Southwest

After winning strong support from voters in its last bond election, Houston Independent School District will issue $350 million of variable-rate debt that carries triple-A ratings on two levels.

Attorneys for Texas Gov. Rick Perry said Thursday that an investigation of how his donors won contracts from a state cancer research fund did not motivate him to veto funding for the investigators.

Two school districts in the Houston area will account for more than $1 billion of bonds on the November ballot after their boards approved calling for voter support of the measures.

A state fee on so-called "small tobacco" companies that were not part of a 1998 settlement with states' attorneys general is unconstitutional, a Texas appeals court ruled.

A $235 million advance refunding of Utah general obligation bonds could be sidelined by falling Treasury rates, according to state Treasurer Richard K. Ellis.

Phoenix has formed a citizens committee to plan for expansion of the city's light-rail after Mayor Greg Stanton said he wanted to triple the length of the existing system over three decades.

Plans for a $90 million hotel adjoining the Irving Convention Center have fallen apart after the private developer failed to find financing.

After opening its light rail line to the airport four months early, Dallas Area Rapid Transit officials are pressing on with bond-financed rail development.

Running four months ahead of schedule on the light-rail connection to Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport that opened Monday, Dallas Area Rapid Transit leaders are taking no time to catch their breath after five years of intensive bond-financed development.

The felony indictment of Texas Gov. Rick Perry covers actions he took against the Travis County District Attorney's office while its investigators looked into grants to his campaign contributors from a $3 billion cancer research bond fund.