News and Information from Bond Buyer

Total real Gross Metropolitan Product grew 2.5% in U.S. metropolitan areas in 2012, according to a report prepared by IHS Global Insight for the U.S. Conference of Mayors and the Council on Metro Economies and the New American City.

The Minneapolis City Council has approved a $100 million planned renovation of the 23-year-old city-owned Target Center arena.

Moody's Investors Service downgraded Green Bay, Wis.'s general obligation rating one notch to Aa2 as it prepares to sell $25 million of taxable lease revenue bonds to finance convention center improvements.

Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn tapped former Chicago Public Schools leader and former city budget director Paul Vallas as his running mate in the 2014 election.

The municipal bond market started the week on a strong note with yields heading lower with Treasuries as bankrupt Jefferson County, Ala., issued bonds for retail investors for a second day.

Wayne County is expected to vote Tuesday on a proposal to sell an unfinished, bond-financed jail project in downtown Detroit to a private developer.

Tax reform legislation is unlikely to move forward this year, but municipal bond market participants shouldn't think that the threat to the tax exemption for munis is gone, observers in the market said.

Blaylock Robert Van LLC has opened a new office in Columbus, Ohio staffed by a veteran investment banker who's been active in the state's municipal market for 30 years.

Moody's Investors Service has downgraded the rating on Lake Tahoe Unified School District's general obligation bonds to A1.

American Airlines will ask a bankruptcy court to approve an agreement with federal regulators that settles the government's antitrust lawsuit against American's proposed merger with US Airways Group Inc.

The Puerto Rico legislature has voted to postpone a cut in the island's sales tax rate to 6.5% from 7%.

The Occupational Safety and Hazard Administration has announced a proposed rule which will require establishments with 20 or more employees in certain industries with high injury and illness rates to submit electronically their summary of work-related injuries and illnesses to OSHA every year, Howard Mavity writes in Employee Benefit News. The change may affect between 450,000 and 1,500,000 sites. The first proposed new requirement is for establishments with more than 250 employees (and who are already required to keep records) to electronically submit the records on a quarterly basis to OSHA.

Vice President Joe Biden used a visit to the Port of Houston to renew the Obama administration's proposal for a $50 billion infrastructure renewal program.

The debt portfolio of a Houston redevelopment authority will be restructured through a $33.5 million sale of tax-increment revenue bonds.

The expectations of financial markets and economists for when the Federal Reserve will raise the federal funds rate are consistent with the Fed's own "forward guidance," according to research at the San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank released Monday.

The U.S. unemployment rate, rather than the inflation rate, will likely be "key" to the Federal Reserve's eventual return to normalized interest rates, but a lower top-line joblessness number will not automatically begin that tightening process, a senior Federal Reserve official said Monday.

The municipal bond market traded stronger Monday afternoon even as bonds were put out for bid in the secondary market.

There is no legal basis for the judge overseeing Jefferson County, Ala.'s bankruptcy case to reject the opinions of expert witness James White, argue opponents of the county's plan to exit Chapter 9.

National League of Cities members on Saturday elected St. Paul, Minn. Mayor Chris Coleman as their president for 2014 at a business meeting on Saturday.

The Federal Open Market Committee should define the amount of assets it will purchase under QE3 and stop when that limit is reached, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia President and Chief Executive Officer Charles I. Plosser said Monday.