Panel Discussion

FAMILY Debi Derryberry The successful voice-over artist is best known as the voice of Nickelodeon's Jimmy Neutron. But her first love is music: She wrote her first children's song, "My Dog's My Buddy," at the age of 9 and has been at it ever since. Families are encouraged to bring blankets and chairs to this outdoor kids' concert. Levitt Pavilion Pasadena, 85 E. Holly St., Pasadena. 7 p.m. Free. (626) 683-3230. www.levittpavilionpasadena.org . POP MUSIC Jimmy Webb His compositions — including the ultimate breakup song, "By the Time I Get to Phoenix" — have been recorded by Glen Campbell, the Supremes, Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley and R.E.M.

Shirley Sherrod, the African American federal Agriculture Department official who was forced out of her job after a conservative blogger posted a heavily edited video of a speech she had made, said Thursday that she believed her experience provides a fresh opportunity for a discussion of race issues in the nation. "If the suffering I've endured and the joy I've felt gets that discussion back out there, we've got to deal with it," Sherrod said at a panel discussion, Context and Consequences, at an annual convention of the National Assn.

The wide grin that seems perpetually attached to the face of Torii Hunter was gone Wednesday morning. The Angels' media-friendly center fielder fumed about how he was portrayed in a USA Today article examining the declining percentage of African American players in baseball in which he was quoted as saying that dark-skinned players from the Dominican Republic are not black but "imposters." "People see dark faces out there, and the perception is that they're African American," Hunter said, according to the article, published Wednesday.

Former Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush on Saturday abruptly pulled out of a joint appearance scheduled for this winter in Los Angeles after growing unhappy with the way the event was being promoted. Earlier this week, the two called off an upcoming appearance in New York City. "We canceled the event because of a violation of contract and a promoter who insisted on billing it as something it wasn't," said Matt McKenna, a spokesman for Clinton. David Sherzer, a spokesman for Bush, confirmed the event was off. McKenna said the forum was never intended to be a clash between the 42nd and 43rd presidents -- "the hottest ticket in political history," a news released called it -- but rather a moderated panel discussion.

When officials at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo scheduled a free lecture by bestselling author Michael Pollan, they envisioned a lively talk about sustainable food, along with Pollan's customary critiques of agribusiness. What they didn't expect was a wave of denunciations from angry farming and ranching alumni who rank Pollan as a force only slightly less damaging to agriculture than the Mediterranean fruit fly. Threatening to pull his donations, the head of one of California's biggest ranching operations succeeded in turning today's planned lecture into a panel discussion involving Pollan, a meat-science expert, and a major grower of organic lettuce.

From the waist up, Don Knotts was perhaps the perfect assembly of male imperfections. His high forehead, perched above a worried, wrinkly brow, set off his trademark googly eyes, ever-ready to pop out in alarm at whatever misfortune came his way. Below the eyes, his recessed chin tapered into a longish neck that highlighted a bulgy Adam's apple that Knotts worked up and down in synchronized tandem with petrified double-takes or facial tremors....

Yankel Rosenbaum. James Byrd. Matthew Shepard. Joseph Ileto. David Ritcheson. The names seem random and disconnected, but one sad trait binds them: Each was the victim of a hate crime. All but one died as a result. The exception, 17-year-old Ritcheson, committed suicide a year after being beaten and sodomized with a patio umbrella pole. The names of the victims were used as a somber introduction by Ariella Loewenstein, an associate director of the Anti-Defamation League, to a recent panel discussion at the National Council of Jewish Women about hate.

Vitamin supplements have been both heralded and hyped over the years, only to ultimately fall from grace once research proves them to be little more than placebos in our quest for longer life or better health. But at least one substance may have true merit -- vitamin D. Long considered just a supplement consumed with calcium for bone health, this humble vitamin may have untapped potential in fighting or preventing disease, suggests an explosion of new research.

Hal Ashby is the cinematic equivalent of a supernova. The director's work burned startlingly bright for a brief period in the 1970s -- before his demons, including drug abuse, got the better of him, extinguishing his star shortly before his death in 1988.