News and Information from Bond Buyer

Week Of March 16 Issuer St Description Amount

IOWA

ALABAMA

Day Indicator Last Report Forecast Monday Empire State Manufacturing Feb.: 7.78 March: 7.25 Monday Industrial Production Jan.: +0.2% Feb.: +0.3% Monday Capacity Utilization Jan.: 79.4 Feb.: 79.5 Monday NAHB Housing Index Feb.: 55 March: 56 Tuesday Housing Starts Jan.: 1.065M Feb.: 1.053M Tuesday Building Permits Jan.: 1.053M Feb.: 1.065M Thursday Current Account Q3: -$100.3B Q4: -$101.2B Thursday Initial Jobless Claims 3/7: 289,000 3/14: n/a Thursday Continuing Claims 2/28: 2.418M 3/7: n/a Thursday Philly Fed Manufacturing Feb.: 5.2 March: 5.5

Government

Seven financially-strapped New Jersey municipalities were placed on review for a possible downgrade on March 13 by Moody's Investors Service citing a heightened risk of state aid cuts.

Puerto Rico reported that the Government Development Bank for Puerto Rico’s liquidity position improved $33 million in February but its General Fund revenues came in $6 million short.

Chicago mayoral challenger Jesus “Chuy” Garcia offered up ideas for freeing up city revenue in a financial plan that left unanswered questions over how he would tackle the city's staggering pension woes.

Phillip Washington, chief executive of the Regional Transportation District in Denver, was named to head the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

As part of her first budget presentation, Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo launched the state's first web-based budget tool.

Attorneys in the pay-to-play case involving Jefferson County, Ala.’s sewer deals told a federal judge in recent filings that motions for summary judgment should not be granted.

The official decline in the number of fiscally-stressed California schools is a credit positive, according to Moody's Investors Service.

A report from the California Debt and Investment Advisory Commission showed that school districts’ need for short-term borrowing declined in lock-step with the passage of Proposition 30

Prices of top-rated municipal bonds finished out the week slightly unchanged, according to traders, as the market took a breather on Friday to digest some of the week’s hefty new issue slate and adopted a cautious tone ahead of the upcoming Federal Open Market Committee meeting.

Municipal volume is expected to exceed $8 billion for a 10th straight week, led by a rare issue from Honolulu.

Gov. Charlie Baker has filed legislation to allocate $200 million in funds to Massachusetts cities and towns for local transportation infrastructure improvements.

Tax revenue in the top oil producing states has fallen sharply, dropping by 40% in Texas, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

Investors in a federal class action lawsuit stemming from the failure of a bond-financed Missouri sucralose plant stand to recoup about 86% of the par value of their losses.

The total amount of outstanding municipal securities and loans in the market rose 0.6% to $3.65 trillion in the fourth quarter of last year, as U.S. bank muni holdings increased 2.5% and mutual fund muni holdings rose to a record high $658 billion.