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Los Angeles became the largest city in the nation to move to Google Inc.'s vision of online computing as the City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to outsource e-mail to a Web-based system run by the Internet search giant. Despite a flurry of lobbying by arch rival Microsoft Corp., the council agreed to shut down the city's in-house messaging system and transfer e-mail operations for its 30,000 employees to Google's nationwide network of servers. The decision could have implications for other major cities and large corporations considering whether to stay with older e-mail programs, such as Microsoft's Outlook, or to embrace the "cloud" model championed by Google.

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For techno-enthusiasts, the failure of Web 2.0 to have a bigger effect on everyday working life is something of a puzzle. Social networks, blogs and wikis have already changed the way millions of people communicate and share information online in their personal lives. But when it comes to work, these technologies generally are unused. E-mail still has a virtual monopoly. It is not for want of trying. John Chambers, chief executive of Cisco Systems Inc., several years ago took to forecasting a coming corporate productivity boom spurred by workplace use of new online "collaboration" tools that had their origins in Web 2.0. Some of the same technologies used to create successful Web services such as Facebook, Wikipedia and Twitter would make it easier for workers to find and connect with colleagues.

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Much of the buzz at the Consumer Electronics Show has been about connectivity, specifically the way in which TVs are bringing Internet services into the living room. Kwikset went a few steps further and brought connectivity to the front door. The company exhibited its SmartCode With Home Connect products, which allow homeowners to lock and unlock a door from anywhere in the world through the Internet or mobile phone. Among other features: Vacationers can set up the devices to send an e-mail or text message if a door is unlocked while they're away.

Re "Gray Davis Unreachable, Virtually," Nov. 22: On the eve of the millennium, the governor of the state that is home to Silicon Valley doesn't have e-mail! His predecessor had e-mail. New York's governor has e-mail. The president has e-mail. Almost everyone who is anyone has e-mail. Give me a cyberspace break! The unnamed "high-level state government expert" gave the excuse of the possibility that Gov. Gray Davis would be overwhelmed by the enormous flow of information. It appears to me that he doesn't want to hear from the citizens of his state.

As two scholars with different political orientations but common concerns, we have each worked to challenge conventional wisdom that has undermined public understanding of the climate change problem. Many Republicans have been too reluctant to acknowledge strong evidence of human-caused warming and the need for prudent policies that could reduce its harmful effects. Democrats have let their own political judgments and values infect climate science and its interpretation, often understating the uncertainties about the timing and scale of future risks, and the tremendous costs and difficulties of effective action.

? A Michigan man who says he learned of his wife's infidelity by reading her e-mail faces felony charges of computer misuse. Prosecutors, relying on a Michigan statute typically used to prosecute crimes such as identity theft or stealing trade secrets, have charged Leon Walker, 33, with a felony after he logged onto a laptop in the home he shared with his wife, Clara Walker. If convicted in the trial that begins Feb. 7, he could be sentenced to five years in prison. Using her password, he accessed his wife's Gmail account and learned she was having an affair.

The chancellor of UC Berkeley is drawing criticism for sending a campuswide e-mail that linked a Tucson shooting rampage with Arizona's crackdown on illegal immigrants and the failure of the DREAM Act. In the e-mail, sent Monday, Chancellor Robert J. Birgeneau condemned a "climate in which demonization of others goes unchallenged and hateful speech is tolerated. " He continued, postulating on factors that may have motivated Jared Lee Loughner, the alleged gunman in Saturday's shootings, in which six people died, including a 9-year-old girl, and 13 were injured, including Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.

Tribune Co. Chief Innovation Officer Lee Abrams, who earlier this week sent a companywide e-mail that contained content deemed inappropriate for the workplace, resigned Friday. The e-mail, the latest in a series of free-form jottings Abrams sent weekly to company employees in an effort to inspire a rethinking of print and broadcast conventions, included links to satirical video parodies of newscasts. One, which included profanity and nudity, he labeled "Sluts. " Tribune Chief Executive Randy Michaels, whose leadership of the company had been characterized as fostering a sexist "frat house" atmosphere by the New York Times just one week earlier, had placed Abrams on indefinite unpaid suspension on Wednesday, pending review.

Environmental officials reassured residents Saturday that radiation in Southern California's air remained below levels of concern as workers in Japan struggled to contain releases from a stricken nuclear power plant. Los Angeles County Fire Department officials also sought to debunk an e-mail hoax that predicted acid rain would result from Japan's nuclear accident. The fraudulent e-mail was issued in the fire agency's name and claimed that radioactive particles released in Japan could mix with rain and "cause burns, alopecia or even cancer.

As Bell's newly elected council members considered slashing city services and laying off workers, the man accused of stealing millions of dollars from the working-class community ? leaving it in financial disarray ? was ordered to stand trial. Former City Administrator Robert Rizzo showed little emotion Thursday as he was reprimanded by Judge Henry J. Hall for leading officials in one of L.A. County's poorest cities in a "massive ongoing conspiracy to enrich themselves. " Hall ordered Rizzo, his onetime assistant Angela Spaccia, recently recalled Mayor Oscar Hernandez and former Councilman Luis Artiga to appear in Los Angeles County Superior Court on March 24 to face charges of misappropriation of public funds, making unauthorized loans, conflict of interest and falsification of public records.

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Vista), who runs the House committee charged with weeding out government abuses, fired his press spokesman Tuesday after it was revealed that the aide had been sharing private correspondence from reporters with a New York Times writer. The actions marked the end of a colorful pairing between the press-savvy Issa, chairman of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, and his outspoken spokesman, Kurt Bardella, who was known in some Washington circles as "Mini-Me.

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Vista), who runs the House committee charged with weeding out government abuses, fired his press spokesman Tuesday after it was revealed that the aide had been sharing private correspondence from reporters with a New York Times writer. The swift-moving drama marked the end of a colorful pairing between the press-savvy Issa, chairman of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, and his outspoken front man, Kurt Bardella, who was known in some Washington circles as "Mini-me.

A preacher's son and perpetual optimist, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker pledged a "return to frugality in government" during his inauguration speech in Madison. The boyishly handsome Republican spoke from the flag-draped rotunda in the state Capitol, where a band sounded "On, Wisconsin" and well-wishers burst into applause. Six weeks later, boisterous protesters have seized the same real estate, comparing the energetic, 43-year-old governor to Adolf Hitler and Darth Vader. There's even talk of a recall election.

Mel Gibson's entertainment attorney was summoned to a meeting 11 months ago in Century City and presented with two troubling pieces of information: The movie star's estranged girlfriend had secretly recorded him in a series of vulgar, racist rants, and she wanted $20 million. Attorneys for the woman, Oksana Grigorieva, a Russian musician and the mother of Gibson's daughter, played excerpts of the recordings. Notes made by the actor's attorney suggested her lawyers wanted to resolve the couple's differences confidentially and keep the tapes private: "Never should become public.

Hackers broke into the Yahoo e-mail account that Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin used for official business as governor, revealing as evidence a few inconsequential personal messages she has received since John McCain selected her as his running mate. "This is a shocking invasion of the governor's privacy and a violation of law. The matter has been turned over to the appropriate authorities and we hope that anyone in possession of these e-mails will destroy them," the McCain campaign said in a statement.

Hoping to win a lucrative agreement with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, three data security contractors for federal defense and intelligence agencies developed a proposal to monitor and manipulate the chamber's left-leaning critics, according to recently released e-mail correspondence. Employees of the firms compiled short dossiers on a few activists that included photographs, references to their families and charts of their relationships with other liberal and labor leaders. A review of the correspondence, dating from late October through last week, suggested that the surveillance and intelligence gathering had begun only on a superficial basis in anticipation of a coming meeting with chamber officials.

As Bell prepared to hire a police chief in 2009, the top candidate for the post exchanged e-mails with the city's No. 2 official: "I am looking forward to seeing you and taking all of Bell's money?!" Randy Adams wrote shortly before starting the job. "Okay ? just a share of it!!" "LOL ? well you can take your share of the pie ? just like us!!!" responded Angela Spaccia, the city's assistant administrator. "We will all get fat together ? Bob has an expression he likes to use on occasion," she continued, referring to her boss and chief administrative officer, Robert Rizzo.