Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s office shot a video to promote the city’s quest for an NFL team -- a production that features firefighters, mariachis, a surfer and, of course, the mayor himself.

In the one-minute spot, Villaraigosa promises viewers that taxpayer money will not be used to build a proposed downtown football stadium, planned near Staples Center. “This project will be 100% privately funded, but not by me. Who do you think I am? Mayor Bloomberg?” Villaraigosa quipped in a reference to New York’s billionaire mayor.

Although Anschutz Entertainment Group plans to build the stadium itself, the company is expected to seek a $1-per-year lease for the land under it, according to city officials. That land is owned by the city. The stadium proposal is linked to a plan to rebuild a portion of the Convention Center, which would require the city to issue $350 million in bonds.

Under the proposal, the bonds would be paid back with new tax revenue from the stadium and convention center. AEG has promised to make up the difference if there is a shortfall.

The video, which went up on YouTube on Monday morning and quickly showed up at la.curbed.com, was put together by the mayor’s new media aide and a group of interns, said Villaraigosa spokeswoman Sarah Hamilton. Those who appeared in it, including children from Hollenbeck Middle School, volunteered their time, she said.

Hamilton said the spot was meant to be “lighthearted” and focus on a team, not a new stadium.

-- David Zahniser at Los Angeles City Hall

Los Angeles police used a Taser to subdue former USC football standout Everson Griffen after he allegedly assaulted an officer during a traffic stop near campus, department officials said Monday night.

Griffen, now a member of the Minnesota Vikings, was booked on suspicion of felony battery after the incident, which was reported about 4 p.m. Monday at 30th and Hoover streets, said LAPD spokeswoman Karen Rayner.

The incident took place during a routine traffic stop, Rayner said. Officers asked Griffen for his license, which turned out not to be valid, according to sources familiar with the investigation. Griffen then told them "he did not want to go back to jail" and sprinted away from the officers, who caught up with him after a short distance.

When one of the officers tried to subdue Griffen, he allegedly grabbed the officer in the groin area, the source said. Moments later, officers used a Taser to subdue him, the source said.

Griffen was arrested in 2009 in Massachusetts on suspicion of breach of the peace.

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-- Andrew Blankstein

Twitter: @anblanx

Photo: Everson Griffen during practice in August 2007. Credit: Los Angeles Times

The football team from View Park Preparatory High School in Hyde Park has earned this year’s honor as the top football team -- academically -- among 72 local teams, a sports league official confirmed Thursday.

The 43-member team achieved a grade point average of 3.3 and finished as the California Interscholastic Federation, L.A. City Section, Division 3 champion, said Jo Ann Heller, who oversees the academic award for the Los Angeles area.

Division 3 is for small-school teams such as View Park, which is a public charter school. But the competition is among all varsity teams in the Los Angeles Unified School District and independently run charter schools in that region; 22 teams entered the academic competition this year.

View Park Head Coach Robert Ambers enforced and led mandatory 1 1/2-hour study hall sessions every other day for all football players and “visited the main office weekly to check the grades of players, who also had to submit weekly progress reports,” according to a spokesperson for ICEF Public Schools, the nonprofit that operates View Park.

“Students know that success in the classroom comes first, and I have no doubt that has led to our success on the field,” Ambers said in a statement.

The players and coach are scheduled to be honored Friday at the Los Angeles City Council.

-- Howard Blume

A surfer remained hospitalized Sunday after he almost drowned at Mavericks surfing area near Half Moon Bay on Saturday, according to news reports and interviews with authorities.

GrindTV,  a surfing website, identified the surfer as Jacob Trette.

Paramedics called to the scene about 10 a.m. Saturday found a 30-year-old surfer who had been rescued and revived by surfers and an emergency medical technician, with the help of bystanders who were at the surf spot, said David Cosgrave, a battalion chief with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

The surfer was flown out to Stanford University Medical Center. A spokesman at the hospital said he could not comment on the condition of the patient.

[Updated, 5:15 p.m.: A hospital spokesman said the surfer is in critical condition.]

Officials did not name the man Sunday. An Internet post from Frank Quirarte, a photographer who witnesses the incident, said the surfer had suffered a brain injury but was moving his arms and legs.

"They're lowering his body temp so he doesn't use as much oxygen and keeping him heavily sedated,” the post read. Too “early to tell how much damage has been done if any.”

Yolanda Holder walked off this week with a world marathon record.

Now the 52-year-old Corona homemaker who power-walked her way through 101 races this year is eyeing a second world title.

Holder crossed the finish line at Sunday's 26.2-mile Rock 'n' Roll Marathon in Las Vegas to earn a spot in Guinness World Records as the most persistent female foot-racer anywhere. The previous women's record was set by an Italian who competed in 100 marathons in 2002.

Holder's achievement was no stroll in the park, she concedes.

A young boy fell from a luxury suite after the Lakers' game Sunday against the Golden State Warriors, tumbling into the lower level at Staples Center.

The boy was believed to be between 2 and 5 years old. The boy was moving his arms and legs as he was moved onto a stretcher, according to a witness who declined to be identified. He was taken to a local hospital.

It was unclear from which level of suites the boy had fallen. There's an approximately 50-foot drop from the top tier and a 25-foot drop from the middle tier. A fall from the lowest suite level would be about 5 feet to the highest rows of the lower level.

An hour after the game, arena security officials could be seen examining and taking photos of a suite on the highest level on the west side of the building.

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—Mike Bresnahan

The Los Angeles city attorney's office said Tuesday it has charged the 18-year-old woman with a misdemeanor in connection with the hit-and-run crash that killed a Notre Dame High School cross-country runner.

If convicted of the charges of leaving the scene of an accident and driving without a license, Moran Biton faces a maximum of 18 months in jail, according to city prosecutors. She is scheduled to appear in a Van Nuys courtroom Tuesday morning for arraignment.

Biton is accused of fatally striking Conor Lynch, a 16-year-old junior, with her SUV Oct. 19. The Notre Dame cross-country team often trains on the sidewalks in the Sherman Oaks neighborhoods surrounding the high school.

Police said they believe Conor may have been trying to catch up with a pack of runners when he was struck by the SUV. Conor was jogging across Woodman Avenue in the middle of a block, and not at a crosswalk, police said. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

The motorist, identified as Biton, drove four blocks before she pulled over next to a police car that was in the area on another call. She reportedly told officers, "I think I hit someone."

The Los Angeles County district attorney's office said Monday it would not file felony charges because Biton contacted police and did not conceal any details of the case.

-- Andrew Blankstein

The owners of the Sunset Strip building that was home to a famed Tower Records store have signed a boutique New York gym operator as the first tenant for a three-story building they intend to erect in its place.

David Barton Gym will be the anchor tenant of the planned building at 8801 W. Sunset Blvd. in West Hollywood. Chicago developer Sol Barket still needs city approval for the proposal to demolish the empty record store and rebuild on the site.

The developer hopes to begin work on the new retail and office building next spring, said gym operator David Barton. There are already a handful of gyms in the vicinity, but Barton says his will compete by being "cooler than most."

Read the full story on the gym at the former Tower Records here.

-- Roger Vincent

Photo: An artist's drawing of the new building planned on Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood on the site of the now-closed Tower Records store. Credit: David Barton Gym

Amid record heat Wednesday in Southern California, five high school runners collapsed while competing in a track meet at a Fullerton park, a city official said.

The meet involved seven area high schools, none of them in Fullerton, and was held at Craig Regional Park, said Sylvia Palmer, a spokeswoman for the city.

Palmer said that she did not know the exact condition of the runners or what schools they were from but that they did not sustain serious injuries.

Temperatures in the area climbed into the high 90s.

-- Rick Rojas

No criminal charges will be filed against football star Junior Seau for the incident that led to his arrest Sunday night on a domestic-violence complaint by his 25-year-old girlfriend, the San Diego County district attorney announced late Friday.

Prosecutors reviewed evidence submitted by Oceanside police.

"As with every case we review, we have an ethical duty to file charges only when we believe we can prove them beyond a reasonable doubt," Dist. Atty. Bonnie Dumanis said in a written statement.

On Sunday, Seau was arrested by Oceanside police and booked into the Vista jail. After making bail, Seau drove his Cadillac Escalade off a 150-foot cliff in Carlsbad onto the beach about 8:40 a.m.

The 6-foot-3, 250-pound Seau told Carlsbad police that he had fallen asleep at the wheel of the SUV.