Midwest

Athens-based Ohio University will spend $1 billion over the next six years for capital improvements, most of it financed with bonds.

Two days after delivering a much-anticipated speech outlining Detroit’s fiscal problems, Mayor Dave Bing announced he would eliminate 1,000 positions — or 9% of the city’s workforce — by the end of February.

The Illinois Housing Development Authority said it would use proceeds of its recent sale of $33.4 million of tax-exempt housing revenue bonds to finance four affordable multifamily developments.

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel last week took action to put his stamp on the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority board, appointing three new members from the financial services industry who are charged with undertaking reforms and streamlining operations at the city-state agency.

CHICAGO - Gov. Rick Snyder dodged a bullet Friday when a divided Michigan Supreme Court affirmed his controversial move to tax retirement income, a measure that balances the two-month-old 2012 budget and is part of the Republican governor's ambitious overhaul of the state's tax code.

CHICAGO - The Cook County, Ill., Board of Commissioners late Friday approved a $2.9 billion 2012 budget that credit analysts praised as taking some steps toward long-term structural reform for the nation's second-most-populous county.

CHICAGO - Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn on Friday signed legislation authorizing the issuance of up to $2.4 billion in revenue bonds to pay off federal loans to fund the state's unemployment insurance program.

CHICAGO - Decatur, Ill.-based Archer Daniels Midland Co., the world's largest grain processor, has requested an allocation of up to $200 million of Midwestern disaster-area revenue bonds through the Iowa Finance Authority for improvements at its Iowa processing facilities.

CHICAGO - Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder said Thursday he expects Detroit officials will soon request a preliminary financial review - the first step toward a state takeover of the city.

CHICAGO - Almost out of cash to keep operating, an upscale retirement facility in downtown Chicago financed with $229 million of bonds filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy this week after the failure of negotiations with a group of investors aimed at buying the facility breathing room.