Organs

WASHINGTON - Leaders of a new advocacy group formed to back President Obama's second-term agenda sought Wednesday to cast the group as a vehicle for average Americans to engage with their government, seeking to dispel criticism that the nonprofit provides special interests access to the administration. Kicking off a two-day “founders summit” to inaugurate Organizing for Action, longtime Obama political strategist David Plouffe noted that top aides to the president only formed the group after a survey of the campaign's volunteers showed that more supporters wanted a way to stay involved than even after Obama's first win in 2008.

Virginia "Ginny" Hill Wood led a life of adventure beginning at a young age, guiding horseback trips in her native Washington state, bicycling through Europe before and after World War II, serving as a WASP pilot and, after moving to Alaska, building a rustic backcountry lodge and leading wilderness treks. But her lasting legacy may be her role as a pioneer Alaska environmentalist. Wood died Friday of natural causes at her home in Fairbanks, Alaska, friends said. She was 95. The outdoors enthusiast guided her last backcountry trip at age 70, cross-country skied into her mid-80s and gardened into her early 90s. But she also "had a vision outside of her own personal interest.

Defeated Los Angeles mayoral candidate Jan Perry warned Friday that electing a city chief executive too beholden to public employee unions could leave the city vulnerable to being "flipped over on its back, flailing, while a few insiders get what they want. " Perry, whose endorsement in the May runoff election could be significant, was aiming her remarks at City Controller Wendy Greuel, who benefited from heavy financial support from organized labor on her way to a second-place finish in Tuesday's primary.

Only days after being involved in a 2nd Amendment dispute, NASCAR now is dealing with a 1st Amendment rift with one of its best drivers. NASCAR levied a $25,000 fine against Denny Hamlin after he said the Sprint Cup Series' new car, dubbed Gen 6, made it tough to pass other drivers. When Hamlin made the comments after finishing third at last Sunday's race at Phoenix International Raceway, the second race of the season, they gained little public notice. But NASCAR, in announcing the fine Thursday, called them "disparaging remarks" that ran afoul of its rules against actions "detrimental" to the sport.

With the surging interest in natural wines, a budding vintner in London is jumping into the fray at Forty Hall community vineyard in the borough of Enfield. The Guardian newspaper reports that the only commercial vineyard inside the M25 motorway that encircles London is hoping to produce London's first organic wine since the Middle Ages. In this climate of bone-chilling cold, it's a challenge. This month, the Guardian's Patrick Barkham reports, 50 volunteers will prune 7,000 vines by hand.

Jonathan Tam's new organic health-food restaurant in Monterey Park is an incongruous slice of Santa Monica chic in one of the San Gabriel Valley's most Chinese neighborhoods. At Farm Cuisine, diners nosh on salads and miso-glazed salmon against a backdrop of artfully overturned vegetable crates and hip chalkboard menus. LIVE DISCUSSION: Join us here at 4 p.m. Tam has entered a crowded, highly competitive market where restaurants compete on taste and price rather than presentation or healthfulness.

WASHINGTON - A nonprofit advocacy group allied with President Obama revealed Thursday that it would decline corporate donations and release more information about its contributors, but the decision did not placate campaign finance reform advocates who said the organization still provided big donors a conduit for access to the White House. Jim Messina, who managed Obama's 2012 reelection campaign and is now chairman of Organizing for Action, announced the changes after a torrent of criticism from reform advocates, as well as Republicans, about the group's fundraising plans.

As a doctor, Jonathan Tam has a message for San Gabriel Valley residents: Eat your vegetables. Farm Cuisine, his new organic restaurant in Monterey Park, is trying to get cost-conscious Chinese diners to buy healthful organic takes on traditional Chinese dishes. But the pricier meals are a tough sell in the heavily Asian American valley, where more than 500 Chinese restaurants are in a pitched battle to offer authentic dishes at ever lower prices. JOIN A LIVE DISCUSSION AT 4 P.M. PT Area restaurants wear B and C food-safety grades like badges of honor, and diners line up for cheap fried pork dumplings and dim sum at $2 a plate.

Assi Natural Market carries dozens of kimchi products. There are more than 200 kinds of dumplings. Its carts mimic the red and green of Sriracha sauce bottles. All of which seems to indicate a pretty standard Asian grocery. But once it opens this month in Irvine, Assi aspires to be a hybrid of cultures - like the growing and increasingly moneyed population of second-generation Asian Americans it hopes to draw into its aisles. The goal, manager Thomas Yoon said, is to become the Whole Foods of ethnic supermarkets.

The 9.0-magnitude Tohoku-Oki earthquake and resulting tsunami that triggered a meltdown at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station has resulted in only a small increase in lifetime cancer risks for people living nearby, and an even smaller risk for populations outside of Japan, according to a new report from the World Health Organization. The uptick in disease resulting from radiation released by the crippled plant is "likely to remain below detectable levels," the study authors concluded in their 166-page report released Thursday.