Bankruptcy

BRADENTON, Fla. - The Miccosukee Tribe of Indians in Florida has said that it will appeal last month's circuit court validation of $650 million of certificates of participation requested by the South Florida Water Management District to purchase land that will help restore the Everglades.

CHICAGO — A group of investors who hold a piece of Menasha’s $24 million of city appropriation-backed steam plant revenue bond anticipation notes allege in a federal lawsuit filed earlier this month that the Wisconsin city committed fraud in misrepresenting its intent to repay the now-defaulted notes.

WASHINGTON - The Securities and Exchange Commission should require credit rating agencies, rather than issuers, to send rating information about municipal securities directly to the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board's EMMA system, issuers and bond attorneys argued last week.

BRADENTON, Fla. — Jefferson County, Ala., officials now say they are seeking a $25 million line of credit from Regions Bank to bolster government operations and return laid off employees to work.

WASHINGTON - Four months after members of the House Financial Services Committee introduced four pieces of municipal bond-related legislation, only two are expected to move forward this fall and the other two are likely to languish.

WASHINGTON - House lawmakers yesterday easily approved a bill that would extend funding for highways and other surface transportation by three months, after some controversy, as well as a measure to extend funding for airports for the same period of time.

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board plans later this year and next to host two compliance seminars with the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, as well as a series of Web seminars on the board's market information programs.

CHICAGO - Iowa Gov. Chet Culver has suspended the state's film tax-credit program and asked the state auditor and attorney general to assist in a review after an audit found lax oversight had allowed producers to claim credits for unqualified expenses, raising questions over the value of the program as the state seeks to remain in the black.

SAN FRANCISCO - A federal judge is pushing the Securities and Exchange Commission to settle its case against five former San Diego officials accused of securities fraud for failing to disclose growing unfunded pension liabilities to municipal bond investors.

CHICAGO — The Ohio Supreme Court ruled yesterday that Gov. Ted Strickland’s budget-balancing plan to install video lottery terminals at the state’s race tracks must go to voters.

SAN FRANCISCO — California Attorney General Jerry Brown yesterday said he has issued subpoenas to the three major rating agencies as part of an investigation into whether they violated state law by giving high ratings to subprime mortgage-backed securities and other complicated debt instruments that proved to be worthless as the housing market bubble burst.

A federal judge in Birmingham has set Nov. 12 as the new date that former Jefferson County commissioner Mary Buckelew will be sentenced for obstruction of justice for lying to a federal grand jury about receiving gifts from Montgomery-based bond dealer William Blount when the county’s sewer debt was refinanced in 2002 and 2003.

WASHINGTON - A group of municipal analysts is urging the Securities and Exchange Commission to require muni issuers to file with EMMA certain material event notices related to swaps, bank bonds, and liquidity facilities. But issuers and borrowers are warning that the proposed 10-day deadline for filing material event notices would be difficult or impossible to meet and are pushing for 30 days instead.

WASHINGTON - Nine municipal issuer groups are urging the Securities and Exchange Commission to only designate rating agencies as nationally recognized statistical rating organizations if they have uniform scales for rating muni and corporate securities.

BRADENTON, Fla. - Jefferson County, Ala., commissioners yesterday extended yet another forbearance agreement with liquidity banks holding approximately $120 million of variable-rate demand general obligation warrants.

WASHINGTON - Allstate Investments LLC is urging the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board to require broker-dealers to disclose how they calculate the interest rates for auction-rate securities when the auctions fail, saying this is the critical ARS information currently needed by investors.

SAN FRANCISCO — In an action that stands to drag out Vallejo, Calif.’s already 16-month-old bankruptcy proceedings, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers plans to appeal a court ruling allowing the city to reject its collective bargaining agreements.

BRADENTON, Fla. — Jefferson County, Ala., is negotiating with a local bank to obtain a bridge loan in order to put an unknown number of county workers back on the payroll.

CHICAGO - Michigan withheld $11.3 million in revenue-sharing aid from Detroit this week as the cash-strapped city is eight months overdue in submitting its 2008 fiscal audit.

CHICAGO - The Fox River Valley city of Menasha, Wis., and its advisers are continuing "good-faith" negotiations with investors who hold $24 million of city appropriation-backed steam plant revenue bond anticipation notes following the city's default on the notes that were due Tuesday.