Law and legal issues

A Cook County Circuit Court judge denied Chicago’s request to keep its court-voided pension reforms in place pending an appeal.

Standard & Poor's placed Palm Drive Health Care District, Calif.'s revenue debt on negative watch due to lack of timely information.

Moody’s upgraded Detroit by one notch Thursday, though leaving it deep in junk territory, as the city gears up for its first post-bankruptcy bond deal.

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder Thursday affirmed his earlier declaration that Wayne County is in a financial emergency, giving the county board until next week to choose among four partial takeover options.

An Alabama group wants to explain why it is suing to stop new revenue from flowing to cash-strapped Jefferson County, which emerged from bankruptcy 19 months ago.

Treasury Secretary Jack Lew’s recommendation Tuesday to grant Puerto Rico municipalities and public entities access to Chapter 9 bankruptcy protection failed to convince Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, that the administration has the clear plan that’s needed before Congress can act to help the territory.

The developer of the All Aboard Florida private passenger train system plans to quickly issue $1.75 billion of private activity bonds after approval of the deal.

Standard & Poor’s assigned an A rating and stable outlook to Detroit’s first post-bankruptcy bond sale, set for Aug. 19.

"Detroit's a much better credit than it was two years ago," its former emergency manager, Kevyn Orr, told a municipal bond market group.

Detroit is set to hit the market on August 19 with its first public bond sale since exiting the largest municipal bankruptcy in the U.S.

Jefferson County, Ala., residents appealing the county’s bankruptcy settlement are challenging a state law designed to provide the cash-strapped county with new revenue for capital.

Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan wants to leave the door open for a possible U.S. Supreme Court appeal after the state's high court voided a state pension system overhaul.

Three public pension funds have sued New Jersey in the parties’ latest legal joust, accusing the state of violating a contract by underfunding their plans.

Sacramento is set to sell $282 million of bonds to finance a basketball arena after prevailing in a lawsuit challenging the validity of the debt.

A Cook County Circuit Court judge declared Chicago’s overhaul of two of its four pension funds to be unconstitutional and void in its entirety.

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder declared Wayne County, home of Detroit, to be in a financial emergency, just one day after a state review team made the recommendation.

A federal appellate panel tossed five of 18 corruption-related counts that landed former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich a 14-year sentence in 2011.

The outlook for Pennsylvania's most financially troubled school districts will remain bleak, according to Moody's.

Even as it stepped closer to a Michigan state takeover, Wayne County's county's chief executive said the struggling government would not travel down the same path as its largest city, Detroit.

The governing body of the Wyatt jail in Central Falls, R.I., made an initial $100,000 forbearance payment to the once-bankrupt city and named Daniel Martin warden.