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ASPEN, Colo. — Charlie Sheen and his wife were reunited Monday after a judge modified a restraining order and allowed them to work out their differences following a Christmas Day domestic violence dispute in which the actor allegedly pinned his spouse on a bed with a knife to her throat.

The couple hugged in court, and Brooke Mueller Sheen’s attorney, Yale Galanter, said they hugged again and kissed in the basement of the 19th century Pitkin County Courthouse after the brief hearing before leaving in separate vehicles. They planned to fly out of Aspen together, and Galanter said he has asked prosecutors to drop the case.

“I can tell you, Brooke very badly wanted to have contact with Charlie,” Galanter said. “There are many children’s issues that she wanted to communicate with him about… They have two gorgeous beautiful babies together.

“Brooke would like this case to be over and charges dismissed so they can get on with their lives.”

Charlie Sheen is accused of holding a knife to his wife’s throat and threatening to kill her on Dec. 25 at his Aspen home. Prosecutors charged TV’s “Two and a Half Men” star with felony menacing and misdemeanor charges of third-degree assault and criminal mischief. The most serious charge carries a maximum three-year prison term. Sheen did not enter a plea Monday and is due back in court March 15.

Asked about District Attorney Arnold Mordkin’s reaction to the suggestion that the case be dropped, Galanter

said: “He filed charges.” Sheen’s attorney, Richard Cummins, was not immediately available for comment.

Mordkin declined to discuss the case but said he dropped opposition to allowing the Sheens to have contact with one another, saying it’s not productive to make people estranged who aren’t.

“It won’t affect the prosecution,” Mordkin said.

Judge James B. Boyd left in place standard provisions of the protection order that prohibit Charlie Sheen from harrasment or retaliation against his wife. Sheen is also prohibited from possessing weapons or using alcohol or drugs, unless they’re prescription.

Charlie Sheen, wearing thick black-rimmed glasses, said only “Yes, sir” to the judge as he looked straight ahead, at the table or at his attorney during the hearing. His wife sat in the front row of the gallery, occassionally glancing at her husband.

The Sheens have twin baby sons and have been communicating through their attorneys since his arrest. Through their attorneys, they have expressed a desire to reconcile.

“I don’t know how people survive something like this,” Galanter said, adding that time will tell whether the marriage survives.

Boyd did allow Sheen to visit his wife in a Los Angeles hospital last month after she was admitted with a high fever and an infection following oral surery.

A police officer’s arrest affidavit quoted Brooke Sheen as saying the actor pinned her on a bed while holding a knife to her throat and told her that she “better be in fear.”

The officer said Brooke Sheen reported her husband also told her he could hire ex-police “who know how to get the job done and they won’t leave any trace.”

Charlie Sheen denies threatening or hitting his wife but told police that he broke two pairs of her eyeglasses in front of her.

In an audio recording of a 911 call, a woman who identifies herself as Brooke tells the dispatcher that Charlie Sheen threatened her with a knife and added, “I thought I was gonna die for one hour.”

She said at least five times during the four-minute call that she wanted to file a report. “It’s happened before,” she said, according to the affidavit.

Galanter said Brooke Sheen has stood by her statements to police and will honor her legal obligations.

“When people make these type of (911) phone calls, they’re not contemplating all the legal complications that will occur,” he said. “It’s her position that this is a private matter.”

Denver defense attorney Dan Recht, a former president of the Colorado Criminal Defense Bar, said victims wanting a case dropped is common in domestic violence cases and prosecutors are under no obligation to comply. Recht said Mordkin has several options, including issuing a subpoena to Brooke Sheen compelling her to testify.

“Once you report a crime in this type of case, you’re just a witness for the prosecution,” Recht said.

Galanter said the only reason the Sheens did not leave the courthouse together were the logistics that required three vehicles for the couple and their attorneys. He says the vehicles were packed with luggage and strollers, though he declined to say whether Brooke arrived in Aspen with their children.

MIDDLETOWN, Conn. — An explosion blew apart a power plant under construction as workers purged natural gas lines Sunday, killing at least five people and injuring a dozen or more in a blast that shook homes for miles.

At least 12 people were injured in the explosion at the Kleen Energy Systems plant in Middletown, about 20 miles south of Hartford. Crews with dogs were still searching the rubble for survivors as darkness fell over the plant, overlooking the Connecticut River.

It wasn’t clear how many people, if any, were still buried. Deputy Fire Marshal Al Santostefano told The Associated Press that 50 to 60 people were in the area at the time of the explosion, but authorities said multiple contractors were working on the project, making it difficult to pinpoint exactly how many people were missing.

“I think a majority of them did survive,” Santostefano said. “Most of them did walk away.”

The explosion happened around 11:17 a.m., he said. Mayor Sebastian Giuliano called it a gas explosion but said the exact cause wasn’t immediately clear.

“It felt almost like a sonic boom,” Giuliano said at an evening news conference.

The search was focusing in part on who was at the plant at the time of the explosion. Giuliano said 100 to 200 workers would have been there on a typical weekday.

“They’re trying to figure out who was on the job today, and where are they now?” Giuliano said.

The 620-megawatt plant is

being built to produce energy primarily using natural gas. Santostefano said workers for the construction company, O&G Industries, were purging the gas lines, a procedure he called a “blow-down,” when the explosion occurred.

The building was still standing, but the blast blew out the sheet metal that covers its sides.

Lynn Hawley, 54, of Hartland, Conn., told The Associated Press that her son, Brian Hawley, 36, is a pipefitter at the plant. He called her from his cell phone to say he was being rushed to Middlesex Hospital.

“He really couldn’t say what happened to him,” she said. “He was in a lot of pain, and they got him into surgery as quickly as possible.”

She said he had a broken leg and was expected to survive.

Officials had not released the conditions of the other injured people by Sunday evening, although they said at least a dozen people had injuries ranging from minor to very serious.

The thundering blast shook houses for miles.

“I felt the house shake, I thought a tree fell on the house,” said Middletown resident Steve Clark.

Barrett Robbins-Pianka, who lives about a mile away and has monitored the project for years, said she was running outside and heard what she called “a tremendous boom.”

“I thought it might be some test or something, but it was really loud, a definite explosion,” she said.

Kleen Energy Systems LLC began construction on the power plant in February 2008. It had signed a capacity deal with Connecticut Light and Power for the electricity produced by the plant. Construction was scheduled to be completed by mid-2010.

The company is run by president and former Middletown City Council member William Corvo. A message left at Corvo’s home was not immediately returned. Calls to Gordon Holk, general manager of Power Plant Management Services, which has a contract to manage the plant, weren’t immediately returned.

Energy Investors Funds, a private equity fund that indirectly owns a majority share in the power plant, said it is fully cooperating with authorities investigating the explosion. In a written statement, the company offered sympathy and concern and would release more information on the explosion as it becomes available.

Plants powered by natural gas are taking on a much larger role in generating electricity for the U.S. Gas emits about half the greenhouse gases of coal-fired plants and new technology has allowed natural gas companies to begin to unlock gas supplies that could total more than 100 years at current usage levels.

Natural gas is used to make about a fifth of the nation’s electricity.

Gov. M. Jodi Rell visited the scene Sunday; she earlier called out a specialized search and rescue team to help firefighters.

The state’s Emergency Operations Center in Hartford also was activated, and the Department of Public Health was called to provide tents at the scene for shelter and medical triage.

Rell said the emergency teams were expected to work through the night and into Monday.

Daniel Horowitz, a spokesman with the U.S. Chemical Safety Board, said the agency is mobilizing an investigation team from Colorado and hopes to have the workers on the scene Monday.

Safety board investigators have done extensive work on the issue of gas line purging since an explosion last year at a Slim Jim factory in North Carolina killed four people. They’ve identified other explosions caused by workers who were unsafely venting gas lines inside buildings.

The board voted last week to recommend that national and international code writers strengthen their guidelines to require outdoor venting of gas lines or an approved safety plan to do it indoors.

In February 2009, an explosion at a We Energies coal-fired power plant near Milwaukee burned six workers. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration is still investigating.

In the past few years, an explosion at a Dominion Virginia Power coal-fired plant in Massachusetts killed three workers in November 2007, while one worker and nine others were injured at an American Electric Power plant of the same type in Beverly, Ohio, in January 2007.

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Contributing to this report were Associated Press writers Stephanie Reitz in Glastonbury, Conn.; Mark Williams in Columbus, Ohio; Mike Baker in Raleigh, N.C.; and Anne D’Innocenzio in New York.

WALNUT CREEK — Gray skies and a spattering of rain didn’t dampen the enthusiasm of about 100 members of the Open Carry movement, who showed up Saturday morning displaying unloaded guns at a restaurant in downtown Walnut Creek.

The group hopes to make it easier to legally carry a loaded gun in California and has been gathering at Bay Area restaurants for the past few months. The original meeting place for Saturday was to have been nearby California Pizza Kitchen, but that company made it clear Open Carry advocates weren’t welcome, so the group moved to the Buckhorn Grill.

“We’re not politically involved. We’re a restaurant and we’re serving food,” regional manager Tom McLaughlin said as he welcomed the group into his establishment. Both Peet’s Coffee & Tea and California Pizza Kitchen have banned guns from their premises in response to recent requests from the national Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, while Starbucks refused the campaign’s request to do so.

Not everyone in the restaurant was a member of Open Carry. Some people came from as far away as Fremont and Sausalito to learn about the group. Other patrons were dismayed when they walked in and unexpectedly encountered a restaurant full of men with pistols on one hip and ammunition on the other.

“I’m a little worried,” said Hayley King, of Walnut Creek, who stopped in for lunch. “I don’t feel safe in here. I wouldn’t have come if I had known.”

“If it’s

(carrying guns) not for law enforcement, it’s completely wrong,” said Rumer Cantrell, a Walnut Creek resident who attends Carondelet High School in Concord. “Violence should never be promoted in any way. To be walking around saying, ‘You can see I have a gun,’ promotes violence.”

“By carrying a firearm I am creating a deterrent to violence,” responded Jon Schwartz, of Livermore, an active Open Carry member who attended with his wife and baby daughter. “I hope I never have to draw my firearm in response to anyone else’s actions.”

Pinkie Anderson, of Sausalito, moved to California in July from Connecticut, where she had a permit to carry a concealed weapon, her Ruger .357.

“I came here to learn more about Open Carry,” Anderson said.

In Connecticut, Anderson completed a weapons course and passed a background check and was automatically issued her concealed carry permit. In California, it’s much harder to get such a permit, a situation Open Carry advocates want to change.

“Because of budget cuts, there are fewer police officers on the street. We feel we should be able to defend ourselves,” said Emmanuel Tsompanas, of Antioch.

“How many times have you been in a restaurant when someone was holding the restaurant up?” said Griffin Dix, president of the Alameda County chapter of the Brady Campaign. “It’s much more likely that someone might make a mistake, thinking the gun is unloaded when it isn’t loaded, or start shooting and hit the wrong person.

“Stores should take responsibility to not allow people with guns,” Dix said.

Members of the group met with Walnut Creek police before the event to have their firearms checked to make sure they were unloaded, said Capt. Tim Schultz of the Walnut Creek Police Department.

The setting for Saturday’s event wasn’t disclosed until Friday night on KSFO radio, some group members said.

“There was some talk on local blogs about protesters showing up with water balloons and other mischief,” said Brad Huffman, an active Open Carry member. “We wanted to keep the possibility of anything going wrong to a minimum.”

Contact Janis Mara at jmara@bayareanewsgroup.com. Follow her at Twitter.com/jmara.

Apple Inc. is reportedly providing a 15 percent cash refund for customers who have to return a broken 27-inch iMac. According to Gizmodo, several customers have reported the refunds when they have repeated problems with cracked, flickering, or yellow-tinted screens. That would mean a $300 payment for computers valued at $2,000. Cupertino-based Apple hasn’t commented publicly about the situation.

RETAIL

Pleasanton-based Ross Stores Inc. said its same-store sales in January jumped 8 percent and the off-price retailer said its same-store sales should rise 1 percent to 2 percent during the 2010 fiscal year.

Earnings

Walnut Creek-based Central Garden & Pet Co. lost $2.9 million, or 4 cents a share, on revenues of $269 million, for its first quarter of 2010 ended Dec. 26. In the year-ago quarter, Central Garden lost $6.2 million, or 9 cents a share. Revenues fell 8 percent. “We continued to make progress on our core initiatives of reducing working capital, improving gross margins and controlling costs,” CEO William Brown said.

Tech

Pleasanton-based Adept Technology Inc. lost $1.8 million, or 21 cents a share, on revenue of $9.2 million, for its fourth quarter of 2009 ended Dec. 26. In the year-ago quarter, Adept lost $82,000, or 1 cent a share. Revenues fell 16.4

percent. “Although the first half of our fiscal 2010 was challenging, we are now seeing signs that economic recovery may be coming to our markets,” CEO John Dulchinos said. “Most dramatic was the increase in order flow we experienced at the end of the quarter.”

Energy

Fremont-based Solyndra Inc., a maker of solar energy systems, said that its authorized reseller and solar integrator, Germany-based Umwelt-Sonne-Energie GmbH, had completed the largest collective Solyndra project to date. The project consists of 1,928 kilowatts installed on 10 rooftops in Belgium. The sites are owned by a large international food retailer. The power generated by the systems will be sold to local utilities under an agreement with the building owners. Solyndra signed a long-term deal with USE last July.

Venture deals

Campbell-based Columb Technologies Inc., a developer of recharge solutions for electric cars, has raised $14 million in second-round funding. Columb previously raised a $3.75 million in first-round funding.

Compiled from staff and wire reports. Got Bay Area business news? Reach Drew Voros at 925-943-8099 or dvoros@bayareanewsgroup.com.

WASHINGTON — If all press is good press, Carly Fiorina’s bizarre campaign video depicting her opponent as a red-eyed demon sheep is a blockbuster hit.

If widespread mockery matters, maybe not so much.

Whatever the case, the former Hewlett-Packard chief’s 31/2-minute Web video attacking Tom Campbell in the Republican Senate primary has gone viral, drawing more than 119,000 views on YouTube, rising to the top of Twitter topics and spurring commentary on dozens of political news sites. (It’s at www.fcino.com, which stands for “fiscal conservative in name only.”)

The video attacks Campbell’s fiscal cred by likening the former five-term congressman to an evil sheep

deceiving the conservative masses (a herd of real sheep) about his true colors. Fiorina argues that Campbell isn’t a real fiscal conservative because last year he endorsed a gas tax hike and other temporary taxes to help balance the enormous state deficit. Campbell calls the charge absurd, noting that the taxes were part of a broad package of deep spending cuts and a new rainy day fund.

But any debate about fiscal policy is bound to take a back seat when demonic sheep are involved. So it went with Fiorina’s video, which lit up the blogosphere Thursday.

“I’m not entirely sure … but I think Carly Fiorina just put out an ad in which she tells voters: ‘I am the real sheep in this race,’ ” opined Maggie Gallagher of the conservative

National Review.

Wrote Ezra Klein of The Washington Post: “It’s almost impossible for me to believe that this ad comparing fiscal conservatives to sheep — but in a good way! — is real. But it is!”

Time’s Michael Scherer was slightly more charitable, calling it “awesomely bizarre” and recommending watching it while listening to Pink Floyd’s psychedelic “Dark Side of the Moon.”

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, meanwhile, launched a tongue-in-cheek petition urging Fiorina to make more Web videos, “preferably featuring farm animals.”

The Fiorina campaign suggested that’s not out of the question.

“The key is to create something entertaining, something that people will talk about,” campaign spokeswoman Julie Soderlund said. “Whether you thought it was good or bad, it broke through the clutter.”

Going forward, she added, “I think you can expect equally, if not more, shocking content.”

Contact Mike Zapler at 202-662-8921.

Three Republicans have emerged as early money contenders in the highly anticipated 11th Congressional District Republican primary.

Democrat and incumbent Jerry McNerney of Pleasanton, who is not expected to have a June primary challenger, has nonetheless ramped up his fundraising efforts in preparation for what could be a bruising November election.

McNerney raised $1.04 million for his re-election bid as of the close of the last filing period on Dec. 31, and reported cash on hand of $847,005.

Among the six declared Republicans, Brad Goehring, a winegrape grower from Clements, has raised the most money. He has also been campaigning the longest and has poured the largest chunk of his personal cash — $450,000 — into his campaign.

Overall, the amounts Republicans have raised, other than personal loans, remain relatively small.

Some of the candidates only recently entered the campaign, and raising money during the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays is tough.

But with the new year at hand, and in the wake of the Republicans’ galvanizing win of the late U.S. Democratic Sen. Edward Kennedy’s seat in Massachusetts by Scott Brown, “people are starting to focus on the race,” said Goehring campaign manager Carl Fogliani.

In order of amount raised by Republicans, here are the details of the recent Federal Election Commission reports: