Calling big event companies! The Special Events editors are at work on the latest edition of our "50 Top Event Companies" list, the most popular article in the magazine. If you have a big business in producing special events and yet we have not contacted you, please click here ...

Dora's here, and she brought her lawyer Corporations that hold the rights to such blockbuster characters as Dora the Explorer and SpongeBob SquarePants are becoming more aggressive in going after costume companies and planners who offer unauthorized versions for children's parties. An Atlanta costume company owner told the Wall Street Journal that just one lawsuit involving purple dinosaur Barney cost her $30,000 ...

Sun sets on trans fats in California Restaurants in California will have to use oils, margarines and shortening with less than half a gram of trans fat per serving starting Jan. 1, 2010, according to a bill signed last month by fitness-buff Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. The standard will apply to deep-fried foods by Jan. 1, 2011. Trans fats help preserve flavor and extend shelf life of foods but have been linked to heart disease, stroke and diabetes. New York City's ban went into effect July 1, with a three-month grace period. Celebrity caterer/restaurateur Wolfgang Puck told the Los Angeles Times that his operations, headquartered in Los Angeles, "stopped using trans fats years ago."