Law and legal issues

The Arkansas Board of Finance last week approved a new plan for investing the state’s allocation of tobacco settlement funds that could bring in an additional $1 million a year in interest.

WASHINGTON — The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board announced the members of its new, majority-public board Friday, hours after it proposed a series of large fee increases to defray the technology costs for its EMMA site as well as expenses tied to the regulation of municipal advisers under the Dodd-Frank Act.

As Harrisburg looks for assistance through Pennsylvania’s distressed communities program, the city also will seek a $7 million short-term loan to help meet payroll and other immediate costs.

The appointment of a receiver by Rhode Island for Central Falls has landed in court. A hearing is scheduled for Monday in state superior court.

BRADENTON, Fla. — A north Florida grand jury decided Wednesday not to pursue an investigation into the construction and furnishing of a $48 million appeals court building that was financed with $33.5 million of bonds.

WASHINGTON — The Securities and Exchange Commission plans to launch its new office of municipal securities by the end of October, chairman Mary Schapiro said in prepared testimony presented to the Senate Banking Committee Thursday.

ALAMEDA, Calif. — It has been more than six years since San Diego dropped its disclosure bombshell about failing to tell investors of the city’s pension ­underfunding.

Congress is expected to leave town either late Wednesday or early Thursday to campaign for the fall elections after approving stopgap spending legislation that would keep the federal government running in fiscal 2011, which starts on Oct. 1.

Political fighting in Harrisburg, Pa., scrapped Mayor Linda Thompson’s initiative to restructure debt of the region’s incinerator authority, meaning the city is no closer to resolving the problems that brought it to the verge of a general obligation default this month.

A group of MBIA Insurance Co. policyholders Tuesday filed a motion seeking to unseal more than 1,000 confidential documents relating to the New York Insurance Department’s approval of MBIA’s contentious 2009 restructuring.

SAN FRANCISCO — Lawyers for the city of Vallejo, Calif., said the National Federation of Municipal Analysts failed to back up “apocalyptical” predictions with any evidence in the city’s response to a brief the organization filed in its bankruptcy case.

Federal prosecutors filed a brief on Monday urging the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta to uphold former Jefferson County Commission president Larry Langford’s conviction.

A federal bankruptcy judge on Monday reaffirmed a recent ruling that the city of Prichard does not qualify under Alabama law to file for Chapter 9 municipal bankruptcy. The judge said state law requires a local government to have outstanding debt to file for bankruptcy.

Regulators’ heightened concern for retail investors in the muni market was on display Tuesday when a top Financial Industry Regulatory Authority official posed an alarming scenario to industry representatives in New York.

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board issued a report Tuesday summarizing the data it has collected on auction-rate securities and variable-rate demand obligations, as the Securities and Exchange Commission approved the board’s proposal to provide $10,000-per-year subscriptions for real-time data on such securities.

DALLAS — Dallas County District Judge Craig Smith agreed Monday to a one-week delay in deciding whether the Dallas suburb of Irving can issue up to $200 million of revenue bonds for an entertainment center near Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport.

WASHINGTON — Cook County, Ill., officials say while they are striving to improve the timeliness of their secondary market disclosures, the process of coordinating financial information among different offices and departments is both challenging and time consuming.

BRADENTON, Fla. — Although Jefferson County, Ala.’s sewer debt has been rated at junk level for quite some time, Moody’s Investors Service said Monday that the appointment of a receiver for the sewer system is a positive credit development for the county and bond insurers.

DALLAS — A lawsuit filed in Arkansas state court last week could remove from the November ballot a constitutional amendment to eliminate restrictions on the interest rate carried by tax-exempt bonds issued in the state.

WASHINGTON — The combination of having at least three of the proposed 10 “industry” seats on its expanded board dedicated to nondealer muni advisers, along with the establishment of a council of advisers to bounce ideas off the board, will ensure that advisers are fairly regulated beginning Oct. 1, the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board is insisting.