A 14-year-old girl fought off a would-be assailant as she was walking to school in Long Beach on Monday morning, authorities said.

During the struggle the man exposed himself before fleeing.

The teen was walking to Butler Middle School around 8 a.m. when a man grabbed her arm, said Cmdr. Josef Levy of the Long Beach Police Department.

"But she was able to break free and run to safety," he said.

The teen later described the suspect to investigators as an African American man, between 25 and 30 years old, about 6 feet tall and 180 pounds, with light brown or hazel eyes. He was wearing a brown, hooded sweatshirt with two yellow stripes down each sleeve, and faded navy blue cargo pants. And he had a "distinctly bad body odor," Levy said.

The suspect, who was on foot, was last seen walking southbound on Lemon Avenue from 20th Street.

Long Beach police dispatched bloodhounds and a helicopter in search of the man, and knocked on doors in the vicinity looking for witnesses, Levy said.

Anyone with information is asked to call police detectives at (562) 570-7368.

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Although Southern California is riddled with geological fault lines, and some are relatively close to both the San Onofre and Diablo Canyon nuclear sites, experts said the region was at little risk of experiencing a catastrophic earthquake and tsunami like the ones that hit Japan.

“There’s no offshore fault in any of Southern California that’s exactly like the one that broke in Japan,” said Thomas H. Jordan, director of the Southern California Earthquake Center at the University of Southern California.

Thomas K. Rockwell, an earthquake expert at San Diego State University, estimated that the offshore faults near the San Onofre nuclear power plant could generate earthquakes of magnitude up to 7 to 7.5, but he said a major earthquake in the area might occur only once every couple of thousand years.

Diablo Canyon lies on the far western end of the Transverse Ranges, where the high-end magnitude possible is slightly higher, he said.

However, Rockwell said there was essentially no risk of an earthquake that would generate a tsunami like the one that struck Japan at either site because there is no subduction zone -- where one plate slides under another -- off the shore of Southern California.

An earthquake could cause undersea landslides that would potentially generate a tsunami, but it would be of much smaller magnitude, he said.

Northern California and the Pacific Northwest are at a greater risk of a major tsunami because of their proximity to the Cascadia Subduction Zone.

While the risk factors in Southern California may be lower than in Japan, some contend that the danger still does not justify placing nuclear power plants in earthquake territory.

“Earthquakes happen -- they happen a lot in California, they happen often on faults we don’t even know are there, and no one can predict if there’s a small or large chance,” said Dan Hirsch, president of Committee to Bridge the Gap, a nonprofit nuclear policy organization. “The world is filled with lots of risk, and placing big bottles filled with massive amounts of radioactivity near earthquake faults doesn’t make much sense.”

Jordan acknowledged the possibility of an earthquake on a previously undiscovered fault near either of the power plants.

“We are constantly being surprised in this business, so you have to build in the possibility of surprise, and I think that to a significant degree, that has been done,” he said.

San Onofre is built to withstand a magnitude 7.0 earthquake, said Gil Alexander, a spokesman for the generation station's operator, Southern California Edison. That is greater than the 6.5 shaker that scientists predicted could strike the plant before it was built 42 years ago, he said. But it's less than the 8.9 quake that hit Japan last week.

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Fault map of Southern California. Credit: UC Santa Barbara

Granada Hills Charter High School won the state Academic Decathlon, besting Marshall and El Camino Real high schools in the competition.

The Los Angeles Unified School District took seven of the top 10 spots. The awards were presented at a ceremony in Sacramento on Monday.

By winning the state competition, Granada Hills came out on top of what organizers said was the largest state competition in the country. About 65 teams with more than 500 students competed in the two days of testing in Sacramento. The students took tests on social students, music, arts and math; gave speeches; and took part in a Sunday evening Super Quiz, a rapid-fire relay of science trivia.

For Granada Hills, the studying continues in preparation of the national Academic Decathlon, which begins April 27 in Charlotte, N.C.

L.A. Unified traditionally has had a strong showing at the national competition, with California schools winning the last eight national titles. Last year, it was El Camino Real that took the top spot nationally.

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UCLA officials are condemning a video making its way around the Internet that shows a white UCLA student criticizing the behavior of Asian students.

The video has generated criticism on campus and a university spokesman said officials were looking into the matter.

"We've seen the video and it includes comments that we find offensive," spokesman Phil Hampton said. "They are contrary to the values of UCLA."

Most of the more than 1 million dead sardines have been removed from King Harbor in Redondo Beach, officials said Monday. And it appears they were all removed from the 215 Freeway, where thousands spilled Friday afternoon.

Sardines from the fish die-off toppled off a big rig on the 215 near Colton. The dead fish were being taken to a facility in Victorville to be turned into fertilizer when the spill occurred, causing treacherous road conditions on the freeway and creating a 10-mile-long traffic jam.

Crews used shovels to scoop the dead sardines into a truck. The Riverside Press-Enterprise captured the cleanup in the video above.

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Operators of the concrete-domed San Onofre nuclear plant Monday were trying to reassure jittery Southern California residents that the nuclear disaster unfolding in Japan won't happen here.

The 84-acre generating station in the northern corner of San Diego County is built to withstand a magnitude 7.0 earthquake, said Gil Alexander, a spokesman for the generation station's operator, Southern California Edison. That is greater than the 6.5 shaker that scientists predicted could strike the plant before it was built 42 years ago, he said. But it's less than the 8.9 quake that hit Japan last week.

A 25-foot-high "tsunami wall" of reinforced concete was also erected between the plant and the adjacent ocean, a height based on scientists' best estimates of the potential threat, he said. The geological fault most likely to directly threaten San Onofre lies about 5 miles offshore, Alexander said.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission also sought to allay fears that small releases of radiation from Japan's crippled Fukishima reactors were a threat to the U.S.

Available information indicates that weather conditions have carried any radioactive vapors out to sea and away from the Japanese population. Given the thousands of miles between the two countries, Hawaii, Alaska, the U.S. territories and the U.S. West Coast are not expected to experience any harmful levels of radioactivity, the commission said Monday.

San Onofre's three domed units were built in layered shells, like Russian nesting dolls. The outer shell is made of reinforced concrete that is four-feet thick, and is designed to capture any unexpected release of radiation. The inner steel casing housing the reactor is 8 inches thick.

Inside the reactor, fuel rods and control rods that make up the nuclear core are surrounded by pressurized water. In Japan, units of at least two nuclear plants were damaged and lost electrial power after the massive earthquake and tsunami, making it difficult to continue cooling the cores.

Two explosion have occurred in separate units but authorities so far have been able to contain radiation within the steel containment vessels surrounding the fuel rods. Alexander said San Onofre has multiple safety systems should the Southern California plant find itself in a similar situation.

In addition to diesel generators, the plant has a battery system and a gravity-driven emergency cooling system, Alexander said. The utility's operators were watching the Japan situation closely and will take any lessons learned from it to heart, he said.

"We will comb through the details of their emergency very carefully and whatever lessons can and should be applied here will be noted,'' he said. "That process will unfold very vigorously."

The Union of Concerned Scientists, a group that has been critical of nuclear energy, said it was also watching the Japanese crisis unfolding. It was planning a news conference Monday to release its findings.

San Onofre had three operating domes when built but Unit 1 was retired in 1992. Spent fuel road are stored there.

Annual energy output at the plant is the equivalent of that produced by 20 million to 25 million barrels of oil, Southern California Edison officials say. The plant generates 2,200 megawatts of electricity, about 20% of Southern California's usage, or enough to power 1.4 million homes.

 
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Photo: San Onofre nuclear power plant. Credit: Los Angeles Times file. Illustration: How the plant works. Source: Southern California Edison

Some California lawmakers are saying their jobs have become dangerous -- so much so that they want to be able to carry  concealed weapons.

They are citing the shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) in Tuscon and threats from constituents in California as grounds for them to have easier access to permits to carry weapons, the Times' Patrick McGreevy reports.

"I've had guys physically come up to me ready to punch me out," said state Sen. Lou Correa (D-Santa Ana), co-author of a new permit proposal.

Under current law Californians who want to carry concealed firearms must apply to their county sheriff or police chief and show "good cause" for permission. That can include threats of violence or a dangerous job. Under the new bill, being an elected state official or a member of Congress would constitute good cause. The officials would, like others, be subject to a background check, and a sheriff or police chief could still turn down the application.

Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca objects to the idea, noting that elected officials should have to go through the same process that requires them to show good cause for the permit. And, in an unusual show of agreement, both gun rights and gun control advocates agree that elected officials should not have special status.

Do you agree? Are California lawmakers exposed to so many threats that their position alone should qualify them to acquire a concealed permit? Or should they be treated like every other citizen? Tell us your thoughts below.

Two horses rescued from mistreatment are getting a second chance with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

A thoroughbred mare and a Palomino gelding, living in an equine shelfter after being found starving, are now being trained for mounted patrol service.

Sgt. John Hargraves, a 30-year-veteran, was in need of a new horse to replace his aging mount and heard that animal services had recently seized a number of undernourished horses.

During his trips to the shelters he found two horses that appeared suitable for law-enforcement careers.

The mare, a former racehorse, very quickly began responding to cues to walk, trot, back and turn. The Palomino, abandoned and found starving after it got stuck under a fence, also seemed “eager to please,” sheriff’s officials said.

The animals are being nursed back to health and trained to assist in mounted enforcement work.

“You don't need to have an expensive horse … just one that is sound, calm, and willing to learn and trust you," Hargraves said in a statement.

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More video is emerging capturing the Japan tsunami hitting the California coast, including one showing a surfer in Orange County describing being in the water.

Even though beaches along the coast were closed as a safety precaution when the waves hit Friday, CNN also has a video showing a surfer riding waves on Friday. One told the Orange County Register that lifeguards told him to leave the water because of the tsunami. There were also reports of surfers riding the tsunami waves in Malibu, which, unlike some Northern California beaches, saw little fluctuation in currents.

One person died in Crescent City because of the tsunami, and officials estimate the damage -- mostly to harbors in Crescent City and Santa Cruz -- at $50 million.

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Separate shootings and an accident involving "party buses" that cruise around Hollywood, taking passengers to nightclubs, underscore efforts by Los Angeles police to make sure the partying doesn't get out of hand.

LAPD Capt. Bea Girmala of the Hollywood Division said the party buses come from the San Fernando Valley, South Los Angeles, South Bay cities and even from far away as Riverside and San Bernardino counties. In some cases gangs have been involved.

"They literally come from all over. A lot of drinking takes place on these buses before they make it to the door of the venue," Girmala said.

The buses usually come in around 10 or 11 p.m. the trouble starts after midnight with assaults, public drunkenness and other unruly behavior, Girmala said.

Even with 40 additional officers added to patrol the area in 2009, the influx of party buses adds to a taxing environment for the officers.

"I use every single one [of the officers] and we've seen a decrease in crime in that area overall. But drunk people who don't want to listen lead to conflicts," Girmala said. "Liquid courage in these people makes for a difficult situation for police."

Girmala said a task force was formed over the last year to address the growing problems with party buses. She said police have gotten cooperation from many of the club operators who turn away partiers who have engaged in excessive drinking or appear underage.

She said there had been two successful crackdowns on party buses involving the Los Angeles, Santa Monica, Culver City and Inglewood police departments as well as the California Highway Patrol and Public Utilities Commission, which regulates the bus operators.

The first was in October and resulted in about half a dozen vehicles being towed. In November a second operation resulted in about a dozen vehicles being impounded, including buses and limousines, for various violations including occupancy vehicle code violations.

"It sends a very powerful message," Girmala said.

Four people were shot early Sunday after a fight among patrons on a party bus, Officer Karen Rayner said. The suspect remains at large. The shooting occurred shortly after 3 a.m. near Cahuenga Boulevard and Franklin Avenue, she said.

Hours earlier, Namar Burton, 22, of Murrieta was severely injured when he was run over by a party bus, said Sgt. Murrel Pettway of the LAPD's West Traffic Division.

Burton had been a passenger on the bus as it stopped at various clubs, Pettway said. About 11:25 p.m., the bus was driving east on McCadden Place and Burton was trying to catch up so he could reboard.

It was unclear how Burton ended up under the bus, police said.

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