Now that a week has passed and much of the dust has settled regarding the hacking of Gov. Sarah Palin's e-mail account, the investigation has become a local story for Tennesseans and the UT community.

The son of Tennessee State Representative Mike Kernell of Memphis is now the center of the FBI and Secret Service investigation of the case.

David Kernell, a 20-year-old economics student at the University of Tennessee, was linked to the hacking after the FBI, Secret Service and Department of Justice launched an investigation to uncover who hacked the e-mail account.

The Department of Justice confirmed Tuesday morning that its investigation of reports that a computer hacker gained access to Palin’s personal e-mail account involved activity in Knoxville.

The Memphis Commercial Appeal and Knoxville News Sentinel are also reporting that FBI agents visited David Kernell’s apartment near the University of Tennessee campus over the weekend. Kernell is a resident at the Commons of Knoxville in Fort Sanders.

The Kernell family wants to do the right thing, and they want what is best for their son. We are confident that the truth will emerge as we go through the process. Wade V. Davies, Kernell family attorney

“The Kernell family wants to do the right thing, and they want what is best for their son," said Kernell family attorney Wade V. Davies. "We are confident that the truth will emerge as we go through the process. David is a decent and intelligent young man, and I look forward to assisting him during this difficult period.”

There are unconfirmed reports that Kernell and his roommates have been served with subpoenas to appear before a federal grand jury in Chattanooga.

HOW IT HAPPENED

The hacker described guessing correctly that Palin had met her husband in high school, and already knew Palin's date of birth and home postcode. Using the basic information, the hacker tricked Yahoo into assigning a new password, reportedly "popcorn," for Palin's account.

The hacker then gained access her e-mail account and sent screenshots of messages, family pictures and personal contact information to Gawker.com, who in turn published the content on their Web site.

On Sept. 16 when Gawker.com posted the first set of e-mails and pictures, the news broke like a wildfire with many national commentators calling for the prosecution of the site's leaders.

Though their decision to post private information may be seen as questionable from a moral perspective, it is unlikely they will be held liable or prosecuted for their actions.

On Wednesday, someone identified only as "rubico" posted a message to 4chan.org's /b/ page claiming responsibility for accessing Palin's e-mail by using Yahoo's password reset feature.

The post has long since been deleted, but a copy was quickly sent to conservative anchor Michelle Malkin. Malkin then included the information in a post on her personal blog.

The username "rubico" was quickly traced back to a Yahoo account, rubico10@yahoo.com, which in turn was linked to Kernell.

DEMOCRATIC CONSPIRACY?

While David is the primary focus of the initial legal investigation, the question of a possible Democratic conspiracy is one that will also be taken into consideration in the coming days.

“Did I take part in a conspiracy? No. I was informed of this situation Thursday morning for the first time. I was in (a legislative) committee and got a call from a blogger friend who told me it had broken that morning,” Rep. Kernell said to the Knoxville News Sentinel.

Check TNJN's Politics section regularly for reaction from UT students, interviews and more information as it becomes available.