Midwest

Fitch Ratings last week affirmed its AAA rating and stable outlook on Indianapolis.

Moody's Investors Service raised its rating on the Northwestern Medical Faculty Foundation by one notch to A1, affecting $75 million of debt, due to its increasingly close affiliation with Northwestern Memorial Hospital and Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine and an improving fiscal position.

CHICAGO — St. Petersburg, Fla.-based Raymond James & Associates is hoping to carve out a bigger chunk of senior-manager business in the Midwest with two new public finance hires in Chicago, one to bolster the firm's local government team here and the other to focus on large governmental issuers.

CHICAGO - With new budgets to fund and the start of the school year around the corner, the season of short-term borrowing is in full swing for Minnesota school districts grappling with heightened liquidity challenges following the state's adoption of a budget that further delays some aid payments.

CHICAGO - One day after being accused of fraud by the Securities and Exchange Commission for its role in advising five Wisconsin school districts on a risky investment scheme, Stifel Financial Corp. said it has finalized an agreement to purchase $162.5 million of school district-supported notes from Depfa Bank Plc.

CHICAGO - Detroit hopes to come to market in early September with up to $100 million of federal capital grant-backed bonds to finance part of a light-rail system along the city's main thoroughfare.

CHICAGO - Stifel Nicolaus & Co. and a former senior executive fraudulently misled five Wisconsin school districts by steering them into unsuitably risky and complex investment products to fund their non-pension retirement obligations, the Securities and Exchange Commission charged in a complaint filed Wednesday.

CHICAGO - Ohio is looking for advisors to help it explore privatization options for the Ohio Turnpike.

CHICAGO - Citizens Energy Group, a nonprofit utility, will enter the market next week with up to $1 billion of new-money and refunding tax-exempt bonds to finance the purchase of Indianapolis' water and sewer systems.

Wisconsin last week put $233 million back into its patient compensation fund, returning a controversial transfer that helped balance previous state budgets.