Bankruptcy

Cash-strapped Harrisburg, Pa., could miss a March 1 debt-service payment of $2 million on debt backed by Pennsylvania’s capital city, according to city Controller Dan Miller.

The Erie County Fiscal Stability Authority plans to sell $174 million of bonds on behalf of the New York county in a deal announced Friday.

DALLAS — The Kansas Supreme Court on Friday said it would reject a request from a coalition of school districts to reopen a lawsuit that led to increased state support of public education.

MBIA Inc.’s attempt to shield its public finance business from its more toxic structured finance guarantees hit a roadblock Thursday as the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York denied a motion to dismiss a lawsuit charging MBIA with fraud and breach of good faith.

WASHINGTON — The Securities and Exchange Commission is defending its antifraud authority over certain interest-rate swaps and urging a federal judge not to dismiss its suit against two former JPMorgan bankers for allegedly making more than $8 million in undisclosed payments to secure swaps for the firm with Jefferson County, Ala.

BRADENTON, Fla. — Louisiana federal Judge Kurt Engelhardt has agreed to hear oral arguments April 21 from PaineWebber Capital Services Inc. and UBS Securities LLC on their motion to dismiss a suit filed by New Orleans involving the failed remarketing of its firefighters’ pension bonds.

WASHINGTON — The Treasury Department yesterday announced that it had allocated the second and final $1 billion tranche of tribal economic development bonds to 76 Indian tribes across the nation.

Vallejo, which declared bankruptcy in May 2008 and has cut more than a third of its police force since 2005, is struggling with a violent crime wave as it considers cutting its police force further to balance a budget that is still in deficit.

SAN FRANCISCO — Two former San Bernardino County, Calif., officials were charged with bribery, conspiracy and corruption yesterday for their role in helping to approve a lawsuit settlement that was paid with $103.8 million of judgment obligation bonds.

WASHINGTON — The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board’s net assets fell to $26.39 million for the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 2009, down $1.65 million from the previous year as new underwriting assessment fees fell dramatically, according to an audited financial statement and annual report expected to be released by the board today.

WASHINGTON — A federal judge in New York Monday said he will not decide until Feb. 19 whether to accept the Securities and Exchange Commission settlement with Bank of America over allegations it misled shareholders and the federal government about its merger with Merrill Lynch.

WASHINGTON — The Securities and Exchange Commission wants to hire outside municipal market experts, including traders and investment bankers, to work in its reconstituted municipal and public pension fund enforcement unit, Elaine Greenberg said Friday.

Senate Banking Committee chairman Christopher Dodd, who said Friday he plans to move forward with a massive financial regulatory reform bill without Republican support, told federal regulators that he wants the bill to include language that would give the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board oversight of pension fund placement agents.

WASHINGTON — The National Association of Bond Lawyers yesterday joined the growing chorus of muni market groups pushing for an extension beyond the end of 2010 of two provisions in last year’s $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act allowing banks to purchase tax-exempt bonds from issuers that otherwise might not have access to the market.

Vallejo could wrap up the biggest municipal bankruptcy since Orange County, Calif., by the end of the summer.

WASHINGTON — New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, joined by Neil Barofsky, the special inspector general of the Troubled Asset Relief Program, has filed charges against Bank of America, its former chief executive officer Kenneth Lewis, and its former chief financial officer Joseph Price for allegedly duping shareholders and the federal government to facilitate a merger with Merrill Lynch.

BRADENTON, Fla. — The Florida Supreme Court Monday decided to hear oral arguments on April 7 in the South Florida Water Management District’s quest to get legal validation for $650 million of certificates of participation, the sale of which is being opposed by two ­appellants.

Issuer groups pushing for the Senate Banking Committee to add language in financial regulatory reform legislation mandating that municipal securities be rated on the same scale as other kinds of debt are getting a boost from an unlikely source: the Service Employees International Union, one of the largest labor unions in the country.

DALLAS — JPMorgan Chase has agreed to pay Texas $3.2 million for failing to warn customers about the risks of auction-rate securities, among the largest fines since the ARS market collapsed in early 2008.

The Virginia General Assembly is weighing legislation that will require more disclosure from local issuers on the bonds they issue. It also is considering the authorization of almost $4 billion of general obligation bonds for transportation projects.