Thank you, Ben Bolch. In your newsletter, an open letter to UCLA Chancellor Julio Frenk, you have asked all the right questions. On the surface, the proposed move to SoFi Stadium might make some sense. But in the real world, it sure doesn’t. I was at the game vs. Washington, and the sentiment was pretty strong against a move. Also, the word was that possibly 80% of season-ticket holders will not renew if they play in SoFi Stadium. Even though I have had season tickets for more than 40 years, if they do move, I will be part of that 80%. I wonder if that figure has been factored in?
Bruce Fischer Huntington Beach
The Rose Bowl is the most storied stadium in college football. Nestled just below the San Gabriel Mountains, it is probably the most beautiful as well. It has hosted five Super Bowls (XI, XIV, XVII, XXI, XXVII), men’s and women’s World Cup finals, the Olympics and its annual namesake bowl game — “the Granddaddy of Them All.” There literally isn’t a bad seat in it. Why would UCLA even consider leaving it, especially for the glorified erector set known as SoFi Stadium?
After recently announcing major cuts to its youth orchestra, the L.A. Phil has secured additional donor funding to ensure the East L.A. branch of the Youth Orchestra Los Angeles (YOLA) program will continue at full capacity until the end of the school year.
In an email to the students’ parents last week, the nonprofit organization announced that it would need to “significantly modify” the programming at the Esteban E. Torres High School site “due to unanticipated financial and funding challenges for the organization.” With these proposed changes, the site’s teaching artists were laid off, the younger students’ programming was gutted and practices for the older students were reduced.
The students’ parents and the local community rallied together in response to the cuts, creating a campaign on Instagram and organizing at town hall meetings. After hearing this outcry and receiving additional funds, the L.A. Phil has been able to temporarily preserve the Torres site.
In a statement to The Times on Wednesday, LA Phil President and CEO Kim Noltemy says, “We are thrilled our donors recognized that this funding provides vital access to music education for the East LA community.”
“Joining together, we have and will continue working tirelessly over the coming months to ensure we remain in a position to support this program, because it is more important than ever,” said Noltemy.
Conductor Gustavo Dudamel rehearses with young musicians from around the country participating in the L.A. Phil’s annual YOLA National Program at Walt Disney Concert Hall in 2023.
(Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Times)
YOLA has offered a free musical education to students ages 5 through 18 since 2007. Run by the L.A. Phil, the program gives students access to free instruments and the firsthand experience of being in a musical ensemble. YOLA currently operates out of Inglewood, East L.A., Rampart District and Westlake/MacArthur Park. The Torres site, specifically, serves 165 students.
This program has been championed by star conductor Gustavo Dudamel since he first came to L.A. in 2009. Its teaching format is heavily inspired by El Sistema, the publicly funded program where he first learned music in Venezuela. After his 17-year tenure with the L.A. Phil, the conductor will be leaving the orchestra in June to work with the New York Philharmonic.
An L.A. Phil spokesperson told The Times that their ongoing funding challenges come from “fundraising limitations and rising operating costs,” while also maintaining their day-to-day operations, including free/low-cost community programs.
These cuts were originally set to go into effect after Dec. 12, months before Dudamel’s departure. But with these new funds, the instruction and rehearsal time will stay fully operational, and the previously laid-off staff will be reinstated for the remainder of the program.
These tentative revisions were also announced days before the teaching artists voted to unionize, under the American Federation of Musicians of the United States and Canada. There has been some speculation about whether this unionization played a role in these cuts.
In a statement to the Times, the L.A. Phil says it has a long history of “working constructively with unions” and that the cuts were based “solely [on] financial and organizational needs.”
At the end of the 2025-2026 school year, the L.A. Phil Board will evaluate the Torres site to see if it is the “best and most sustainable location for YOLA programming after this school year.” The Philharmonic says in the release that its board “is committed to sustaining a long-term YOLA program in the East LA community.”
In an effort to build a transparent, collaborative community, the Phil has also announced that it will work to create a parent advisory committee where YOLA families will be heard as future decisions are made.
Nov. 21 (UPI) — The Christian Association of Nigeria said 215 Catholic school students in Central Nigeria were kidnapped on Friday by a group of armed men.
The attackers also kidnapped a dozen teachers from the religious school in the north-central Niger State, CNN reported.
Many students managed to escape, and their parents began picking them up before the school closed, Niger State CAN Chapter leader Rev. Bulus Dauwa Yohanna told media.
CAN officials are working with the government and its security agencies to safely return the abducted children and teachers, a CAN spokesman said.
According to police, the pupils were taken when armed “bandits” stormed the St. Mary’s School in Papiri and forced students out of their hostel sleeping space.
Boarding schools already were closed by state authorities in a large part of the country due to concern over rising security threats following a renewed string of attacks by militant groups.
The incident occurred after more than 20 Muslim schoolgirls were kidnapped Monday from a different boarding school in the neighboring Kebbi state.
But officials said St. Mary’s, in Nigeria’s largest state of Niger, defied the order to close despite intelligence warnings by the Nigerian government.
“Regrettably, St. Mary’s School proceeded to reopen and resume academic activities,” they told the BBC in a statement.
“Without notifying or seeking clearance from the state government, thereby exposing pupils and the staff to avoidable risk,” Nigerian officials stated.
The mass kidnappings came on top of U.S. President Donald Trump‘s threat to issue strikes against Islamic extremists in Nigeria, such as ISWAP and Boko Haram, which are currently engaged in ongoing armed conflicts for control of sovereign territory with various militarized groups, described as “bandits,” across the West African country.
On Wednesday, Nigerian President Bola Tinubu said he was “fully apprised” of the “recent uptick in violent extremism in pockets across the country.”
“And I have directed our security agencies to respond with urgency, clarity, and decisive action. Our forces need the full cooperation of every community. Sharing information can save lives and protect our children,” Tinubu posted on social media.
Tinubu said that Nigeria was canceling plans to participate in the looming G20 and AU-EU summits in South Africa and Angola, respectively.
The Trump administration filed a federal suit Thursday against California and its public university systems, alleging its practice of offering in-state college tuition rates to undocumented immigrants who graduate from California high schools is illegal.
The suit, which named Gov. Gavin Newsom, state Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta, the UC Board of Regents, the Cal State University Board of Trustees and the Board of Governors for the California Community Colleges, also seeks to end some provisions in the California Dream Act, which in part allows students who lack documentation to apply for state-funded financial aid.
“California is illegally discriminating against American students and families by offering exclusive tuition benefits for non-citizens,” U.S. Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi said in a statement. “This marks our third lawsuit against California in one week — we will continue bringing litigation against California until the state ceases its flagrant disregard for federal law.”
Higher education and state officials were not immediately available to comment.
The tuition suit targets Assembly Bill 540, which passed with bipartisan support in 2001 and offers in-state tuition rates to undocumented students who completed high school in California. The law also offers in-state tuition to U.S. citizens who graduated from California schools but moved out of the state before enrolling in college.
Between 2,000 and 4,000 students attending the University of California — with its total enrollment of nearly 296,000 — are estimated to be undocumented. Across California State University campuses, there are about 9,500 immigrants without documentation enrolled out of 461,000 students. The state’s biggest undocumented group, estimated to be 70,000, are community college students.
The Trump administration’s challenge to California’s tuition statute focuses on a 1996 federal law that says people in the U.S. without legal permission should “not be eligible on the basis of residence within a state … for any post-secondary education benefit unless a citizen or national of the United States is eligible for such a benefit … without regard to whether the citizen or national is such a resident.”
Scholars have debated whether that law affects California’s tuition practices since AB 540 applies to citizens and noncitizens alike.
Thursday’s complaint was filed in Eastern District of California, and it follows similar actions the Trump administration has taken against Texas, Kentucky, Illinois, Oklahoma and Minnesota.
Abby Zwerner, 28, was shot in 2023 as she sat in a first-grade classroom and sustained life-threatening injuries.
Published On 7 Nov 20257 Nov 2025
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A jury in the state of Virginia in the United States has awarded $10m to a former teacher who was shot by a six-year-old student.
The jury on Thursday sided with former teacher Abby Zwerner’s claim, made in a civil lawsuit, that an ex-administrator at the school had ignored repeated warnings that the six-year-old child had a gun in class.
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Zwerner, 28, was shot in January 2023 as she sat at a reading table in her first-grade classroom and spent nearly two weeks in the hospital, required six surgeries and still does not have the full use of her left hand.
The bullet fired by the six-year-old narrowly missed her heart and remains in her chest.
Zwerner, who did not address reporters outside the court after the decision was announced, had sought $40m in damages against Ebony Parker, a former assistant principal at Richneck Elementary School in the city of Newport News, Virginia.
One of her lawyers, Diane Toscano, said the verdict sent a message that what happened at the school “was wrong and is not going to be tolerated, that safety has to be the first concern at school”.
Zwerner’s lawyers had claimed that Parker, the assistant principal at the time, had failed to act in the hours before the shooting after several school staff members told her that the student had a gun in his backpack.
“Who would think a six-year-old would bring a gun to school and shoot their teacher?” Toscano had asked the jury earlier.
“It’s Dr Parker’s job to believe that is possible. It’s her job to investigate it and get to the very bottom of it.”
Parker did not testify in the lawsuit.
The mother of the student who shot Zwerner was sentenced to four years in prison after being convicted of child neglect and firearms charges.
No charges were brought against the child, who told authorities he got his mother’s handgun by climbing onto a drawer to reach the top of a dresser, where the firearm was in his mother’s purse.
Newtown Action Alliance, an advocacy organisation that supports reforms aimed at addressing gun violence, said that the case points to the need for greater regulations over the storage of firearms in homes with children.
“Abby Zwerner was shot by her 6-year-old student using a gun from home,” the group said in a social media post, adding that “76 percent of school shooters get their guns from their homes or relatives”.
Abby Zwerner was shot by her 6-year-old student using a gun from home.
76% of school shooters get their guns from their homes or relatives.
Urge your Members of Congress to cosponsor Ethan’s Law.
Zwerner no longer works for the school district and has said she has no plans to teach again. She has since become a licensed cosmetologist.
While accidents involving young children accessing unsecured firearms in their homes are common in the US, school shootings perpetrated by those under 10 years old are rare.
A database compiled by US researcher David Riedman has registered about 15 such incidents since the 1970s.
