TBS Today, May 17

Today's story: A 17-year-old boy on an e-bike was taken to Highland Hospital on Friday after colliding with a driver in North Berkeley, authorities report.

Police said the driver made an unexpected turn, causing the teenager — who had the right-of-way — to run into him.

Here's what we know.

Teen on e-bike taken to Highland after Berkeley crash

Police said the driver made an unexpected turn, causing the teenager — who had the right-of-way — to run into him.

The Berkeley ScannerEmilie Raguso

We've also included some longer-term traffic safety stats, which we hope will add some useful context, in today's story.

On Thursday, after getting home late from spending more than five hours at the UC Berkeley protest site, we substantially updated the story we shared yesterday.

We had filed our first article from the field (on our phone!) so the scope was quite limited.

Don't miss the rewrite, which paints a much clearer picture of everything that happened.

Police arrest protesters who took over UC Berkeley building

From the start, UC Berkeley made it clear that the occupation would be treated as a crime scene rather than First Amendment activity.

The Berkeley ScannerEmilie Raguso

The California Sun newsletter linked to it prominently this morning, which is always great to see.

We also followed up with BPD today to ensure we had a clear understanding of why they weren't part of the protest response.

Some suggested it may have been a political move. But, fun fact, the City Council does not make operational decisions like that.

BPD said it came down to staffing levels.

Here's what the department told us: "Berkeley Police resources were not available to respond to this mutual aid request, in the event city personnel would be needed for situations that might arise elsewhere in the City. The Berkeley Fire Department is responsible for fire or medical calls in UC jurisdiction and BPD was prepared to provide protection to BFD if they had to go on a call immediately near the UC police activity."

We also wanted to take a moment to highlight a special report by Frances Dinkelspiel, which we published Thursday.

She learned some fascinating things about the history of the building that was occupied and what made it a particularly fragile environment.

We may be hearing more from Frances about how the building fared in recent days. In the meantime, don't miss her story from Thursday.

Preservationists worry about fate of occupied Cal building

Paul Chapman’s group is asking UC Berkeley to take action to minimize damage to Anna Head and move swiftly to end the occupation.

The Berkeley ScannerGuest contributor

We hope to have more freelancer articles for you this year as The Scanner continues to grow.

In case you missed it

Gun brandished in Berkeley during catalytic converter theft attempt

There were also reports that they pushed a garbage bin into the man, denting his car, where his 2-year-old grandson was sitting.

The Berkeley ScannerEmilie Raguso

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