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Byline: JENNIFER LEVITZ AND LIZ RAPPAPORT; WALL STREET JOURNAL STAFF With allegations of wrongdoing over its sales of auction-rate securities mounting, UBS AG has agreed to buy back nearly $19-billion [...]

Amy Bishop, the University of Alabama professor who shot and killed three colleagues, because she wasn't granted tenure, has a violent past. She shot her brother 24 years ago, in what was deemed an accident at the time, but she was arrested and charged with assault as well as possession of ammunition and a dangerous weapon.

California Attorney General Jerry Brown filed a lawsuit against State Street Corp., the Minnesota-based bank, on charges that it defrauded the California Public Employees' Retirement System, and the California State Teachers' Retirement System, the state's two largest public employee pension funds. The bank is alleged to have overcharged the funds by not properly carrying out foreign-exchange trades.

Fairfield Greenwich Group is in talks with Massachusetts to settle a lawsuit, one of many it has to deal with as a result of being the biggest so-called 'feeder' fund involved with convicted financier Bernard Madoff and his Ponzi scheme. Investors in Massachusetts have lost about $6 billion in Madoff's scheme.

The controversy continues involving the arrest of Harvard University African-American scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. by Cambridge, Massachusetts police officer James Crowley, during the investigation of a reported home break-in. Gates and his driver were trying to get into Gates's house, which had a stuck door, when a passerby called the police, believing it to be a break-in. A confrontation between Gates and Crowley ensued, with Gates's arrest for disorderly conduct. Supporters of both men have come out in support. The President faced criticism over comments made about the case that were derogatory to the police. Accusations of racism and racial profiling have been made.

William Galvin, the leading securities regulator for the state of Massachusetts, says that the money manager and three executives of a subsidiary of Oppenheimer Holdings Inc. dumped $3 million of holdings in auction-rate securities just two weeks before the market for the securities plunged. Fines are sought for the executives in the civil-fraud complaint.

Out of 1,273 whistleblowing complaints filed with the United States Department of Labor since 2002, only 17 have had a favorable ruling and 841 have bee dismissed. A large number of dismissals were made because whistleblowing employees worked at a company subsidiary, and the Department of Labor maintains that the whistleblower provision, part of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, does not cover company subsidiaries.

Despite state laws that require companies to tell their customers when credit card information is stolen, prosecutors reported last week that over 40 million numbers had been stolen from nine retailers. Just four of those nine companies told their customers about the theft.

The country's credit and housing woes have given rise to a new scam. Borrowers who are unable to obtain a loan through regular channels are being victimized by companies offering loans, but which require 'advance fees' for costs and insurance. The applicant is then told after the fees have been received that the loan was not approved. The company keeps the money.

Peter Lynch, advisor to Fidelity Investments, has settled a case with the Securities and Exchange Commission in which he received gifts of tickets to sold-out sporting events. Fidelity will pay a penalty of $8 million. Lynch denied any wrongdoing.

Bear Stearns Companies Inc. reports a fourth-quarter write-down of $1.2 billion related to mortgage-backed securities. It is also facing accusations by regulators in Massachusetts of improperly trading of mortgage-backed securities.

Regulators in Massachusetts are investigating the possibility that Bear Stearns Companies Inc. improperly traded with two of its in-house funds during the summer. The funds collapsed, incurring additional losses for investors.

Unisystems Inc. has filed a class-action lawsuit against State Street Corp. over losses incurred in fixed-income funds. The suits alleges that bond funds classed as conservative by the company were invested in high risk instruments.

PricewaterhouseCoopers L.L.P. will pay $225 million in a settlement of auditing malpractice claims as a result of the activities of Tyco International Ltd. executives. The settlement covers Tyco investors and Tyco itself.

Affiliated Computer Services Inc., Brooks Automation Inc., Caremark Rx Inc. and UnitedHealth Group Inc. are the subject of an investigation by the Manhattan U.S. attorney into stock option backdating.