Law and legal issues

WASHINGTON — Municipal securities dealers, their finance professionals, and political action committees will have to disclose most contributions they make to bond ballot election campaigns under Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board rule changes the Securities and Exchange Commission approved Wednesday.

BRADENTON, Fla. — Birmingham, Ala., welcomes new Mayor William Bell to office on Tuesday, which leaves a vacancy on the Jefferson County Commission as it continues to cope with $3.2 billion of troubled sewer debt.

WASHINGTON — Market participants worried yesterday that the Obama administration’s plan to limit the size and certain trading activities of banks could adversely affect firms’ tender option bond programs, which provide money market funds with safe municipal investments.

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court’s ruling allowing corporations to use their own funds for ads to support or oppose candidates does not appear to have implications for the Municipal ­Securities Rulemaking Board’s Rule G-37, which ­restricts municipal dealers’ political ­contributions to issuer officials, lawyers said.

WASHINGTON — A Wells Fargo & Co. shareholder has filed suit against 13 top officials at the bank, alleging they committed a breach of fiduciary duty, abuse of control, and gross mismanagement by permitting the bank to continue to participate in sale-in, lease-out transactions after the federal government warned they were illegitimate tax shelters.

WASHINGTON — In a new challenge to the Securities and Exchange Commission’s enforcement jurisdiction over certain swaps, attorneys for two former JPMorgan bankers that secured swap transactions for the firm with Jefferson County, Ala., are urging a federal judge to throw out most of the securities fraud charges the SEC filed against them in November.

BRADENTON, Fla. — Alabama federal judge Scott Coogler Tuesday denied former Birmingham Mayor Larry Langford’s motion for a new trial.

West Virginia’s pension system reported last week its unfunded liabilities jumped by about $2 billion, or 41%, in fiscal 2009. The Consolidated Public Retirement Board said obligations to retirees in the state’s seven pension funds increased to $7 billion for the fiscal year ending June 30.

Miami commissioners late last week approved the sale of $92 million of bonds to build parking facilities for the Florida Marlins’ new baseball stadium, which is under construction.

CHICAGO — Repayment of about $46 million of taxable tribal gaming revenue bonds from a $50 million issue on behalf of the Lac du Flambeau tribe in Wisconsin remains in question as investors decide their next move, following a federal judge’s dismissal of their case seeking to enforce their bond indenture rights.

WASHINGTON — The Nebraska Supreme Court last week dismissed a lawsuit brought by Falls City against the Nebraska Municipal Power Pool and three of its staff members.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Inc. fined Southwest Securities Inc. $54,500 and ordered it to pay $23,394 to customers for municipal securities trade reporting and pricing violations as well as non-muni violations. FINRA also fined San-Francisco-based Charles Schwab & Co. $25,000 for muni trade reporting violations.

WASHINGTON — More than $200 million of toll revenue bonds issued by the Connector 2000 Association Inc. for a 16-mile toll road in Greenville County, S.C., defaulted on Jan. 1, in what sources said is the first public-private partnership default in the state.

SAN FRANCISCO — The Las Vegas Monorail Co., which has more than $600 million of municipal bonds outstanding, sought Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Wednesday.

Matt Dalton is willing to buy the debt of a bankrupt borrower — and he can’t find any for sale at a suitable price.

Only in municipal bonds.Matt Dalton is willing to buy the debt of a bankrupt borrower — and he can’t find any for sale at a suitable price.

San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders ruled out bankruptcy and pledged to balance the city’s structural budget deficit within the next 18 months in his annual state of the city address this week.

WASHINGTON — In the biggest reorganization of its enforcement division in 30 years, the Securities and Exchange Commission Wednesday announced the new heads of five specialized enforcement units, including Elaine Greenberg, who will lead a unit expected to boost enforcement of municipal securities and public pension abuses.

WASHINGTON — Two environmental groups critical of coal-fired electric plants are urging the Securities and Exchange Commission to encourage broker-dealers that underwrite municipal bonds for such projects to provide more disclosure about the regulatory and fiscal changes stemming from climate change.

BRADENTON, Fla. — The ­Louisiana Citizens Property Insurance Corp. is seeking more than $10 million in damages in a federal suit against JPMorgan and Bear, Stearns & Co. over failed auction-rate securities that the state-run, nonprofit insurer was forced to refinance.