SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Three affiliates of Wells Fargo have agreed to buy back $1.4 billion in failed auction-rate securities (ARSs) from investors and pay $600,000 in legal costs as part of a settlement reached with California Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr., according to a press release issued by Brown's office Nov. 18 (The People of the State of California v. Wells Fargo Investments, LLC, et al., No. 09-487641, Calif. Super., San Francisco Co.). From LexisNexis Financial Services Litigation Report

NEW ORLEANS - The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' negligent failure to properly maintain and operate the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet (MRGO) was a substantial cause for the fatal breaching of the Reach 2 Levee, causing subsequent catastrophic flooding in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, a Louisiana federal judge held Nov. 18 (In Re: Katrina Canal Breaches Consolidated Litigation, No. 05-4182 Section "K"[2], E.D. La.). From Mealey's Litigation Report: Catastrophic Loss