Midwest

CHICAGO — Standard & Poor’s Thursday downgraded the already junk-bond rated Xenia Rural Water District in Iowa to D from BB after it failed to make its full June debt-service payment on $83 million of outstanding bonds from a 2006 issue.

CHICAGO — The Minneapolis-St. Paul Metropolitan Airports Commission will enter the market later this month with a nearly $150 million mostly new-money sale of senior-lien revenue bonds as it seeks to take advantage of the federal alternative minimum tax holiday.

CHICAGO — Illinois closed the books on fiscal 2010 last week in the “worst fiscal position in its history,” with a record $4.7 billion in unpaid bills as floundering revenues failed to cover spending, Comptroller Dan Hynes reported in his quarterly overview of the state’s fiscal condition.

CHICAGO — Columbus, Ohio-based Huntington Investment Co. has hired Timothy Reidy as the new director of its Cleveland public finance office.

CHICAGO — Minnesota-based law firm Briggs and Morgan PA, one of the state’s top bond counsels, has hired attorney Catherine ­Courtney.

CHICAGO — Missouri, a triple-A rated and rare borrower, will competitively sell $125 million of refunding and restructuring general obligation bonds today in a deal crafted to achieve near-term budget relief and long-term debt-service savings.

CHICAGO — Ohio began its new fiscal year with revenues down only slightly from expectations and a surplus of just under $140 million, but the good news ends there as the state is bracing for a deficit that could be higher than $8 billion as it heads into a new biennial budget next year.

CHICAGO — The potential sale of the smaller of two facilities that make up the bondholder-owned St. Louis convention center hotel complex is on hold following a review of pending bids and in light of the generally improving economic conditions, according to a bondholder notice published last week.

CHICAGO — Illinois’ triple-A rated Lake County Forest Preserve District Thursday will competitively sell $40 million of taxable general obligation Build America Bonds.

CHICAGO — The Minnesota Nurses Association and 14 hospitals in the Twin Cities area reached an agreement late last week on a new contract, averting a threatened strike by 12,000 nurses that was set to start this week.