Midwest

CHICAGO - The Chicago City Council on Wednesday approved the sale of up $750 million of new-money and refunding debt in the city's first big bond issues proposed by new Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who also submitted an ordinance seeking to rescind the city's head tax.

Wisconsin could finance much of an estimated $26.2 billion price tag for rebuilding and modernizing its currently free Interstate highway system by implementing tolls, according to a new report from the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute

A possible state-ordered takeover of Flint advanced last week when Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder appointed a financial review team to examine the troubled city’s finances.

The board of the Cook County Health and Hospital System, the third-largest hospital system in the country, last week adopted a budget of $828 million.

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel Monday hosted a meeting with top airline officials to discuss the sector’s role in the city’s economy and how best to foster growth.

CHICAGO - Cook County, Ill., will enter the market beginning Wednesday with $600 million of taxable and tax-exempt bonds in its new administration's first borrowing since taking office last year.

CHICAGO - Providing fodder for critics of Chicago's heavy use of tax-increment financing, the city inspector general released a stinging report Tuesday that found a charity founded by former Mayor Richard Daley's wife received nearly $1 million in contributions from businesses as part of their TIF subsidy agreements.

CHICAGO - Hit with both positive and negative credit action over the last week, the Chicago Board of Education will enter the market with $400 million of new-money debt next week as it debuts an offering statement that offers expanded pension disclosure and makes clear there's a new boss in town.

CHICAGO - Detroit Public Schools' new chief financial officer says the district's upcoming $239 million deficit bond sale will help put it on the road to stable fiscal health, allowing it to avoid the short-term borrowing it has relied on for years and erase a chunk of its structural deficit.

CHICAGO - The University of Minnesota Regents on Wednesday will sell about $82 million of debt, in a mix of taxable general obligation bonds and tax-exempt special purpose revenue bonds backed by a state appropriation, to provide financing for facilities in its Biomedical Discovery District.