Southwest

Citing a decline in the oil and gas industry, Standard & Poor’s lowered the underlying rating on Venus Independent School District near Dallas to A from A-plus.

With a lawsuit between its two ski resorts settled, Park City, Utah, has earned a Standard & Poor’s upgrade on its sales-tax revenue bonds to AA-minus from A-plus.

Two Houston attorneys were named special prosecutors to look into criminal charges against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who has admitted to violating state securities law prior to his election last November.

Denver International Airport chief Kim Day rebuffs accusations of faulty accounting on the $544 million South Terminal Project that includes a hotel and commuter rail station.

Maverick County, Texas, faces an uncertain future after losing the operator of its $42 million private detention center that defaulted on its debt amid a federal corruption investigation and missing audits.

Colorado's $25 billion state budget is already signed, but lawmakers still have other bills to resolve before the imminent end of their session including a proposal to authorize $3.5 billion of tax revenue anticipation notes for highway projects.

Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback announced $72 million in spending cuts for the fiscal year beginning July 1 after new estimates projected a $400 million budget deficit.

The Oklahoma House approved a bill that pre-empts local control of oil and gas drilling after an official report linked disposal wells to swarms of earthquakes.

With Texas school funding still undecided in Austin, the El Paso Independent School District, one of the largest in the state, estimates that it will face a $12 million deficit in the coming fiscal year.

A Wasatch County, Utah, district that defaulted on $41 million of bonds for a wastewater treatment plant is accused of deliberate deception in a report from the state Auditor’s Office.