In Focus: Staff photos from Feb. 15 to Feb. 21

Maayan Weitzman, 8, holds a candle for the Havdalah ceremony marking the Sabbath’s close as part of LimmudLA , a festival held in Costa Mesa to celebrate Jewish learning.  (Christine Cotter / Los Angeles Times)

Ryan Jafar, in sunglasses, and Dario Serrano, right, do some freestyle rap with Dorsey High School students in Los Angeles. Jafar compared a line by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow to a line by hip-hop artist Talib Kweli.  (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

A sign in the California Senate chamber on Wednesday reminds legislators what is needed to pass the state budget. A deal was finally reached on Thursday and the budget was passed.  (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)

Brock DeSmit finishes crafting a snow duck during a visit to the Angeles National Forest. Visitors to the mountains enjoyed an ideal combination of winter activities and sunshine, with a foot of fresh snow in the higher elevations.  (Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)

Huy Nguyen struggles through mud at neighbor Rob Kruger’s home in Yorba Linda, where he and others placed sandbags and cleared away debris that was washed down by heavy rains.  (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

Keisha plays with a palm fragment on her daily walk in her Los Angeles neighborhood. She was undeterred by rain -- but her owner says she doesn’t like to go out in bad weather without her rain gear.  (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)

Private security guards Yvette Vega and Ozzie Orozco check an alley in downtown L.A.’s Fashion District, where more than $1 million a year is spent by businesses on safety and security improvements.  (Glenn Koenig / Los Angeles Times)

Jim Coleman, president of Crystal Cathedral Ministries, hugs church volunteers Yvette Manson, left, and Betty Spicer, who, along with seven Canadian tourists, were in the sanctuary when a man committed suicide at the altar.  (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

Federal agents accompany Oliverio Grijalva Carrillo to his apartment, where they discovered documents identifying him as Benigno Guevara Grijalva. Grijalva is a Guatemalan murder suspect.  (Brian Vander Brug / Los Angeles Times)