Bankruptcy

CHICAGO — The U.S. Federal Trade Commission last week filed a pair of complaints against Promedica Health System Inc., a leading health care system in northwest Ohio, charging that its acquisition of a rival hospital is anticompetitive and would allow the Toledo-based system to unfairly raise prices for services.

ALAMEDA, Calif. — A major newspaper is reporting a Securities and Exchange Commission investigation into California’s pension disclosure practices, but the reported subjects of the probe say they haven’t heard a thing from the SEC.

SAN FRANCISCO — The Asian Art Museum Foundation and San Francisco city officials said they reached a deal Wednesday with JPMorgan Chase & Co. and insurer MBIA to restructure $120 million of variable-rate bonds, securing the financial stability of the largest collection of Asian art in the Western world.

WASHINGTON — Issuers and their attorneys are fighting a provision in the Securities and Exchange Commission’s proposed rules for municipal advisers that would require appointed board members of municipal entities to register with both the SEC and the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board if they advise on the issuance of municipal ­securities.

ALAMEDA, Calif. — Rocked by the recession, the rural California city of Chowchilla has stopped making payments on the bonds it used to finance its city hall.

CHICAGO — Struggling to remain afloat, Iowa’s Xenia Rural Water District is working on a final debt restructuring plan to submit to its board and may do so later this month, officials said Wednesday.

CHICAGO — The Minnesota attorney general’s office and lawyers representing state retirees in a lawsuit challenging benefit cuts will lay out their cases by the end of the month in summary judgment motions that seek a quick ruling.

WASHINGTON— A federal judge in New York has denied a request by David Rubin, founder of CDR Financial Products, to transfer a bid-rigging case against him, his firm and two other former CDR officials to a federal court in Los Angeles.

Kimberly Betterton, a municipal bond and tax lawyer, has joined Ballard Spahr LLP in Baltimore, the firm announced Tuesday.

Shares of MBIA Inc. jumped by nearly one-third in the last week as traders bet that the bond insurance holding company will win or settle a series of lawsuits.

SAN FRANCISCO — A Superior Court judge has lifted a temporary restraining order that blocked a public-private partnership set to rebuild the southern link to the Golden Gate Bridge.

WASHINGTON — Only half as many muni advisory firms are registered with the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board compared to those registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission, even though advisory firms are now required to sign up with both regulators under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.

WASHINGTON — The Securities and Exchange Commission has approved a proposal by the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board to nearly double the amount of fees it collects from dealers, despite industry opposition.

OAKLAND, Calif. — A Superior Court judge here promised an answer by Monday morning as to whether he will keep in place the temporary restraining order blocking execution of a public-private partnership to rebuild a key access road to the Golden Gate Bridge.

In one of his final settlements as New York Attorney General, Governor-elect Andrew Cuomo last week announced an agreement with Steven Rattner, former principal of the private-equity firm Quadrangle Group LLC, in an investigation into a pay-to-play state pension fund scheme.

Indiana cities would be allowed to file for Chapter 9 bankruptcy protection under a bill touted by Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels.

DALLAS — Travis County, Tex., commissioners are expected to ask voters in November for up to $300 million of general obligation bonds to finance a new courthouse in downtown Austin.

A California court has placed another roadblock in front of the state government's plans to sell 11 office properties to private investors, while entering into long-term leases to occupy the buildings.

Bad legal advice turned a straightforward refunding deal into an expensive mess, a California school district contends in the lawsuit it filed against Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP, its bond counsel on the transaction.

A firm associated with a former JPMorgan banker being pursued in a Securities and Exchange Commission civil case for alleged pay-to-play charges involving Jefferson County, Ala., was fired on Christmas Eve from a pension consulting job in Florida after Charles LeCroy's legal problems came to light.