Jim Vaughn

As California's top trade official in Japan, Jim Vaughn has participated in more than 50 California wine promotions. So many, in fact, that his 12-year-old daughter, Shannan, once answered a question about what her dad did for a living this way: "He drinks a lot of California wine."

As California's top trade official in Japan, Jim Vaughn has participated in more than 50 California wine promotions. So many, in fact, that his 12-year-old daughter, Shannan, once answered a question about what her dad did for a living this way: "He drinks a lot of California wine."

As part of an accelerated effort to "sell" California to businesses with money to spend, California officials have signed agreements with 12 Japanese financial institutions to promote Japanese business investment in the state, the state Commerce Department said Monday.

An Oregon man is scheduled to be arraigned Monday in the murder of a neighbor whose disappearance this week had, as one official put it, shaken the community to its core. Jonathan Daniel Holt, 25, is being held without bail at the Multnomah County Jail on suspicion of killing 21-year-old Whitney Heichel sometime after her disappearance on her way to work as a Starbucks barista Tuesday morning. Police said Holt, a neighbor and acquaintance of Heichel and her husband, was linked to her killing by evidence in her car and on her cellphone.

It's sad but true. Often, many out-of-town jazz artists of not-quite-star-status don't work Southern California for two reasons: They either aren't strong enough draws to play a six-night stand at a club like Catalina Bar & Grill, or are too expensive for such rooms as the Jazz Bakery to hire them for more than a night or two. Jim Vaughn, the man who books the talent at Maxwell's in Huntington Beach, says he's found a way around such roadblocks.

Kenny Kirkland, the invigorating pianist whose bold Wednesday night performances at the Bel Age Hotel's Cafe Brasserie have been responsible for much of that Westside jazz room's recent success, this week inaugurates Southern California's newest jazz venue.

Four of the nation's top-10 college women's gymnastics teams will be featured in the annual UCLA/Los Angeles Times Invitational at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Pauley Pavilion. The field includes No. 2 UCLA, No. 3 Cal State Fullerton, No. 5 Georgia, No. 10 Arizona State and No. 22 Stanford. Top individuals include UCLA's Tanya Service and Georgia's Corrinne Wright, who are tied for first in rankings in the all-around after each posted scores of 38.28 this season.

Since they amount to little more than pronouncements, City Council resolutions rarely cause commotion. But that wasn't the case Friday, when a Los Angeles City Council panel heard testimony on whether the council should go on record opposing the North American Free Trade Agreement. From all over the state, the pact's supporters and opponents turned out in force to argue the issue in a three-hour hearing before the council's Commerce, Energy and Natural Resources Committee.

Joanie Sommers turned back the clock when she performed Saturday at Maxwell's last weekend of jazz. The singer, who defined an entire generation with her vivacious delivery of "For Those Who Think Young" on behalf of Pepsi-Cola, was here to apply her trademark exuberance to the old standards. It was as if time had been suspended.

Ramon Ortiz threw a no-hitter in his first live batting practice session Friday. Or maybe it was a perfect game. All Angel Manager Mike Scioscia knew was that few hitters made solid contact against Ortiz's blazing fastballs and snappy sliders, which resemble those thrown in June. "I guess he's 1-0," Scioscia joked. Scioscia would prefer that Ortiz shoot for a no-decision, as in, there will be no decision on whether he makes the rotation this early in spring training.

Although it's been widely reported that American workers are losing jobs to cheaper overseas labor, a little-known and often overlooked fact is that foreign companies are creating thousands of U.S. jobs, particularly in California. Take, for example: Kawasaki Steel of Japan and Rio Doce Ltd. of Brazil, in a partnership with California industrialist Michael Wilkinson, have invested millions of dollars in the old Kaiser Steel facility in Fontana, which was closed in December, 1983.