Bankruptcy

The Central Falls City Council plans to hire a lawyer to challenge the authority of its state-appointed receiver, according to news reports.

WASHINGTON — Moody’s Investors Service is pushing state and local issuers to agree to indemnify and hold it and its officers harmless for any mistakes they might make as a precondition to assigning ratings on municipal bond transactions, market participants said Thursday.

ALAMEDA, Calif. — California lawmakers are rushing through hundreds of bills as they face a looming deadline to adjourn their 2010 session.

BRADENTON, Fla. — The Santa Rosa Bay Bridge Authority in northwest Florida has been notified that its guaranteed investment-contract provider wants to terminate its contract, according to authority attorney Roy Andrews.

CHICAGO — Former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich faces a second federal trial on corruption charges early next year and will stand as the sole defendant following the prosecution’s announcement Thursday that it would drop charges against his brother, Robert Blagojevich.

WASHINGTON — The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board Wednesday said it’s considering whether its Rule G-37 on political contributions should require municipal securities dealers to disclose the names of political action committees controlled by bank holding companies or other affiliates.

CHICAGO — Birmingham, Mich.-based law firm Clark Hill PLC has hired veteran attorney Robert Schwartz to expand its public finance practice.

WASHINGTON — A northern Virginia county suing federal and state transportation authorities over certain environmental exemptions for planned high-occupancy toll lanes on two interstate highways has asked the court to add another federal official as a defendant.

The Harrisburg City Council Tuesday night tabled two nominees to the Harrisburg Authority’s board, continuing a political standoff with the mayor that has left the board without a quorum and bondholders with an uncertain future.

ALAMEDA, Calif. — A bill designed to make it harder for California local governments and agencies to file for bankruptcy cleared a key committee Tuesday afternoon.

Dealers will have to submit bidding information and program documents for auction-rate securities and variable-rate demand obligations in nine months under an expansion of the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board’s transparency system for short-term debt, approved by the Securities and Exchange Commission late last week.

WILLIAMSBURG, Va. — A financial regulatory reform law provision that would require issuers of asset-backed securities to retain at least 5% of the debt they issue is so broad that some market participants are warning the retention requirements could apply to certain municipal bond transactions.

BRADENTON, Fla. — The Securities and Exchange Commission is recommending that Jefferson County, Ala., receive a $25 million disgorgement and civil penalty that JPMorgan paid into an SEC “fair fund” designed to compensate harmed investors and issuers.

A Pinal County group is seeking to recall District 2 Supervisor Bryan Martyn over his approval last month of a $33.5 million county bond issue.

Some California cities may have their bond-issuing abilities limited by a bill introduced last week by lawmakers responding to the crisis in Bell, where freewheeling financial policies have resulted in the resignations of three city officials.

Many California government employees are off without pay today, after the state Supreme Court said that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger could implement his order furloughing workers for three Fridays per month.

U.S. District Judge James B. Zagel told attorneys in the corruption trial of former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich to be back in court Aug. 26 to set a date for a new trial.

The Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday for the first time charged a state — New Jersey — with violating securities fraud laws by failing to disclose to bond investors that it was underfunding its two largest pension plans.

Central Falls, R.I., plans to sell $2.1 million of deficit bonds to balance its budget under an austerity plan released by its state-appointed receiver Wednesday.

The Santa Rosa Bay Bridge Authority could deplete its debt-service reserve in the current fiscal year, which could result in a payment default next July, Florida Department of Transportation officials said Wednesday.