Informers

Jehovah's Witnesses are being told for the first time that they should violate confidentiality requirements in medical, legal and other professions when one of their own members is discovered to have committed a serious sin. "The objective would not be to spy on another's freedom but to help erring ones and to keep the Christian congregation clean," says the Sept. 1 issue of the Watchtower magazine, an authoritative publication of the Witnesses' Brooklyn-based Watchtower Society. The 3.

SACRAMENTO — A data breach that jeopardized the personal information of more than 700,000 people has spurred California officials to change the way they transport sensitive material. Packages of payroll data, including Social Security numbers, will be delivered by courier rather than dropped in the mail. And officials are examining ways to transmit encrypted data rather than store it on microfiche. "We're looking to improve the process," said Oscar Ramirez, a spokesman for the California Department of Social Services.

Fluor Corp. has agreed to pay the federal government $12.5 million to resolve a whistle-blower suit that the Aliso Viejo-based construction and engineering company padded bills for government work in the mid-1990s. The settlement ends a five-year legal battle initiated by Cosby Coleman, a former senior finance manager, who alleged that Fluor improperly billed the federal government for company overhead expenses that were not directly related to government contracts.

WASHINGTON - In the months after the U.S. militarymission 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 conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch suggest that officials went out of their way to assist the filmmakers, while trying to keep their cooperation from becoming public.

David Brock, the formerly conservative writer turned scourge of the conservative movement, said Friday that a protege of Sen. Strom Thurmond (R-S.C.) who has been nominated as a U.S. district judge gave him confidential FBI files nearly 10 years ago for his book on the Clarence Thomas .versus Anita Faye Hill controversy. Brock filed a sworn statement with the Senate Judiciary Committee late Friday. On Monday, the panel is scheduled to hold a confirmation hearing for Judge Terry L.

A former Mexican Mafia member who admitted carrying out a number of crimes while working as an undercover FBI informant was sentenced Monday in Los Angeles federal court to 30 years in prison. John Turscak, 30, expressed bitter disappointment with his sentence. He told U.S. District Judge A. Howard Matz, "I didn't commit those crimes for kicks. I did them because I had to if I wanted to stay alive. I told that to the [FBI] agents and they just said, 'Do what you have to do.'

A young man who once toted a book bag and attended classes at Cal State Los Angeles testified in federal court Tuesday that he authorized the executions of as many as 40 people as a rising star in the Mexican Mafia. Max Torvisco, 24, took the stand as the government's first witness in the trial of 11 suspected Mexican Mafia members and associates, describing the organization as the "gang of all gangs."

Three Colombians were convicted of first-degree murder Wednesday for the machine-gun slaying of informant Adler (Barry) Seal, whose undercover work had led to an indictment against the alleged leader of a cocaine cartel. Defendants Luis Carlos Quintero-Cruz, 34; Miguel Velez, 37, and Bernardo Vasquez, 33, showed little emotion when the verdict was read. State District Judge Charlie Quienalty ordered the punishment phase of the trial to begin immediately.

Twenty years ago today, a groundskeeper making his rounds discovered the horror: the body of 8-year-old Susan Nason dumped in a litter-strewn ravine. Now, long after detectives had shelved the investigation as unsolvable, George T. Franklin Sr., 50, a father of five, is in jail. San Mateo County sheriff's detectives arrested him on Wednesday after one of his daughters came forward and named him as the killer of Susan, her childhood playmate.

As federal authorities press their case against a Tustin man accused of lying about ties to Al-Qaeda, they disclosed this week that some evidence came from an informant who infiltrated Orange County mosques and allegedly recorded the defendant discussing jihad, weapons and plans to blow up abandoned buildings.

NEW YORK Shortly after Goldman Sachs Group Inc.'s board learned of famed investor Warren Buffett's $5-billion lifeline at the height of the financial crisis, then-director Rajat Gupta phoned hedge-fund manager Raj Rajaratnam. Rajaratnam, a federal prosecutor said Monday, then used that information when he snapped up Goldman stock before the deal was announced in September 2008. Prosecutors said Gupta helped Rajaratnam make $1 million in just six minutes with the help of illegal inside information.

THE BEST WAY TO CHELAN, WASH. From LAX, Alaska, Virgin America and United offer nonstop service to Seattle; Southwest and United offer direct service (stop, no change of plane); and Southwest, Alaska, United, Virgin America and Delta offer connecting service (change of plane). Chelan, at the southeast end of Lake Chelan, is about 175 miles east of Seattle, about 155 miles west of Spokane. WHERE TO STAY Campbell's Resort, 104 W. Woodin Ave., Chelan; (800)

SAN DIEGO - After six seasons in the minor leagues, Jim Eppard finally got the call to the Angels. In his first major league at-bat, on Sept. 8, 1987, he singled - off current Angels broadcaster Mark Gubicza. In his second at-bat, two days later, he singled again. Two hits, two at-bats, each as a pinch-hitter. This Eppard kid might have a pretty good future. Or, as it turned out, he might not. Eppard - who replaced Mickey Hatcher, the Angels' hitting instructor who was let go Tuesday - finished his brief major league career with 139 at-bats.

In the face of privacy concerns, the Los Angeles Police Department has agreed to change the way it collects information on suspicious activity possibly related to terrorism. The department, after coming under fire from civil liberties and community groups, will no longer hold on to so-called suspicious activity reports that the LAPD's counter-terrorism unit determines are about harmless incidents. Until now, the department stored the innocuous reports in a database for a year.

Joining a growing number of municipalities, the Los Angeles City Council on Tuesday adopted a "responsible banking" ordinance that will require banks doing business with the city to disclose detailed data on loans and foreclosure activity by community. Much of the information is already reported under federal law but can be hard to find in voluminous federal banking reports, said Miguel Santana, city administrative officer. The new law would bring the information together on a city website that the public could search by census tract, he said.

SACRAMENTO - Sensitive personal information for more than 700,000 people who provide or receive home care for the elderly and disabled may have been compromised when payroll data went missing in the mail, state officials revealed Friday night. The breach occurred whenHewlett-Packard, which handles the payroll data for workers in California's In-Home Supportive Services program, was shipping information including Social Security numbers to an office in Riverside last month. The package arrived damaged and incomplete.

Pancho Real was at Our Lady Queen of Angels Church with his wife and daughter one Sunday in October 2006 when his cellphone rang. He was summoned to a park near his home on Drew Street, a drug and gang haven in Northeast Los Angeles, to kill a man he didn't know. The Mexican Mafia wanted a paroled Avenues gang member named Frank "Kiko" Cordova dead. Real left church with his family and called another gang member, Carlos Renteria. At the park that afternoon, they figured out who Cordova was but saw he was among children.

In the first case of its kind to grow out of the jailhouse informant scandal, the Los Angeles County district attorney's office agreed Thursday to free a man convicted of murder in 1988 on the testimony of an informant. Citing the "best interest of the public" and the "best interest of justice," the district attorney's office asked in court papers that the case against Arthur Grajeda be dismissed because information had come to light that the informant was not credible.

WASHINGTON — The CIA takedown of an Al Qaeda plot to blow up a U.S.-bound airliner involved an international sting operation with a double agent tricking terrorists into handing over a prized possession: a new bomb purportedly designed to slip through airport security. U.S. officials Tuesday described an operation in which Saudi Arabia's intelligence agency, working closely with the CIA, used an informant to pose as a would-be suicide bomber. His job was to persuade Al Qaeda bomb makers in Yemen to give him the bomb.

If you go THE BEST WAY TO HONG KONG From LAX, Cathay Pacific offers nonstop service to Hong Kong, and Air China, United, China Airlines, Asiana, All Nippon, Korean, Delta and China Eastern offer connecting service (change of plane). Restricted round-trip fares range from $890 to $1,252, including taxes, fees and fuel surcharges. TELEPHONES To call the numbers below from the U.S., dial 011 (the international dialing code), 852 (the code for Hong Kong)