Southwest

After approving a plan to finance $70 billion of projects over the next decade, the Texas Transportation Commission will issue $712 million of bonds in September to take care of current needs.

Matt Gray has joined the Public Finance Department of the Sherman & Howard law firm. He will be working in the company's Denver office.

Issuers in the Southwest sold $42.85 billion of bonds in the first half of 2016, only 0.6% behind the record pace of the same period last year, according to Thomson Reuters data.

The federal Bureau of Prisons' phase out of private prisons has only a small effect on the municipal bond-financed private lockup sector, leaving bond-financed immigration detention centers untouched.

The Maricopa County, Ariz. Board of Supervisors has voted to explore the sale of Chase Field after a disagreement with the Arizona Diamondbacks baseball team over repairs to the 18-year-old venue.

Providence Health & Services took a one-notch downgrade from Fitch Ratings, ahead of a planned &803 million revenue bond deal for Providence St. Joseph Health.

Austin, Texas, council unanimously puts a $720 million mobility bond referendum to fund rebuild of city streets to November vote.

Lenders will own the private operator of State Highway 130 near Austin under a Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization plan filed last week.

Despite a two-year slump in the energy industry, local sales tax revenue for Texas cities, counties and other jurisdictions rose 1.2% in July, state Comptroller Glenn Hegar reported.

A rural Texas county along the route of a proposed high-speed rail link between Dallas and Houston voted in restrictions that could throttle the $10 billion private project.