Law and legal issues

Moody’s Investors Service has placed Coon Rapids’ $1.8 million of multifamily housing revenue refunding bonds for the Pine Point Apartments project on watch due to a possible default based on the transaction’s asset-to-debt ratio and projected cash flows.

BRADENTON, Fla. — After more than a year of negotiations, New Orleans has filed an amended complaint in its federal suit against Ambac Assurance Corp., Ambac Financial Services LLC, PaineWebber Capital Services Inc., and UBS Securities LLC.

Seven groups representing state securities regulators, investors, and investment advisers are urging leaders of the Senate Banking Committee not to water down language in its draft financial regulatory reform legislation that would require every individual that provides investment advice to be held to a fiduciary duty under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940.

The Court of Federal Claims has rejected Wells Fargo & Co.’s attempt to claim a $115 million tax deduction stemming from 26 sale-in, lease-out transactions, 17 of which involved public transit agencies, saying that the deals lacked economic substance.

Financial Guaranty Insurance Corp. met the regulatory deadline to submit a proposal to repair its battered finances.

WASHINGTON — Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon will resign and be sentenced Feb. 4 as part of a plea agreement negotiated with prosecutors after being convicted on one criminal count last year for using gift cards donated to the city.

A federal judge in Birmingham Monday delayed the sentencing of Montgomery bond dealer William Blount and Alabama lobbyist Albert LaPierre. Both men pleaded guilty last year to pay-to-play charges related to Jefferson County’s troubled sewer debt and were scheduled to be sentenced today.

Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland was handed a victory this week when the state’s 10th District Court of Appeals ruled that the governor and the General Assembly have the authority to spend more than $230 million of tobacco settlement funds originally set aside for antismoking programs to help balance the budget.

BRADENTON, Fla. — Standard & Poor’s yesterday affirmed its A-minus rating, with a stable outlook, on the Prichard Waterworks and Sewer Board in Alabama.

CHICAGO — A Minnesota judge last week ruled that budget cuts ordered by Gov. Tim Pawlenty last summer were unconstitutional — a ruling that could have a big impact on the state’s current $57 billion budget and on how lawmakers tackle a fresh $1.2 billion deficit heading into 2010.

The Jefferson County Commission has enacted a new occupational tax, as required by the Alabama Legislature, but a local dentist has filed a lawsuit challenging it.

WASHINGTON — Next year will bring significant changes in the municipal securities market if Congress passes sweeping financial regulatory reform in what would be the biggest overhaul of financial regulation since the Great Depression.

WASHINGTON ­— The Securities and Exchange Commission yesterday charged a Houston-based broker with engaging in unauthorized and unsuitable trading on behalf of two Florida municipalities, putting them at risk of losing millions of dollars while reaping more than $14 million in commissions.

Stifel, Nicolaus & Co. will complete the buyback of auction-rate securities from retail investors six months early under a settlement in principle reached with securities regulators in Missouri, Indiana, and Colorado announced late Monday.

CHICAGO — Redwood Capital Investments LLC’s successful bid Wednesday to acquire most of bankrupt Erickson Retirement Communities’ assets did not include the Monarch Landing, Sedgebrook, and Linden Ponds facilities so the fate of their municipal debt now becomes the focus of a new round of negotiations.

CHICAGO — Redwood Capital Investments LLC’s successful bid Wednesday to acquire most of bankrupt Erickson Retirement Communities’ assets did not include the Monarch Landing, Sedgebrook, and Linden Ponds facilities so the fate of their municipal debt now becomes the focus of a new round of negotiations.

The Vallejo, Calif., City Council unanimously approved a bankruptcy workout plan last week that outlines the city's aims in negotiations to end the biggest municipal bankruptcy since the mid-1990s.

State and local governments will be able to buy and temporarily hold their tax-exempt bonds, including auction-rate securities, for another year without causing the bonds to be considered reissued for tax purposes, the Internal Revenue Service said yesterday.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit Monday reinstated former Jefferson County, Ala., commissioner Gary White's 2008 conspiracy and bribery convictions and returned the case to Birmingham for sentencing.

Now that the first shoe has dropped in the Justice Department's criminal investigation of alleged anti-competitive activities in the municipal derivatives and investment markets, what comes next in 2010?