Southwest

Issuers in California and Texas accounted for more than one-third of S&P Global’s public finance ratings upgrades last year.

Monthly sales tax revenue registered the second-largest gain of the fiscal year in February, rising 4.4% above the same month last year to $2.4 billion.

Utah lawmakers are expected to approve $1 billion of new road bonds before session expires Thursday.

Oklahoma expects strong demand for $70 million of capitol repair bonds despite an S&P downgrade and continuing struggles to cover a nearly $900 million revenue shortfall.

President Donald Trump’s plan to rely on private prisons to house federal inmates and immigration detainees is reviving interest in the high-yield bonds that financed the lockups.

Amid a two-year budget shortfall of nearly $800 million, Kansas lawmakers must increase funding for public schools, the state Supreme Court ruled Thursday.

Nonprofit health giant Catholic Health Initiatives fell one notch to BBB-plus on S&P Global Ratings' scale Thursday due to a weakened financial profile, analysts said.

Facing continuing revenue shortages, Oklahoma was downgraded to to AA from AA-plus by S&P Global Ratings.

Despite the U.S. Attorney General’s reversal of plans to end use of private, for-profit prisons, the bonds used to finance the facilities still bear the risk of abrupt policy changes, according to S&P Global Ratings.

Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback’s veto of a bill that would have increased income taxes leaves the state still struggling to balance its budget, according to Moody’s Investors Service.