Public finance

ARKANSAS

Airport credits are stabilizing after major shifts in the airline industry, Moody's Investors Service said, but smaller hub airports face challenges.

Mileage-based fees may one day replace the gasoline tax as the prime source for federal transportation funding, but it won't be quick and it won't be easy.

ALABAMA

Volume will slip from last week, remaining lighter than usual, as an estimated $4.2 billion makes its way to market.

The Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority put off a day of reckoning in an agreement with creditors announced Thursday, but still may be headed for what would be the largest municipal bond default in U.S. history.

The Detroit City Council has approved a series of four bond issues that include nearly $1 billion of new limited-tax GO bonds to help finance unsecured creditor settlements as part of its bankruptcy plan.

Though New Jersey and California are on starkly different credit paths, municipal analysts said their recent trading patterns suggest equally-strong demand.

The Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority announced agreements with insurers and bondholders controlling more than 60% of PREPA's outstanding bonds to amend existing bond documents to provide PREPA with liquidity and for PREPA to appoint a chief restructuring officer.

ALABAMA

CALIFORNIA

The Bond Buyer's muni bond indexes strengthened in the week ending Aug. 14.

Detroit Bankruptcy Judge Steven Rhodes pushed back the start date of a trial on the city's confirmation plan by eight days to Aug. 29, noting that the city's plan to reach a settlement with its water and sewer bondholders will likely result in a newly amended confirmation plan.

Despite strong investment gains and other improvements, a persistent underlying weakness remained the underlying theme for the non profit health care sector in 2013, according to Standard & Poor's.

Zero coupon tobacco bonds may fall especially hard when interest rates begin to rise, according to analysts who follow the high yield, long maturity securities.

Pennsylvania's Transportation Commission will submit an updated 12-year, $63.2 billion transportation program to federal officials, said Gov. Tom Corbett.

CONNECTICUT

ALABAMA

Hospitals in the 24 states that have opted against expanding Medicaid under federal healthcare reform stand to lose out on $168 billion over 10 years while states will lose out on more than $400 billion, a new report from the Urban Institute concludes.

Congress delayed, but did not fix, a $100 billion hole in federal transportation spending with the enactment last Friday of legislation providing $10.8 billion to extend solvency of the rapidly shrinking Highway Trust Fund by 10 months.