Documents

WASHINGTON - The man who shot Ronald Reagan and three other men in 1981 has been behaving normally when he leaves the mental hospital in Washington, D.C., where he is being treated, according to Secret Service observations in newly released court documents. John Hinckley Jr., 57, shops at Wal-Mart, Target and PetSmart during visits to his mother's home in Williamsburg, Va. One of his first stops is often a Wendy's. At home with his mother, he performs lots of chores, plays guitar and makes art. He shows few of the symptoms that led to the 1982 finding that he was insane, and therefore not guilty of attempted murder and other charges in the assassination attempt.

Once in a while, there comes along a reason to believe in karma. Earlier this week, the Heartland Institute, a self-described “free-market think tank” that pilloried climate scientists whose stolen emails were released in 2009 as part of the so-called Climategate flap, found itself duped out of several confidential fundraising documents that were then distributed widely over the Internet, offering a glimpse of its priorities. On its website, the Chicago-based Heartland asserts that at least one document is forged.

Question: Are owners entitled to get all financial records and minutes from our homeowners association pertaining to repairs to the condominium foundations in 1998? If so, how do we go about obtaining them and is there a time limit? How soon after a request is received should the documents be provided and does the owner have to pay for them? Answer: A titleholder is always entitled to request records but that doesn't always mean the board will comply. Under California Civil Code section 1365.

A hacker organization on Monday released e-mails in which a former Bank of America Corp. employee asserts the company is hiding foreclosure information from regulators. The posting by a member of a group known as Anonymous includes e-mails in which an employee of Balboa Insurance Group in Irvine raises questions about removing from the record documents that were sent out in error. The e-mails don't indicate the loans have foreclosure issues. A Bank of America spokesman said the former Balboa employee stole documents from the company.

In summer 2009, Thomas Fenady was recruited for a secret mission called Project Icebreaker. Fenady, who maintains the computer systems for a major corporation, was instructed to hack into the email accounts of two employees and "dig up dirt" but "don't get caught doing it," even though the directive came from the highest levels of the company. The narrative reads as if it came straight out of a spy novel or a movie script. But it is a court document for a case involving Activision Blizzard Inc. and its multibillion-dollar Call of Duty military shooter franchise.

WASHINGTON -- The House Ethics Committee on Friday declined a request by Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles) and 68 of her Democratic colleagues to release internal documents on its findings that her rights of due process weren't violated during an investigation into whether she improperly helped a bank linked to her husband. The panel noted that it was still deliberating on how to proceed on the allegations of misconduct against Waters, and that if it were to make public internal documents now, "it would defeat the purpose of having a nonpartisan, confidential process - keeping matters of House discipline free from political or outside influence.

WASHINGTON -- Fannie Mae officials supported principal reductions for some struggling homeowners in 2009 and believed they would save taxpayer money, but a pilot program set to start a year later was abruptly canceled apparently for ideological reasons, according to internal documents obtained by two House Democrats. The documents contradict congressional testimony in November by Edward DeMarco, the regulator for Fannie Mae, who has opposed principal reductions, said Reps. Elijah Cummings of Maryland and John Tierney of Massachusetts.

WASHINGTON -- In the months after the U.S. military mission that killed Osama bin Laden, Pentagon officials met with Hollywood filmmakers and gave them special access in an effort to influence the creation of a film about the operation, newly released documents show. Emails and meeting transcripts obtained from the Pentagon and CIA through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit by the watchdog group Judicial Watch suggest that officials went out of their way to assist the filmmakers, while trying to avoid the public learning of their cooperation.

Question: Our covenants, conditions and restrictions state that our association has a pool available for year-round use by all owners. Our pool has been in and out of commission over the last four years and has not been functioning at all since at least December. The board claims to have entered into a contract of more than $11,000 to have the pool repaired but won't let owners see the contract. We also are having problems accessing association documents. If I request to see association-related documents, including the pool contract, under the Freedom of Information Act or California Public Records Act, is the board then required to show them to me and can I make a copy of them?

Is Anat Kam an Israeli hero or a traitor? She is accused of secretly copying more than 2,000 military documents, many of them classified, while serving mandatory duty as a soldier from 2005 to 2007, and then releasing some to the press. One document appeared to show that the Israeli army tried to circumvent court orders meant to rein in its use of targeted killings. Supporters say the 23-year-old Kam, who is on trial at Tel Aviv District Court, acted according to her conscience.