News and Information from Bond Buyer

Ratepayers from a Chicago suburb will file a lawsuit as soon as Tuesday seeking compensation for steep energy rate hikes they've paid due to cost overruns at the bond-financed Prairie State Energy Campus coal-fired power plant.

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board is proposing to extend its pay-to-play rule to cover municipal advisors -- a move dealer-affiliated MAs have long called a key step in creating a level playing field among them and non-dealer MAs.

Standard & Poor's Ratings Services said it raised its rating on Fort Bend County Municipal Utility District (MUD) No. 21, Texas' series 2008 unlimited-tax and contract revenue bonds and series 2012 unlimited-tax and contract revenue refunding bonds five notches to AAA from A.

Puerto Rico's unemployment rate was steady in July compared to June and other employment data was mixed.

Airport credits are stabilizing after major shifts in the airline industry, Moody's Investors Service said, but smaller hub airports face challenges.

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.

Moody's Investors Service has raised its outlook to positive on Seattle Cancer Alliance's outstanding bonds.

Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard named Greg Clark to formally take over as director of the Indianapolis Local Public Improvement Bond Bank to replace Deron Kintner, who is leaving the city.

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.

Puerto Rico's general obligation bonds continued to strengthen in trading on Monday after news that its electric power authority had at least delayed a seemingly inevitable restructuring.

Mileage-based fees may one day replace the gasoline tax as the prime source for federal transportation funding, but it won't be quick and it won't be easy.

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.

Tender rates for the Treasury Department's latest 91-day and 182-day discount bills were unchanged, as the three-months incurred a 0.030% high rate, unchanged from 0.030% the prior week, and the six-months incurred a 0.050% high rate, unchanged from 0.050% the week before.

Standard & Poor's Ratings Services said it raised its underlying rating on Franklin County, Iowa's general obligation bonds to AA-minus from A-plus.

Beginning Aug. 20, the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association's Municipal Swap Index will use only data that has been reported to the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board in its weekly benchmark calculation.

The Treasury Department said Monday it will sell $50 billion of four-week discount bills Tuesday.

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.

Virginia is expected to have a nearly $2.4 billion revenue shortfall from fiscal 2014 to 2016, the commonwealth's governor, Terry McAuliffe, said Friday.

Builders' confidence in the market for new single-family homes grew as the National Association of Home Builders' housing market index climbed to 55 in August from 53 in July.