PRESIDENTiAL VISIT: President Obama’s trip to Los Angeles included a tour of Glendale production studio DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc. hosted by Chief Executive Jeffrey Katzenberg, a major campaign donor. Obama pointed to Hollywood’s entertainment industry as a bright spot in the continuing sluggish U.S. economy. Outside the studio, visual effects workers protested foreign subsidies that they say are driving jobs out of the United States.

PARTIAL SHUTDOWN: Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Robert H. O’Brien has ordered Sriracha hot sauce maker Huy Fong Foods Inc. to ease any operations at its Irwindale plant that could be causing the odors that have prompted complaints from some residents and a lawsuit by the city. O’Brien said that even though health problems had not been proved, the odor coming from the grinding of fresh chili presented a “public nuisance.” The factory has already finished grinding chili for the year; it is unclear if other parts of the production and bottling process would be affected by the order.

OUT: In a management shake-up, Anschutz Entertainment Group announced that it had ended its relationship with AEG Live Chief Executive Randy Phillips. Phillips was in charge of Michael Jackson’s comeback tour when the performer died. AEG’s chief operating officer, Jay Marciano, has been appointed chairman of the live entertainment business and the company said he would take a more active role in operations. The management changes follow Tim Leiweke’s departure as AEG’s chief executive in March.

SUPER RULING: The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court decision giving Warner Bros. Entertainment’s DC Comics the ownership of the lucrative Superman character. The decision ends years of legal battles over the Man of Steel between DC and the heirs of Joseph Shuster and Jerry Siegel, the character’s creators. The appeals panel agreed with Los Angeles U.S. District Court Judge Otis D. Wright’s decision, which said that a 1992 agreement could not be terminated by the heirs as they attempted to do in 2003.

JOBLESS RATE: The Los Angeles County unemployment rate fell to 9.7 percent in October, according to the state Employment Development Department. That’s down from 9.8 percent the previous month and 10.5 percent in October of last year. Total nonfarm employment in the county was up by 56,600, or 1.4 percent, in October, compared with the same month a year ago. Los Angeles has higher unemployment than the rest of California, which had a jobless rate of 8.7 percent in October, down from 10.1 percent a year ago. Bright spots include leisure and hospitality, which added 18,500 jobs in the past year at hotels, bars and other establishments. Manufacturing continued to lag, losing 6,100 jobs compared with a year earlier.

BACK IN BUSINESS: Richard Rosenfield and Larry Flax, who co-founded California Pizza Kitchen in 1985 and sold the 265-restaurant chain to a private investment firm for $470 million in 2011, have plans for a new restaurant venture. The former lawyers told the Los Angeles Times that that they soon plan to launch a line of fast-casual pizza outlets offering moderately priced food. Rosenfield and Flax haven’t announced a name for the restaurants, but say they don’t expect to be in direct competition with their old business.

PROMOTION: Michael Rosenberg has been promoted from president to co-chairman of Imagine Entertainment after a quarter-century with the production company led by Brian Grazer and Ron Howard. Rosenberg, who joined the company as vice president of marketing, has been president since 1998 and is respected as a marketing distribution strategist. Imagine recently released the film “Rush,” is filming Howard’s “Heart of the Sea” and is in preproduction on the film version of Dan Brown book “Inferno.”

NEW NAME: USC said that its Roski School of Fine Arts is changing its name to the USC Roski School of Art and Design to better reflect the school’s expansion into new media and other arts. Billionaire developer Ed Roski Jr. and his wife, Gayle Garner Roski, made a naming gift to the fine arts school in 2006 that financed a facilities expansion, technology upgrades and additional tenure-track faculty. Garner Roski is a painter and alumna of the school. Ed Roski graduated with a degree in business from USC and serves on the university’s board.

CHILL OUT: Video website Chill will shut down before the end of the year, the company said in an email to customers. The L.A. site, an online distributor of videos from independent filmmakers, will shut down permanently on Dec. 15. The Business Journal obtained a copy of the email, which instructs Chill customers to download any videos they’ve purchased from the website before the shutdown. In October, Chill laid off much of its staff. Chief Executive Brian Norgard said at the time that the company had laid off its entertainment team and some engineers, with nine employees remaining. Norgard told the Business Journal that they are working on other projects.

NTS SALE: Aurora Capital Group has completed its acquisition of Calabasas product engineering and testing company National Technical Systems Inc. NTS becomes a subsidiary of Aurora, a Westwood private equity firm with $2 billion in assets. The deal was valued at $267 million. The acquisition marks a new chapter for the company, said Chief Executive William McGinnis, who plans to stay on under the new ownership. National Technical provides testing and engineering services for the aerospace, defense and transportation industries at facilities throughout the United States, including a 150-acre site in Santa Clarita.

ACQUISITION: Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. has bought the assets of an Orange County company that provides pipeline engineering services to the utility and gas industries. Costa Mesa-based Marmac Field Services, a private company that had been in business for 40 years primarily on the West Coast, will boost Jacob’s pipeline engineering and design capabilities. Financial terms were not disclosed.

EARNINGS: AeroVironment Inc. has reported fiscal second quarter net income of $1.7 million, 80 percent lower than in the same period a year earlier. Revenue fell 19 percent to $64.9 million.