Midwest

Moody's Investors Service Wednesday affirmed its Aa2 rating on Michigan, saying the state is anchored by strong fiscal management and a reviving auto industry.

Detroit can move forward with a controversial $120 million loan with Barclays, the federal judge overseeing the city's bankruptcy case said Wednesday.

Chicago is readying a pension reform bill for state legislative consideration that deals with half of its pension mess by stabilizing two its four retirement funds through increased employee and city contributions and benefit cuts.

The heavy political lifting to overhaul the governance structure of the Chicago region's transit system and improve its funding now begins following the release of a state transit task force recommendation that the current system be scrapped.

The Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District lost its top rating from Moody's Investors Service based on the rating agency's new local government general obligation rating methodology.

Bondholder recoveries would tumble another 5% under an updated plan of debt adjustment that Detroit filed with the bankruptcy court Monday evening.

A state transit task force proposed scrapping the current governance structure of transit services in the Chicago region under a framework that calls for the creation of new, single super agency.

Standard & Poor's downgraded Cincinnati two notches to AA-minus, warning of a weak budget and high pension liability.

Bond insurer Syncora Guarantee requested dozens of documents from the Detroit Institute of Arts, Christie's, and the state tied to the insurer's challenge to the city's bankruptcy and its attempt to protect the city's art collection from sale.

A bill that would allow Nebraska to issue bonds for highway construction advanced last week despite an eight-hour filibuster aimed at derailing the measure.