Law and legal issues

A state fee on so-called "small tobacco" companies that were not part of a 1998 settlement with states' attorneys general is unconstitutional, a Texas appeals court ruled.

Bond insurer Syncora Guarantee challenged Detroit's settlement with its unlimited-tax general obligation bondholders in court Tuesday, arguing that it means Detroiters will continue to pay taxes on a levy that they did not approve on the original ballot.

As Detroit gears up for a key trial on its bankruptcy exit plan next week, a long-simmering dispute over $1.4 billion of certificates of participation is just starting to heat up.

Ratepayers from a Chicago suburb will file a lawsuit as soon as Tuesday seeking compensation for steep energy rate hikes they've paid due to cost overruns at the bond-financed Prairie State Energy Campus coal-fired power plant.

The felony indictment of Texas Gov. Rick Perry covers actions he took against the Travis County District Attorney's office while its investigators looked into grants to his campaign contributors from a $3 billion cancer research bond fund.

San Bernardino has reached a tentative agreement with its police union just two months after it struck an agreement with the California Public Employee's Retirement System.

The Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority put off a day of reckoning in an agreement with creditors announced Thursday, but still may be headed for what would be the largest municipal bond default in U.S. history.

The Detroit City Council has approved a series of four bond issues that include nearly $1 billion of new limited-tax GO bonds to help finance unsecured creditor settlements as part of its bankruptcy plan.

The Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority announced agreements with insurers and bondholders controlling more than 60% of PREPA's outstanding bonds to amend existing bond documents to provide PREPA with liquidity and for PREPA to appoint a chief restructuring officer.

Detroit Bankruptcy Judge Steven Rhodes pushed back the start date of a trial on the city's confirmation plan by eight days to Aug. 29, noting that the city's plan to reach a settlement with its water and sewer bondholders will likely result in a newly amended confirmation plan.

The Detroit Council unanimously approved emergency manager Kevyn Orr's plan to refinance up to $5.5 billion of water and sewer bonds to help resolve the city's bankruptcy.

A group of bondholders trying to recoup their investment in a failed Moberly, Mo. artificial sweetener plant has added as a defendant Raymond James Financial Inc. — which acquired the bond deal's underwriter and lawsuit's original target.

The largest teachers' union in Kansas is seeking to overturn provisions in the state appropriations law that strips tenured teachers of their rights to appeal firings.

Detroit asked the bankruptcy court to approve financing deals that would allow it to refinance up to $5.5 billion of water and sewer debt, providing the first glimpse of settlement details with the bondholders in the court request.

Syncora Guarantee Inc. is targeting the federal mediators who crafted the main settlement at the heart of Detroit's bankruptcy exit plan, arguing that they showed illegal and politically motivated bias toward pensioners and saving the city's art.

The Puerto Rico Treasury Department and struggling Doral Financial Corp. have entered into court-supervised negotiations over Doral's claim for $229 million.

Detroit said a planned $300 million exit financing that key to its recovery will feature a first lien on income taxes and mature in 11 to 15 years.

Louisiana Treasurer John Kennedy sent a letter Aug. 11 telling the state attorney that he is not pleased with a federal housing discrimination settlement.

A federal appeals court dismissed a lawsuit over the massive $2.6 billion Ohio River Bridges Project being built by Kentucky and Indiana.

The mayor of the city of Warren in Macomb County has filed a lawsuit to overturn a recent ballot proposition that will phase out the personal property tax, which goes to local governments.