This week, a campaign by community members to save Berkeley Unified’s cooking and gardening programs caught readers’ attention. The nationally recognized programs are about to lose funding and, unlike last year, no last-minute reprieve of federal funds is expected. The story garnered nearly 100 comments. Earlier this month about 120 parents at Longfellow Middle School met with school reps to learn why the programs are set to lose $1.9 million of U.S. Department of Agriculture funds, and what potential solutions may be.
The story of how a piece of gear saved a Berkeley firefighter from a bullet also drew lots of views. As of Tuesday, the firefighter was reported to be resting at home with his family. The 88-year-old man believed to have shot him had been taken into custody, and the case is under investigation.
Several crime posts got readers talking this week, including a report about the arrest of two teens police said were responsible for three robberies in just 10 minutes; Berkeleyside’s weekly police blotter; and the arrest of a liquor store clerk after a month-long police investigation related to local businesses believed to buy and sell stolen property.
A UC Berkeley contribution exploring the city’s bilingual signs was another highlight. Do the names written onto Berkeley’s many bilingual shop signs say the same thing in both languages? How might speakers of these languages read the identities of these businesses differently? And what lessons can be learned about the naturalness of familiar business names in English by studying names in other languages?
What posts stood out to you this week? Are there other stories you’d like to see? Let us know in the comments or by writing to us at editors@berkeleyside.com.
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