Bankruptcy

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.

Some lawmakers want to fine-tune Pennsylvania's program for distressed communities, commonly known as Act 47, after it took a serious blow last fall from a state Supreme Court ruling about public employee arbitration.

CHICAGO — An investor with a stake in $39 million of defaulted bonds issued for a failed artificial sweetener plant in Missouri has filed a lawsuit accusing underwriter Morgan Keegan & Co. and counsel Armstrong Teasdale LLP of providing false and misleading information in the offering statement.

SAN FRANCISCO — Stockton, Calif., said it will negotiate with 18 creditors that have interests above $5 million during mediation meant to help the city restructure its debts to avoid bankruptcy.

BRADENTON, Fla. — Miami officials have been told that civil charges may be brought against the city for failing to disclose serious budget problems in recent bond offerings.

Four companies remain in the running to purchase the incinerator in Harrisburg, Pa., that is the focal point of the city's debt crisis.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey is aggressively going after uncollected toll revenue, filing 14 civil suits on Tuesday against what it calls the most egregious toll violators.

Eight creditors holding various claims related to Jefferson County, Ala.’s defaulted sewer debt filed notices late Monday saying that they want to appeal the county’s eligibility to file a Chapter 9 bankruptcy petition.

Moody's Investors Service hit Detroit with a two-notch downgrade Tuesday afternoon, while hours earlier an Ingham County circuit court judge issued a decision that could delay negotiations between Michigan and its biggest city over a proposed consent agreement.

The state-appointed receiver overseeing Harrisburg, Pa.' finances said he will announce on Tuesday his short list of qualified bidders to operate the city' incinerator, water and sewer system, and parking system.

The New York Mets'$162 million settlement Monday in the Bernard Madoff fraud case looms as a victory for a financially beleaguered baseball franchise that has experienced few of them in recent years.