Law and legal issues

Standard & Poor's has withdrawn its D rating on a Glendale, Ariz., plant designed to convert trash into energy after the project defaulted on its October bond payment.

Florida's second-most populous county and one of its tiniest cities bucked the official state position on carbon emissions by joining a coalition supporting the federal government's Clean Power Plan.

State Rep. Karen MacBeth wants the Rhode Island State Police and Attorney General to investigate Michael Corso's activities related to the 38 Studios bond fiasco.

Chicago squares off in the Illinois Supreme Court Nov. 17 with unions and pension fund members challenging the overhaul of its municipal and laborers' pension funds.

Agreements settling construction disputes over new nuclear units in Georgia and South Carolina are positive credit factors for the public and private owners of the projects, according to Moody's Investors Service.

The former CEO of Queens Library in New York City sued the library in federal court, saying it fired him for cause to deny him more than $2 million in severance.

In striking down a class-action union appeal Nov. 2, the Georgia Supreme Court ruled that Atlanta did not violate the state's constitution when the City Council reformed pension benefits in 2011.

A forensic inquiry into Jacksonville, Fla.’s Police and Fire Pension Fund says poor management and the lack of transparency by the fund’s board are among reasons for at least $370 million in losses.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Alan C. Stout scheduled a hearing for Dec. 9 to decide if Hillview, Ky. is qualified to continue through the bankruptcy process.

Puerto Rico could benefit from a control board similar to what Congress implemented for Washington, D.C., said former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.

The Seminole Tribe sued the state of Florida just days before expiration of an exclusive agreement allowing the tribe to offer lucrative card games at its casinos.

The Chicago Park District’s AA-plus Standard & Poor's rating won’t change solely because of a new legal challenge launched against its pension reforms.

Standard & Poor's revised the outlook on Los Angeles’s debt to stable from positive citing uncertainty from two lawsuits challenging the city's power revenue fund transfers.

Municipal professionals, insurers and bondholders criticized the United States Treasury’s proposal for a “Super Chapter 9” bankruptcy bill for Puerto Rico as dangerous.

Presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., has told Treasury Secretary Jack Lew that any debt in Puerto Rico that was issued in violation of the territory’s constitution “must be immediately set aside.”

Conventional wisdom that municipalities that file for bankruptcy “will never borrow in this town again” has not been found to be true, said panelists at The Bond Buyer’s California Public Finance Conference.

Allen Park, Mich., has delayed the settlement date for its purchase of $11.2 million of the $26.3 million of bonds offered to tender from a troubled issue for a failed movie studio project.

Resident Commissioner Pedro Pierluisi, D-P.R. and others testifying at a Senate committee hearing on Puerto Rico on Thursday said that it’s possible that some of territory’s debt may be unconstitutional and, if that is the case, it should not be paid.

The Treasury Department’s Antonio Weiss on Thursday will ask Congress to move swiftly to provide expanded Chapter 9 bankruptcy protection to Puerto Rico, as well as its authorities, and to provide other relief to the territory as it faces dire fiscal and liquidity crises.

Local credits in Michigan will be hurt if a proposal to give their unlimited tax general obligation bonds a statutory first lien falls through, Fitch Ratings said in a special report.