What sounds like a fun event Saturday will benefit the Lighthouse Community Center of Hayward. Viva Las Vegas casino night starts at 5 p.m. at the Hayward City Hall Rotunda.

Entertainment includes Sasha Stephane as Cher, the Golden Follies and the Oakland East Bay Gay Men’s Chorus.

It’s $25 advance, $30 at the door. If advance tickets are still available, you can get them at the Lighthouse Community Center, 217 A St., Hayward; Curly’s Place, 2059 B St., Hayward; and www.eventbrite.com.

Tickets get you $100 in gaming chips plus gourmet food, and there will be a cash bar. You must be 21 to attend.

The Lighthouse Community Center serves the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning community of Southern Alameda County.

For more information, email bobnsl@aol.com.

Did you graduate from Castro Valley High School in 1963? If so, your fellow alumni would like to hear from you. The grads are planning a 50th reunion for Sept. 21, with some socializing Sept. 20. The tentative schedule includes a get-together Friday evening, Saturday barbecue and picnic, and Saturday evening main event.

Those interested are asked to contact Tara O’Leary at olearytara@mac.com.

Councilman Bill Quirk sent out this message today regarding his run for Hayashi’s assembly seat. It includes a link to his campaign website for more information. Not sure who all else is gunning for the seat except for Jennifer Ong. Here’s more information about the district. Here’s Quirk’s statement:

I have decided to run for California State Assembly because I believe that my 7 years on the Hayward City Council give me the experience needed to make a difference in Sacramento. My primary concern is to get Californians back to work. I have been endorsed by Alameda County Supervisor Nadia Lockyer, Former Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata, Mayors Michael Sweeney of Hayward and Marshall Kamena of Livermore and many others.  You can go to my website http://www.electbillquirk.com/ to get more information on my positions and endorsements. Please let me know by return email if you are willing to give me your endorsement. Read the rest of this entry »

We had a story about the base API scores being released this week. The scores aren’t new — they are rejiggered from the growth API scores that were released in the fall. There are variables that change in the formula for calculating the scores each year, so once those variables are figured out, the previous year’s score is put through the calculations to come up with a base for comparison in the fall.

If you need a recap, here’s a guide to the state’s Accountability Progress Reporting system.

There are links in the story, but click here if you’d like to jump directly to scores for Alameda County’s schools. As you can read in the story, none of Hayward Unified’s schools make it into the statewide top 50 percent. But some fare better when compared with schools similar in terms of student’s socioeconomic status, number of English language learners and other factors, which the district pointed out in a press release you can find after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »

Despite the spate of homicides this year and the disparaging comments you can often find below stories about crime in Hayward, violent offenses are down by nearly 15 percent, according to FBI statistics released this week. That’s about on par with decreases seen in the nearest big cities of Fremont and Oakland, although the per capita crime rate is considerably different in all three.

The report only has info for cities with a population of 100,000 or more.

The referenced story gives you all the Hayward info, but if you’d like to compare the stats with other cities, you can look at the FBI report here.

Here’s an interesting item , from the Inside Bay Area political blog. To those who need more incentive to click, the gist of it is that Nadia Lockyer has a sizable head start in money raised for the upcoming Alameda County District 2 supervisor race. Hayward Councilman Kevin Dowling has considerably less cash available, but he’s maintaining that most of his donations come from within the district, while nearly all of Lockyer’s war chest comes from outside the area.

Today’s paper had this story about what happens when a large plant such as NUMMI closes. Nearly 400 workers will soon be out of work at a Hayward supplier of plastic parts whose sole customer was NUMMI. And, of course, more than 10 times that many people will no longer have jobs at NUMMI itself when the plant closes in April.

And for the big picture, multiply that again by 10. According to today’s story, “some industry watchers believe the auto factory’s closure could imperil 40,000 to 50,000 jobs in California.”