Midwest

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and a group of City Council members last week advanced plans for the new City Council Office of Financial Analysis to provide the council with independent analysis.

Illinois Comptroller Judy Baar Topinka launched a new database to make local governments' financial information and records more easily accessible to the public.

In historic testimony in Detroit's bankruptcy case, Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder said the state did not offer any aid to the ailing city to avoid pension cuts.

A Chicago fiscal watchdog group warned that Cook County's growing pension obligations and budget deficits could pose “enormous” fiscal problems in the future.

Moody's downgraded the Chicago Transit Authority's sales tax rating, citing escalating capital needs and an unfavorable political landscape to raise revenue as the city and state grapple with pension woes.

Detroit emergency manager Kevyn Orr made his first court appearance late Friday to testify in the city’s Chapter 9 bankruptcy trial.

The airport in Gary, Ind. tapped a team that includes Guggenheim Securities and Loop Capital to advance a plan to privatize the Chicago-area facility.

A Minnesota city and investors holding $26.4 million of defaulted revenue bonds for a broadband network have a settlement agreement.

Bloomfield Township, Mich. will sell $80 million of pension obligation bonds, in the first public offering of pension debt under a Michigan law allowing municipalities to borrow to cover unfunded retirement liabilities.

Bond insurers fought Detroit's restructuring proposal ahead of its bankruptcy filing in part because they did not want to set a precedent for other cities, said the city's investment banker Ken Buckfire.