Los Angeles mayor offers to mediate talks to end teachers strike

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti has offered to mediate in renewed contract talks proposed for Thursday between negotiators for 30,000 striking teachers and the nation's second-largest school district, union leaders said late on Wednesday.

There was no immediate word from the Los Angeles Unified School District to the overture from the United Teachers Los Angeles, but union President Alex Caputo-Pearl said he expected the two sides to return to talks through the weekend.

Union officials said the mayor and the California state superintendent of public instruction, Tony Thurmond, had met both parties on Wednesday, as the first Los Angeles teachers strike in three decades stretched through its third day.