News and Information from Bond Buyer

Former Bear Stearns banker Chol-Su "Chris" Pak was sentenced to three years of probation and a $20,000 fine for his part in a massive El Paso County corruption scandal.

The Treasury Department Monday auctioned $20 billion of four-week bills at a 0.005% high yield, a price of 99.999611.

Rebecca Harrigal, the new director of the Internal Revenue Service's tax-exempt bond office, said one of her goals is to streamline and improve the closing agreement or settlement process.

Standard & Poor's Rating Services said it lowered its underlying rating on the Alabama Public Housing Finance Corp.'s (APHFC) series 2003B bonds to A from A-plus.

Carlo Savini Fowler, a California bond attorney in public finance for more than 45 years, died on Dec. 6. He was 81.

Tender rates for the Treasury Department's latest 91-day and 182-day discount bills were mixed, as the three-months incurred a 0.065% high rate, down from 0.070% the prior week, and the six-months incurred a 0.090% high rate, unchanged from 0.090% the week before.

The Securities and Exchange Commission's enforcement division will be very active in the muni space in 2014, experts said, with emphasis on actions against municipal officials and underwriters.

Arizona is well into an economic recovery but has no plans to issue any debt in the next year, state officials say.

Texas factory activity, as measured by the production index, "increased for the eighth month in a row in December," according to the monthly business activity survey conducted by the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, released Monday.

The municipal market woke up Monday to a smattering of bid-wanteds, few participants and few signs of strength or weakness.

Pending home sales grew 0.2% to an index reading of 101.7 in November, after a revised 1.2% decline to 101.5 in October, according to a report released Monday by the National Association of Realtors.

Puerto Rico's economic activity index was up for the third consecutive month in November.

A group of retired teachers and school officials launched the first legal challenge to Illinois' controversial pension reform law, claiming it is unconstitutional.

Detroit emergency manager Kevyn Orr filed an order with the bankruptcy court outlining and defending the city's revised settlement with its interest-rate swap counterparties.

The seasonally adjusted Milwaukee Report on Business grew to 54.3 in December from 52.1 in November, the Institute for Supply Management-Milwaukee reported Monday.

The Midwest Economy Index grew to 0.27 in November from an upwardly revised 0.23 in October, first reported as 0.22, the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago reported Monday.

Day Indicator Last Report Forecast Monday Pending Home Sales Oct.: -0.6% Nov.: +1.0% Tuesday Chicago PMI Nov.: 63.0 Dec.: 61.0 Tuesday Consumer Confidence Nov.: 70.4 Dec.: 76.0 Thursday Initial Jobless Claims 12/21: 338,000 12/28: n/a Thursday Continuing Claims 12/14: 2.923M 12/21: n/a Thursday Construction Spending Oct.: +0.8% Nov.: +0.6% Thursday ISM Manufacturing Nov.: 57.3 Dec.: 57.0

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Monday, December 30 Issuer St Description Amount

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