Adolfo Guzman-Lopez

After rallies and passionate comments from parents and teachers, L.A. Unified’s board of education today approved nonprofit groups to take over administration of 36 new and low performing schools in the district.

L.A. Unified’s teachers’ union organized protests today and for next week against school district administrators. The union is upset that the superintendent has tentatively allowed outside groups to assume control of new and low-performing campuses.

Los Angeles Unified Superintendent Ramon Cortines said today he is resigning from the board of directors of a major textbook publisher with millions of dollars in contracts with the school district.

State legislators concerned about what they call misplaced priorities and poor decision-making have approved a fiscal audit of the University of California.

The rains aren’t offering much of a break in the La Cañada Foothills.

For decades, young, urban African Americans dominated the vocal percussion known as beat boxing. Now, there’s a Hassidic Jewish beatboxer, beatboxing’s a hit on French television, and last year a British young woman took a top prize at an international competition. A group of high school students wants to put suburban Irvine on the beatbox map.

Long Beach city officials announced today they’ve hired Jim McDonnell — a protégé of former LAPD Chief Bill Bratton — as chief of Long Beach’s 1,000 officer department.

A first-of-its-kind experiment began today at dozens of Los Angeles Unified School District campuses. Teacher-led groups are competing with non-profit organizations to run 36 new and low-performing campuses in the district.

Voting begins this morning as the Los Angeles Unified School District allows parents, teachers, and students to cast an advisory vote on which non-profit groups should run three dozen low-performing and new campuses.

The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority is looking for a few good artists to enliven passengers’ waiting time.

The curtain’s falling at the Pasadena Playhouse, possibly for good. Administrators said today that the venerable house’s current production will be its last.

As Los Angeles Unified School District administrators are set to transfer dozens of campuses this year to non-profit groups that propose new methods to improve learning, the district's Frida Kahlo High School boasts of progress through an innovative East Coast model that got the thumbs up from a Grammy-winning musician this week.