Economy

WASHINGTON - President Obama's jobs council has made transportation investment one of five priorities for accelerating job growth and improving the country's long-term competitiveness.

The Kansas City Council last week asked a Jackson County Circuit Court judge to support its bid to block Clay Chastain’s $2.5 billion light-rail ballot initiative.

The Chicago Transit Authority Monday plans to cut 200 management positions to generate $22 million in annual savings as it tries to chip away at a $277 million shortfall in its next budget.

The North Texas Tollway Authority last week approved the sale of bonds for Chisholm Trail Parkway in Fort Worth under the agency’s special projects system.

BRADENTON, Fla. - Republicans are redoubling their efforts to consolidate Florida's local and state toll-road agencies. But the targeted agencies are pushing back.

SAN FRANCISCO - Washington State will sell $1.29 billion of general obligation bonds next week, its largest deal ever, partly to finance a new floating bridge.

Standard & Poor’s has downgraded the Cascade Medical Center in Chelan County to BBB-minus from BBB.

The California Health Facilities Financing Authority granted the Downey Regional Medical-Center Hospital permission at its Sept. 29 board meeting to proceed with negotiations to sell its outstanding bonds to a private purchaser to enable it to exit bankruptcy in mid-November.

LOS ANGELES - Chapman University, a private university in Orange County, Calif., best known for its film, business, and law schools, wants to increase its health science offerings.

Wisconsin could finance much of an estimated $26.2 billion price tag for rebuilding and modernizing its currently free Interstate highway system by implementing tolls, according to a new report from the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute

The board of the Cook County Health and Hospital System, the third-largest hospital system in the country, last week adopted a budget of $828 million.

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel Monday hosted a meeting with top airline officials to discuss the sector’s role in the city’s economy and how best to foster growth.

The Philadelphia Hospitals and Higher Education Facilities Authority will negotiate a $270 million sale of tax-exempt, fixed-rate bonds Thursday to benefit the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia project.

WASHINGTON - There are perceptible signs that a long-awaited surface transportation bill may actually be approved by Congress early next year.

DALLAS - Oklahoma would replace or rebuild 706 sub-par bridges on state highways by 2019 without raising taxes or fees under a modernization plan outlined Monday by Gov. Mary Fallin.

DALLAS - The Tomball Hospital Authority near Houston has called or defeased its $111.4 million of tax-exempt bond debt after the sale of the Tomball Regional Medical Center to for-profit Community Health Systems.

CHICAGO - The University of Minnesota Regents on Wednesday will sell about $82 million of debt, in a mix of taxable general obligation bonds and tax-exempt special purpose revenue bonds backed by a state appropriation, to provide financing for facilities in its Biomedical Discovery District.

BRADENTON, Fla. - Ten volunteers are interested in serving on the Santa Rosa Bay Bridge Authority that oversees the defaulted bonds sold to build the 3.5-mile-long tolled Garcon Point Bridge in North Florida.

DALLAS - Two former aides to Texas Gov. Rick Perry now hold top positions at the Texas Department of Transportation after former energy lobbyist and secretary of state Phil Wilson was named the agency's executive director.

Standard & Poor’s revised its outlook to stable from negative and affirmed its BB-minus rating on the Rhode Island Health and Educational Building Corp.’s remaining $12.7 million series 1998 revenue bonds, issued for Roger Williams Medical Center.