Morning Wrap

Withdrawn: The FBI this week agreed to drop demands that a California online library turn over subscriber information while lifting a gag order it had issued as part of a national security letter sent in November, reports The Recorder via Law.com. The Internet Archive successfully fought the FBI with representation by the Electronic Frontier Foundation's counsel.

Obstacles: The number of suits related to the subprime mortgage crisis continues to rise, but there's no guarantee investors and shareholders will win in court, The New York Times reports today. Because of higher standards set by recent Supreme Court rulings for proving wrongdoing, plaintiffs often have fewer recourses to recover than in the past.

Party Drugs: A former associate at Boston-based Bingham McCutchen has filed a discrimination complaint against the firm, alleging the firm failed to properly investigate claims of date-rape drugs being used at holiday parties, The Boston Globe reports. Michelle Moor, who left Bingham in February for the Boston law firm of Kotin, Crabtree & Strong, alleges that she was drugged at the firm's annual holiday party and that at least one other Bingham female employee had reported a similar experience the year before. The matter is before the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination.

Deal: Eight of 14 oil companies sued by public water utilities around the country have settled a suit for $423 million that alleged they polluted groundwater through the use of a gasoline additive, according to The New York Times. The oil industry stopped using it in 2006, but Exxon Mobil and five other companies refused the deal, which must be approved by a judge in the Southern District of New York.

Nasty Forecast: Former Weather Channel co-anchors Bob Stokes and Hillary Andrews had a storm of their own brewing inside their news station, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports. Andrews, who won an arbitration award in a sexual harassment suit against Stokes last fall, now has filed a federal suit in Atlanta against her former employer that seeks to include the confidential arbitrator's report in her ongoing case.