BRIEFLY.

LAPD officer taken to hospital

NORTH HOLLYWOOD -- An LAPD officer was taken to a local hospital late Thursday after striking his head on a curb during a scuffle with a grocery store customer who kicked him to the ground, authorities said.

The officer, who was not identified, was responding to a call regarding an unruly customer at the Ralphs store on the corner of Coldwater Canyon Avenue and Magnolia Boulevard, LAPD Capt. Fabian Lizarraga said.

Ralphs employees called police when the male customer, believed to be homeless, began opening beverages and bothering customers, Lizarraga said.

-- Daily News

Wooden name to grace post office

RESEDA -- President George W. Bush is expected to sign legislation soon that would rename a Reseda post office after legendary UCLA basketball coach John Wooden, a longtime San Fernando Valley resident.

The bill, sponsored by Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Sherman Oaks, and supported by California's congressional delegation, would officially rename the facility at 7320 Reseda Blvd. the Coach John Wooden Post Office.

Wooden led the UCLA Bruins to 10 national championships and 20 Pac-10 championships. He also set records with 88 consecutive winning games, four perfect 30-0 seasons and 38 straight NCAA tournament victories.

Wooden, 95, retired in 1975 and lives in Encino.

-- Daily News

Woman's body found in Ventura

VENTURA -- Authorities are trying to identify a woman whose body was found Thursday morning floating hundreds of feet offshore south of the Ventura Pier.

Craig Stevens, senior deputy medical examiner for the Ventura County Coroner's Office, said the woman was 5-feet, 6-inches tall, 146 pounds and appeared to be in her 40s or 50s with short gray hair and hazel eyes. She had dentures and was wearing black Wrangler jeans, a black bra and white socks.

Paramedics tried to revive the woman, who did not appear to be in the water long before she was found at about 9:45 a.m., Stevens said.

She was pronounced dead at Ventura County Medical Center at 10:26 a.m.

-- Daily News

Encino attorney accused of theft

An Encino attorney has been arrested on charges of swindling $300,000 from clients, most of them with disabilities.

Mervyn Hillard Wolf, 67, of Encino faces up to nine years in prison if convicted of six counts of grand theft. He also was charged with bouncing a check that was supposed to pay rent for a breast cancer patient, which led to her eviction.

Prosecutors allege that Wolf took money from settlement checks from clients he represented in personal injury, workers' compensation and wrongful-termination lawsuits.

-- Associated Press