You've Got Mail...and an STD?

Los Angeles officials have unveiled an online service that allows people who have a sexually transmitted disease to send e-mails to sexual partners to urge them to be screened for infection. Internet Notification Service for Partners or Tricks is based on a similar program launched in San Francisco in 2004; the site is particularly useful for people who meet sex partners online and may have only e-mail addresses or screen names to contact them. Officials in Seattle, Philadelphia, and Indiana plan to launch similar sites this year.