News and Information from Bond Buyer

St. Louis voters head to the polls Tuesday to decide whether to give the city authority to sell $180 million of debt to finance infrastructure work.

Prices of top-shelf municipal bonds finished mixed on Monday as traders prepared for the week's upcoming new issuance, topped by sales from the state of Minnesota, a green bond deal in Washington state and a tax-exempt and taxable offering from the state of Connecticut.

Faced with requests from dealers to withdraw its proposed principal trade price disclosure rule, the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board now plans to modify that proposal as well as develop an alternative that would require dealers to disclose markups and markdowns on certain principal trades.

Philadelphia-based Public Financial Management, the country's largest municipal advisory firm, said it has acquired Stauder, Barch & Associates, Michigan's oldest FA firm.

The latest top state court to weigh in on pension reforms ruled in Michigan last week that the state's pension reforms enacted in 2011 are constitutional, overturning two lower court decisions.

President Obama appointed Beverly Scott, former general manager of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, to the National Transportation Safety Board.

The Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority is going to sell $67 million of bonds to refund debt it used to purchase a hydroelectric plant from the U.S. Department of Energy.

Moody's Investors Service revised the outlook on Los Angeles County's $1.6 billion in outstanding debt ahead of plans to refund $205 million in lease revenue bonds.

The Treasury Department said it expects to borrow $127 billion in the third quarter and end with a $225 billion cash balance.

MacKay Shields forecast rising demand, a steep yield curve, volume growth, the return of monoline insurance, and outperformance in the tobacco sector for this year.

Public Utility District #1 of Klickitat County, Wash. is going to sell $79 million of revenue and refunding bonds for its electrical infrastructure.

The North Carolina Eastern Municipal Power Agency closed its $1.25 billion asset sale to Duke Energy Friday, while taking out $1.72 billion of outstanding bonds.

Commercial and industrial loan standards were little changed in the second quarter of 2015, although banks some terms, namely spreads and covenants, were eased for larger firms, according to the Federal Reserve's Senior Loan Officer Opinion Survey on Bank Lending Practices, released Monday.

Standard & Poor's Ratings Services said it raised its underlying rating to A from A-minus on Trinidad Independent School District, Texas' existing general obligation debt.

President Obama signed Congress's latest transportation funding extension while criticizing lawmakers for the short-term HTF fix.

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board late Friday filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission revised content outlines to its qualification exams for municipal fund securities limited principals, municipal securities representatives, and municipal securities principals that will bring the tests in line with recent MSRB rule changes.

Standard & Poor's Ratings Services said it raised its long-term rating on Sangamon & Morgan Counties Community Unit School District No. 16 (New Berlin), Ill.'s general obligation bonds one notch to AA from AA-minus.

In a deal designed to reduce the state pension funding gap during a period of low interest rates, Kansas will issue $1 billion of pension obligation bonds.

Standard & Poor's Ratings Services said it lowered its rating to BBB-minus from BBB on the Puerto Rico Industrial, Tourist, Educational, Medical, and Environmental Control Facilities Finance Authority's series 2012 higher education revenue bonds, issued for the University of the Sacred Heart (USH; Universidad del Sagrado Corazon).

During the second quarter of 2015 (2Q'15) and for the fifth straight quarter, U.S. public finance rating upgrades outnumbered downgrades, according to Fitch Ratings.