Law and legal issues

Little Rock Wastewater will be insolvent by mid-2012 unless the Sanitary Sewer Commission raises rates or cuts spending, according to a new financial plan presented to the commission last week.

BRADENTON, Fla. — Lewis Diaz, a bond attorney with Peck, Shaffer & Williams LLP, has been appointed to a three-year term on the finance and administration committee of the Northern Kentucky Area Development District.

SAN FRANCISCO — A Superior Court judge has granted a restraining order temporarily blocking city and state transportation officials from inking the Presidio Parkway Project deal to upgrade the main roads linking the Golden Gate Bridge with San Francisco.

The Securities and Exchange Commission last week approved a Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board proposal to extend its Rules G-17 on fair dealing and G-5 on disciplinary actions to muni advisers.

BRADENTON, Fla. — Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum Wednesday announced a $25 million settlement with JPMorgan to resolve allegations that the investment bank improperly sold unregistered securities to the local government investment pool.

BRADENTON, Fla. — A New York Supreme Court judge late Tuesday rejected JPMorgan’s motion to dismiss two lawsuits brought earlier this year by Syncora Guarantee Inc. and Assured Guaranty.

SAN FRANCISCO — The Asian Art Museum Foundation won 30 days of breathing room Tuesday to negotiate accelerated payments after the expiration of a letter of credit from JPMorgan Chase & Co. that the San Francisco institution had used to back $120 million of bonds.

DALLAS — The Dallas suburb of ­Irving could issue up to $250 million of bonds for a new entertainment center within two months if a judge’s ruling stands, Mayor Herbert Gears said.

ALAMEDA, Calif. — The auditor of Bell’s financial reports failed to follow many generally accepted fieldwork audit standards, according to a review published Tuesday by California Controller John Chiang.

CHICAGO — The Ohio Supreme Court ruled unanimously Wednesday that lawmakers did not violate the state constitution when they diverted $258 million of tobacco settlement funds to help balance the fiscal 2009-10 budget.

The battle over the constitutionality of the Rhode Island law that allowed a receiver to take over Central Falls' finances and governance is back in court.

California officials announced this week that they have signed an agreement for construction of the first state courthouse financed through a public-private partnership.

The Securities and Exchange Commission Monday proposed a lengthy new rule to establish a permanent registration system for municipal advisory firms as well as individual advisers that would replace a temporary system for firms the SEC put in place in September.

The Asian Art Museum in San Francisco faces a deepening financial crisis as its bond rating has been downgraded to junk due to accelerated payments on $120 million of debt.

A group of parents in Johnson County Unified School District 512 has filed a federal suit asking that the local district be allowed to raise the property tax levy.

Harrisburg might receive legal help from Pennsylvania as the capital city fights off a lawsuit that could force it to raise revenue to repay $282 million of outstanding incinerator debt.

The U.S. attorney’s office last week arrested four consultants for allegedly defrauding New York City and misappropriating $80 million on an electronic payroll project.

WASHINGTON — Bank of America, now Bank of America Merrill Lynch, has returned more than $6.7 billion to its auction-rate securities customers and satisfied its obligations under a settlement announced Thursday with the Securities and Exchange Commission over alleged abusive ARS sales practices.

WASHINGTON — Three former executives of General Electric Co. subsidiaries — Dominick Carollo, Steven Goldberg and Peter Grimm — will stand trial in March 2012 for allegedly participating in wire-fraud schemes and conspiracies in connection with the bidding for investment contracts for municipal bond proceeds over a seven-year period.

The New York Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled that MBIA Insurance Corp. did not have any way to discover if GMAC Mortgage LLC intentionally misrepresented the true nature of mortgage-backed securities that MBIA insured.