PORTLAND, Ore. -- There's "protected" on paper and there's "protected" on the river.

That was clear over the weekend, when six protected sea lions were found shot to death with a high-powered rifle near the Bonneville Dam.

Suspicion immediately fell on fishermen, who have long complained bitterly that sea lions gobble up salmon at the base of the dam. But so far, investigators say they have no hard evidence as to who did it and why. And while rewards have been posted for arrests, there is talk of a defense fund for the gunmen if they are ever caught.

A preliminary examination has yet to find any bullets or shells that might yield clues to who fired the shots.

"Whoever did this knew what he was doing. This was a very bold and open act," Brian Gorman, a spokesman for the National Marine Fisheries Service, said Tuesday.

WASHINGTON -- Federal agents raided the office and home of U.S. Special Counsel Scott Bloch on Tuesday while investigating whether the nation's top protector of whistle-blowers destroyed evidence potentially showing he retaliated against his own staff.

Computers and documents were seized during the raid on the special counsel's downtown office, according to two law enforcement officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the ongoing inquiry. At least 20 agents were still on the scene as of mid-afternoon Tuesday.

Bloch's home, in a Virginia suburb of Washington, also was raided, the officials said.

FBI spokesman Richard Kolko confirmed that agents with the FBI and White House Office of Personnel Management executed "a number of court authorized federal search warrants today" but declined further comment.

Jim Mitchell, communications director with the Office of the Special Counsel, confirmed the search of Bloch's work area and computers. He said the office was cooperating with the investigation.

SANTA FE, N.M. -- The leader of an apocalyptic sect in northeastern New Mexico was arrested Tuesday and charged with felony sex crimes against children.

State police arrested Wayne Bent, 66, on three counts of criminal sexual contact of a minor and three counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor, said Department of Public Safety spokesman Peter Olson.

Bent was being held on $500,000 bond at the Union County Detention Center in Clayton and was scheduled to be arraigned on Thursday.

According to the affidavit for the arrest warrant, Bent is alleged to have touched three girls in 2006 and 2007. All of them were under 18 at the time, and one of them was 12.

Bent, who goes by the name of Michael Travesser and claims to be the Messiah, is the leader of The Lord Our Righteousness Church, whose members moved in 2000 to a remote, former ranch near the Colorado line.

The state Children, Youth and Families Department recently had removed two girls and one boy from the site, and said it was interviewing a third girl who had left the compound earlier.

DOVER, N.H. -- A former congressional candidate convicted of faking his disappearance after a car crash two years ago was arrested Tuesday after his wife reported that he threw her to the floor.

Bail was revoked for Gary Dodds, who was considered a fugitive on Tuesday until police arrested him near an apartment building he owns in Portsmouth, said Assistant Strafford County Attorney Thomas Velardi.

Cindy Dodds called police in Rye around 1 a.m. Monday to report that she and Dodds had argued while on vacation in Florida and that her husband had picked her up, thrown her to the ground, taken his bags and left. She told police she wasn't hurt and didn't think her husband was a danger to himself or others, but she wanted officers to check whether Dodds had flown home.

One of Dodds' attorneys accused Velardi of attempting to harm Dodds' attempts to appeal his convictions and help the prosecutor's own career.

"This is nothing more than marital stress that has been blown out of proportion," Jay Nadeau said.

Around South Florida's vast sugar cane fields, where turtles grow to the size of basketballs and alligators own the marsh, the silence of the swamp is broken by the sound of rumbling trucks and explosions.

The earth-moving equipment and high explosives are laying the foundation for a mammoth construction project: a reservoir bigger than Manhattan designed to revive the ecosystem of the once-famed River of Grass.

More than a century after the first homes and farms took shape in the Everglades, decades of flood-control projects have left the region parched and near ecological collapse. Now crews are building what will be the world's largest aboveground manmade reservoir to restore some natural water flow to the wetlands.

Engineers "built this thing beautifully," said Terrence Salt of the U.S. Interior Department, referring to the flood-control systems that practically drained the swamp to make way for development decades ago. "But as we look back at it through the lens of our current 21st-century values and understanding, you get a different take on it, which leads to our restoration efforts now.

PITTSBURGH -- Criminal charges were dropped Tuesday against a doctor accused of causing the death of a 5-year-old autistic boy by incorrectly administering the wrong drug for him.

Dr. Roy Kerry was trying to use chelation therapy on Abubakar Tariq Nadama in 2005. Chelation is an approved treatment for acute heavy metal poisoning and while some people believe it is a promising treatment for autism, the Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention do not agree.

The Butler County district attorney charged Kerry last year with involuntary manslaughter, endangering the welfare of a child and reckless endangerment, but recently moved to drop charges. A judge granted the dismissal on Tuesday.

Kerry, 70, still faces a civil lawsuit by the boy's parents.

In a petition, prosecutor William Fullteron asked that the charges be dropped after reassessing the merits of the case and "given the existence of additional and more germane judicial avenues for addressing the conduct of Dr. Kerry."

NEWARK, N.J. -- New Jersey cabbies are tapping their feet as the exquisite tones of a Grammy-nominated violinist fill the air at Newark Liberty International Airport.

About 200 cabbies have filled a parking lot next to a highway where trucks thunder past for Tuesday's lunchtime concert performed by Philippe Quint to thank one honest driver.

Quint left his 285-year-old Stradivari in a taxi on a ride home from the airport last month. Driver Mohamed Khalil discovered the $4 million instrument and returned it to Quint.

Along with several solo pieces, Quint also has teamed with guitarist Michael Bacon -- brother of actor Kevin Bacon -- on a blues number that has some people dancing on the blacktop.