Midwest

Standard & Poor’s last week revised the outlook on Governors State University’s A-minus to stable from negative, due in part to the Illinois school’s demonstrated ability to manage cash flow and operations and make timely debt service payments, despite chronic delays in state aid.

CHICAGO — Rating pressures on five Wisconsin school districts involved in a now-worthless $200 million investment product eased on Monday when Moody's Investors Service labeled as a credit positive their partial settlement of a lawsuit against the firms that advised and arranged the deal.

CHICAGO — Bids to buy the assets of an upscale continuing-care retirement community in downtown Chicago are due by April 10, with holders of its $229 million of debt hoping for a competitive auction that results in a better recovery rate than the pennies on the dollar offered by an initial bidder.

CHICAGO — An investor with a stake in $39 million of defaulted bonds issued for a failed artificial sweetener plant in Missouri has filed a lawsuit accusing underwriter Morgan Keegan & Co. and counsel Armstrong Teasdale LLP of providing false and misleading information in the offering statement.

CHICAGO — The Ohio Department of Transportation announced that it has formed a new division dedicated to ramping up the state's privatization efforts in an effort to lower costs and find new funding sources.

Hamilton County, Ohio, sold its public-safety hospital for $15 million in an effort to plug a chronic shortfall in the fund that runs the county's two main sports stadiums.

With public ire over the former mayor's flawed $1.15 billion lease of Chicago's parking meter system still clouding the local political landscape for public private partnerships, the city is turning to a next-generation model as it eyes private dollars to fund infrastructure and lower the cost of some city services.

South Dakota’s new fiscal 2013 budget should be positive for local school districts, which are in line to see a 2.3% per-pupil increase as well as a one-time financial increase, according to Moody’s Investors Service.

Moody’s Investors Service has revised its outlook to negative on the A2 rating of the Missouri Joint Municipal Electric Utility Commission’s MoPEP power pool bonds ahead of its $35.6 million issue.

Advancing a project long in the works, President Obama signed legislation last week allowing for construction of the St. Croix River bridge connecting Minnesota and Wisconsin by exempting the project from federal Wild and Scenic Rivers Act restrictions.