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ByTamiAbdollah The Associated Press LOS ANGELES Authorities throughout Southern Cali- fornia Thursday announced the arrests of more than 275 child predators that in- cluded a teaching assistant for special needs kids, a re- tired sheriff's deputy, a U.S. Army soldier and a Los An- geles Fire Department ex- plorer. The monthlong "Oper- ation Broken Heart" took place in May and involved a taskforce of dozens of lo- cal, state and federal au- thorities who worked in concert, sweeping sex of- fenders, parolees and pro- bationers for allegedly vio- lating their terms, targeting child sex traffickers, pimps, child porn traders and sex tourists traveling abroad. In a technique reminis- cent of the infamous show "To Catch a Predator," the Los Angeles Regional In- ternet Crimes Against Chil- dren task force had its in- vestigators pretend to be 12 to 14-year-old children on- line and arrested many in- dividuals when they showed up to engage in sex acts with children. A number of the 275 peo- ple arrested were seem- ingly mainstream individ- uals, many in positions of trust and with easy access to children: • A teacher's assistant was arrested by the Los Angeles Police department after al- legedly showed up to a meet- ing believing he was going to have sex with two children. • A retired Los Angeles County Sheriff's deputy was arrested by ICE Homeland Security Investigations for allegedly distributing child pornography through sev- eral websites. The case was initially brought to their at- tention by the U.S. Depart- ment of State's Bureau of Diplomatic Security after informed of an investiga- tion by the Serbian Minis- try of Interior. • Multiple parolees who were in and around parks and children were arrested by California parole officers for violating terms of their release. • A master's student in health care management was arrested by Alhambra police for allegedly arrang- ing to meet with a 14-year- old child for sex. • A 64-year-old computer programmer was arrested by Los Angeles County sher- iff's deputies after alleg- edly traveling to a park to try to meet with a 15-year- old child for sex. A search warrant issued for his home and business indicated he'd exchanged emails with mul- tiple other children and had posted 100 advertisements looking for sex with young girls. • A U.S. Army soldier on leave responded to two separate undercover inves- tigators posing as young girls and was arrested af- ter showing up to engage in sex acts. • A salesman who was also a Los Angeles Fire De- partment explorer, a pre- lude to a possible career with the department, was arrested after allegedly us- ing an online media sharing program to download child porn videos. • A former substitute teacher allegedly posted a personal ad seeking sex with afatherandason.Hewasar- rested after allegedly travel- ing to meet with what he be- lieved was an 8-year-old boy. The number of arrests and potential allegations are expected to grow as fo- rensic investigators con- tinue their analysis of seized evidence. CRIME Authoritiesarrest275suspectedchildabusers Sting involved 'To Catch a Predator' technique RICHPEDRONCELLI—THEASSOCIATEDPRESS Luis Escamilla wears gloves as he cuts prosciutto at the Hock Farm restaurant in Sacramento, Calif. California's chefs and bartenders could resume legally handling food with their bare hands under a bill headed to the governor's desk that would repeal an unpopular regulation. By Fenit Nirappil The Associated Press SACRAMENTO California's chefs and bartenders can resume legally handling food with their bare hands under a bill headed to the governor's desk that would repeal an unpopular regu- lation. The bill, AB2130, passed its final legislative hurdle Thursday with a 32-0 vote in the state Senate. A law signed by Gov. Jerry Brown last year re- quires restaurant employ- ees to use gloves or uten- sils to handle food going straight to diners' plates, from the rice in a sushi roll to the mint in a mojito. The prohibition, in place in 41 other states, has long been recommended by regulators to curb the spread of food- borne illness. The original legislation attracted no opposition from lobbying groups or chain restaurants because the no-hands approach is a national norm. But inde- pendent and high-end chefs and bartenders who weren't familiar with the regulation in other states say they were caught off-guard by the new rule coming to California. They say the ban disrupts well-established hand- washing routines, gener- ates unnecessary waste of disposable gloves and re- stricts them in their craft. Sen. Kevin De Leon, D- Los Angeles, told lawmak- ers on Thursday that the ban would not have been approved had their con- cerns been raised. Assemblyman Richard Pan, D-Sacramento, intro- duced AB2130 to repeal the law he originally authored as part of an update to the state food code. Pan, who is chairman of the health committee and a pediatri- cian, said it became appar- ent that local health inspec- tors were more stringent in granting exceptions than lawmakers intended. Inspectors are not sup- posed to start slapping eat- eries with fines for bare- hand contact until July 1, which is when the bill would take effect. The gov- ernor's office did not imme- diately return a request for comment about the bill. Pan said he's not aban- doning the regulation all to- gether. He wants to revisit the prohibition, but make it more flexible to meet the concerns of restaurateurs. "It's not about whether you wear gloves or not," Pan said in an interview with The Associated Press. "It's about how clean the sur- faces (touching food) are. We need to have the con- versation go back to, 'This is about food safety.' " The U.S. Centers for Dis- ease Control and Preven- tion found that workers touching food provided the most common trans- mission pathway for food- originated norovirus out- breaks between 2001 and 2008, the most recent com- prehensive review of data available. Chefs can touch food with their bare hands SACRAMENTO By Scott Smith The Associated Press FRESNO A California wind farm will become the first in the nation to avoid pros- ecution if eagles are injured or die when they run into the giant turning blades, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said Thursday. The Shiloh IV Wind Proj- ect LLC, 60 miles east of San Francisco, will receive a special permit allowing up to five golden eagles to be accidentally killed over five years. Previously, such a violation could po- tentially draw criminal charges and discourage private investment in wind farms known for catching birds in their rotors. The permit will require the facility to take steps to prevent eagle injuries and deaths from electrocution by retrofitting 133 power poles. The permits are not required of wind farms, and federal prosecutors have only once filed crimi- nal charges against a wind farm, in Wyoming. Agency Director Daniel Ashe said the permit en- courages development of renewable energy while requiring the wind com- pany to take steps to pro- tect eagles from turbines and power lines. The move will help California reach its goal of producing one- third of its energy from re- newable sources by 2020, he said. "We can't solve the prob- lem of eagle mortality at windfarmsovernight,"Ashe said in a statement. "But this commonsense solution mer- its the support of all who ad- vocateforthelong-termcon- servation of eagles." Under President Barack Obama, wind energy has exploded as a pollution- free energy source that can help reduce the greenhouse gases blamed for global warming. Michael Hutchins of the American Bird Conser- vancy said he believes the five-year permit for the Cal- ifornia wind farm is rea- sonable, but he said the rapid expansion of wind energy has gotten ahead of the science and regula- tion to protect all types of birds and raptors. Too of- ten, he said, wind farms are built in migratory patterns, near wetlands or over ro- dent populations. Birds on the hunt can be- come distracted by what's on the ground and fly into the rotors, Hutchins said. "Is it really green en- ergy if it's going to kill hun- dreds of thousands of birds or bats each year?" he said. "The whole system needs a much harder look." The government has of- fered five-year permits since 2009 to wind compa- nies, and last year it added a 30-year permit, drawing a lawsuit this month from the Conservancy, which ar- gues that the government failed to evaluate the con- sequences and ensure it would not damage eagle populations. An Associated Press in- vestigation in 2013 found that the Obama adminis- tration has charged oil com- panies for drowning birds in their waste pits, and power companies for elec- trocuting birds on power lines, but it has taken little if any action against wind- energy companies, shield- ing them from liability. Shiloh IV Wind Project, a subsidiary of EDF Renew- able Energy, is a 102-mega- watt wind farm operating since 2012 and made up of 50 turbines in Solano County. Representatives of EDF Renewable did not immediately respond to re- quests for comment. Shiloh is the first to ob- tain a permit, despite them being available for five years. Marie Strassburger, a migratory bird specialist for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, said that obtain- ing one requires a lengthy process, and because this is the first of its kind, offi- cials have carefully crafted conservation plans with the wind company. "It's not a quick, ex- peditious process by any means," Strassburger said. Federal wildlife offi- cials in California, Nevada and Southern Oregon are working on two more ap- plications for five-year ea- gle permits and one for 30 years, said Scott Flaherty of the U.S. Fish and Wild- life Service in Sacramento. Eagles are not listed as en- dangered, but they are pro- tected under a federal act. ENVIRONMENT Wind farm permitted to kill eagles THE ASSOCIATED PRESS The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said Thursday a California wind farm will become the first in the U.S. to avoid prosecution if eagles are injured or die when they run into the giant turning blades. The Associated Press MENLO PARK The lin- ear accelerator at Stan- ford University's SLAC Na- tional Accelerator Labora- tory in California was shut down Thursday and two re- search labs idled after a fire damaged electrical equip- ment that helps power the accelerator, a lab spokes- man said. SLAC spokesman An- drew Gordon said he didn't know what, if any, impact the shutdown would have on research. SLAC con- ducts research in high-en- ergy physics and subatomic particles. "Efforts to restart the operation are underway, but there is no estimate on when it will be back in operation," he said. "We're still assessing the situa- tion." Firefighters were called to the lab shortly before 10 p.m. Wednesday. Callers re- ported heavy black smoke coming from the 2-mile- long accelerator structure, which runs beneath Inter- state 280 about 30 miles south of San Francisco. The fire was confined to a school-locker-size elec- trical cabinet in a build- ing above the accelerator, Gordon said. The cause was under investigation. Firefighters brought the fire under control about 45 minutes after it was reported. Fire crews used mobile carbon diox- ide extinguishing carts stored on-site to suppress the fire, Menlo Park Fire Chief Harold Schapelhou- man said. There was some minor smoke damage around the cabinet, but the accelera- tor itself was not damaged, Gordon said. Both Gordon and Schapelhouman said there was no threat to the pub- lic. SLAC, which stands for Stanford Linear Acceler- ator Center, was estab- lished in 1962 with the goal of accelerating elec- trons to nearly the speed of light for experiments in creating, identifying and studying subatomic par- ticles, according to the center's website. It's one of 10 Department of En- ergy Office of Science lab- oratories. One of the two labs that were idled studies tech- nologies that will power the next generation of par- ticle accelerators. The other uses an X-ray laser to capture atomic-scale snapshots that can show never-be- fore-seen structures and properties in matter, ac- cording to SLAC's web- site. STANFORD Fire shuts down linear accelerator Whenitcomestofinding the perfect home, make sure you have the right realtor on your side. MeetYour Dream Team Stromer Realty (530) 527-3100 590 Antelope Blvd. Bldg. 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