Law and legal issues

BRADENTON, Fla. — South Carolina federal bankruptcy Judge David Duncan last week approved a plan allowing investors who want to trade their Connector 2000 Association term bonds to exchange them.

A preliminary Travis County state district court ruling on whether oil and gas drilling and production equipment is exempt from the Texas sales tax could cost the state millions of dollars a year in lost revenues and billions more in refunds.

A bankruptcy court judge in Chicago will be asked next week to approve a $53.5 million cash offer to purchase the assets of the Clare at Water Tower continuing-care community in a deal that provides holders of the facility’s $229 million of debt with a recovery rate of at least 20 cents on the dollar, sources said.

Providence dropped retired Supreme Court Justice Robert Flanders as an advisor after he said the capital city was headed to bankruptcy court.

Former Maine Turnpike Authority executive director Paul Violette has been sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison for misusing as much as $230,000 in agency funds.

Aurelius Capital Master Ltd. and UBS have withdrawn from suits against bond-insurer MBIA Inc.

Tampa Bay Water, a regional supplier for three counties on the west coast of Florida, counted on winning $100 million for what it claimed was a faulty reservoir design.

Tuesday afternoon the Birmingham News reported a federal district judge ruled that the county's creditors could appeal the county's eligibility to file for Chapter 9.

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board on Tuesday proposed rule changes that would eliminate some duplicative reporting requirements faced by underwriters of new-issue muni securities.

Birmingham, Ala.-based Balch & Bingham LLP will expand its public finance practice next month with the addition of the seven bond attorneys from Presley Burton & Collier LLC.

Three banks suing MBIA Inc. accused the bond insurer of deliberately withholding damaging financial projections from insurance regulators who were evaluating its transformation.

The first criminal trial involving muni market executives accused of bid-rigging is scheduled to begin next week in a federal court in New York City, unless they enter into plea agreements.

The California attorney general's office filed a lawsuit against Orange County last Thursday to prevent the county from diverting money from education in order to balance its budget.

A dispute over $25 million in the state's proposed $14.3 billion budget for fiscal 2013 will close state courts for five days, Kansas Chief Justice Lawton Nuss said last week.

A FINRA hearing panel has fined David Lerner Associates $2.3 million and suspended head trader William Mason for six months with a $200,000 fine for charging excessive markups on muni bond and collateralized mortgage obligation transactions.

Memphis-headquartered Pinnacle Airlines Corp. filed for Chapter 11 reorganization on Sunday.

CHICAGO - Michigan officials filed an appeal Tuesday afternoon against a circuit court decision that has prevented the state team reviewing Detroit's finances from meeting.

California Controller John Chiang has ordered an investigation into Stockton's finances following the city's admission of accounting mistakes.

Travis County District Judge John Dietz said last week he intends to combine four lawsuits challenging Texas’ school finance laws into a single case. A fifth group of plaintiffs will be included as interveners in one of them.

Harrisburg, Pa.'s state-appointed receiver has asked the U.S. attorney and Pennsylvania attorney general to examine the incinerator bond deals that left the capital city with more than $300 million of debt that it can't repay.