Public finance

The Bond Buyer's weekly yield indexes were narrowly mixed the week ended March 21.

After more than 50 years in the municipal bond business, Richard "Dick" O'Brien, of the regional brokerage firm Folger Nolan Fleming Douglas, is ready to step down and spend more time with his family … and his farm.

After its downgrade of MBIA Insurance Corp., Standard & Poor's has downgraded six MBIA-insured housing bond issues.

A U.S. Senate panel gave its stamp of approval this week to legislation that would create a federal loan and loan guarantee program for water infrastructure that could augment bond financing and public private partnerships.

Tax-exempt money market funds reversed a recent spate of outflows -- yet gained just a scant $24.2 million -- as total net assets barely inched up to $276.65 billion in the week ended March 18, according to The Money Fund Report, a service of iMoneyNet.com.

Table as of: 03/20/2013 09:44 AM Invisible Supply Issuer and purpose Amount

ALABAMA

ALABAMA

ARKANSAS

CALIFORNIA

Table as of: 03/19/2013 16:20 PM Invisible Supply Issuer and purpose Amount

The American Society of Civil Engineers has given America's infrastructure an overall grade point average of D+ across sixteen categories — up slightly from the D in its last report in 2009 and the first improvement since the group started its report card in 1998.

Moody's Investors Service said it expects to finalize its approach to making adjustments to the pension data reported by U.S. state and local governments in April.

The New York Thruway Authority says it is in the process of obtaining a $1.5 billion TIFIA loan, but U.S. DOT guidelines indicate the loan would be at least $200 million less.

IOWA

IDAHO

Congress will have a chance in coming weeks to consider two pieces of legislation aimed at increasing investment in water infrastructure, including bonds and public-private partnerships.

U.S. credit implications remain uncertain following conflicting budget proposals last week, according to Moody's Investors Service.

U.S. Bancorp announced Monday that its subsidiary, U.S. Bank, has agreed to acquire Deutsche Bank's municipal bond trustee business.

The settlement between some states and tobacco manufacturers is a credit positive for those states and their related tobacco securitizations, Fitch Ratings said in a report Friday.