We told you earlier this week that the 1960s-era metal grates would be coming off the old facade of Clifton's Brookdale cafeteria on Broadway — and this morning they did. Andrew Meieran's plans for the Downtown institution include restoring the original facade, revamping the ground-floor cafeteria line, upgrading the kitchen, relaunching a Clifton's brand commercial bakery and hipsterizing the upper floors with a nightlife lounge.

Handout photo from Clifton's

Bruce Beresford-Redman, the former TV producer accused of killing his wife Monica in Cancun in 2010, has been taken from the federal detention center downtown is said to be en route to Mexico. Per reporters on the story.

In the March issue of Golf Digest, Dodgers broadcaster (and former CBS golf announcer) Vin Scully talks about his love of the game and of just being out on the course. "The crack of the bat in baseball is a gorgeous sound," he tells Guy Yocom. "But you don’t quite get the full effect unless you’re very close to the field, because the roar of the crowd often gets to you before the crack of the bat does. In golf, there is all that delicious silence, so the sound of a top pro hitting the ball is so pure. The feeling the pro gets—that sweet sensation that goes through the hands, up the arms and into the heart—the sound gives the fans a taste of that."

Scully shares some favorite experiences on the course at Bel-Air Country Club with the late columnist Jim Murray and others, such as Sandy Koufax. He also shares some of his fears about retirement and why he's coming back next month for his 63rd season with the Dodgers at age 84.

Some people die twice: once when they retire, and again when they actually pass away. Fear of the first one is a big incentive for me to keep working. Players, writers, people who work at the ballpark and front office, when I quit I know I’ll never see them again. I’ve never been the type to come to the ballpark and hang out; I’ve gone to one game in the last 60 years that I wasn’t working. I keep working because I don’t want to lose my friends.

Scully also reveals he's a reader: when he moved from Pacific Palisades to Hidden Hills in the Valley, he donated close to 400 books to the library. "For a realistic view of baseball at the major league level, get 'Three Nights in August' by Buzz Bissinger," he says. And this quip about having bad teeth through the years: "if I were to write my autobiography—which I will never do, by the way—I would title it, 'My Life in Dentistry.'"

Jerry Brown's pardons, DWP's high pay, renaming City Hall East, LAT's Korea reporter headed for Las Vegas, a new book and more.

Rick Santorum swept the Republican contests in three states on Tuesday, injecting a new element into the race. But it's Mitt Romney who will get the attention of Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa in an address tonight to the National Association of Latino Elected Officials in Washington. Immigration is the subject of this excerpt at BuzzFeed.

For the first time in modern memory, a major political party is poised to nominate a presidential candidate who has abandoned immigration reform and instead advocates self-deportation.

We have a candidate who on Martin Luther King Day, a day celebrating racial reconciliation, had the architect of Arizona and Alabama’s draconian anti-immigration laws campaign for him.

This is beyond the pale.

And we are obligated to say so.

We must defend the tradition of sensible immigration reform…

A tradition that until recently was a bipartisan one that ran from Ronald Reagan to Bill Clinton to George W. Bush.

Villaraigosa's office says he'll be back in Los Angeles on Thursday.

The only question, apparently, is which bid to buy the Dodgers will billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong join. Labeled by some as the richest man in Los Angeles, Soon-Shiong already owns a piece of the Lakers nas has an interest in joining an NFL ownership group. From Bill Shaikin of the LA Times:

The Dodgers are the immediate priority, with at least nine bidders still in the running to buy the team and several of them courting Soon-Shiong.

"We have participated in several meetings during the last few weeks and have concluded that we will absolutely participate in pursuing the Dodgers," Chuck Kenworthy, the representative for Soon-Shiong, said in a statement.

"At this time, we intend to take follow-up meetings in order to determine which group will best serve the team, the loyal Dodger fans and our great city."

Monday on LA Biz Observed: Who are the strongest contenders for the Dodgers?

Rob Eshman, the editor of the Jewish Journal, devotes his editor's letter this week to the little Los Encinos State Historic Park in Encino that the state wants to close for budget reasons. It may be the birthplace of the San Fernando Valley as we know it, but it doesn't bring in revenue so the bean counters say the green space and historic buildings are expendable. Neighbors are working to stave off the closure, and as we ">reported last month, an anonymous donor has stepped forward with $150,000 to get the park through this year. Eshman endorses the effort.

I didn’t visit the park in order to write this story, because I don’t have to: I know it like I know my backyard. I grew up in Encino, about a half mile from the park, and Los Encinos was my personal retreat, my youth’s ideal companion. It’s where I went to read a book, to daydream the spring into Walden Pond, to picnic on the Tempo falafels from across the boulevard.

I’m writing this to pay the park back for all those peaceful moments, and to pay it forward for the next bookish, sensitive teenager who needs a refuge from suburbia....

How ironic that we send money to buy trees for parks in Israel, and let one just down the block from us languish.

Encino's past and present is intimately linked to trees. The original Mexican rancho and the present-day community are named for the California Live Oak trees that still shade its older streets, the most impressive and ancient trees in the city of Los Angeles. A half-mile from Los Encinos, the Lang Oak — city historic-cultural monument #24 — used to stand in the center of Louise Avenue. It fell during a storm in 1998, revealing itself to be about 1,000 years old. The oak did not pass unnoticed, as I observed in The San Fernando Valley: America's Suburb.

Admirers came all weekend to gawk at the limbs, while city crews sought equipment stout enough to penetrate the massive trunk. Some neighbors who had tended the giant through infections, car crashes and numerous storms carried souvenir branches as they left, wiping away tears. The Times headline the next day captured the sentiment: "If a Tree Falls in the Valley, We All Hear It."

Even 14 years later, the Lang Oak that most Angelenos never saw (though the stump and a marker remain) has a Facebook page and a Wikipedia entry.

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Recently posted at LA Observed:
Donor puts up $150,000 to keep Rancho Los Encinos open
Valley of 'It's A Wonderful Life'
New York Times declares war on Encino

Top photo from January: John Rabe; lower photo of Lang Oak, Los Angeles Public Library.

I watched a bicyclist get hit by a car today in Westwood Village, right in front of me. He walked away, with help. But he caused himself some pain (and all the witnesses a scary moment) by trying to speed from behind past a car turning right on a green light. So I had bike riders on my mind when I found a story on a big push tomorrow to get more more women riding, featuring Long Beach Vice Mayor Suja Lowenthal. Yes, again with Long Beach and the bikes — go figure. From ZevWeb:

On Wednesday, February 8, a coalition of women cycling advocates is set to gather in Long Beach to announce an ambitious goal: doubling the number of female bicyclists on Southern California streets within five years.

The initiative is led by a relatively new organization, Women on Bikes SoCal, which seeks to promote the “joy, beauty and benefits of bicycling for women.” Its campaign includes establishing the nation’s first women-only scholarship program for League Certified Bike Safety Instructors. (Information on supporting the initiative is here.)

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On a recent bicycle tour of her city, which is noted for its large and growing network of bike-friendly amenities, Lowenthal made it clear that dressing like Lance Armstrong—and riding like a Tour de France champion—are not required to join the cycling revolution.

“I want to wear my heels. I want to do all sorts of kinds of things that are about regular lifestyle,” Lowenthal said. “You don’t have to be the 50-mile-a week-spandex athlete. You can move about with your children and make it a very family-oriented, healthy, active lifestyle.”

Photo of Lowenthal: Allan Crawford/Women on Bikes SoCal