Law and legal issues

Standard & Poor's said it would wait to see the terms of Wayne County's consent agreement with the state before taking action on the junk-rated county.

Detroit's bankruptcy and Puerto Rico's default are similar to New York City's mid-1970s crisis, public finance veteran Richard Ravitch says.

Los Angeles has agreed to return control of LA/Ontario International Airport to an Ontario, Calif.-based local authority.

The Wayne County, Mich., board opted to enter a consent agreement with the state government, one of the four choices it had to deal with the county's financial emergency.

All Aboard Florida, the nation's first privately owned passenger rail, plans to quickly begin marketing $1.75 billion of private activity bonds after a key vote sealing the deal late Wednesday.

Detroit is nearing its first public bond sale since bankruptcy as it posted bond documents for the deal on Thursday.

Municipal issuers no longer consider bankruptcy to be taboo and distressed governments are increasingly likely to consider it an option, Moody's analysts said in a report.

The U.S. Supreme Court has granted Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan's request for more time to consider whether to appeal the state's high court voiding a 2013 state pension system overhaul.

The San Diego County Water Authority prevailed in a lawsuit targeting, among other things, the $1 billion Carlsbad desalination plant expected to begin operations later this year.

Challenges to $9 billion of bonds to pay for California's $68 billion high speed rail project are far from over.

St. Louis is free to spend tax money to fund a new football stadium, according to a St. Louis Circuit Court ruling overturning a city ordinance aimed at requiring such support go to a public vote.

Within hours of the Obama Administration's release of the final Clean Power Plan on Monday, opponents vowed to take legal action to block the rule while others hailed the measure.

The Providence, R.I., firefighters union, at odds with Mayor Jorge Elorza over a department reorganization, wants a court to vacate its 2013 pension settlement.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton will face criminal charges for directing clients to a friend's securities advisory firm without registering as a financial advisor. He is the first Texas attorney general to face indictment in more than 30 years.

The latest top state court to weigh in on pension reforms ruled in Michigan last week that the state's pension reforms enacted in 2011 are constitutional, overturning two lower court decisions.

In Fitch Ratings' opinion, Puerto Rico's reported decision to miss an August 1 debt service payment on appropriation-backed debt (not rated by Fitch) due Monday, Aug. 3, is consistent with both the commonwealth's stated intent to restructure its debt and its current liquidity pressures.

Bankruptcies in Detroit, Jefferson County, Ala., and three California cities helped spawn a new breed of activist judges, who may use Chapter 9 cases as the platform not just for reorganizing municipal debt, but also for helping set the stage for turning distressed cities around.

San Bernardino reached a tentative agreement with the police union, but negotiations continue with its firefighters’ union and the holder and insurer of its pension obligation bonds.

Glendale, Ariz.'s renegotiated lease agreement with the National Hockey League's Arizona Coyotes is a positive factor in the Phoenix suburb's A3 credit rating, according to Moody's Investors Service.

Numerous protestors plan to object to a Florida agency's approval of $1.75 billion of private activity bonds for a passenger train project.