The American Association of University Women’s Orinda Moraga Lafayette Branch will be holding its Sister-to-Sister Summit in just a week. The Sister-to-Sister Summit will take place on Saturday, March 20, from 9:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., at Bentley High School in Lafayette, which is located just off of the Happy Valley Road exit on Highway 24.

The Sister-to-Sister Summit is organized by high school girls to connect with girls in middle school. It allows for the younger girls to get information from and ask questions to the high school girls who have recently gone through a lot of the same issues.

A registration form is available online here.

Back from witnessing this awesomeness to bring you some highlights from this week’s police logs:

In Orinda, a car was stolen with the owner’s consent — kind of. A man who put his Mercedes up for sale for $22,000 on the Internets found a buyer who said he had a pre-approved $25,000 money order from Wells Fargo and wanted to use it to buy the car. The man agreed, and gave him $3,000 in check and cash to make up the difference. But when the man went to deposit the money order, he was told by Wells Fargo not only was the money order never purchased there, they only issue money orders for $1,000 or less. The police logs note that the “buyer” made calls to the man from phones with 916 (Sacramento) and 562 (Long Beach) phone numbers and had a South San Francisco address complete with 10001 ZIP code.

March 7 was a rough night on the 300 block of Hermosa Court. Burglars stole property from a home and two cars in the garage of that home, as well as the car of a neighbor.

That same day, Lafayette police also arrested a man on suspicion on stealing cash — $500 in total — from two Safeways, one in Lafayette and another in Alamo.

And lastly, there was the beating the Gaels gave the Zags on Monday night:

The county elections office has posted the arguments for and against Measure A online. This is the stuff that will show up in your voter information pamphlet. You can download the PDF file here.

Notably, there are actually opposition arguments this time around. There wasn’t one filed for the Measure G election; Alliance of Contra Costa Taxpayers Chairman Ken Hambrick (who has sent several letters to the editor lambasting the district) said his organization had planned to but missed the deadline. Now, Hambrick and others, including Lafayette Taxpayers Association founder Don Lively, are part of the group that filed an opposition argument and the rebuttal to the Measure A campaign’s argument.

I spoke with Contra Costa Taxpayers Association Executive Director Kris Hunt earlier today and she told me while the group’s board voted Friday to officially oppose Measure A, they won’t launch a formal campaign, instead focusing on providing information to support their opposition on their Web site and the occasional letter to the editor.

In addition to passing out fliers and talking to community members, that’s what Hambrick said his group will do. Which to me sounds like a campaign, but technically to be an “official” campaign requiring paperwork to be filed with the state, you have to spend more than $1,000. So in addition to the fact that there doesn’t appear to be any unifying “No on Measure A” group, we can probably assume the ACCT likely isn’t going to spend $1,000 at Kinkos and thus doesn’t need to file formal paperwork as an opposition committee.

Some highlights from this week’s police logs (which, in Lafayette, includes reports going back a couple weeks):

A woman driving on Olympic Blvd. in Lafayette on Feb. 23 crashed through the Olympic Oaks gate and into a tree — she was arrested on suspicion of DUI.

Feb. 19 was a bad night to park your rental car in the garage at the Lafayette Park Hotel. Thieves made off with $340 worth of property from one car and $660 from another, both times breaking a window to get into the car.

And a pair of Lafayette home burglaries resulted in some big hauls. In one, on the 1100 block of Brown Avenue on Feb. 23, nearly $40,000 worth of property was taken. The burglars pried open a side door to get into the house. The next day, burglars took a refrigerator, stove hood and 15 windows from a house under construction on the 1200 block of Cambridge Drive. Total value: $17,500.

If you’re looking for a place to celebrate (around)  St. Patrick’s Day and the local Japanese-French fusion restaurant didn’t come immediately to mind, this might nudge you in that direction.

Local band Pladdohg will be bringing their Celtic party music, called “ceilidh” and pronounced “caylee,” to Fuz in Lafayette at 8:30 p.m. March 13.

The band originated in Lamorinda and plays gigs around the Bay Area (they’ll be in Dublin, naturally, on March 17). According to their Web site, Celtic party music is “a mixture of traditional and newer tunes from various Celtic nations.”

And if that’s not enough to sell you on the group, their album is titled “More Songs about Drinking and Fighting.”

You can find more about them at their Web site or Facebook page, but here’s a sample:

The 5-year, $112 annual parcel tax the Acalanes Union School District is seeking will be Measure A on your May mail ballots, although if you prefer a wordier version you can still go with “Emergency Education Act of 2010.”

The district is looking at a $4.8 million budget gap and earlier this month approved a preliminary program reduction list that could mean the loss of nearly 57 teaching positions.

This afternoon, Superintendent John Stockton released a statement saying the district will be reducing the school day from seven periods to six and cutting back on some of the course options for the six-period day that remains.

While some people may see this as a return to a basic education structure of several decades past, many view this as the decimation of one of the most respected high school districts in the nation. Although it is natural for most of us to have cherished memories of our high school years, it is clear that a 20^th Century education does not meet today’s needs. The mastery of complex academic standards with fewer and fewer resources is simply not possible.

You can read Stockton’s full statement, titled “Eliminating the Competitive Advantage,” here.

The Moraga Community Chorus is currently looking to add singers to its spring program and its year-round program. No auditions are required to join the chorus, and all voice types are welcome.

Rehearsals for the Moraga Community Chorus are every Tuesday night from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. at the Miramonte Gardens community clubhouse. The address for the clubhouse is 1 Miramonte Way in Moraga. When entering Miramonte Gardens, the clubhouse is the building directly adjacent to the swimming pool.

The chorus performs at a variety of locations, including school, churches and hospitals, throughout Lamorinda and surrounding cities.

For more information, or if you have questions about the Moraga Community Chorus, call Tom Marnane at 925-376-6312.

Registration for the 7th Annual High School Visual Arts Competition will begin Feb. 1. The competition, which is open to all high school students who live in Lamorinda, will accept 2D, 3D and photographic art.

Registration for the competition is available on the Orinda Arts Council’s website at http://www.orindaartscouncil.org. Registration will be open through Feb. 18. Registered students must submit their art to the Orinda Library on Feb. 28 between 1:00 and 4:00 p.m. The artwork will then be on display at the library March 5-30.

Competition winners will be announced and awarded at an awards reception on March 10 from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m.

A few weeks ago, Acalanes school district Superintendent John Stockton told me discussion about an additional, temporary parcel tax was “speculation.”

Now it looks like it’s closer to being more than that. The district’s governing board has scheduled a special meeting to be held at 9:15 p.m. Wednesday, after their regular meeting. Staff is recommending they move forward with a poll that would gauge community support for a second tax (cost to the district: $26,750).

The district already has a yearly $189-per-parcel tax, extended indefinitely in November with overwhelming voter support.

Staff is now saying that funding cuts from the state could blow a nearly $5 million hole in the district’s budget for the next two years and mean laying off dozens of employees. Several members of the community have “strongly encouraged” the district to pursue a short-term parcel tax to help weather the storm, according to the staff report.

During the regular meeting Wednesday, staff will also recommend closing Del Oro High School, the district’s alternative high school.

Just when it seemed like this Lamorinda winter would be one of the dryest in recent memory, the rain has made its triumphant return.

The rain is supposed to continue through tonight and into tomorrow morning, stopping sometime tomorrow afternoon.

The forecast shows that the area will be rain-free for Thursday and Friday, but as the weekend comes, the chances of rain are at 40%.

Next week won’t get any dryer as the forecast predicts a 60% chance of rain Monday through Thursday of next week.

Temperatures will remain fairly consistent with what they’ve been with the highs being in the low 50s and the lows being in the low 40s.