Midday Roundup: Threat closes all Los Angeles schools for the day

School’s out. Officials with the Los Angeles Unified School District—the nation’s second largest—closed all its campuses today after receiving an electronic threat. The schools will remain closed until police can assess the threat and determine whether students and teachers are at risk. “We need the cooperation of the whole of Los Angeles today,” school board President Steve Zimmer said during a morning news conference. “We need families and neighbors to work together with our schools and with our employees to make sure our schools are safe throughout today.” The district includes more than 900 traditional public schools and 187 charter schools attended by 640,000 students. Officials hope to have the threat cleared by the end of the day.

Muslim alliance? Saudi Arabia has announced a military alliance among 34 predominantly Muslim countries determined to eradicate the “disease” of extremism that has taken hold in the Islamic State terror group. The alliance will be based in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Saudi Deputy Crown Prince and Defense Minister Mohammed bin Salman said fighting terrorism “requires a very strong effort to fight.” But Salman did not give specifics about the coalition’s efforts or plan to confront the terror group. In addition to Saudi Arabia, the coalition will include Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Pakistan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Benin, Turkey, Chad, Togo, Tunisia, Djibouti, Senegal, Sudan, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Gabon, Guinea, the Palestinians, Comoros, Qatar, Cote d'Ivoire, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Maldives, Mali, Malaysia, Egypt, Morocco, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, and Yemen.

Out of time. Today is the last day to sign up for health insurance through Obamacare for next year if you want it to go into effect by Jan. 1. Open enrollment will continue through Jan. 31 for coverage starting later in the year. Obama administration officials hope next year’s escalating fines will encourage people to sign up. For a family of four that makes $250,000 a year, the fine could be as high as $10,000. Individuals could owe as much as $695 in 2016. This year’s single-person fine is only $325. In theory, if more people sign up for insurance, the cost of premiums will go down. But that’s not happening yet. Next year’s premiums rose an average of 7.5 percent over 2015 costs.

Going to trial. U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl will face a general court-martial on charges of desertion and misbehavior before the enemy, according to the U.S. Army Forces Command. The decision overrides a preliminary hearing officer’s recommendation that the case be heard in a lower military court. Bergdahl spent five years as a prisoner of the Taliban after walking away from his post in Afghanistan. He claims he did it to highlight what military leadership failures, and he denies being an enemy sympathizer. The Obama administration last year released five senior Taliban leaders from Guantanamo Bay to secure Bergdahl’s release.

No treasure train. Polish mining officials following up on claims of a Nazi train hidden in a World War II-era tunnel say they have found no evidence to indicate the treasure trove really exists. Two researchers earlier this year convinced Polish officials to begin searching for the train, allegedly loaded down with Nazi gold. They said they learned about the train’s location from the deathbed confession of a man who claimed to have helped conceal it. According to local legend, the Nazis hid the train near Ksiaz castle, 2 miles from Walbrzych, in the southwestern part of the country. But a geological survey of the site showed no evidence of the train or the treasure. “There may be a tunnel. There is no train,” Professor Janusz Madej from Krakow’s Academy of Mining told reporters this morning.

WORLD Radio’s Jim Henry contributed to this report.