A San Diego law firm has launched a class-action suit against Rancho Cucamonga-based Basin Water Inc., alleging that it misled shareholders, causing the company's stock price to rise to inflated heights, leading to losses for investors when the stock later fell.

Basin designs and builds groundwater treatment systems.

The law firm, Coughlin Stoia Geller Rudman & Robbins LLP, says Basin and some of its officers and directors issued false and misleading statements about the company's financial results.

In particular, Coughlin Stoia alleges that Basin concealed facts from potential investors that included commitments to sell product at unprofitable prices and increased costs for waste disposal and salt purchasing.

The complaint also says company officials knew Basin had long-term contracts that would hurt profitability and lied about the status of those contracts.

In November, the stock fell 22 percent in one day after Basin announced that it would take a $4.7 million charge to reserve money for projected losses.

Basin said at the time it was the second charge the company had taken in less than a year related to so-called legacy projects.

Also, Basin said, improvements in its accounting practices allowed the company to determine the systems will continue to operate at a loss for some time.

The company said its management earlier this year established new business processes that ensure future contracts are properly priced and that Basin can pass along price increases to customers.

Late Friday, it was announced that a Baltimore law firm had started a class action against Basin as well.

Basin officials could not reached for comment Friday. Its shares closed at $9 Friday, up 89 cents.

Alinghi's lawyers contended that the San Francisco club's July challenge on behalf of BMW Oracle Racing was invalid because it failed to properly describe the yachts in which the race would be sailed.

The challenge letter described a boat that would measure 27 metres long by 27 metres wide - a dimension that could apply only to a multihulled vessel like the catamaran that American Dennis Connor used to defend the cup in 1988.

The challenge, however, also called the boat a "keel yacht," a term traditionally used to describe a boat with one hull.

Alinghi argued in court papers, filed in state court in New York on Thursday, that BMW Oracle's bid should be tossed because it proposes a boat that doesn't exist, or would be so misshapen because of its bargelike dimensions that it would be unfit for racing.

The Golden Gate Yacht Club said Alinghi's new claim lacks merit.

"If these arguments were valid they would have been presented months ago," BMW Oracle spokesman Tom Ehman said.

In November, a New York judge disqualified Alinghi's favored Spanish challenger, Desafio Espanol, of Club Nautico Espanol de Vela, on the grounds that the new club hadn't previously held a major regatta, as required by the cup's deed of gift.

The two sides are due back in court in January.

The complaint charges WSB Financial and certain of its officers and directors with violations of the Securities Act of 1933 (the "Securities Act"). The complaint also alleges that D.A. Davidson - who acted as acted as "Lead Underwriter" of the IPO - violated the Securities Act.

Specifically, the complaint alleges that, in connection with the IPO, defendants issued numerous materially false and misleading statements which caused WSB Financial's securities to trade at artificially inflated prices. As alleged in the complaint, the Company's registration statement for the IPO failed to disclose that the Company had been violating certain banking laws and regulations relating to the origination, administration and monitoring of construction and mortgage loans. Due to the Company's misleading statements, WSB Financial's stock hit an intra-day high of $21 per share during the Class Period.

According to the complaint, beginning in September 2007, a series of announcements and investigations into the Company's lending practices caused WSB Financial's stock to plummet. For example, in late September, the Company announced that due to the reduced demand of mortgage loans, the Company was eliminating thirty-three jobs in its mortgage division. Moreover, the Company announced that its Executive Vice President of Sales and Lending at Westsound Bank had been terminated. The complaint alleges that as a result of these announcements, the Company's stock fell from $15.30 per share to $12.40 per share. Then, the Company announced that state and federal regulators were looking into possible fraud and misconduct in its real estate lending practices. Within two days of this announcement the Company's stock dropped nearly 60 percent, from $11.20 on October 24, 2007 to $4.73 on October 25, 2007.

If you are a member of the class, you may, no later than January 2, 2007, request that the Court appoint you as Lead Plaintiff of the class. Any member of the purported class may move the Court to serveas Lead Plaintiff through counsel of their choice or may choose to remain an absent class member.

Cohen, Milstein, Hausfeld & Toll, P.L.L.C. has significant experience in prosecuting investor class actions and actions involving securities fraud. The firm has offices in Washington, D.C., New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, San Francisco, and London, and is active in major litigation pending in federal and state courts throughout the nation. You may visit the firm's website at www.cmht.com.

The government has designated 13 organizations, including nine consumer groups and four economic institutes, such as the Federation of Korean Industries, to handle the job.

Non-profit private organizations with requests for a lawsuit from more than 50 people can also file if they meet certain conditions.

To that end the Fair Trade Commission and the Korea Consumer Agency are looking to hire lawyers to support legal procedures related to filing a lawsuit.

The Ministry of Finance and Economy says the new law will urge companies not to infringe on consumer rights so as not to hurt their image.

The network that burst into public consciousness with the O.J. Simpson trial and other big-name courtroom dramas in the 1990s becomes part of television history Tuesday, renamed truTV to emphasize its prime-time action programming.

Besides the name, there won't be many immediate changes to what Court TV has become. The six remaining hours of legal-oriented material during the day will remain, labeled ''In Session.''

The Tuesday premiere of ''Ocean Force Huntington Beach O.C.'' typifies the network's direction. The series follows lifeguards on a busy California beach, emphasizing heart-pounding rescues rather than hours spent ogling hot bodies.

That's about as far from swearing in a witness as you can get, but Court TV's viewers are used to the disconnect.

Court TV prime-time has emphasized non-fiction series like the long-running ''Forensic Files'' and newer shows like ''The Real Hustle,'' which interviews pickpockets about tricks of the trade; the upcoming ''Black Gold,'' about oil prospectors; and ''Speeders,'' which shows tapes of people trying to talk their way out of speeding tickets.

That's part of an intensely competitive television world; ''Black Gold'' taps into the same fascination with grueling jobs as ''Deadliest Catch'' on Discovery and ''Ice Road Truckers'' on The History Channel, for example.

Now the network takes the risk of shedding an established brand for the unknown.

''It's a big concern,'' conceded Steve Koonin, president of Turner Entertainment Networks, which includes the soon-to-become truTV. ''Court TV is a very well-defined programming entity. Unfortunately, it's not as broad and doesn't offer the growth opportunities, we believe, as starting anew.''

Koonin oversaw the successful brandings of TNT and TBS. Those networks established clear identities -- TNT is for drama, TBS does comedy -- while keeping names that are essentially meaningless.

TruTV's identity will be fast-moving programming that tells real stories about real people. There's such a glut of reality programming with a wide range of styles that truTV is making an explicit point of rejecting the term.

TruTV isn't reality, its new slogan states. It's actuality.

''Reality has a connotation of not being real, of being phony,'' said Marc Juris, executive vice president and general manager of truTV. ''We felt that because [our programming] was real, we couldn't call it reality.''

“There is no question,” said Gerald H. Silk, of Bernstein Litowitz Berger & Grossmann, that the subprime market has led to an increase in litigation. His New York firm has class actions pending against the subprime lenders Fremont General, Accredited Home Lenders and American Home Mortgage Investment.

Stuart M. Grant of Grant & Eisenhofer, a firm in Wilmington, Del., said, “All you are seeing now is the low-hanging fruit.” His firm has a shareholders’ derivative lawsuit pending against Countrywide Financial, the mortgage giant.

Class-action filings, excluding subprime cases and those stemming from the backdating of stock options, have increased almost 40 percent from 2006. Average settlements have also jumped, to $33.2 million from $22.7 million.

An investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Texas focused initially on vendor kickbacks and has involved several local elected officials and business leaders, some of whom were involved in overseeing bond-related matters for the city and area school districts. Some of the local officials have pleaded guilty in the case.

The latest El Paso pleadings come as federal officials pursue a yearlong nationwide criminal probe into alleged widespread bid-rigging in the municipal bond industry. Several Wall Street firms that underwrite the deals as well as insurers that handle part of the business have reported receiving subpoenas.

It isn't clear how the El Paso case, which is still open, is related to other parts of the bid-rigging investigation.

Many details of the El Paso case remain under seal. Documents filed in one of the first parts of the case to become public include references to meetings earlier this year at which the Bear Stearns bankers, not identified by name, discuss paying for a personal trip to New York for one local official implicated involved in the case and his wife. The documents also describe local officials' discussions allegedly seeking bribes from another financial firm handling local bond deals, First Southwest Co., of Dallas, in order to keep their county contract. First Southwest was later fired, prosecutors suggest in court papers, for refusing to pay.

Russell Sherman, a Bear Stearns spokesman, said the men are no longer employees, adding, "Bear Stearns is not the subject of the inquiry. We will continue to cooperate with the authorities regarding this matter."

First Southwest CEO Hill A. Feinberg on Friday said the company has been assured that it isn't a target of the El Paso public-corruption investigation. "We remain ready, willing, and able to cooperate with the federal government, if contacted," he said.