Bankruptcy

Bond insurers came and went last week in the Bank of New York Mellon’s legal challenge in Jefferson County’s bankruptcy case.

An end may be in sight for the two-year old bankruptcy of the Las Vegas Monorail Co., albeit at a steep price for bondholders.

Detroit Mayor Dave Bing late Tuesday blasted Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder for a proposed consent decree that the mayor said is a thinly disguised state takeover of the distressed city.

More shoes began to drop in Suffolk County, N.Y., as Standard & Poor's on Tuesday placed its AA long-term and underlying ratings on credit watch with negative implications.

Hercules, Calif., said it has tentatively settled a $4 million lawsuit brought by Ambac Assurance Corp. over a default by the city's redevelopment agency.

LOS ANGELES — La Mirada, a city of 50,000 southeast of downtown Los Angeles, on Friday received a downgrade from Moody's Investors Service to A1 from Aa3 on $13.6 million of outstanding lease revenue bonds after officials declared a fiscal emergency.

BRADENTON, Fla. — The Bank of New York Mellon will distribute the toll revenues of Florida’s Santa Rosa Bay Bridge Authority to holders of the agency's defaulted bonds later this month.

Harrisburg, Pa., will skip $5.3 million in general obligation bond payments due March 15, its state-appointed receiver said Friday.

CHICAGO — A lot has changed in the municipal debt world in the 20 years since Clayton Gillette and the late Robert Amdursky first wrote "Municipal Debt Finance Law: Theory and Practice."

A dispute over the revenue projections for the Dulles Toll Road provides the backdrop for a hearing the Fairfax County, Va., Board of Supervisors is preparing to hold March 20 to decide whether to approve the next phase of construction on an associated rail line.

Investors holding term bonds exchanged last year as part of the Connector 2000 Association bankruptcy must exchange them a second time after the bonds they received proved to be untradeable for technical reasons.

A U.S. District Court judge in Chicago has dismissed the final count lodged against former Bear Stearns public finance banker P. Nicholas Hurtgen by federal prosecutors in connection with an extortion scheme involving a Chicago-area hospital seeking regulatory approval for a new hospital.

LOS ANGELES — Downey Regional Medical Center emerged from bankruptcy protection Wednesday, marking only the third time in California history a hospital has done so without changing ownership, hospital officials said.

SAN FRANCISCO — Stockton is not alone. The ski town of Mammoth Lakes is also using a new California state mediation law to try to avert Chapter 9 bankruptcy.

Jefferson County is eligible for bankruptcy despites its lack of bond debt under a ruling issued late Sunday by U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Thomas Bennett.

CHICAGO — An effort afoot to suspend and overturn Michigan's emergency manager law could have negative consequences for the fiscally stressed local governments the law aims to help, Moody's Investors Service warns.

SAN FRANCISCO — Standard & Poor's downgraded Stockton, Calif., for the third time in less than two weeks, to "selective default" from CC.

CHICAGO — Bank of America NA sued the St. Louis-based Jewish Community Center last week, alleging the nonprofit has withheld more than $4 million it owes the bank as a tactic to win more favorable terms on the repayment of $45 million of bonds held by the bank.

DALLAS — A panel of 22 Texas lawmakers has been formed to conduct a comprehensive review of the state's school finance system in the wake of five recent lawsuits challenging how Texas funds local school districts.

The Nassau Off-Track Betting Corp. has agreed to pay harness horse-racing tracks to settle a long-running, multimillion-dollar lawsuit.