The chief economist for Moody's Analytics is predicting the U.S. economy will dip back into a recession if Congress and the Trump administration don't agree on additional federal aid for state and local governments.

Sen. Kamala Harris of California brings a long record as a prosecutor with no significant experience in municipal finance as the running mate of presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden. But Biden already is running on a muni-friendly platform that makes her policy record in public finance of little note if they win the November election.

Virgin Trains USA borrowed billions from investors last year, and now the name is disappearing before it ever appears on Florida's privately owned high-speed passenger trains. The name will now revert to Brightline, the company said in a Revenue and Ridership Report posted on the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board's EMMA filing system Aug. 7.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.) introduced the State and Local Coronavirus Relief Fund Extension Act on Tuesday to lengthen CARES Act funding for municipalities by one year to the end of 2021. The deadline to use COVID-19 funding is by the end of 2020.

Minnesota's top rating from S&P Global Ratings is at risk over its COVID-19 budget hole and how the state might close the potential three-year, $7 billion gap. S&P moved the outlook on the state's AAA rating to negative from stable this week in a report ahead of a $1.2 billion new money and refunding general obligation sale set for next week.

Texas sales tax revenues rebounded to positive numbers in July after a deep, three-month slump brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic and falling demand for oil. At $2.98 billion, the July revenues represented a 4.3% increase compared to the same month last year.

Most students cleared out in March from the college towns around the nation that depend on them for their economic base, precipitating an economic dive that has been steeper than most other places around the nation. These thousands of college towns may be officially incorporated as cities, villages, or boroughs, but they all face common revenue shortfalls that range from a drastic drop in hotel occupancy taxes to another decline in water and sewer use.

Ohio legislation that provided a ratepayer bailout for two nuclear power plants owned by then-bankrupt FirstEnergy Solutions is at the center of a $60 million pay-to-play scheme that led to the arrest of Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder on federal corruption charges this week. The legislation improved the trading value of some of First Energy's secured municipal bonds that had been dragged into the bankruptcy case.