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["Lisa K.V. Perry" <lisakvperry AT gmail.com>]

The city of Birmingham, AL is in financial trouble:

Jefferson County Advisers Meet With U.S. Officials (Update1)
>
> By William Selway and Martin Z. Braun
>
> April 10 (Bloomberg) -- Financial advisers for Jefferson County, Alabama,
> met yesterday with Bush administration and Federal Reserve officials as the
> county contends with rising borrowing costs that have pushed it close to
> bankruptcy.
>
> The advisers for Alabama's most-populous county were in Washington to keep
> federal officials informed of its negotiations with creditors, U.S.
> Representative Spencer 
> Bachus<http://search.bloomberg.com/search?q=Spencer+Bachus&site=wnews&client=wnews&proxystylesheet=wnews&output=xml_no_dtd&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&filter=p&getfields=wnnis&sort=date:D:S:d1>said.
>  He said the meetings weren't an attempt to arrange a federal bailout.
>
> ``It appears Jefferson County is working diligently to negotiate a
> settlement and avoid bankruptcy,'' Bachus said in a statement. ``Activities
> in these markets can move very rapidly, so it is prudent that appropriate
> federal officials be informed of the Jefferson County situation.''
>
> Jefferson County, home to Birmingham, is reeling from interest rates on
> variable-rate bonds that jumped as high as 10 percent when the auction-rate
> securities market collapsed and the county's bonds, backed by ailing
> insurers FGIC Corp. and XL Capital Assurance, were shunned by investors.
> Without restructuring its bonds, interest costs on its sewer debt may reach
> $250 million, nearly twice the $138 million the system produces in revenue,
> according to county Commissioner Bettye Fine 
> Collins<http://search.bloomberg.com/search?q=Bettye+Fine%0ACollins&site=wnews&client=wnews&proxystylesheet=wnews&output=xml_no_dtd&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&filter=p&getfields=wnnis&sort=date:D:S:d1>.
>
>
For the remainder of the article see the below link.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=a4I6IcYPqovA&refer=home