Conferences

While much of the world argues over whether biofuels made from corn are worsening world hunger, the debate in California is shifting to new state rules that could revolutionize the way fuels are judged. A gathering this week in Sacramento offered a glimpse of a complex "poly-fuel" future that promised substantial environmental benefits as well as wrenching change for California's transportation systems.

NEW YORK -- Tony Soprano, the TV mob boss who seemed to spend as much time with his psychotherapist as his consigliere, was no stranger to analysis. But not this kind: "Body of Evidence: Tony Soprano's Corporeal Battle." "Episode 5, or When Does a Narrative Become What It Is?" "Carmela Soprano as Emma Bovary: European Culture, Taste and Class in 'The Sopranos.'

In a push to coalesce Democrats, Sen. Barack Obama on Saturday huddled in a hotel conference room with Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and other influential city leaders who earlier had supported Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton for president. The private meeting occurred shortly before he addressed an overflowing ballroom at the U.S.

After a rough year marked by budget headaches and marital woes, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa strode back into the warm glow of the national spotlight this weekend and used it to urge the presidential candidates to reinvigorate federal anti-poverty programs. Villaraigosa, speaking to hundreds of city leaders at the U.S.

For more than 300 aspiring writers and producers, this -- a clanging cowbell, worn wooden tables and youthful TV programming executives at the House of Blues in West Hollywood -- was their chance to squeeze through the closed doors of Hollywood. It was not "Entourage." And it is not how superstar TV producers like J.J. Abrams or Aaron Sorkin pitch programs to network brass in the office suites of Burbank.

All year, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has looked forward to treating Mexican and U.S. dignitaries to a one-of-a-kind California experience at a governors summit he is hosting in Los Angeles starting today. Schwarzenegger scheduled a 3D version of "Terminator 2" at Universal Studios. He organized a private dinner for the governors at his Brentwood mansion. He recruited his wife, Maria Shriver, to lead a seminar.

A 5-year-old boy was reportedly sexually assaulted by a 6-year-old male classmate at a Los Angeles-area school recently. On another campus, a 6-year-old girl was allegedly sexually abused by a 10-year-old classmate after he grabbed her hair and pulled her into a school bathroom. At a conference Wednesday on the Westside, these and other cases were described as part of a troubling trend of sexually aggressive behavior among students.

Later this month, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will host the state's first Governor's Conference on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, to be held in Los Angeles. Since May, dozens of small-business owners and advocates have been hammering out preliminary policy proposals to present at the conference. Their recommendations are meant to position the state to thrive in the fast-changing global economy while improving the business environment for the 3.5 million small firms here.

Hundreds of people gathered near the Golden Gate Bridge over the weekend to ponder the enigmatic date of Dec. 21, 2012, the last day of the ancient Maya calendar and the focus of many end-of-the-world predictions.

The Bush administration is hopeful that world leaders, at a summit in Washington next week, will adopt an action plan singling out some short-term steps that could be taken to deal with the current financial crisis as well as prevent similar problems from happening again.