One of Baltimore's largest law firms, Ober Kaler, will move its headquarters by next April from the Sun Trust Bank building downtown to the 100 Light Street office tower a few blocks away.

Lexington Realty Trust, which owns the 35-story office tower, announced Thursday that Ober Kaler has signed a lease for 94,213 square feet over six floors of the tower, formerly known as the Legg Mason building.

The lease is the largest announced since Legg Mason moved last year to a new building in Harbor East, vacating 330,000 square feet on Light Street. To attract new tenants, Lexington Trust is investing more than $43 million to upgrade the building and open a parking garage across Lombard Street.

As of July 1, the 100 Light Street building is expected to be approximately 44 percent leased, according to Lexington Trust.

Ober Kaler Chairman John Wolf said the law firm considered sites in Hunt Valley, Owings Mills, Towson, Harbor East and elsewhere in Baltimore's central business district, including its present location, before leasing space at 100 Light Street.

The Fighting Sioux nickname is gone for good at the University of North Dakota.

On Thursday, decisions by North Dakota's Supreme Court and Board of Higher Education led to the retirement of the long-disputed nickname.

The court ruled that the board had the authority to dump the nickname at any time. The court rejected an appeal that sought to delay action.

The board had voted last May to retire the nickname. A motion Thursday to reconsider that vote died.

Board president Richie Smith says he thinks no further action is required to end the nickname.

The court agreed to hear an expedited appeal after university officials pleaded with the board to decide the issue quickly so the school could pursue admission to the Summit League.

BeBevCo announced today they have hired a new legal team: McMullen Associates LLC from Charlotte, North Carolina. McMullen Associates LLC is a Securities and Corporate Law Firm that specializes in Securities Regulation, Corporate Law, Mergers and Acquisitions, Corporate Finance, Business Law, Private Placement Memorandums, Exchange Listings, Franchising, as well as all general securities law practice and corporate law matters. "After a five-hour meeting that included four of our staff and five of theirs, it was by far the most educational as well as convincing that McMullen Associates team of experts will get the job by helping us develop short and long term strategies to move BeBevCo along a path to the Bulletin boards and then on to the AMEX," said CEO Brian Weber.

About BeBevCo - BeBevCo (Bebida Beverages Company) develops, manufactures and markets several beverages including Koma Unwind "Chillaxation Drink ™," Koma Unwind Sugar-free "Chillaxation Drink ™" and Koma Unwind "Chillaxation Shot™" as well as Potencia Energy Drink and Potencia BLAST energy shot, Piranha Water.

The Federal Communications Commission said Thursday that it intends to move forward quickly with key recommendations in its national broadband plan — even though a federal appeals court this week undermined the agency's legal authority to regulate high-speed Internet access.

The FCC needs that authority to push ahead with many parts of the broadband plan, which it released last month. Among them: a proposal to expand broadband by tapping the Universal Service Fund, which subsidizes telephone service in poor and rural areas.

The FCC laid out its 2010 "broadband action agenda" without indicating how it will proceed in light of the court ruling. But the agency says it will ensure it has the legal authority it needs for its sweeping plan to increase broadband usage and Internet speeds.

Senate Democrats have rejected a Republican effort to delay a hearing for a liberal appeals court nominee, making clear they are ready for a partisan fight.

A hearing for University of California-Berkeley, law professor Goodwin Liu will go on as scheduled April 16, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy said Wednesday. He said Republicans were unwilling to "put political rancor aside" to debate the nomination, which will test President Obama's ability to fill court seats with liberals as well as moderates.

All seven committee Republicans had asked for a delay. In a letter sent Tuesday, they wrote Leahy arguing Liu's belated responses to a committee questionnaire justified a delay in the hearing for the nominee to a San Francisco-based appeals court.

But Leahy, D-Vt., wrote the panel's senior Republican, Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama, that he had already postponed the hearing twice — once due to a Republican request and then because of GOP stalling tactics.

The chairman said he was disappointed that "we have seen the same delays and obstructionist approach toward these nominees on the Senate floor extend to the committee's consideration."

If confirmed, Liu would serve on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals serving California, Arizona, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, Alaska, Idaho, Hawaii and Montana.

Argentina quickly said it would file a court appeal after a U.S. federal judge ruled Wednesday that bondholders can seize $105 million in Argentine central bank deposits held in the United States.

A bank spokesman told The Associated Press that Argentina was optimistic because similar rulings had been overturned.

The decision, nevertheless, drove down Argentine bond prices just as the cash-strapped government prepares a $20 billion debt-swap offer in hopes of satisfying the bondholders and ending the lawsuits.

Argentina has been in a seemingly endless legal battle with bondholders who refused to accept about 30 cents on the dollar for debt they bought before the country's record $95 billion default in 2002.

U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Griesa in New York said Argentina is willfully defying its legal obligations and "has thus enmeshed the court in years of wasteful litigation with no end in sight."

More threatening for Argentina is the basis for his ruling: that President Cristina Fernandez has proven through her actions that the country's Central Bank lacks independence. That could expose Argentina's funds to other seizures, and increase the perception around the world that the country is a risky place to invest.

The judge issued the order at the request of the hedge fund firm Elliott Management Corp. and an affiliated company, NML Capital Ltd.