G. Haley Massara

The increase is representative of broader regional and national trends, Berkeley Police Department Chief Michael Meehan said, and while factors like the local economy, demographics and policing strategies contribute to the relative prevalence of crime, there is “no consensus and no model” about the specific causes of this year’s increase.

Nine months after police action in December’s Black Lives Matter protests, the city’s Police Review Commission passed its latest round of recommendations for Berkeley Police Department on Wednesday night.

In the latest development in a lawsuit sparked by alleged police misconduct during the 2011 Occupy Cal demonstrations, the defense — representing officers and campus administrative officials — released briefs Wednesday further supporting a motion to resolve the case without going before a jury.

Two separate groups of men were robbed at gunpoint early Tuesday morning, police said, with one incident occurring near the intersection of Haste Street and Shattuck Avenue and the other near Telegraph and Ashby avenues.

The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights has opened a complaint into possible gender-based discrimination faced by players of the Cal women’s field hockey team, which stems from campus’s failure to provide the team with a home field for the past year.

The text describes BHS’ Academy of Medicine and Public Service, a college preparatory program, as “making our future doctors, dentists, nurses, physicians, fire chiefs and trash collators of tomorrow.”

In December, 18-year-old Khalil Phanor, 20-year-old Carl Young and 19-year-old Gregory Foote allegedly murdered and robbed Middleton in a parking lot located on University and San Pablo avenues. According to 29-year-old Rebekah Cleberg, Middleton’s fiancee, the crime occurred after she and Middleton planned to trade Young a pound and a half of marijuana for $3,200.

Thursday marked the second day of a preliminary hearing for the December murder of 36-year-old Kamahl Middleton in West Berkeley and included testimony from police and further testimony from a surviving victim of the incident.

The fire, which was ruled an accident by the Berkeley Fire Department, began on the first floor of the building and eventually spread to the second floor and attic. The building received an estimated $100,000 in damages.