Informers

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.

The former head of the California Highway Patrol and other top agency officials retaliated against a chief who had sought the top job and reported unfair practices in the agency, a state panel has concluded. The California State Personnel Board found that former CHP Commissioner Dwight "Spike" Helmick and four other command officers improperly acted against former CHP Chief Hubert Acevedo.

FAA safety inspector Bobby Boutris was conducting night surveillance of maintenance at Midway Airport in Chicago in March 2007 when he observed a Southwest Airlines plane being repaired for a crack on the fuselage. To his disbelief, Boutris discovered that the plane was overdue for inspections and still flying passengers, despite the danger that a sudden failure of the skin panels could result in rapid decompression of the airplane, jeopardizing all on board.

A Los Angeles Unified School District police officer has filed a claim with the district contending he was retaliated against for reporting allegations that a substitute teacher sexually abused a student. Luis E. Barraza said his actions embarrassed two South East High School administrators who had failed to report the misconduct although required by law to inform authorities.

One is a bankrupt convicted felon who spewed venomous hatred about the United States, hooked up an alleged terrorist cell with semiautomatic weapons and drove the surveillance car as they cased military bases. The other boasted of killing someone back home in Albania and vowed to kill others or blow himself up in a crowd of people now that he was in the United States. But Mahmoud Omar and Besnik Bakalli aren't members of the so-called "Ft.

A former Amgen Inc. patent lawyer won a victory Tuesday in his effort to get restitution for his firing last year for what he called whistle-blower activities targeting the pharmaceutical giant. A Ventura County Superior Court judge ruled that Darrell G. Dotson of Newbury Park can pursue his case in court -- often a more lucrative path -- rather than through the company's arbitration process.

The new archbishop of Warsaw admitted Friday that he had worked with communist-era secret police and appeared to open the door for the pope to remove him from his post. In a statement issued Friday, Archbishop Stanislaw Wielgus, appointed by Pope Benedict XVI on Dec. 6, appeared to back down from earlier denials about his activities. Critics have called on him to resign. "By the fact of this entanglement I have damaged the church.... I will respect any decision the pope makes," Wielgus said.

A former employee has sued Kaiser Permanente, claiming that the HMO "blackballed" her for participating in a criminal investigation into the alleged dumping of a homeless woman on skid row. Irene Hernandez, 50, of Downey said Kaiser's hospital in Bellflower quit employing her as a registry nursing assistant after she cooperated with the Los Angeles city attorney's office investigation into alleged patient-dumping by the hospital giant.

Hoping to encourage more whistle-blowing by city employees and residents, Los Angeles City Controller Laura Chick has launched a 24-hour, confidential fraud hotline. Chick promised that her Waste and Fraud Unit would investigate all "legitimate and valid" complaints of unethical or illegal activity reported over the hotline's toll-free telephone number: (866) 428-1514. "Confidentiality absolutely is protected," she said Thursday during a City Hall news conference.

The Los Angeles City Council voted 11 to 0 Wednesday to approve a $650,000 lawsuit settlement for a police officer who alleged that ex-Police Chief -- now Councilman -- Bernard C. Parks denied him a promotion as a form of retaliation. Parks recused himself from the discussion and vote. The tentative settlement, which now goes to Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, was with Jim Tatreau, one of three Los Angeles Police Department officers who brought the case.