TBS Today, March 19
Berkeley police have just confirmed that the name of the woman who was killed Sunday in a fatal stabbing in her apartment was 60-year-old Heather Riemer.
The Scanner will continue to follow the story. We expect to have charging information soon.
The City Council will adjourn tonight's meeting in her honor, Councilman Terry Taplin has just announced.
Emilie Raguso
(Speaking of council, there are no public safety items on tonight's action calendar, which you can review online.)
We've also published our roundup on the annual Berkeley crime report.
Serious crime was up 10.5% in Berkeley in 2023, driven largely by increases in robbery and auto theft, BPD reported to the City Council last week.
We tried to make this article even more digestible than usual to be sure to have a look.
Emilie Raguso
Berkeley election reminders
- Berkeley City Council District 7 (April 16 special election)
- Two candidates qualified for the ballot for the Southside seat: James Chang and Cecilia Lunaparra
- Historically this is an extremely low-turnout district. About 700 ballots were cast in 2022. It was an uncontested race but so was downtown's District 4, where more than 3,000 ballots were cast. Berkeley council districts each have about 11,000 registered voters (give or take).
- We're told D4 ballots have been mailed out, so they should be arriving soon.
- Berkeley City Council District 4 (May 28 special election)
- The current candidate roster shows five hopefuls for the downtown seat (TBD whether all will qualify): Soli Alpert, Elana Auerbach, John Haracz, Rubén Hernández Story and Igor Tregub
- District 4 (downtown) candidates have until March 29 to file nomination papers.
If you don't know which Berkeley City Council district you're in, you can look it up.
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