Mails

Joe Paterno's family called Monday for the public release of e-mails written by top Pennsylvania State University administrators in response to a 2001 allegation of child sex abuse lodged against Jerry Sandusky. The documents - portions of which have been leaked to several media outlets over the past month - allegedly show that the late head football coach and a handful of others debated and ultimately decided against notifying outside authorities after a graduate assistant walked in on Sandusky and a 10-year-old in a sexual position that year.

A California man admitted in federal court yesterday to sending out millions of illegal spam e-mails. Don Abadie, 39, of Dana Point, pleaded guilty to one count of fraud in connection with electronic mail. U.S. District Judge Stewart Dalzell set sentencing for Feb. 24. Abadie, who is cooperating with the feds, could get less than the 12 to 18 months behind bars he would face under advisory sentencing guidelines. He was charged with violating a 2003 law that made e-mail fraud a crime.

The Secret Service is investigating a hacker's apparent theft of a trove of personal e-mails and photos belonging to the Bush family after they were posted late Thursday by the Smoking Gun website. A report by the Smoking Gun said the e-mails covered the period from 2009 to 2012, and that a total of six accounts appeared to have been compromised. Among those hacked were Dorothy Bush Koch, daughter of President George H.W. Bush and sister of President George W. Bush; as well as sportscaster Jim Nantz, a Bush family friend.

A computer-savvy hatemonger used a practically untraceable hot mail account to send threatening e-mails to black, Latino and Asian students at Penn State University, investigators said. Who that person is, or where they were sending them from, still is a mystery, officials said. The e-mails appeared to originate at a unsecured computer lab at Temple University in Philadelphia, "meaning that anyone could use it," said Terrell Jones, Penn State's vice provost for education equity.

Prosecutors lost all reasonable expectation of maintaining the secrecy of their ongoing investigation of former Pennsylvania State University president Graham B. Spanier when portions of his e-mails were leaked to the news media this week, his lawyers said in court filings. Their arguments came as part of Spanier's bid to gain access to correspondence written during his tenure. Penn State has refused to provide him with copies of those e-mails, citing a request from the Attorney General's Office.

A private e-mail chat among Evesham officials during the review of a controversial helipad project violated the state's public meetings law, the Burlington County prosecutor said in a written opinion released Friday. After a nearly six-week investigation, Prosecutor Robert D. Bernardi found that a series of smartphone e-mail exchanges March 22 and 23 involved township business and should have taken place at a public meeting. "In short, the e-mails represent an active dialogue between members of council that sometimes occurs in almost real time.

JUNEAU, Alaska - Sarah Palin's final months in office saw her fighting for a signature accomplishment of her tenure - a natural gas pipeline project - and frustrated over ethics complaints that had been filed against her, according to e-mails released Thursday by Alaska officials. In a June 4, 2009, e-mail to aide Katryn Morgan, Palin told her to "push hard to get gasline tweet language today. We MUST give Alaskans their deserved updates on the project. " Just a week later, TransCanada Corp.

The Burlington County Prosecutor's Office is poring over a pile of lively e-mails that Evesham Township officials sent to one another in the spring after residents began questioning a helipad project proposed by a politically connected insurance firm. Robert Bernardi, the county's top law enforcement official, is trying to determine whether the private chat among the mayor, Township Council members, town manager, clerk, and solicitor via smartphones and laptops was a discussion that should have been aired at a public meeting.

Former Union manager Peter Nowak's lawsuit against the team has taken another twist. E-mails between attorneys for Nowak and the team, submitted as evidence in the case, claim that Nowak "may have improperly profited from player transactions" as the team's coach. Nowak, who was fired June 13, is suing the team in federal court for unfair termination and compensation he claims he is owed. The Union have asserted that the dispute should be resolved by an arbitrator, not a judge. The team's attorneys filed a motion last month to have the lawsuit dismissed on those grounds.