News and Information from Bond Buyer

Lack of congressional action to replenish the dwindling Highway Trust Fund means aging bridges will continue to deteriorate.

Standard & Poor's Ratings Services said it lowered its school issuer credit rating on Shelby Eastern Schools, Ind., to A-plus from AA-minus.

Market participants should look at contribution levels, plan assumptions, and other factors when analyzing the health of a pension system and governments should employ best practices to avoid underfunding, an analyst at Wells Fargo Securities wrote in a report issued this week.

Oversight will be key to keeping the city out of another Chapter 9, Detroit CFO John Hill said at a Chicago forum on Wednesday.

Tax-exempt money market funds reported losses of $5.61 billion – the largest decline in assets in a year – as total net assets fell to $261.10 billion in the week ended April 21, according to The Money Fund Report, a service of iMoneyNet.com.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, operating under increased public scrutiny after the "bridgegate" scandal, is weighing the risk of providing a $1.2 billion loan guarantee for the developer of Three World Trade Center.

After several weeks of reassuring unemployment data, jobless claims jumped Thursday, adding to economic woes that came to light earlier in the week with a sharp drop in new home sales.

Officials at Ohio-based Promedica Health System Inc. said they would go to the U.S. Supreme Court if necessary after a federal appeals court ruled a merger with another local provider would be anticompetitive.

The Treasury Department auctioned $29 billion of seven-year notes, with a 2.25% coupon, a 2.317% high yield, a price of 99.569351.

Alaska's $900 million project to build a bridge over the Knik Arm of the Cook Inlet is a step closer to construction as the new funding plan makes its way through the state legislature.

Municipal bond buyers trapped in a low-supply market this month are hoping $750 million of Illinois bonds scheduled for sale Thursday will present an opportunity for some yield.

Standard & Poor's Ratings Services said it raised its long-term rating to AA-minus from A-plus on Miami County Unified School District No. 368 (Paola), Kan.'s existing general obligation debt.

The Treasury Department said it will auction $15 billion two-year notes floating rate notes on Tuesday, April 29.

The Treasury Department said it will auction $25 billion year bills on April 29.

The Treasury Department said Thursday it will auction $25 billion 91-day bills and $23 billion 182-day discount bills Monday.

Manufacturing activity in the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City's region "moderated slightly after rising to a two-year high in March, but producers' expectations for future factory activity climbed higher," according to the bank's monthly manufacturing survey, released Thursday.

Standard & Poor's Ratings Services said it has raised its underlying rating on the city of Fort Myers, Fla.'s series 2004A gas-tax revenue bonds one notch to A-plus from A.

Union-owned Amalgamated Bank has been carving a niche for itself with bond transactions in Harrisburg and Scranton, Pa., and Allen Park, Mich.

U.S. durable goods orders surged 2.6% in March, while excluding transportation orders jumped 2.0%, the Commerce Department reported Thursday.

Initial jobless claims surged 24,000 to 329,000 in the week ended April 12, the Labor Department said Thursday.