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Iris Kwok

@iriskwok.bsky.social
343 followers 441 following 26 posts

reporting fellow @ los angeles times 📰 part-time cellist 🌙 🎻

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Iris Kwok @iriskwok.bsky.social · 01/07/2026
Newsom just signed off on a 100% state tax on money any Californians get from Trump’s “anti-weaponization” fund for his political allies. Can he do that? USC professor Ariel Jurow Kleiman, an expert on tax law and policy, weighs in in my latest @latimes.com story. www.latimes.com/california/s...
latimes.com
Newsom signs off on 100% California tax for money from Trump's $1.8-billion 'slush fund'
Gov. Gavin Newsom on Tuesday signed off on legislation that would levy a 100% California tax on payouts from Trump’s $1.8 billion “Anti-Weaponization” fund.
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Reposted by Iris Kwok
Ian James @ianjames.bsky.social · 04/03/2026
The problem facing California's wine industry: too many grapes and not enough buyers. Exports have also dropped as Canadians have boycotted American wine in response to Trump's tariffs, @iriskwok.bsky.social reports: www.latimes.com/business/sto...
latimes.com
California's heralded wine industry is running dry — here’s why
With wine consumption down, major California wine companies are laying off workers and shuttering production facilities.
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Reposted by Iris Kwok
Corey Hutchins @coreyhutchins.bsky.social · 15/07/2025
🚨 ATTN: College journalism professors. I'm looking to find out what you're doing to support your state's local media ecosystem *beyond* student reporting. Fill out this survey if that's you. I'm researching it for UVM's Center for Community News: uvm.us15.list-manage.com/track/click?... #academicsky
uvm.us15.list-manage.com
How is your academic program supporting local news *beyond* student reporting?
Better understanding the various roles that colleges and universities play in a state's media ecosystem is important — and we need your help. This survey for the Center for Community News at the Uni...
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Iris Kwok @iriskwok.bsky.social · 04/06/2025
My last story for Berkeleyside (for now): www.berkeleyside.org/2025/06/03/b...
berkeleyside.org
Berkeley Marina hotel owes city nearly $700,000 in unpaid rent, adding to budget woes
Rent from the DoubleTree by Hilton makes up more than half of Berkeley’s waterfront lease revenue. Without it, the city's putting off important repairs.
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Iris Kwok @iriskwok.bsky.social · 20/05/2025
Starts today, ICYMI: www.berkeleyside.org/2025/05/19/c...
berkeleyside.org
Berkeley to close Cesar Chavez Park Tuesday and Wednesday as a drone tests for methane leaks
Berkeley was fined last year for air quality violations related to methane leaks at Cesar Chavez Park, a former landfill.
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Reposted by Iris Kwok
Berkeleyside @berkeleyside.org · 13/05/2025
Facing a $27 million budget deficit, Berkeley cut its waterfront security program and laid off five employees.
berkeleyside.org
Berkeley lays off 4 Marina security staff, citing budget shortfall
Facing a $27 million budget deficit, Berkeley cut its waterfront security program and laid off five employees.
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Iris Kwok @iriskwok.bsky.social · 14/05/2025
Facing a $27 million budget deficit, Berkeley cut its four-person waterfront monitor program. It also laid off a fifth person whose job a city spokesperson did not disclose. My latest for @berkeleyside.org: www.berkeleyside.org/2025/05/13/b...
berkeleyside.org
Berkeley lays off 4 Marina security staff, citing budget shortfall
Facing a $27 million budget deficit, Berkeley cut its waterfront security program and laid off five employees.
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Iris Kwok @iriskwok.bsky.social · 03/05/2025
After 40 days and some layoffs, workers at Urban Ore, the West Berkeley salvage yard and reuse store, have ended their strike. www.berkeleyside.org/2025/05/02/u...
berkeleyside.org
Urban Ore workers strike ends without a collective bargaining agreement
Some unionized Urban Ore workers went on an “open-ended” strike in March. Forty days later, and with a new lead negotiator at the bargaining table and some layoffs, the strike has been paused.
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Iris Kwok @iriskwok.bsky.social · 02/05/2025
Hired in January to help restore Bay Area wetlands, Berkeley resident Dan Fahey was promptly fired. A judge’s ruling won him back his EPA job, but he’s on administrative leave, his future uncertain, and he’s worried about “dirtier air, dirtier water, toxic land.” www.berkeleyside.org/2025/04/30/f...
berkeleyside.org
Fired (or not?) from Trump’s EPA, this Berkeley resident says his worst fears have come true
Hired in January to help improve water quality and restore Bay Area wetlands, Daniel Fahey was promptly fired. A judge’s ruling won him back his job, but he’s on administrative leave, his future uncer...
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Iris Kwok @iriskwok.bsky.social · 19/04/2025
ICYMI: A federal judge has issued a temporary restraining order preventing ICE from arresting/incarcerating UC Berkeley grad student Zhuoer Chen and three other Chinese international students for 14 days www.berkeleyside.org/2025/04/18/u...
berkeleyside.org
Judge temporarily blocks termination of UC Berkeley student's visa
The Cal student joined three other Chinese international students last week in suing the Trump administration for revoking their visas.
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Iris Kwok @iriskwok.bsky.social · 19/03/2025
Long-lost lanterns may soon return to a pair of unassuming stone pillars near the Berkeley Library’s North Branch. I loved writing this story about local history, public art and a community effort to (quite literally) brighten up the Northbrae neighborhood!💡 www.berkeleyside.org/2025/03/14/l...
berkeleyside.org
Long-lost lanterns may soon light up Berkeley’s Northbrae neighborhood
Local history buffs are working to recreate two lanterns that used to shine at a busy North Berkeley intersection in the early 1900s.
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Iris Kwok @iriskwok.bsky.social · 13/03/2025
I got to spend last Friday in one of my favorite places in Berkeley: the Lawrence Hall of Science. Go check out their fun new exhibit on the future of food! 🥓🌽 www.berkeleyside.org/2025/03/12/l...
berkeleyside.org
Seaweed bacon and squelching cow belching: Explore the ‘future of food’ at Lawrence Hall of Science
Learn how Bay Area innovators are creating the “future of food” at a new Instagrammable exhibit at the UC Berkeley science center.
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Iris Kwok @iriskwok.bsky.social · 27/02/2025
Thousands of UC Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory workers went on strike yesterday amid fraught contract negotiations with the UC. My story: www.berkeleyside.org/2025/02/26/u...
berkeleyside.org
Strikes at UC Berkeley, Berkeley Lab impact Cal health services, BAMPFA
Thousands of UC Berkeley and Berkeley Lab workers are on strike amid fraught contract negotiations with the University of California.
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Iris Kwok @iriskwok.bsky.social · 01/02/2025
For my latest Berkeleyside story, I wandered through Dreamland for Kids, a run-down wooden playground in Aquatic Park that’s older than me. Berkeley wants to redesign it and is soliciting input. More: www.berkeleyside.org/2025/01/31/a...
rusty monkey bars at dreamland playground in west berkeley
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Iris Kwok @iriskwok.bsky.social · 20/01/2025
I toured UC Berkeley’s newest graduate student dorm (and the school’s first building to have an Indigenous name): www.berkeleyside.org/2025/01/17/u...
berkeleyside.org
Photos: Take a peek inside UC Berkeley’s newest student housing
Five months after opening, 360 graduate students and 200 undergraduates are living at the xučyun ruwway housing complex Albany.
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Iris Kwok @iriskwok.bsky.social · 17/01/2025
wrote about the community land trust model and how it might alleviate berkeley’s housing crisis 🏠 www.berkeleyside.org/2025/01/13/b...
berkeleyside.org
South Berkeley tenants feared losing their homes after landlord's death. A local land trust is helping them stay
South Berkeley tenants feared losing their homes after their landlord died. A local land trust is helping them stay.
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Iris Kwok @iriskwok.bsky.social · 13/01/2025
If you/someone you know in Berkeley is putting together a drive for LA wildfire relief, I’d love to highlight in Berkeleyside’s weekly events roundup or The Scene, our arts/culture/events newsletter, which goes out every Thursday. Pls reach out here or at iris@berkeleyside.org w/ event details 💕
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Iris Kwok @iriskwok.bsky.social · 03/01/2025
Radiation levels at Cesar Chavez Park are safe for its casual visitors, according to UC Berkeley’s drone tests. But tests of liquids deep below the landfill-turned-park found elevated radiation levels. Safety precautions are now being urged for workers. New: www.berkeleyside.org/2025/01/02/r...
berkeleyside.org
Radiation is normal at Cesar Chavez Park, but it’s a different story underground, tests show
New precautions are being urged for workers in contact with subsurface liquids at the popular landfill-turned-park, but Berkeley residents need not fear a stroll on the surface.
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Iris Kwok @iriskwok.bsky.social · 30/12/2024
for the second year in a row…here’s what berkeley residents checked out from the library in 2024! 📚🪚 www.berkeleyside.org/2024/12/30/p...
berkeleyside.org
Laptops and an 18th-century shipwreck: What Berkeley library patrons checked out in 2024
The library shared with Berkeleyside the year’s most frequently checked-out books and household tools.
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Iris Kwok @iriskwok.bsky.social · 24/12/2024
no thoughts, head empty, only this
that part of shostakovich cello concerto 1 mvt 1 that goes “bum dundundun bum dun bum dun dun dun”
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Iris Kwok @iriskwok.bsky.social · 21/12/2024
Berkeley’s shoreline could get a new 20-acre park! Ideas being considered include a hostel, a promenade, sand volleyball courts, a swimming area, a creek daylighting project that could help reduce flooding risk in West Berkeley and much more. My latest: www.berkeleyside.org/2024/12/20/b...
berkeleyside.org
Promenade? Hostel? Swimming? What do you want to see at new shoreline park?
The East Bay Regional Park District wants public input for the future of North Basin Strip. Mountain bikers worry they’ll be pushed out — again.
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Iris Kwok @iriskwok.bsky.social · 06/12/2024
maybe the *real* tsunami was the surge in web traffic that came immediately after the phone alerts went out www.berkeleyside.org/2024/12/05/t...
berkeleyside.org
A tsunami warning spurred evacuations in West Berkeley, but feared waves never came
A magnitude 7.0 earthquake off the Humboldt County coast Thursday morning triggered a tsunami warning for the California coast.
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Reposted by Iris Kwok
Jose Fermoso @fermoso.bsky.social · 03/12/2024
Oakland's budget and bond-issuing decisions continue to affect infrastructure projects ready to be implemented. The latest one is the postponement of the cycle track on Lakeshore Avenue, which was fast-tracked after a 4-year-old's death. New: oaklandside.org/2024/12/03/o...
oaklandside.org
Oakland promised a bike lane after a child’s death. Now budget problems are delaying the project
The Lakeshore Avenue cycle track was expedited last year after a 4-year old was killed riding a bike with her father.
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Iris Kwok @iriskwok.bsky.social · 03/12/2024
UC Berkeley could break ground on its tallest dorm yet — a 23-story high-rise — as soon as next year. Plus: an update on the university’s progress toward meeting the housing goals it set back in 2017. My latest for Berkeleyside: www.berkeleyside.org/2024/12/03/u...
berkeleyside.org
UC Berkeley plans to build its tallest dorm yet in Southside neighborhood
UC Berkeley plans to build its tallest dorm yet in the Southside neighborhood. The 23-story building could provide around 1,500 beds for freshman and sophomores.
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Iris Kwok @iriskwok.bsky.social · 06/05/2023
hello world! have some cat tax
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