Fine Line

The phrase a fine line usually refers to a subtle distinction. But it also might mean a fragment of dialogue, the kind of sentence that basks in its writer's craftsmanship. Judy Romberger's "A Fine Line," at the Cast, could use more subtle shading of its characters, and fewer showy lines that primarily call attention to Romberger. The play is set in the kitchen of a Riverside County ranch house at dawn. Steven T. Howell designed the kitchen more carefully than he lit the dawn.

WASHINGTON - When Marco Rubio was the No. 3 Republican in the Florida House of Representatives, he worked with Democrats in 2003 to protect farmworkers from unscrupulous contractors and harmful pesticides. "My heart goes out to the workers in this industry," the Miami native, then 31, told the Palm Beach Post. "Like a lot of my constituents, they come over to this country and try to get ahead and they should be treated fairly. " Democrats in the state House had recruited Rubio to help convince the GOP majority, especially a citrus grower who ran the agriculture committee, to support the legislation.

What's in the hatch? Where are the aliens? Who killed Laura Palmer? "Lost,""The X- Files"and "Twin Peaks"set the standard for long-form television by milking these and other questions for every imaginable ounce of suspense possible. This season's heir to prime-time's Big Riddle throne, NBC's "Awake," unspooled its mysteries within the traumatized cranium of Det. Michael Britten. Each week Britten, survivor of a horrendous accident, woke up to a world in which his wife is still alive and his son is dead.

For months, the top two candidates in the Los Angeles mayoral campaign have bombarded the public with competing claims that each of them is best-suited to get City Hall's financial affairs in order. With a new round of labor talks awaiting the next mayor, a critical question for voters is this: which candidate would be best positioned to negotiate pay and benefit packages with city employees that the public can afford? City Councilman Eric Garcetti and City Controller Wendy Greuel are both Democrats with long histories of supporting organized labor.

Fine Line, the specialty film unit of New Line Cinema, said Mark Ordesky will replace Ruth Vitale as president, with Brian D. Caldwell and Marian Koltai-Levine named co-senior vice presidents of marketing. Marketing Executive Vice President Liz Manne is leaving the company. Fine Line released such acclaimed films as "Shine" and the current releases "Deconstructing Harry" and "The Sweet Hereafter."

For the third time in the last decade, a new coach will take UCLA into a season opener. Bruins fans hope that Jim Mora takes UCLA to national prominence, or at least beats USC. That journey begins Thursday. Times staff writer Chris Foster looks at the matchups and story lines for the Bruins' game against Rice. Safety first Two of the most asked questions around Westwood the last five years: Where's the best place to eat? Can UCLA's offensive line block? Neither seems to have a definitive answer.

These high-end fishing pliers, of titanium and stainless steel, never met a monofilament line they didn't want to take a stab at. BROWNING These 7-inch titanium-coated 17/4 stainless steel pliers were quickest to rust and heaviest at 10.5 ounces, but they performed well, thanks to contoured rubber grips and Tungsten blades. $50. (800) 227-7776, www.basspro.com * VAN STAAL TITANIUM All but small hands overwhelm these 6-inch, 5.5-ounce solid titanium pliers.

This summer, programmers at Go Country 105 radio in Los Angeles unveiled a new single called "Country Strong" and asked listeners to guess who was the twangy alto belting out lines about how she's "hard to break, like the ground I grew up on. " FOR THE RECORD: Gwyneth Paltrow: In the Nov. 9 Calendar section, a photo caption that accompanied an article about Gwyneth Paltrow said the actress learned to strum a guitar as country singer and mom...

Each season of "American Idol" asks our nation not just to choose our champion, but to decide what kind of people we are. What makes us, American viewers of "American Idol" (as opposed to viewers of "Lithuanian Idol" or "Indonesian Idol" or any other branch of the worldwide empire) unique? In choosing an idol, we say what we aspire to be -- are we a whimsical beat-boxing people or are we at heart a perky yet sincere balladeering people?

As civil strife rages in Israel, thousands of readers are expressing anger over a cartoon on that conflict by Times editorial cartoonist Michael Ramirez published Oct. 6. Most of the complaints have been generated through a campaign on the Internet, where the cartoon has been widely distributed.

After the coffee. Before hopping a flight back to Los Angeles. The Skinny: I spent the weekend in New York City in an apartment with (gasp) no cable. So I won't know how absurd the season finale of "Homeland" was until later today when I get back home. Monday's stories include a look at how "The Hobbit" did in its opening weekend, some deep digs on the role of the media following the tragedy in Connecticut and a look at Quentin Tarantino's "Django Unchained. " Daily Dose: NBC has pulled some of the gun-themed programming from its NBC Sports Network outlet including the show "Guns & Gears" in the aftermath of the horrible school shooting in Newtown, Conn.

TELLURIDE, Colo. - Wearing high-top tennis shoes and headphones, 11-year-old Wadjda doesn't look like much of a revolutionary. But in filmmaker Haifaa Mansour's new Saudi Arabian movie, the young girl is just that - as is Mansour herself. Having its North American premiere at the Telluride Film Festival, "Wadjda" has become one of the event's most talked-about movies, as much as for what's on screen as for how the story was brought to the screen. The first Saudi feature directed by a woman, "Wadjda" was made entirely inside the repressive country.

For the third time in the last decade, a new coach will take UCLA into a season opener. Bruins fans hope that Jim Mora takes UCLA to national prominence, or at least beats USC. That journey begins Thursday. Times staff writer Chris Foster looks at the matchups and story lines for the Bruins' game against Rice. Safety first Two of the most asked questions around Westwood the last five years: Where's the best place to eat? Can UCLA's offensive line block? Neither seems to have a definitive answer.

Helen Gurley Brown, legendary editor of Cosmopolitan and doyenne of stiletto-heeled self-empowerment, died Monday at 90. The author of "Sex and the Single Girl," Brown was widely credited for revolutionizing the precepts of women's media, transforming a melange of recipes and homemaking tips into an unapologetic celebration of sexual, social and professional striving captured in cover lines like "Four Fab New Vibrators" and "Get Hit On All The Time....

What's in the hatch? Where are the aliens? Who killed Laura Palmer? "Lost,""The X- Files"and "Twin Peaks"set the standard for long-form television by milking these and other questions for every imaginable ounce of suspense possible. This season's heir to prime-time's Big Riddle throne, NBC's "Awake," unspooled its mysteries within the traumatized cranium of Det. Michael Britten. Each week Britten, survivor of a horrendous accident, woke up to a world in which his wife is still alive and his son is dead.

GLENDALE, Ariz. - They won a mere two games in December and ended up using seven goalies during a not-so-memorable Kings season in 2007-08. But one of those goalies - Jason LaBarbera - recognized something special in two of the Kings' young forwards, Dustin Brown and Anze Kopitar. They had career breakthrough performances that season, scoring 33 and 32 goals, respectively. "You could see how great they were going to be," said LaBarbera, who is now the Phoenix Coyotes' backup goalie.

Figuring out the difference between acceptable and crooked conduct in government is more difficult than it seems. Vast gray areas, as murky as early morning fog at LAX, cloud any attempt to set clear standards for ethical and legal behavior. That's one reason why the Los Angeles City Council is having trouble writing a new conflict of interest law. Such complexities are present in the biggest political corruption trial now under way in the state. In a Sacramento federal courtroom, state Sen.

A photograph may be worth more than a thousand words to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, as it gears up to fine motorists who illegally cross the tracks in front of Blue Line trains. "What we're trying to do is to keep people from making left-hand turns against a red left-hand arrow," said Linda Meadow, manager of systems safety for the MTA. "A lot of our accidents aren't real serious in terms of fatalities, but they hit the train."

This is not a place of farmhouses, mom-and-pop diners, chitchats with voters over apple pie. This is a place of neon signs, abandoned homes, billboards promising quick vasectomies and slot machines shouting: Wheel! Of! Fortune! Nevada is a landscape unlike any the Republican presidential field has seen. A few days of mad-dash campaigning in advance of Saturday's caucuses presented the four candidates with an uncomfortable choice: Do you let the Vegas in? Most tried to keep it out. And failed.

Obama administration Cabinet members and senior aides are fanning out across the country in an aggressive fundraising drive, taking advantage of porous campaign finance laws that allow them to appear as marquee speakers and raise substantial money for the president's reelection effort. The Obama campaign's "Speaker Series" program turns Cabinet secretaries and top White House advisors into fundraising surrogates. For $5,000, a donor can get a kind of season pass to see officials when they come to town — a bargain compared with the $35,800 typically charged for dinner with President Obama.