Bankruptcy

WASHINGTON - House and Senate Democratic leaders said yesterday that they will push for a second economic stimulus package when Congress returns to Washington for a lame-duck session on Nov. 17.

WASHINGTON - More than three years after its creation, the Department of Transportation's $15 billion private-activity bond program designed to help states and localities finance infrastructure through private investment - a program that DOT officials want to expand - has resulted in only one $589 million transaction.

DALLAS - The Denver suburb of Aurora's $426 million Prairie Waters Project that reclaims wastewater from the South Platte River has won acclaim for easing the threat of chronic drought in the rapidly growing region.

DALLAS - A proposed Arizona constitutional amendment that gives non-voters potential veto power over state spending initiatives could also threaten local bond proposals, opponents say.

WASHINGTON - The District of Columbia on Friday filed suit against Bank of America NA in D.C. Superior Court seeking $105 million of damages after the bank cashed fraudulent tax checks in a scam that cost the district $48 million over 20 years.

WASHINGTON - The Virginia Supreme Court on Friday reversed a lower court and ruled that the Glebe, an upscale continuing-care retirement community near Roanoke, is exempt from local taxes, a decision that eases the facility's concerns of owing hundreds of thousands of back taxes and improves its finances.

BRADENTON, Fla. - A former Birmingham, Ala., City Council member and former Jefferson County commissioner was charged Friday with 97 counts of fraud in connection with the theft of $250,000 from Computer Help for Kids, a local charity created to provide refurbished computers to disadvantaged children.

BRADENTON, Fla. - Jefferson County, Ala., commissioners yesterday approved forbearance agreement extensions on the county's troubled sewer debt as well as on $120 million of non-sewer general obligation debt.

WASHINGTON - In a hearing yesterday before a U.S. district court judge here, KBC Bank NV of Belgium agreed to give the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority 10 more business days to make a $43 million termination payment on a sale-leaseback deal that has technically defaulted.

BRADENTON, Fla. - A federal judge has stayed all proceedings in New Orleans' case against its pension bond insurer and remarketing agent because the parties mutually agreed to work on a settlement.

WASHINGTON - Four nonprofit student loan lenders are urging the Treasury Department to provide issuers of student loan-backed debt with liquidity facilities, such as standby purchase agreements, so that the issuers can convert their existing auction-rate securities into variable-rate demand obligations.

WASHINGTON - The municipal bond market and state and local governments could benefit more from the election of Democratic Sen. Barack Obama as president than his Republican opponent, Sen. John McCain, according to an analysis of their tax, economic recovery and other proposals, as well as interviews with market participants and economists.

WASHINGTON - The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority sought court action yesterday to prevent it from having to make a $43 million termination payment on a sale-leaseback deal guaranteed by American International Group Inc. Meanwhile, House committee leaders pushed for federal assistance for more than 30 of the nation's largest transit agencies "at risk of default and financial collapse" because of similar deals.

BRADENTON, Fla. - Alabama on Tuesday filed a complaint in federal court asking a judge to void a swaption the Alabama Public School and College Authority entered into in 2002 and 2003 with JPMorgan.

WASHINGTON - Wall Street's leading industry group this week cut its staff by about 20%, or roughly 40 people, including a lobbyist who worked on municipal bond issues, in response to the financial crisis that has thinned its membership and cut into its revenues.

The Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association elected new members to its board of directors yesterday and re-elected two executives from regional firms with municipal bond businesses.

As liquidity for municipal issuers remains scarce in the short-term market, a regional broker-dealer group and an organization representing nonprofit student loan lenders are urging the Treasury Department to provide standby liquidity facilities for issuers still trying to convert from auction-rate securities to variable-rate demand obligations.

BRADENTON, Fla. - Bond insurance policies do not promise to maintain investment-grade ratings, nor do the policies promise that insurers won't participate in transactions that jeopardize ratings, Financial Guaranty Insurance Co. and Syncora Guarantee Inc. said in a court brief filed Monday.

WASHINGTON - Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac must resume their purchases of tax-exempt housing bonds to jump-start that virtually dead market so state and local housing agencies can utilize $11 billion of additional private-activity bond volume cap that Congress provided earlier this year, local government and housing groups warned federal regulators and lawmakers.

The municipal market should not be excluded from the federal government's efforts to resolve the financial crisis, the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board's new chairman told representatives of the securities industry gathered in New York City yesterday.