​Associated Press is confirming a story we foreshadowed Monday: The nonprofit Trust for Public Land has secured an option to buy 138 acres of undeveloped land west of the Hollywood Sign for about $12 million.

Trust president Will Rogers said the real estate meltdown has worked in its favor: The Chicago company that owns the parcel had put the land on the market two years ago for $22 million, but apparently didn't get any viable offers. The group hopes to raise the money -- it states it has half in hand -- and transfer the land to the city of Los Angeles so it can be incorporated into Griffith Park.

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​Residents of county foothill areas prone to mudslides were told to evacuate ahead of another strong winter storm expected to hit Tuesday and Wednesday.

Residents of specific neighborhoods in La Canada Flintridge, La Crescenta and Acton were ordered to take off by 10 a.m. as a result of "the risk of debris flows in the Station Fire burn area,'' according to a statement by Los Angeles County's Foothill Incident Unified Command.

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​Nick Green, the LANG newspapers' soccer columnist, reports today on the closure of the David Beckham Academy, which for the last five years has offered soccer lessons to kids at AEG's Home Depot Center in Carson.

Seems the culprit is the weak economy, as fewer and fewer parents have $500 to spend on one week of soccer camp.

Green contrasts the hoopla that surrounded the opening of the camp in 2005 with the quiet way in which AEG informed the public of its closure. It was so quiet, in fact, that the camp closed back in December but the news is only getting out now. Green says that's not surprising...

... given the damage control/spinning AEG and 19 Entertainment representatives spent much of Friday engaged in as they tried to convince me this was not a story. When a Beckham rep calls you from home at about 12:30 a.m. Saturday London time, you know how sensitive his management team is to ANY suggestion of bad news.

So is this yet another verdict on the "Beckham Experiment"?
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A man who was killed in a Jefferson Park shooting that left another man seriously wounded has been identified as 22-year-old Darnell Jackson. The February 7 shooting occurred near Cimarron Street and 23rd Street around 4 a.m.

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According to reports, the two men were standing on the sidewalk when two female suspects and two male suspects shot them in the head. Jackson died at a hospital about an hour later. The other man, whose name was withheld, was hospitalized in serious condition. Anyone with information about the Sunday morning shooting should contact LAPD's Southwest Division detectives at (213) 485-4341.

A 40-year-old gang intervention worker was shot and killed February 7 after he got into an argument with a tagger. Ronald L. Barron worked for Amer-I-Can, a gang-intervention program founded by Football hall of Fame member Jim Brown. He was known for his gang outreach work in the L.A. County jails.

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According to police reports, Barron was leaving the Cottage Bar in the 5000 block of West Pico Boulevard with his girlfriend when he confronted a tagger putting graffiti on a nearby wall around 9:50 pm on Sunday. The suspect became angry and took out a gun and shot Barron multiple times.

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​The nonprofit Trust for Public Land was expected to make an announcement soon about 138-acres of land behind the iconic Hollywood Sign that was only a few years ago proposed for a housing development.

A source familiar with the operation of the Hollywood Sign told LA Weekly that the announcement, which will include a covering up of the sign Thursday, regarded the land behind the sign.

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​The iconic Hollywood Sign is scheduled to be covered up Thursday as part of an "international campaign" the details of which city officials would not divulge. A Los Angeles police department official confirmed the planned cover-up to LA Weekly Monday, and Metblogs Los Angeles and LAist have published a community alert put out by the Los Angeles Police Department:

"On February 11, 2010 the Hollywood sign will be covered up for an international campaign. The sign will be covered until further notice," it states. "Do not be alarmed, the sign will remain in place and there will be no changes done to the sign. This is just an informational e-mail so we do not receive phone calls from worried citizens."

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​Conrad Murray, the doctor who was with Michael Jackson during the pop star's final hours, pleaded not guilty to a charge of involuntary manslaughter in connection with Jackson's June death.

Jackson parents Joe and Katherine, brothers Randy, Jackie, Jermaine and Tito, and sister LaToya were in attendance at the LAX courthouse for the hearing Monday afternoon. Fans across the street held banners that stated "The King of Pop: Michael Jackson Gone Too Soon," and "Conrad Murray is a murderer."

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U.S. Attorney's Office

Fake Marshal's gear worn by a suspect who allegedly kidnapped and deported a woman.

​As the United States goes through a critical wave of terror threats -- Obama administration officials have expressed their certainty that an Al-Qaeda attack would be attempted within the next six months -- the organization representing LAX police is urging federal authorities to allow off-duty cops to carry weapons onboard commercial flights.

"We believe that additional armed, trained law enforcement personnel aboard aircraft is a prudent measure to be taken at this time," states Marshall McClain, president of the Los Angeles Airport Peace Officers Association (LAAPOA). "We join FLEOA (Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association) in urging President Obama to issue an executive order to authorize all law enforcement officers, active and retired, and certified by the Law Enforcement Officers Safety Act (LEOSA), to carry firearms aboard domestic flights as an added line of defense against terrorists."

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​If any one media outlet can be credited with Toyota Motor Sales' massive recall and the attention the Torrance-based company has received for alleged out-of-control acceleration problems, it's the Los Angeles Times, whose Ralph Ralph Vartabedian and Ken Bensinger broke the story, or at least hammered it home like no others, starting in October.

For the most part, the New York Times has been playing catch up with the L.A. paper, continually covering ground that had already been cleared by the the L.A. Times. However, the blog nytpicker notes, the New York publication has failed to credit the L.A. Times with breaking the stories despite the New York Times' ethics policy, which states, "When we first use facts originally reported by another news organization, we attribute them."

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