Bankruptcy

Aurelius Capital Master Ltd. and UBS have withdrawn from suits against bond-insurer MBIA Inc.

Tampa Bay Water, a regional supplier for three counties on the west coast of Florida, counted on winning $100 million for what it claimed was a faulty reservoir design.

Tuesday afternoon the Birmingham News reported a federal district judge ruled that the county's creditors could appeal the county's eligibility to file for Chapter 9.

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board on Tuesday proposed rule changes that would eliminate some duplicative reporting requirements faced by underwriters of new-issue muni securities.

Birmingham, Ala.-based Balch & Bingham LLP will expand its public finance practice next month with the addition of the seven bond attorneys from Presley Burton & Collier LLC.

Three banks suing MBIA Inc. accused the bond insurer of deliberately withholding damaging financial projections from insurance regulators who were evaluating its transformation.

The first criminal trial involving muni market executives accused of bid-rigging is scheduled to begin next week in a federal court in New York City, unless they enter into plea agreements.

The California attorney general's office filed a lawsuit against Orange County last Thursday to prevent the county from diverting money from education in order to balance its budget.

A dispute over $25 million in the state's proposed $14.3 billion budget for fiscal 2013 will close state courts for five days, Kansas Chief Justice Lawton Nuss said last week.

A FINRA hearing panel has fined David Lerner Associates $2.3 million and suspended head trader William Mason for six months with a $200,000 fine for charging excessive markups on muni bond and collateralized mortgage obligation transactions.

Memphis-headquartered Pinnacle Airlines Corp. filed for Chapter 11 reorganization on Sunday.

CHICAGO - Michigan officials filed an appeal Tuesday afternoon against a circuit court decision that has prevented the state team reviewing Detroit's finances from meeting.

California Controller John Chiang has ordered an investigation into Stockton's finances following the city's admission of accounting mistakes.

Travis County District Judge John Dietz said last week he intends to combine four lawsuits challenging Texas’ school finance laws into a single case. A fifth group of plaintiffs will be included as interveners in one of them.

Harrisburg, Pa.'s state-appointed receiver has asked the U.S. attorney and Pennsylvania attorney general to examine the incinerator bond deals that left the capital city with more than $300 million of debt that it can't repay.

Jefferson County, Ala.'s decision to skip general obligation warrant payments is yet another example of a troubling trend in municipal finance — the unwillingness to pay debts even when funds are available, observers said.

Jefferson County, Ala., said Wednesday that it will no longer make payments on its general obligation warrants.

CHICAGO — Rating pressures on five Wisconsin school districts involved in a now-worthless $200 million investment product eased on Monday when Moody's Investors Service labeled as a credit positive their partial settlement of a lawsuit against the firms that advised and arranged the deal.

DALLAS — The Austin Community College District plans to price $44.4 million of lease-revenue bonds to build its first campus in suburban Hays County after a Texas Supreme Court victory cleared a path to the market.

CHICAGO — Bids to buy the assets of an upscale continuing-care retirement community in downtown Chicago are due by April 10, with holders of its $229 million of debt hoping for a competitive auction that results in a better recovery rate than the pennies on the dollar offered by an initial bidder.