Bankruptcy

Municipal bond insurer Assured Guaranty Municipal Corp. sued UBS Real Estate Securities Inc. Thursday.

CHICAGO — A Michigan film studio has defaulted on its Feb. 1 payment on $18 million of privately placed tax-exempt bonds, forcing the state pension plans, which back the debt, to make the payment.

Providence Mayor Angel Taveras warned that the Rhode Island capital will run out of money in June without a reduction in pension obligations and larger contributions from tax-exempt institutions such as Brown University.

State-appointed receiver David Unkovic’s long-awaited financial plan for the struggling city of Harrisburg, Pa., is due Monday.

BRADENTON, Fla. — Syncora Guarantee Inc. on Thursday joined a dozen creditors seeking to appeal various rulings by the federal judge in Alabama overseeing Jefferson County's bankruptcy case.

Ambac Assurance Corp. has filed a lawsuit against Hercules, Calif., after the city's redevelopment agency defaulted on a debt service payment.

The attorney for the Harrisburg, Pa., City Council said he might appeal the latest federal rejection of its Chapter 9 bankruptcy petition.

Houston Astros owner James Crane won part of his request for federal bankruptcy Judge Thomas Bennett to limit Jefferson County, Ala.’s access to his lawsuit against JPMorgan.

Providence may appeal a Rhode Island Superior Court ruling Monday that for now stops it from switching police and fire retirees to Medicare after they turn 65.

Robert Shepard has resigned as the governor-appointed director of the North Texas Tollway Authority’s board. Shepard’s resignation comes as the board faces a probe into it past business practices by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, but his departure is said not to be related to that inquiry.

The effort by the Kansas City suburb of Mission to tax residents for roadwork is illegal and cannot be collected, Attorney General Derek Schmidt said last week in a non-binding opinion.

Trustees of National Park Community College last week postponed an April property tax election until its bond counsel can determine if the revenue can be used for capital improvements.

Capital city Harrisburg’s incinerator debt crisis is on the radar of federal investigators, the Patriot-News reported.

A ruling by a New Jersey tax court that the Red Bull Arena soccer stadium in Harrison is a taxable property is a credit positive for that community, Moody’s Investors Service said.

JPMorgan and Houston Astros owner James Crane are fighting an Alabama bankruptcy judge's order to open Crane's confidential settlement with the bank over $35 million of Jefferson County's defaulted auction-rate sewer warrants.

Three former muni bankers from UBS Financial Services Inc. will go to trial on July 9 on charges of fraud schemes and conspiracies in connection with the bidding of investment and other contracts for municipal bonds from as early as 2001 until 2006.

California legislative leaders are suing the state’s controller over the authority to suspend lawmakers’ pay for late budgets.

LOS ANGELES — Veteran public finance banker L. William Huck and real estate lawyer and developer Todd Anson have formed San Diego-based Common Bond Capital Partners to capitalize on an estimated $5 billion in defaults expected in the land-secured municipal bond market.

The New York Racing Association has failed to implement significant financial reforms after its 2008 exit from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, according to an audit by New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli released Tuesday.

A federal court in New Jersey has approved a $24.9 million settlement between GE Funding Capital Market Services Inc. and the Securities and Exchange Commission over bid-rigging of municipal bond-related contracts, as well as the amounts of restitution to be distributed to each of the more than 325 state and local issuers that were defrauded.