Public finance

The judge in charge of mediation in the Detroit bankruptcy case ordered a new round of talks between the city and holders and insurers of $1.4 billion of pension certificates of participation.

The Kroll Bond Ratings Agency assigned its AA rating to Los Angeles' general obligation bonds Tuesday, its first rating of the city.

States are losing more than $1 billion a year by giving breaks on jet fuel taxes to airlines, the Unite Here International Union said in a new report.

Standard & Poor's raised Detroit's water and sewer revenue bonds three levels up from junk bond territory ahead of the city's $1.8 billion sale of mostly refunding bonds, offering a more positive assessment than Fitch Ratings or Moody's Investors Service.

IOWA

ALABAMA

Detroit plans to sell $1.8 billion of water and sewer bonds Tuesday through the Michigan Finance Authority in a transaction that allows it to finance the purchase of $1.5 billion of tendered bonds and further its efforts to exit bankruptcy.

Detroit's voluntary tender program of its water and sewer revenue bonds may have provide an "optimal solution" for the market but it still represents a default, Municipal Market Advisors said Monday.

Oregon, which invented the gasoline tax in 1919, is on the road to be the first state to shift to a mileage-based user fee for highway funding.

ARKANSAS

As the end of summer approaches and supply continues to dwindle, weekly volume in the municipal market is expected to sink to $2.53 billion, the lowest level in almost six months. A $480 million offering from the Virginia Public Building Authority is the largest deal on the new-issue calendar this week.

Detroit will refinance a chunk of its water and sewer debt as part of a tender offer settlement with bondholders.

A recent Moody's downgrade of the Philadelphia School District to Ba3 was another indication of the district's growing financial problems, but a state intercept program insulates holders of the district's $3.1 billion in bonds from those troubles.

The terms of a loan turned the outlook on Florida Gulf Coast University's debt to negative, and could result in a rating downgrade of two notches, Standard & Poor's said.

CONNECTICUT

ALABAMA

Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority closes on a $1.3 billion federal loan to complete the final 11 miles of a light-rail line to Dulles International Airport.

Fitch Ratings said Detroit's offer to holders of $5.2 billion of water and sewer bonds to tender their debt as part of a bankruptcy settlement does not constitute a distressed debt exchange, an analysis that could bode well for ratings the planned refinancing of the debt.

CONNECTICUT

CALIFORNIA