Law and legal issues

The Government Finance Officers Association has issued an alert urging members to be ready for conversations with their counsel and quick turnarounds of settlements under the Securities and Exchange Commission's program to voluntarily self-report continuing disclosure violations.

Scranton, Pa., which received its first bond rating in five years — junk-level BB from S&P — intends to sell $40 million to fund a back-pay settlement with police and fire unions.

A Florida court has denied Indian River County’s quest to block a state-created conduit issuer from selling $1.75 billion of tax exempt bonds for All Aboard Florida’s planned private passenger rail project.

Atlantic City has hired McManimon Scotland & Baumann as bond counsel in an effort to avoid a state takeover.

The Supreme Court on Monday issued an opinion affirming that a local Puerto Rico debt restructuring law is unconstitutional, leaving congressional action on a House bill as the most viable option left for the struggling commonwealth to deal with its debt crisis.

The full Senate is expected to take up the Puerto Rico bill passed by the House and vote on it before the end of the month or in early July.

Atlantic City's junk-rated Municipal Utilities Authority could play a key role in deciding the distressed city's financial fate.

A House bill designed to help Puerto Rico will now move to the Senate after House members passed the bill 297 to 127 during a session that stretched into early Thursday evening.

In a decision on Thursday the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Puerto Rico enjoys most types of sovereignty but not a type relevant to the criminal case at hand.

Michigan lawmakers finalized a controversial Detroit Public Schools restructuring package that is supposed to rescue the struggling system from insolvency.

The New Jersey Supreme Court upheld Gov. Chris Christie’s 2011 suspension of cost of living adjustments for retirees’ pension benefits in a ruling that keeps the state's pension funding position from getting even worse.

The full House is expected to vote today on a bill designed to help Puerto Rico after the House Rules Committee set the table for the bill's consideration during a lengthy hearing that stretched into Wednesday night.

Nassau Regional Off-Track Betting Corp. is selling its Farmingdale, N.Y. branch to pay debt service for revenue anticipation notes it defaulted on in March.

Puerto Rico chief financial officer Melba Acosta Febo said Puerto Rico may pay some, but probably not all, of the commonwealth’s general obligation bond debt due July 1.

A new state rescue plan fails to address Atlantic City’s long-term fiscal challenges, S&P Global Ratings said Tuesday in affirming its deep junk-level CC rating of the New Jersey gambling resort.

Faced with a state Supreme Court threat to block distribution of funds to Kansas public schools, Gov. Sam Brownback called a special session of the legislature to provide a funding solution.

Lawyers with Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe are concerned about a ruling by a federal appeals court last week that found a constitutional challenge to the Securities and Exchange Commission's use of administrative proceedings to impose penalties in enforcement cases could not move forward until the proceedings end.

A Dowling College alumni group has launched a campaign to save the 48-year old Long Island school after it announced plans to close last week.

A compromise package to rescue Detroit Public Schools from looming insolvency at a cost of $617 million is headed to the state Senate.

Unrated Scranton, Pa., announced a P3 under which nonprofit National Development Council will manage its parking system.