Huntington Beach

Bob Kahl slips in through a side door of the vast, abandoned hangar and looks at what's left of the assembly plant where he worked for nearly 40 years. He remembers the hum of power tools, the biting aroma of cutting oil, swarms of workers plugging away on a labyrinth of yellow scaffolding. All that's left is a few piles of broken concrete and a sea of colorless dust that coats a Palmdale factory floor the size of two football fields. "Welcome to the birthplace of America's space shuttle fleet," said Kahl, 60, smiling.

California's energy grid operator announced that two mothballed generators at a natural-gas-powered plant on the Huntington Beach coastline are back in service, a critical piece of the plan to replace power from the shuttered San Onofre nuclear power plant this summer. San Onofre has been shut down for three months because of equipment issues, and it's unclear when it will return to operation. Officials have expressed concern that in the event of a heat wave or transmission outage, parts of Los Angeles County, south Orange County and San Diego County could face power shortages over the summer without the plant's 2,200 megawatts of energy.

Thousands of flyers seeking information on the whereabouts of Laura Bradbury, the Huntington Beach child who disappeared two years ago, are being mailed to preschools and kindergartens across the country. Lynda McGraw, a volunteer at the Laura Center, said friends and relatives of Laura believe that she was kidnaped and her abductors have enrolled her in school. "She did turn 5 in May, so she should be enrolled in school," she said.

Address: 1172 Shorecrest Lane, Huntington Beach 92648 Listed for: $759,000 Size: Four bedrooms, four bathrooms, 2,100 square feet Lot size: 0.08 acres Features: Built in 1995 in a gated community, the two-story home features a marble fireplace and plantation shutters. MLS ID: S679930 About the area: In the 92648 ZIP Code, based on 91 sales, the median sales price of existing homes in the first quarter was $775,000, down 1% from the first quarter of 2011, according to DataQuick.

As the waves faded in the second round of the Op Pro Surfing Championships on Thursday, so did many of the top-seeded surfers. Seven of the top 10 seeded surfers were knocked out--including top-seeded and defending world-champion Barton Lynch of Australia. Meanwhile, several local surfers glided into today's final 16 at the Huntington Beach Pier.

Two years ago, a skinhead arrested for beating a Chinese-American teen-ager in Fullerton told police that he and his white-power friends knew where to go in Orange County to meet up with other like-minded youths. "Huntington Beach is the hotbed for skinheads," said the 17-year-old boy, who was from San Dimas in east San Gabriel Valley. Since the mid-1980s, Huntington Beach, famous for its surfing scene, has also been something of a magnet for skinheads.

It couldn't be, could it? Is that Mikhail S. Gorbachev, Soviet leader and architect of Glasnost and Perestroika, on the dance floor doing the twist? "I can go lower than anyone else in town," he boasts. "I'm serious! The young guys can't believe this gray-haired guy. . . ." Guys ? OK, so they wear blue jeans now in Moscow and Leningrad, but is that the way the Russians talk? And isn't that fingernail polish on the shiny pate where a birthmark is supposed to be?

Address: 1172 Shorecrest Lane, Huntington Beach 92648 Listed for: $759,000 Size: Four bedrooms, four bathrooms, 2,100 square feet Lot size: 0.08 acres Features: Built in 1995 in a gated community, the two-story home features a marble fireplace and plantation shutters. MLS ID: S679930 About the area: In the 92648 ZIP Code, based on 91 sales, the median sales price of existing homes in the first quarter was $775,000, down 1% from the first quarter of 2011, according to DataQuick.

Most of the youngsters don't go on to become lifeguards. Many of them sign up and, to their surprise, spend sometimes challenging half-days of instruction on the sand and in the sea. They sometimes go home both happy and somewhat worn out. But above all else, the Junior Lifeguards program in Huntington Beach -- like in other beach towns up and down the coast -- is supposed to be fun.

Surf's up at one of Southern California's most famous beach towns. The 2010 U.S. Open of Surfing rides a wave into Huntington Beach this weekend as more than 300 competitors vie for more than $300,000 in prize money. Skateboarding and BMX competitions will also be staged, and a free live concert gets rocking when the action is over each day. Huntington Beach, Sat. through Aug 8. Check website for event schedule and times. (424) 653-1900; http://www.usopenofsurfing.com.

Last August, the Jose Cuervo Pro Beach Volleyball Series debuted a three-event tournament in an effort to revive pro beach volleyball's foothold on domestic sand, a foothold that had started to sink when the Assn. of Volleyball Professionals shut down in the same month in 2010. Well, Jose Cuervo's 2011 series was a hit, so much so that its 2012 schedule, set to be announced Thursday, offers more than twice as many events. There will be seven all told: the first kicks off Memorial Day weekend in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and three will take place in Southern California.

The tough road quarterback Nick Crissman has followed will now lead him away from UCLA. Crissman, who is healthy for the first time in his college career, will graduate in June and transfer to another school. UCLA officials have granted him a release to talk with other schools. He will be immediately eligible to play since he has graduated. “I feel really good about it,” said Crissman, who played at Huntington Beach Edison High School. “It seems like my chances of playing at UCLA are extremely slim.

The bid to bring a large-scale desalination plant to Southern California cleared a major hurdle Friday when water regulators approved a permit for a Huntington Beach facility to turn seawater into drinking water. Connecticut-based firm Poseidon Resources is proposing a seawater desalination plant on a 12-acre site next to a coastal power plant, which is adjacent to a popular state beach. According to the company, it would be the largest such facility in the Western Hemisphere.

State coastal regulators Wednesday criticized and fined a property owner for unearthing artifacts at a 9,000-year-old Native American village site near the Bolsa Chica wetlands in Huntington Beach. In a settlement with the California Coastal Commission, the Goodell Family Trust agreed to pay a $430,000 penalty, rebury artifacts and restore areas disturbed when archaeologists dug a series of pits on the family-owned land on the Bolsa Chica Mesa in 2010. The work was conducted without the state's authorization and without a Native American monitor present, a requirement under state law. State officials said the excavation damaged prehistoric shells, animal bones, scorched rocks and other cultural artifacts that might help determine the boundaries of the 9,000-year-old village and burial site on the mesa, above one of the state's most treasured coastal wetlands.

Sean Collins, an avid surfer and entrepreneur whose self-taught ability to forecast ocean swells changed the way surfers worldwide chase the perfect wave, died Monday after suffering a heart attack while playing tennis in Newport Beach. He was 59. The longtime Seal Beach resident was a founder of Surfline.com, the Huntington Beach company that employs a proprietary prediction methodology to forecast global surfing conditions weeks in advance. Collins' spot-on predictions transformed the sport.

When Santa comes to Southern California, more often than not he's on a boat. We don't have white Christmases, but what we do have can be even better: sandy beaches, comfortable temperatures and the backdrop of spirited holiday boat parades. On Saturday, the 49th annual Marina del Rey Holiday Boat Parade circling the channel will comprise sailboats, yachts and charters decked out in holiday lights and decorations, blasting music and sporting spirited sailors. The event will kick off with a fireworks show, promptly followed by the two-hour parade and concluding with judging in categories such as best sail, music and spirit.

The Huntington Beach Small Business Assistance Center offers individual one-on-one small business counseling every Tuesday from noon to 4 p.m. at no charge. The counseling is offered at the Huntington Beach Chamber of Commerce office, 2100 Main St., No. 200. Reservations are required. Call the Huntington Beach Chamber of Commerce at (714) 536-8888.

A pastor and youth soccer coach has pleaded not guilty to charges that he molested an 8-year-old Huntington Beach girl and possessed child pornography. Christopher Raymond Olague, 39, of Westminster was arrested by Huntington Beach police in October after the mother of the girl reported the alleged molestation. Olague allegedly picked up the girl Oct. 5 for a play date at a park with one of his daughters. Instead, he took her to the parking lot of a grocery store and molested her, Huntington Beach Police Lt. Russell Reinhart said.

Two men were shot and killed Tuesday by Huntington Beach police after officers stopped a vehicle in Westminster and heard a gunshot, authorities said. The two officers fired multiple rounds after they heard a shot from inside the vehicle, said Lt. Russell Reinhart of the Huntington Beach Police Department. "I'm not sure if it was aimed at the officers, or who it was aimed at," he said. At least one firearm was recovered, he said. A woman was with the two men who were killed.