The fancy food truck revolution rocking the U.S. restaurant scene traces its roots beyond the 2008 launch of Kogi — the Korean-Mexican taco truck that took Los Angeles by storm and tweeted its way to international stardom — to a grittier, working-class movement. In her bilingual documentary film “Masa Revolution”, veteran Los Angeles journalist Patricia Nazario maps the food truck industry back to the 1960s, when blue-collar entrepreneurs served plastic-wrapped sandwiches, doughnuts and coffee to factory and office workers across Southern California. Those food truck operators pulled down around five times more money than the blue-collar workers they fed and guarded their lucrative routes like Fort Knox. “It was a cutthroat business,” said Nazario. “Catering truck operators were very protective of their routes and would pull out knives or guns to ward off the competition.” Her film also chronicles how recent immigrants, largely Mexican, steered clear of the rough-and-tumble business model favored by their predecessors. Instead, they parked their taco trucks, or loncheros, in Hispanic neighborhoods. Some of those restaurants-on-wheels have been using the same spot for more than 20 years and have become part of the fabric of the communities they serve, she said. “I’m as enthralled with the hair-raising tales of old-school route drivers as I am with how social media is driving the gourmet food truck revolution among hipsters across the country,” Nazario said. Los Angeles is in the vanguard of the food truck movement, which has fueled contentious battles between established restaurants and the gourmet trucks that park nearby. “We get to the bottom of a modern day ‘David-and-Goliath’ struggle,” said Nazario, who has self-funded the project and is looking for financial help to get it through post production.

By Guido NejamkisMAR DEL PLATA, Argentina, Oct 13 (Reuters) - Saudi officials advised Argentina four months ago of an alleged Iran-backed plot to kill the Saudi ambassador to Washington and possibly attack the Saudi and Israeli embassies in Buenos Aires, an Argentine diplomatic source said on Thursday.Argentina is home to Latin America’s largest Jewish population and a 1992 bombing at the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires killed 29 people. Another 85 people died two years later in an attack on the AMIA Jewish community center, which Argentina has accused Iran of helping to plan.”The Saudis advised us four months ago, at the request of the United States,” the Argentine source told Reuters on condition of anonymity, without providing further details.U.S. authorities announced on Tuesday that they had thwarted an alleged plot backed by Iran to assassinate Saudi Arabia’s envoy to the United States. Iran called it a fabrication designed to create tensions with its neighbors.Washington slapped economic sanctions on five Iranians, including four senior members of the Quds Force, the covert arm of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards, for planning possible attacks in the United States and “another country.”The U.S. ambassador to Argentina, Vilma Martinez, declined to comment on the case when queried by Reuters on Thursday at a business seminar in the coastal city of Mar del Plata.The Argentine government has made no official statement either, despite U.S. media reports this week that the South American country was the other nation targeted.President Barack Obama was briefed in June about the alleged plot, soon after U.S. law enforcement agents were tipped off by a paid informant, according to court documents.Argentina has secured international arrest warrants against former and current Iranian officials it suspects were involved in the attack that leveled the AMIA building in 1994, which Israel has long pinned on Hezbollah guerrillas backed by Iran.Last month, Argentine President Cristina Fernandez publicly urged Iran to make good on its offer to help investigate the bombing, even though Tehran insists it played no role in the terrorist attack.

Last month, the league had said the team’s lawyers — Dewey & LeBoeuf LLP and Young Conaway Stargatt & Taylor LLP — were putting the interest of the owner, Frank McCourt, ahead of the baseball team they represent and should be disqualified.Joseph Farnan, a retired federal judge, was appointed mediator last week to try to settle the battle for control of the league against team owner Frank McCourt.In response to the league withdrawing its motion, Dodgers said the withdrawal was “appropriate” and “ends an unnecessary attempt by MLB to divert the focus in these bankruptcy proceedings from maximizing the value of its estate.”In a separate filing on Tuesday, Fox Sports, a division of News Corp , objected to the proposed auction of the right to broadcast Dodgers’ games, in a bid to bring in billions of dollars.In September, the Dodgers proposed an auction of the rights to broadcast its games. The auction is expected to bring in billions of dollars to stabilize the team’s long-term finances and allow it to emerge from bankruptcy.Last month, Fox had sued the team to stop the proposed sale of television rights and had said any steps taken by the team to sell media rights would be in violation of its current broadcast agreement with Fox.In order to conduct the auction, the team had to break its current broadcast agreement with Fox, which grants Fox exclusive negotiating rights till November 2012.The team filed for bankruptcy in June after Major League Baseball’s commissioner, Bud Selig, rejected a proposed $3 billion, 17-year media rights deal with Fox.The case is In re: Los Angeles Dodgers LLC, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, District of Delaware, No. 11-12010.