacted supplemental state budget dedicates $750 million to transportation projects.

The Securities and Exchange Commission told Miami, Miami-Dade County, and the Marlins that no enforcement action will be recommended after a four-year-long inquiry into the financing of the team's $615.7 million stadium.

Challenges remain despite initial favorable reaction to a proposal to establish guidance for municipal securities dealers calculating prevailing market price and compensation in principal transactions.

The House will hold two simultaneous hearings about Puerto Rico on Feb. 25 before legislators are expected to begin a drafting process for a legislative solution for the commonwealth.

A Financial Industry Regulatory Authority arbitration panel in San Juan ordered UBS AG to pay an investor about $1.45 million in compensation for losses suffered by investments in its Puerto Rico closed-end bond funds.

The inadequate national investment in transportation infrastructure means it will take at least 21 years to replace or upgrade the 58,500 structurally deficient road bridges in the U.S., according to the latest bridge inventory from the Federal Highway Administration.

With time fleeting, Congress and the Administration should proceed under the authority granted them under the Territorial and Bankruptcy clauses of the U.S. Constitution.