Midwest

Michigan lawmakers are meeting for a rare summer session to try to hammer out a plan to raise new money for roads and bridges after a recent tax referendum went down in flames.

Michigan lawmakers are trying to fix an election snafu that wiped every Flint mayoral candidate off the primary ballot and spurred a write-in candidacy on behalf of a pig named Giggles.

Moody’s Investors Service labeled the Illinois Supreme Court’s voiding of the state’s 2013 pension system overhaul a “credit negative” for the state’s A3 bond rating.

Chicago’s bonds lost value, some dramatically, Wednesday in the first market session following its fall into speculative grade territory.

Moody's Investors Service stripped the Chicago Board of Education and the Chicago Park District of their investment grade ratings, lowering both by three levels after sinking Chicago’s city government to junk a day earlier.

Arguing time is the enemy, Chicago attorneys successfully argued for a fast-track hearing on a pair of lawsuits challenging pension reforms that took effect in January.

Chicago officials are scrambling to salvage short-term credit lines and liquidity arrangements after Moody's Investors Service downgraded its bonds, which triggered events in the city's credit contracts allowing banks to demand as much as $2.2 billion.

Moody's Investors Service Tuesday downgraded Chicago to junk-level Ba1.

Chicago, preparing to remarket bonds, again has warned investors of its laundry list of fiscal challenges, newly topped by the potential blow to its own pension reform efforts posed by a ruling last week from the Illinois Supreme Court.

Moody's Investors Service has upgraded the rating of Winterset Community School District in Iowa to A1 from A2.