Investments

The weekly average yield to maturity of the Bond Buyer Municipal Bond Index, which is based on 40 long-term bond prices, decreased three basis points this week, to 5.08% for the week ending Nov. 21, 2013, but it remains above its 5.07% average from two weeks ago.

A municipal restructuring executive who played a key role in DC's oversight board in the 1990s is Detroit's new CFO.

A coalition of local leaders is asking Congress to generate an additional $30 billion a year for transportation efforts by almost doubling the federal gasoline tax.

The total net assets of tax-exempt money market funds continued to see-saw as they inched up by $561.5 million to $263.82 billion in the week ended Nov. 18, according to The Money Fund Report, a service of iMoneyNet.com.

CALIFORNIA

ALABAMA

Standard & Poor's upgraded the rating on California's economic recovery bonds to AA from A-plus, with a stable outlook.

Detroit should drop its plan to unwind its costly interest-rate swaps and instead argue the transactions be declared illegal, a former municipal investment banker Wallace Turbeville said in a report released.

House and Senate conferees predicted Wednesday that Congress will approve an $8 billion federal water infrastructure bill by year's end.

Long-term muni funds are having their worst year since 2008, as rising interest rates and headlines about Detroit's bankruptcy filing and Puerto Rico's fiscal problems fueled outflows of investor money.

ARKANSAS

ALABAMA

Counties are facing a "triple threat" of tax reform, entitlement reform and sequestration, National Association of Counties Executive Director Matthew Chase said at a briefing on Capitol Hill Tuesday.

The federal government will swap obsolete office buildings in Washington for more modern facilities through P3 arrangements.

Detroit has not reallocated payments for its unlimited-tax general obligation bonds because those bonds are tied up in federal mediation talks, the city said Monday.

CALIFORNIA

GEORGIA

Detroit Monday disclosed the fees it must pay to Barclays Capital Inc. to secure a $350 million debtor-in-possession financing, after the bankruptcy judge overseeing the city's case ordered the disclosure.

American Airlines will ask a bankruptcy court to approve an agreement with federal regulators that settles the government's antitrust lawsuit against American's proposed merger with US Airways Group Inc.

Vice President Joe Biden used a visit to the Port of Houston to renew the Obama administration's proposal for a $50 billion infrastructure renewal program.