E Mails

Security researchers Nick DePetrillo and Don Bailey have discovered a seven-digit numerical code that can unlock all kinds of secrets about you. It's your phone number. Using relatively simple techniques, this duo can use your cellphone number to figure out your name, where you live and work, where you travel and when you sleep. They could even listen to your voice messages and personal phone calls — if they wanted to. "It's really interesting to watch a phone number turn into a person's life," DePetrillo said.

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.

U.S. securities regulators originally treated the New York Federal Reserve's bid to keep secret many of the details of the American International Group bailout like a request to protect matters of national security, according to e-mails obtained by Reuters. The request to keep the details secret were made by the New York Federal Reserve -- a regulator that helped orchestrate the bailout -- and by the giant insurer itself, according to the e-mails. The e-mails from early last year reveal that officials at the New York Fed were comfortable with AIG submitting a crucial bailout-related document to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission only after getting assurances from the regulatory agency that "special security procedures" would be used to handle the document.

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.

The e-mail that popped into my inbox started with an insult and included an attachment full of "facts." After calling me a "crybaby" for writing a sympathetic story about Mexican immigrants, the sender insisted I read a series of statistics on the effects of illegal immigration on Los Angeles and California. Hospitals, law enforcement and other public services, he said, are being overwhelmed. At first, because of the sender's tone, I ignored the attachment. Then it arrived again, this time forwarded by a friendly reader.

Rep. Christopher Lee, a second-term Republican lawmaker representing western New York, abruptly resigned Wednesday after flirtatious e-mails, including a photo of him shirtless, were posted online by a gossip website. In a brief statement, Lee referred only obliquely to "this distraction," apologizing "deeply and sincerely" for harm he caused his family, staff and constituents. Just hours earlier, the Gawker website posted e-mails Lee exchanged with an unnamed, single 34-year-old woman in response to her personal ad on Craigslist.

They arrive nearly every day, these sad, strange e-mails from Iraq. They are unsentimental and hard, gathered by stringers scattered across a country at war. They're often tough to follow, terse poems with broken rhythms and words landing in wrong places. But there's an unadorned power that speaks to things beyond style and grammar. "An IP source said that some gunmen assassinated yesterday evening staff brigadier general in the Iraqi army and his wife in Tobchi (west Baghdad)

The young Goldman, Sachs & Co. trader at the center of the government's civil fraud case against the firm was aware of problems with the complex financial products he was working on, e-mails released by the company indicate. In one of the messages, Fabrice Tourre, the only individual defendant in the case, called the controversial transaction that is the subject of the suit "a product of pure intellectual masturbation" and an "absolutely conceptual" invention without purpose.

The mayor of Anaheim was irate. Planners at the California High-Speed Rail Authority were suggesting that local officials consider moving a proposed multimillion-dollar transportation mega hub to the other side of a freeway so it would be easier to connect tracks for a bullet train. "This borders on complete incompetence," Mayor Curt Pringle fumed in a message to the state agency's top executive. "I am very angry.... I am NOT KIDDING!" On one level, the outburst wasn't surprising.

Citing e-mails that critics say cast doubt on global warming, congressional Republicans called on the Obama administration Wednesday to suspend efforts to combat climate change until the controversy is resolved. In a letter to the Environmental Protection Agency, the lawmakers requested that a pending move to regulate greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act be halted, along with plans to limit emissions from vehicles, power plants and other sources, "until the agency can demonstrate the science underlying these regulatory decisions has not been compromised."

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.

Lance Armstrong and Brett Favre are tied for worst sports comeback. Early last month, Favre retired for good (we think) from football. On Wednesday, Armstrong retired for good (we think) from cycling. If the record-setting NFL quarterback and the record-setting Tour de France winner hadn't changed their minds, both probably would be left alone to live life as sports heroes. Instead, Favre got caught in an unseemly incident involving a female employee of the New York Jets and Armstrong is a focus of a wide-ranging grand jury investigation into doping and cycling.

A California Coastal Commission member already under investigation for a potential conflict of interest on a controversial project was put in an awkward position this week with the release of e-mails detailing a prominent lobbyist's attempts to secure his vote. E-mails between a hired lobbyist, developers and officials at the Port of San Diego reveal efforts to convince Commissioner Patrick Kruer to vote in favor of the multimillion-dollar project to revamp the downtown San Diego waterfront, a proposal ultimately defeated by the divided panel.

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.

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.