Conferences

College football commissioners were going to end their three-day unity conference in Pasadena with a round of "Kumbaya" at the hotel's valet carport. That was before the consulting firm that dreamed up "College Football Playoff" suggested something more generic from "The White Album. " Ob - la - di, Ob - la - da. Kidding aside, it was a good week, mostly, to be the kings. The leaders from the power five conferences, led by the Southeastern Conference's Mike Slive and the Big Ten's Jim Delany, were masterfully able to convey the illusion of symbiotic overhaul.

A 1988 women's conference sponsored by state Sen. William Campbell (R-Hacienda Heights) paid $200,000 to a consulting firm owned by Campbell's wife and one of his former aides, state records filed on Wednesday show.

More than 500 Latina high school students are expected at Comision Femenil's sixth annual youth conference Saturday at Cal State Northridge. "Adelante Mujer Latina," (Forward Latina Women) was designed to inspire and motivate high school Latinas to strive for college educations and professional careers and to introduce them to role models in a variety of potential career paths, said Laura Casas-Frier, a member of Comision Femenil and an organizer of the free, daylong event.

Iran said it would sponsor a conference to debate scientific evidence of the Holocaust on the heels of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's assertion that the Nazis' World War II slaughter of 6 million European Jews was a myth. Those remarks, along with assertions that Israel should be wiped off the map, sparked international condemnation and heightened the Tehran government's isolation. No date or location of the conference was disclosed.

Trends of Latino immigration will be the topic for a conference this weekend at UC Irvine. Titled "The New Californios: Images, Integration and Policy Toward Latinos," the conference will focus on demographic changes in California as well as current U.S.-Mexico relations. Frank Del Olmo, assistant to the editor of the Los Angeles Times, will be the event's keynote speaker. The conference, which begins at 1:30 p.m.

With the goal of infusing Mexican and Mexican-American culture in the curriculum at California schools, the Assn. of Mexican American Educators, a statewide coalition, is holding a conference this weekend in Burbank. Titled "Teaching Through the Windows of Culture," the three-day conference at the Burbank Hilton Hotel and Convention Center will feature workshops, lectures and panel discussions dealing with issues related to teaching Latino children. A special presentation, "Post 187 Agenda . . .

Ralph Nader, the consumer advocate who gained prominence 30 years ago by taking on General Motors Corp., on Thursday targeted a new economic power for the 1990s--Microsoft Corp. In an unusual two-day conference, called "Appraising Microsoft and Its Global Strategy," which was likened to a 1960s sit-in, Nader said the software giant must be stopped from taking over the information age.

Houston Mayor Kathy Whitmire was installed Wednesday as the new president of the Conference of Mayors at the conclusion of the group's five-day meeting here. Whitmire succeeds Mayor Arthur J. Holland of Trenton, N.J.

The San Fernando Valley Unity Coalition, formed after the riots of April, 1992, to ensure that the Valley was not ignored as Los Angeles began its recovery, will hold a conference Saturday at Cal State Northridge aimed at building an even stronger voice for the region. "When the riots came and the earthquake came, a lot of the resources went to Downtown L.A.

Police defused a suspected IRA bomb Thursday at a conference on terrorism due to be addressed by British Foreign Office Minister William Waldegrave and London Police Chief Peter Imbert. Cmdr. George Churchill-Coleman, head of Britain's anti-terrorist police squad, said he believes that the bomb was planted by the Irish Republican Army just hours before the international meeting was due to begin.