Law and legal issues

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.

The Daughters of Charity Health System has reached an agreement with a private investment firm that will invest $250 million in the ailing California hospital nonprofit.

The Senate Finance Committee is pressing Treasury Secretary Jack Lew for positions on Puerto Rico, including whether it supports giving the troubled territory the ability to allow its public entities to file for bankruptcy protection under Chapter 9.

The Puerto Rico Aqueduct and Sewer Authority is "optimistic" it can sell a bond by the end of August, raising money to repay a bank line and make capital improvements.

California Gov. Jerry Brown has signed a new law securing revenues for general obligation bonds issued by local governments — a move designed to protect bondholders in a bankruptcy proceeding. But rating agencies have mixed feelings about whether it will be of much benefit to holders of local GOs in the nation's most populous state.

The Virginia Tobacco Settlement Financing Corp. must dip into reserves to make interest payments this year, bondholders were told July 16.

A decade after being on the brink of bankruptcy, Buffalo, N.Y., is reinventing itself with a high-tech economy and is experiencing a renaissance.

Stockton, Calif., chief financial officer Vanessa Burke, who weathered the storm of the city's bankruptcy, has joined Urban Futures, Inc.'s public management team.

Jefferson County, Ala.'s planned return to the municipal market two years after exiting bankruptcy may prove challenging, especially if the bonds arrive without external support, municipal analysts and investors said this week.

Sens. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., unveiled a bill on Wednesday to allow Puerto Rican public entities to declare Chapter 9 bankruptcy.

Mayor Stephen Reed "could not have acted alone," Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane said in announcing corruption charges.

Nebraska relies on Chapter 9 as a quick and easy way to restructure troubled special taxing district debt.

This month's $18.7 billion agreement with BP p.l.c. positions struggling Gulf coast states to receive financial relief, though the years-long payout won't provide immediate respite for some.