Law and legal issues

Two Miami-Dade County elected officials facing recall petitions have now filed suits in an attempt to stop their recall elections.

New Jersey Attorney General Paula Dow Tuesday announced that UBS Securities LLC will pay the state $3.79 million in civil penalties and buy back $1.5 billion of auction-rate securities from New Jersey investors.

Retail investors in municipals are shaken, but still ­standing, after a relentless barrage of ­negative media hype surrounding forecasts for massive municipal ­bankruptcies and defaults later this year.

MBIA Inc. isn’t losing its fraud case against Merrill Lynch without a fight.

ALAMEDA, Calif. — Bankruptcy attorney Bruce Bennett, who represented Orange County, in its 1994 bankruptcy case, has joined Dewey & LeBoeuf LLP along with nine other California attorneys from his bankruptcy and restructuring practice, the firm announced Monday.

WASHINGTON — The House Financial Services Committee plans to examine state and local government budget shortfalls and the possibility of bond defaults in the municipal market, according to a 22-page draft of its oversight plans for the 112th Congress that chairman Rep. Spencer Bachus, R-Ala., has circulated among Republican panel members.

ALAMEDA, Calif. — Most holders of $451.5 million of first-tier revenue bonds issued for the Las Vegas Monorail are prepared to accept $111 million up front and release Ambac Assurance Corp. from its exposure to the defaulted bonds, the bond trustee said in a disclosure filing.

Five days before a House panel is set to hold a hearing — “State and Municipal Debt: the Coming Crisis?” — governors are insisting that municipal securities are among the safest investments and that states are keenly aware of the need to repay their obligations.

BRADENTON, Fla. — Nearly a year after beginning a 15-year sentence for pay-to-play crimes, former Jefferson County Commission President Larry Langford will get another day in court.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has opened an investigation into Rhode Island's bond offerings, state General Treasurer Gina Raimondo announced Thursday.

WASHINGTON — States strongly oppose Congress drafting legislation allowing them to file for bankruptcy protection, which is not needed and would actually hurt them as well as the markets, economists and a representative of the National Governors' Association warned members of the Senate Budget Committee Thursday.

CHICAGO — The Illinois Supreme Court on Tuesday granted the state’s request for a temporary stay against enforcement of a lower court decision invalidating the state’s $31 billion capital budget and the funding streams that support capital borrowing.

CHICAGO — Chicago Mayor Richard Daley will meet with executives at American Airlines and United Airlines Thursday as a legal standoff over $3.36 billion worth of expansion projects at O’Hare International Airport drags on.

WASHINGTON — Rating analysts are closely watching to see if states make structural changes in their finances to avoid their current fiscal problems as opposed to making one-time fixes that will not solve their underlying imbalances, a Standard & Poor’s analyst said Tuesday.

State revenues increased 6.9% in the fourth quarter of 2010, capping a full year of revenue growth and easing concerns that states should be able to file for bankruptcy protection, according to officials at the Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government, which issued a report Tuesday.

The Securities and Exchange Commission will review bond-related documents that Harrisburg provides to investors.

WASHINGTON — The Securities and Exchange Commission announced Monday that investors can for the first time access detailed information that money market funds file with the SEC under changes to Rule 2a-7 that it implemented last year.

The takeover of a Long Island county’s finances by an oversight board last week looked like an opportunity to some investors who hoped to pick up an improving New York credit on the cheap.

Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee appointed a new receiver for fiscally troubled Central Falls on Monday. Chafee, who took office last month, appointed former state Supreme Court Justice Robert Flanders Jr. to replace retired Judge Mark Pfeiffer.

ALAMEDA, Calif. — A recent California appeals court ruling will require developers of many community facilities districts to pay so-called prevailing wages for all public improvements, whether or not they are financed with bonds.