Video Chat

Autos writers Jerry Hirsch and David Undercoffler talk about what they are most interested in seeing at the Los Angeles Auto Show next week. The Los Angeles show is second only to the one in Detroit as the most significant auto show in the nation. For full coverage of the auto show go to http://www.latimes.com/business/autos/ RELATED: Audi confirms four new diesel models Jaguar previews ultra-rare XFR-S for L.A. Auto Show Porsche confirms world debut of new Cayman at L.A. Auto Show  

What's next in the Environmental Protection Agency investigation into levels of cancer-causing Chromium 6 at locations on and near the Walt Disney Studios Burbank lot? Times reporters Richard Verrier and Chip Jacobs say there will be more study about possible revelations about groundwater contamination that has bedeviled the San Fernando Valley since the 1990s. They discuss their story in today's Los Angeles Times with business columnist David Lazarus.

Yahoo Chief Executive Marissa Mayer stirred up a hornet's nest with her company's announcement that it will soon ban telecommuting . By Yahoo's reckoning, you can't operate at the top of your game if you're working from home. "To become the absolute best place to work, communication and collaboration will be important, so we need to be working side-by-side," Jackie Reses, Yahoo's human resources chief, wrote in a memo to staffers. "That is why it is critical that we are all present in our offices.

  Mark Z. Danielewski will join us here for a live video chat at 10 a.m. PDT Tuesday. Please join us. Danielewski is the author of "House of Leaves" and "Only Revolutions," two novels that take formal experimentation to a new level. His works include thematic use of color and shifting and degradation of text formats on the page. To get a handle on how he approaches writing, it might help to know that he got his undergraduate degree at Yale and also did sound on a documentary about deconstructionist philosopher Jacques Derrida.

Edmunds.com senior analyst Jessica Caldwell talks about where the auto market is headed, outlines the intense competition for buyers of family sedans and what's behind less-than-robust truck sales.  U.S. auto sales jumped 13% in September compared with a year ago and represent one sector of the U.S. economy that's firing on all cylinders. With the exception of Nissan, the major foreign nameplates had strong, double-digit sales gains in September, with Toyota and Honda rebounding from depleted inventory and depressed sales caused by the earthquake in Japan last year.

  Join us at noon today for a live Google+ Hangout chat with national college football columnist Chris Dufresne, USC football writer Gary Klein, UCLA football writer Chris Foster and Deputy Sports Editor John Cherwa as they discuss the college football season. USC and UCLA both opened the season with easy victories, but the road will get much tougher for the Bruins this week when they take on Nebraska. USC dropped to No. 2 in the AP rankings despite their victory, though they rose to No. 2 in the coaches' poll.

Once the hottest craze in snow sports, snowboarding is cooling down, as many riders are switching to skis that are easier to ride. Join us for a live video chat at 3:30 p.m. on the shift in snow sports trends. Los Angeles Times travel industry writer Hugo Martin will talk about skiing, snowboarding and the trends on the slopes with Josh Holm, who manages a ski rental shop at Squaw Valley ski resort. Have you switched from snowboarding to skiing? Or vice versa? Join in on the conversation by leaving your comments below.

Guacamole! Jerk chicken! Beer brittle! Midnight chocolate brownies... and more! Score big with your guests on gameday with these recipe favorites! RECIPES: Click here for 39 winning Super Bowl recipes! We've compiled 39 winning recipes for your Super Bowl-viewing pleasure, including snacks, hearty mains, sides and sweet desserts. Keep the fans sated with creamy black bean hummus and monster turkey wings, dig into hickory-smoked baby back ribs and spiced carne asada , and everyone wins when you're serving ooey-gooey double-chocolate cookies.

In a video posted Thursday, Facebook explains that its renovated News Feed is intended to clean up the site's design. The new version of the feature has bigger picture thumbnails, shows larger maps when friends check in and shows larger previews for articles users share. Facebook has also introduced a feed switch, so users can toggle between the type of content that they want to look at. This includes photo feeds, music feeds, all friends feeds and others. LIVE DISCUSSION: Join us at 2:30 p.m. "By providing these different feeds, that really empowers people to see the things they care about most," a Facebook employee says in the YouTube video . In pictures and on video, the new design looks clean, but will users embrace it?

Join us Tuesday for a live video conversation with award-winning author Amy Wilentz about her new book, "Farewell, Fred Voodoo. " After a massive earthquake devastated Haiti in 2010, Wilentz, a journalist who has been writing about the country for more than two decades, felt compelled to return. This is the story she came back with, one that weaves history and culture to understand a fractured present. "Haiti needs to be understood in Haitian terms," Wilentz writes. In his review of the book in the L.A. Times, Hector Tobar writes: " 'Farewell, Fred Voodoo' is a love letter to - and a lament for - Haiti, a country with an already strange and tortured history that became even more tragic, interesting and convoluted in the months after the earthquake....