Minors

The owner and managers of the nation's largest kosher meatpacking plant were charged with more than 9,000 misdemeanors alleging they hired minors and had children younger than 16 handle dangerous equipment such as circular saws and meat grinders. Two employees were also charged in federal court. The state and federal charges are the first against operators of the Agriprocessors plant in Postville, where nearly 400 illegal immigrants were arrested in May. Defendants include the company itself, Agriprocessors Inc.; plant owner Abraham Aaron Rubashkin; former plant manager Sholom Rubashkin; human resources manager Elizabeth Billmeyer; and Laura Althouse and Karina Freund, managers in the company's human resources division.

A man was recovering Monday after a fight in a Dodger Stadium parking lot following Sunday's game, renewing questions about how quickly and effectively security responds once a game ends. The fight began about 9 p.m. after a minor traffic accident. According to Los Angeles police, Arthur Morales, 30, knocked the victim to the ground while his pregnant girlfriend watched, stunned. At that point, Morales' friends got out of the vehicle and joined in. "They held the victim down on the ground and ... the fourth one kicked and punched him in the head," LAPD Cmdr.

Want to fool merchants with a fake ID? Hack someone's text messages? Or how about tracking where your co-workers are, without their knowing it? There's an app for that. The explosion in smartphone and tablet applications that enable people to check the weather, follow their stocks and play Words With Friends has a dark side: apps that facilitate questionable if not outright illegal behavior. Apple's App Store, for example, offers Drivers License software that promises "unlimited access to realistic-looking licenses" for all 50 states.

SAN DIEGO - After six seasons in the minor leagues, Jim Eppard finally got the call to the Angels. In his first major league at-bat, on Sept. 8, 1987, he singled - off current Angels broadcaster Mark Gubicza. In his second at-bat, two days later, he singled again. Two hits, two at-bats, each as a pinch-hitter. This Eppard kid might have a pretty good future. Or, as it turned out, he might not. Eppard - who replaced Mickey Hatcher, the Angels' hitting instructor who was let go Tuesday - finished his brief major league career with 139 at-bats.

Just last week, the front-page story in the local paper--right up there in the top right corner--was headlined, "Hemet Kiwanis quits barbecue; Valley Kiwanis likely new host." And then the local football coach and his wife were arrested for allegedly providing sex to players. If a town can be turned on its head, this place is testimony: Probably nothing else could so rattle a community and attract out-of-town reporters like moths swarming to a spotlight. "It's like, Hemet is open to sex.

Aggressive police enforcement of nighttime curfews "has not significantly decreased" violent crime or reduced the number of young crime victims, according to a Los Angeles Police Department report submitted to the City Council on Monday. "Having task forces to enforce curfew is not always a cost-effective method or the best utilization of [police] personnel and other resources," concludes the report sent by Police Chief Bernard C. Parks to the council's Public Safety Committee.

In an effort to reduce California's 70,000 births to teenage mothers every year, the state Health and Welfare Agency on Wednesday unveiled a $3-million advertising campaign to deter young men from having sex with adolescent girls. Separate Spanish- and English-language ads will target men aged 18 to 24, warning that statutory rape is a serious crime. The ads also encourage young men to take responsibility for the children they have already fathered.

ANGELS Class; City; W-L ; Comment AAA; Salt Lake; 14-14; INF Gil Velazquez ranks second in the league with a .403 average, .468 on-base percentage. AA; Arkansas; 10-13; Top prospect Mike Trout hitting .246 at night, .222 with runners in scoring position. A; Inland Empire, 13-16; Mike Piazza, a cousin of the other Mike Piazza, has 22 strikeouts, 1.93 ERA in 10 relief appearances. A; Cedar Rapids; 18-10; Kernels ranks near the bottom of the league in hitting with a .235 team average.

Local governments can't ban military recruitment of minors because that would interfere with legitimate and constitutionally protected activities of the U.S. government, a federal appeals court ruled Friday. The decision by a panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals said ordinances adopted by the Northern California cities of Eureka and Arcata were unconstitutional because they sought to control federal government activities. "The states have no power to retard, impede, burden, or in any manner control, the operations of the constitutional laws enacted by Congress to carry into execution the powers vested in the general government," the judges said.

SAN DIEGO -- Matt Kemp is expected to be ready to play again when he is eligible to be activated from the 15-day disabled list on May 29, according to trainer Sue Falsone. “That is our goal,” Falsone said. Kemp was placed on the disabled list Monday with a strained left hamstring. The next day, Kemp received an injection of platelet-rich plasma. He had blood drawn and spun to isolate the platelets, which clot and promote healing. The platelets were injected into the site of the injury.

This is how all new beginnings should be. All energy and smiles and positive vibes. Stan Kasten is on the move and taking it all in. He's greeting season-ticket holders as they enter the stadium. He's meeting with ushers, security personnel and ticket takers. He's walking the loge, the reserved and the field levels. He's talking to fans and ushers and complete strangers, and welcoming them all to Dodger Stadium. An attractive woman walks up and hugs the new team president.

DENVER — On the Dodgers' most recent day off, reliever Josh Lindblom visited the Dream Center in Echo Park, which offers residential drug rehabilitation programs and other services. Later on Thursday, he distributed food on skid row and took 15 to 20 homeless people to church. There weren't any news cameras or reporters around. "I'd be sitting at home anyways," Lindblom said. "It's a small, small sacrifice in the grand scheme of things. It was one of the most fulfilling days I've had all season.

Into baseball's landscape of dumb and dumber, you now have to add right-hander Angel Guzman.   Maybe the name is not sending off alarms of recognition, nor should it really. Guzman was a Dodgers' non-roster invite to spring training this spring. He appeared in five games and pitched well. He did not allow a run in 5 1/3 innings, with one hit and walk and two strikeouts. He did not make the club, and going way out on a limb here, I'm thinking he won't be anytime soon.

Fourteen months after the resignation of President Hosni Mubarak, a new Egypt is still a work in progress -- or possibly regress. The opposition that swelled Cairo's Tahrir Square has fractured into Islamist and secular factions. The Islamist-dominated parliament continues to compete for influence with the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces. And last week a presidential election scheduled for May was thrown into confusion. First an administrative court suspended the work of a 100-member assembly charged with writing a new constitution, raising the possibility that a president will be elected before the nature of the new Egyptian state is defined.

SACRAMENTO — Halsey M. Minor, the Cnet co-founder and a high-tech business pioneer of the 1990s, tops the state of California's latest list of its 500 biggest income-tax delinquents. Minor and his wife, Shannon, both of San Francisco, owe California $10.5 million, tax officials reported Friday. Minor did not respond to telephone messages seeking comment. Minor's wasn't the only quickly recognizable name on the state list. Former Playboy model and "Baywatch" actress Pamela D. Anderson of Woodland Hills owes $524,241 in state income taxes, the list says.

Steady rain all but canceled Friday afternoon's one-hour practice session for the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach. Reigning Izod IndyCar Champion Dario Franchitti drove one lap around the 1.97-mile course on the city's seaside streets, then pulled his car in for the day. Scott Dixon, his teammate at Target Chip Ganassi Racing, also attempted a lap but hit a large patch of standing water, spun and crashed lightly into the wall. No other drivers went out on the 11-turn course.

Neither Major League Baseball nor Fox Sports plans to try to stop the sale of the Dodgers, virtually assuring that the deal will receive court approval on Friday. MLB and Fox, the Dodgers' two most formidable combatants in U.S. Bankruptcy Court, expressed relatively minor concerns on Tuesday, the deadline for parties to object to the sale. Frank McCourt, the Dodgers' outgoing owner, agreed last month to sell the team to Guggenheim Baseball Management for $2 billion. MLB has been frustrated by what it considers a lack of information about that transaction -- and a separate one in which McCourt and Guggenheim will jointly own the Dodger Stadium parking lots.