Midwest

CHICAGO — The Detroit suburb of Hamtramck has pressed Michigan officials to allow it to become the state’s first city to file for bankruptcy. Now it has reached a financial agreement with Detroit that, together with a hoped-for $2.5 million state loan, could stabilize its finances for at least the next 10 months.

CHICAGO — A Chicago suburb that gambled on a hotel and conference center is now asking some bondholders to take a haircut under a restructuring plan that also raises its own financial risk in the struggling project.

CHICAGO — Moody’s Investors Service Tuesday downgraded its long-term rating on DePauw University to A3 from A2, warning that the small Indiana liberal arts school suffers from deeply imbalanced operations.

After days of debate, Nebraska lawmakers last Saturday approved a bill that will divert a slice of the state’s sales tax to finance road projects.

Moody’s Investors Service last week affirmed Jefferson Regional Medical Center’s Baa2 underlying rating but revised its outlook to positive from stable due to its continued strong operating profitability, improved liquidity, and favorable debt coverage measures.

The Illinois Health Services and Facilities Review Board last week advanced Central DuPage Health and Delnor Health System’s merger plans by approving an ownership change.

Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn and U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin last week announced a $685 million agreement that advances plans for a high-speed rail network between Chicago and St. Louis.

The Cook County Board of Commissioners tapped a new interim chief for the health and hospital system after the unexpected resignation of two-year chief financial officer William Foley last week.

CHICAGO — Whiting, Ind., will remarket $200 million of environmental facility revenue bonds as early as Tuesday on behalf of BP Products North America Inc., which operates its second-largest refinery in the northwest Indiana town.

CHICAGO — Illinois lawmakers should keep tax reform that raises new revenue on the table to stabilize state finances because a $7 billion structural deficit looms even with a new income-tax increase in place, a local fiscal review group warned Friday.