​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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L.A. County Fire Department

​Seven homes were destroyed At least 41 homes were damaged -- five were reportedly red-tagged as uninhabitable -- following a rain-triggered mudslide in the foothills of La Canada-Flintridge Saturday morning. The slide was reported about 5 a.m. Manistee Drive off Ocean View Boulevard and also damaged other homes and swept away cars.

A second wave of evacuations of as many as 500 residents were ordered Saturday. Evacuations were reportedly ordered for the Ocean View Boulevard area earlier. The mud flows were so strong at points that they knocked over K-rails erected as preventative measures in communities below the Station Fire burn area.

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LAFD

​A "unified command" comprised of Los Angeles police and the Los Angeles Fire Department has ordered residents of some of the foothill communities of southern Tujunga to evacuate as the third and most powerful of as many as five successive storms was expected to hit the Los Angeles basin Wednesday.

The evacuations of parts of Alpine Village, Seven Hills, Blanchard Canyon Road, Tujunga, and Riverwood were ordered to be complete by 9 a.m. Wednesday, according to an LAFD statement.

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USC

​A group of USC doctors reached a quake-ravaged Haiti this week and were treating patients on a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier as well as at an Israeli Defense Force field hospital in Port-au-Prince, the university reported.

Aboard the USS Carl Vinson a six-year-old boy who ended up under a felled wall with a pelvic fracture and a ruptured bladder received surgery, USC doctors said. A girl with a brick embedded in her skull was worked on with the help CNN's celebrity surgeon Sanjay Gupta, stated USC Keck School of Medicine vice dean Henri Ford.

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National Weather Service

​Authorities ordered 64 households in the Paradise Valley area of La Canada-Flintridge to evacuate as storm-caused mud flows threatened a neighborhood above 2524 Ocean View Boulevard. Evacuations of 83 residences in the Riverwood Ranch, Alpine Village, Zachaou Canyon, Haines Canyon and Blanchard Canyon near Sunland in the San Fernando Valley were also ordered. Residents were told they could go to the Sunland Park Recreation Center at 8651 Foothill Blvd. for emergency shelter.

Mud flows were reported in some foothill communities beneath the areas scorched by last summer and fall's station fire. Mud flows two-feet deep were reported at Tujunga near Black Walnut Trail and Blanchard Canyon Road, said Brian Humphrey of the Los Angeles Fire Department.

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​The Los Angeles County Fire Department's Urban Search and Rescue task force in Haiti rescued at least five women over the weekend in Haiti. The the saves, which upped the team's total rescues in the earthquake-devastated nation to nine, have put the unit "in high spirits," according to Inspector Matt Levesque and a department statement.

It was a bittersweet weekend: On Saturday a division of the task force, along with CNN's Anderson Cooper, were flagged down by a woman who said her 10-year-old daughter, Laika, had been trapped beneath the rubble of a daycare center. As CNN cameras broadcasted the rescue attempt live, L.A. county rescuers used three dogs and a sensitive listening device in attempts to locate and free the girl. Tapping was reportedly heard, but it stopped, and after eight hours of trying the crews pulled out.

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Grubbs was a pot-shop worker, er, "volunteer."

​Jaimiee Grubbs, one of three women being reported as possible part-time mistresses to golf pro Tiger Woods, was on staff at a San Fernando Valley medical marijuana dispensary as recently as a month ago, according to RadarOnline.

Grubbs has been described as a waitress and reality show hopeful who reportedly met Woods in Las Vegas in 2007 and carried on a 31-month affair with the sports legend. She never said she clocked in at a pot shop, however. The revelation could put a national spotlight on the city's burgeoning, over-the-counter marijuana business, which has seen much feet dragging when it comes to City Hall's half-baked efforts to control the often-illicit business.
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Emergency room visits to County-USC Medical Center are up 25 percent in recent days compared to the same time last year, a hospital official confirmed to LA Weekly today. Many patients are complaining of H1N1-flu-like symptoms, but the official did not know if they were solely to blame for the uptick.

Yesterday we told you about 10 percent increases in flu-inspired visits to three Providence hospitals (Holy Cross, Saint Joseph and Tarzana) versus last year. The wave of patients promoted Providence Holy Cross Medical Center infection preventionist Marirose Medina to declare that there is a "Valley-wide outbreak" of H1N1.

USC

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Rosa Saca, County-USC's interim director of public relations, said that hospital was under a similar patient assualt: "We're experiencing the same volume of patients as other ERs," she said. But she declined to base the influx on swine flu or characterize the increase as an outbreak.

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The Ultimate Fighting Championship comes to Los Angeles Saturday for UFC 104. Newly crowned star Lyoto "The Dragon" Machida will defend his light-heavyweight title against fellow Brazilian Maurico "Shogun" Rua.

The bout at Staples Center will showcase the 31-year-old, undefeated champ, who's father is Japanese and whose mother is Brazilian. His multidisciplinary, highly-trained style with roots mostly in karate, represents the more-genteel future of what was once thought to be a bloody, feral sport.

lyotomachida.net

The Dragon.

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Machida is a technician whose modesty and hard training (reported to include six hours a day in the gym) has led some to dub him the "karate kid" of the UFC. He's a fighter who has yet to lose a round in an organization where one lucky swing to the jaw can decide a bout. He's triumphed over Tito Ortiz and knocked out Rashad Evans.
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UCLA

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The 105-year-old Mount Wilson Observatory, which today was called "the birthplace of the expanding Universe" by Discover Magazine online, seemed on the verge of destruction just three days ago, evacuated of all personnel on Monday and surrounded by 25 firefighters who then had to flee as flames edged toward the august facility.

On Tuesday afternoon, a massive drop of fire retardant by a Super Scooper and tanker helicopters laid a protective moat around the threatened  buildings as well as the major TV communications towers that serve Southern California. At the same time, gigantic earth-movers wiped out surrounded bushes and small trees -- the "fuel" that fed the Station Fire, the biggest ever in Los Angeles County.

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