TBS Today, Sept. 11

Berkeley officials voted Tuesday night to let workers clean up the city's most intractable homeless camps while still stressing a "care first, jails last" model.

If you weren't watching last night's council meeting — shocker! — here's what happened.

Berkeley votes to tackle its most hazardous homeless camps

The vote came after hours of impassioned public comment with most speakers urging the city not to criminalize the homeless.

The Berkeley ScannerEmilie Raguso

In other news

If you didn't make it out to Berkeley Humane's Bark Around the Block adopt-a-thon over the weekend, you missed a great event.

(The Scanner was a media sponsor.)

The event put "150 pets in loving homes," Berkeley Humane reported, "with many more meet-and-greets and adoptions continuing into the following days. These animals came from over 10 different counties across California and Hawai'i."

Highlights included live music and our first shot from West Berkeley's Roaming Bean Coffee. We can't wait for the next one!

We also met a husky mix who absolutely stole our heart.

His name is Mike and he's the last of his litter. Inexplicably, he is still available.

Mike is super sweet, snuggly and seemed quite relaxed despite all the excitement of the event.

If you're looking for a new fur baby or know someone who is, you can meet him Friday through Monday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Read more about adoptions at Berkeley Humane.

(Don't be surprised to find us at Roaming Bean and then Berkeley Humane first thing Friday for visiting hours!)

In case you missed it: Tuesday's scoop

Berkeley businesses sue city over Harrison homeless camp

Nine business and property owners, including Fieldwork Brewing, Boichik Bagels and Covenant Winery, filed the lawsuit Tuesday.

The Berkeley ScannerEmilie Raguso

See all our recent stories. Learn more about our work.

Around the web

Alyx Herrmann's murder trial started in Santa Cruz last week.

Scheduling conflicts have prevented us from being there, but we're still hoping to attend some of the proceedings.

We wrote a detailed story on the preliminary hearing in June.

(In fact, the defense pushed for a change of venue and cited our story as one reason for the need for it. The motion failed.)

Alyx Herrmann murder case: Chilling new details emerge

Theo Lengyel played cat-and-mouse with police, reportedly taunting them for “blunders” and trying to find out why he hadn’t been arrested.

The Berkeley ScannerEmilie Raguso

Lookout Santa Cruz has been covering the trial and we're looking forward to catching up on what's been published.

(You may recognize our photograph of murder suspect Theo Lengyel below, which they published with our permission.)

Murder trial begins for former Mr. Bungle musician Theo Lengyel in death of Capitola’s Alyx Herrmann

On the first day of Theo Lengyel’s jury trial, prosecutors painted defendant Lengyel as an alcoholic with anger problems and a history of abusive behavior. Lengyel’s defense attorney did not dispute that he killed his girlfriend, Capitola resident Alice “Alyx” Herrmann, but disputed the characterization of Lengyel as a violent man and argued that Herrmann’s death was not murder.

Lookout Santa CruzKeith A. Spencer

Alice Herrmann’s diary, neighbor offer troubled look at Theo Lengyel as murder trial enters second week

As the murder trial of Theo Lengyel, accused of killing his partner, Capitola’s Alice Herrmann, enters its second week, prosectors shared entries from Herrmann’s diary and testimony from Lengyel’s neighbor about his erratic behavior as they work to paint Lengyel as someone who struggled with alcohol and anger issues.

Lookout Santa CruzKeith A. Spencer

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