Knoxville

The complexity of a computer crime trumped the need for a speedy trial Friday in the case of the son of a Democratic Tennessee state lawmaker charged with breaking into the e-mail account of former Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Clifford Shirley agreed to a joint request from prosecutors and defense attorneys for more time to prepare for the trial of University of Tennessee student David Kernell, 20, of Knoxville.

David Kernell, a 20-year-old University of Tennessee student, was indicted Tuesday by a Knoxville, Tenn., federal grand jury on one count of "intentionally and without authorization access[ing] a protected computer by means of interstate communication." Kernell is accused of breaking into the personal Yahoo e-mail account of Alaska governor and Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin.

What's in your mailbox? That's a question that may be much easier for a hacker to answer than most people realize, as Alaska governor and Republican vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin discovered last week.

Six days ago, screen shots of e-mails from Palin's Yahoo account (gov.palin@yahoo.com) were briefly posted to 4chan, a generally anonymous imageboard site. The account of the hack and the accompanying images were quickly pulled from the Web site, but not before the news of the exploit hit the mainstream media.

FBI Raid at University of Tennessee

In the wake of hacking the Yahoo! e-mail account of Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin, Web sleuths and the Feds may have nabbed the perpetrator. Meanwhile, Associated Press reporters were apparently in e-mail conversation with the suspect even as authorities were attempting to track him down.

According to reports in Knoxville's Tennessean, Democrat State Representative Mike Kernell admitted that his son, David Kernell is being questioned by authorities in connection with the crime. The Secret Service and the FBI launched an official investigation on September 17.