BRIEFLY.

Three suspicious fires reported

NORTH HOLLYWOOD -- Three suspicious fires were reported Monday, and officials said they could be related to a series of blazes last week when three cars were torched.

Calls to firefighters began around 12:30 a.m. Monday to the 5000 block of Fair Avenue where a mattress and garbage were found on fire, said Los Angeles Fire Department spokesman Brian Humphrey.

About two hours later, a car was on fire in the 11200 block of Morrison Street.

The third fire hit around 2:50 a.m. on a structure in the 5000 block of Klump Avenue. Humphrey did not know what type of structure was involved.

-- Daily News

Funding set aside for skate park

LAKE VIEW TERRACE -- The Los Angeles City Council's Budget and Finance Committee agreed on Monday to spend $1.12 million to design and build a skate park at the Hansen Dam Recreation Area.

The skate facility will be located near the park's maintenance building, according to a report from the city's Recreation and Parks Department.

A series of community meetings will be held beginning in January to gain input on the skate park's design, according to the report.

-- City News Service

Man survives fall off cliff in car

MALIBU -- After plunging about 700 feet off Malibu Canyon Road on Monday in a car, a 19-year-old man crawled out of the wreckage with only minor injuries and phoned his mother for help, authorities said.

The car landed on its side, among piles of brush and rock. The man got out of the car and called his mother who drove to the cliff, about two miles north of Pacific Coast Highway, and directed firefighters to her son, said Los Angeles County Fire Department Capt. Larry Robideaux.

A county helicopter hovered deep into the canyon around 2:15 p.m. and dropped a stretcher to the man, who was flown to UCLA Medical Center with complaints of back pain, Robideaux said. ``He was lucky,'' Robideaux said of the man, whose name was not released.

-- Daily News

Woman gives up, ending standoff

SHERMAN OAKS -- A woman who barricaded herself in a house and threatened to blow it up Monday afternoon surrendered after a nearly six-hour standoff, authorities said.

The woman, holed up in a home in the 14700 block of Otsego Street, surrendered around 8:05 p.m.

She was taken to the hospital for a mental evaluation, said Los Angeles police Officer Mike Lopez.

SWAT teams had gathered outside the house after she allegedly robbed someone at knife-point around 2:15 p.m. in the 14800 block of Magnolia Boulevard and then ran to the house, where she called 911 operators with threats, Lopez said.

-- Daily News

Woodbridge Park won't be a site

STUDIO CITY -- The city has recommended not to use Woodbridge Park as a construction site when the Bureau of Sanitation builds a new sewer line between Studio City and Burbank. The decision marks a victory for neighbors who didn't want to see their newly refurbished park torn up.

As part of a massive plan for wastewaster and sewage improvements, the city had eyed Woodbridge Park as the terminus site in Studio City where workers could access the sewer trunk line. But the work would have closed the park for up to four years, right after the city spent $200,000 to refurbish the children's play area.Councilwoman Wendy Greuel asked the bureau to use the nearby Caltrans storage yard instead.

-- Daily News

Elevators cause problems at court

Malfunctioning elevators threw the U.S. Immigration Court in Los Angeles into chaos Monday morning, after more than a hundred immigration lawyers and their clients were left stranded outside the downtown court for more than an hour.

Unaware that attorneys and immigrants were forming a one-block line around the courthouse, some judges ordered deportations for those who failed to appear for their morning hearings, officials said.

``We are in the process of identifying the cases that were affected. We are telling the parties that they should contact the court about the case,'' said Susan Eastwood, a spokeswoman for the Executive Office for Immigration Review.

-- Daily News