Midwest

Regional Health, the dominant health care provider in western South Dakota, will enter the market Thursday with $181 million of bonds.

Fitch Ratings last week downgraded to BB-plus from BBB-minus its rating on junior-lien tax-increment financing bonds issued by the Detroit Downtown Development Authority.

A judge last week approved a restructuring plan for the troubled Detroit Water and Sewerage Department that allows the city to maintain ownership but gives the seven-member board more authority over certain matters, including labor negotiations.

Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced last week the $1 billion reconstruction of the Chicago Transit Authority’s busy Red Line.

Moody’s Investors Service upgraded the Waubonsee Community College District 516 one notch to Aa1 in recognition of its large and growing tax base and strong fiscal position.

CHICAGO - The trustee for $39 million of appropriation-backed bonds sold by a Moberly, Missouri, to help finance an artificial sweetener factory has filed a federal lawsuit against the Chinese company that abandoned the half-built project and defaulted on its city payments to cover debt service.

CHICAGO - Chicago enters the market this week with $412 million of new-money general obligation bonds ahead of an expected vote next week on Mayor Rahm Emanuel's first spending plan.

CHICAGO - The debt burden of state and local government borrowers in Iowa rose in fiscal 2011 by 6.6% to $13.8 billion, according to a report published last week by Treasurer Michael Fitzgerald's office.

CHICAGO - Novi, Mich.-based Trinity Health's possible acquisition of the stand-alone, 159-year-old Mercy Health System, based in Chicago, last week advanced when the two Catholic health care providers announced they had signed a nonbinding letter of intent to negotiate a union.

CHICAGO - A prominent fiscal watchdog group in Chicago is praising Cook County, Ill.'s proposed $2.9 billion 2012 budget for closing a $315 million deficit but warns that a chronic structural gap will continue to mount without more action.