Adolfo Guzman-Lopez

Thousands of native Egyptians have called Southern California home for decades. Many of them are members of the Coptic Orthodox Church and left Egypt to escape persecution by Muslim extremists. Some outside a Coptic church in northeast Los Angeles, have definite opinions about the direction their home country should head.

The marriage appears to be going well; the Los Angeles Philharmonic and conductor Gustavo Dudamel have agreed to add another four years to his contract.

During a speech at Loyola Marymount University Wednesday night, incoming L.A. Unified Superintendent John Deasy laid out his priorities for the 650,000-student school district.

The drug cartel violence in Mexico and Colombia has inspired one Los Angeles artist to create a series of large paintings she plans to exhibit this spring. The work depicts the lives of some women who’ve become involved with notorious drug cartel leaders.

For the first time since Gov. Jerry Brown announced $500,000 million in proposed cuts to the California State University, trustees of the system began the budget-cutting process Tuesday at their scheduled meeting in Long Beach.

South Korea’s ambassador to the United States, Han Duk-soo, says a proposed free trade agreement between the two countries would create 70,000 jobs in the U.S. The trade proposal - still to be approved by Congress - has supporters and detractors in organized labor.

In a month-and-a-half, voters within L.A. Unified’s wide boundaries will be asked to cast ballots for four of the seven seats on the school district board of education. Observers say the result could radically shift the way the massive school district carries out its reforms. Others say that the campaigns have been particularly quiet for such a high-profile race.

Incoming L.A. Unified superintendent John Deasy said Wednesday that administrators at Gardena High School did not follow a long-standing weapons search policy Tuesday when a student brought a gun to campus. The gun discharged, apparently accidentally, and seriously injured two students.

Los Angeles Unified School District officials leave it up to each campus to carry out daily random searches with metal detectors. District administrators on Tuesday didn't perform those checks when a 17-year-old boy brought a gun to Gardena High School in his backpack.

Two students are in the hospital and one is in custody after a weapon fired, apparently accidentally, at Gardena High School yesterday.

Two Gardena High School students are in the hospital Tuesday — one in critical condition — after a gun discharged in their health class. Los Angeles Unified School District Police Chief Steve Zipperman told reporters in an afternoon briefing that a 17-year-old boy carried the firearm to school in a backpack.

Hundreds of Gardena High School students are home safe Tuesday evening after their campus was on lockdown after a gun fired in a classroom. Two students were injured by the bullet, one critically.