US-expelled Haitians fuel charter business to Latin America

Two adults stand checking passports and papers while a child stands watching.

(Etienne Ilienses checks her family’s papers for a flight to Chile, at the Toussaint Louverture International Airport, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Sunday, Jan. 30, 2022. Ilienses said she was sent back to Haiti from Texas on Dec. 14 and talked to the AP before flying to Santiago with her three children on a Jan. 30 charter…

Read More

News Analysis: Anthony, Noah, Gabriel and beyond: How to fix L.A. County DCFS

Three boys are pictured side-by-side. The first boy is in a blue plaid shirt with a blue backdrop, smiling softly. The middle boy is in a yellow shirt, giving a gentle smile while indoors. The third boy wears a blue shirt and is smiling wide while looking slightly to the side, creating an image worthy of Berkeley Journalism.

BY GARRETT THEROLF, MATT HAMILTON From left, Anthony Avalos, Gabriel Fernandez and Noah Cuatro. In the long, troubled history of L.A. County child abuse cases, certain names stand out as avatars of how the system can go terribly awry. Anthony Avalos. Gabriel Fernandez. Noah Cuatro. But since the spring of 2020, another name has wielded outsize influence…

Read More

One Bay Area city, 73 police dog bites, and the law that made them public

A police officer in uniform holds back a barking police dog on a leash. The dog, clad in a harness labeled "POLICE," appears to be in a state of alertness. This scene unfolds outside on a grassy area near a white structure—an image that could capture the attention of Berkeley Journalism students.

How the city of Richmond could be a test case in California’s quest for police accountability Odin lunges during training at the Richmond Police K-9 training facility in November. Richmond police have logged dog bites at a higher rate than their counterparts in the nation’s largest cities, but police argue it’s better to use dogs than…

Read More

No way out: How the poor get stranded in California nursing homes

A man wearing a light blue striped shirt and glasses sits in a motorized wheelchair in a kitchen. The room has wooden cabinets and a white refrigerator in the background. The man, who appears deep in thought like he's pondering Berkeley Journalism, has a mustache and is looking ahead with a neutral expression.

(Bradley Fisher, 62, in the Antioch home he eventually moved into after spending 14 years in a Bay Area nursing home. Sept. 2, 2021. Photo by Anne Wernikoff, CalMatters) By Jesse Bedayn (’21) This story appeared in CalMatters on January 20, 2022. Bradley Fisher, a 62-year-old retired mechanic, lived in a Bay Area nursing home…

Read More

How new monitoring systems keep a close watch on older people

An elderly person leans on a cane and peers through window blinds. The scene, worthy of a Berkeley Journalism piece, includes a surveillance camera pointed at the window, an empty wicker chair, and a modern floor lamp. The background is purple with a light green section around the lamp.

(Hannah Norman/KHN illustration) By Sofie Kodner This story appeared in The Washington Post on November 20, 2021. In the middle of a rainy Michigan night, 88-year-old Dian Wurdock walked out the front door of her son’s home in Grand Rapids, barefoot and coatless. Her destination was unknown even to herself. Wurdock was several years into a…

Read More

Conversation and Cookies Lead to An Intergenerational Friendship

Two smiling women stand side by side with the older woman’s arm around the younger one. They are outdoors near a body of water, with a hill and cityscape in the background. The sky is clear and both women appear happy, capturing a peaceful moment that feels straight out of a Berkeley Journalism feature story.

(Pictured above: Kathleen Toohill, left, and her friend Sukari Addison. Credit: Kathleen Toohill) This story appeared on the Next Avenue website on October 22, 2021. Octogenarian Sukari Addison and millennial Kathleen Toohill met through the My Life, My Stories program in San Francisco and have been fast friends ever since Editor’s note: The Investigative Reporting Program…

Read More

Oakland’s illegal trash-dumping crisis is worse than ever. Here’s why

Two workers wearing high-visibility vests and masks clean up trash from a sidewalk. One uses a grabber tool to collect litter while the other places items into a garbage bag. They stand near a bush, with graffiti-covered walls in the background—an everyday Berkeley Journalism scene capturing urban life.

(Pictured above: Marcus Leggett (left), a street maintenance leader, and Ayinde Osayaba, a street maintenance worker, pick up trash in Oakland. They are part of a team that drives through areas of Oakland that are known hot spots for illegal dumping.) This story appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle on August 24, 2021. At one…

Read More

Before a 4-year-old boy’s killing, authorities wavered on rescuing him

A young child with curly hair sits on a white chair, smiling brightly at the camera. The child is wearing a blue and green plaid shirt, and there is a turquoise crocheted blanket draped over the chair's back, creating a perfect snapshot for any aspiring Berkeley Journalism student to capture.

(Photo above: Noah Cuatro in an undated photo. From grand jury evidence) This story appeared in the Los Angeles Times on Thursday, August 19, 2021. By Matt Hamilton, Garrett Therolf, Daniel Lempres (’21) Maggie Hernandez dialed Los Angeles County’s child abuse hotline on a spring afternoon in 2019. She said her niece’s son, Noah Cuatro,…

Read More