The Saint Mary’s student chorus, the NightinGaels will be performing their annual spring concert this Tuesday, March 16, at 8:00 p.m., in the Saint Mary’s Chapel. The concert is free and open to the public. The NightinGaels will be performing a mix of classical choral music and music from contemporary artists.

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The East Bay Children’s Theatre will be presenting two performances of the play, Pinocchio, on April 11 at 1:00 and 3:00 p.m.

Tickets are $12 and can be purchased at the Town Hall Theatre’s Box Office or online here.

For more information on the East Bay Children’s Theatre, visit their website.

On Sunday, the Saint Mary’s men’s basketball team will be hosting a Selection Sunday event to celebrate the Gaels trip to the NCAA Tournament.

The event will begin at 2:00 p.m. with a pre-show hosted by Saint Mary’s radio announcers, which will lead into the official March Madness Selection Show broadcast by CBS starting at 3:00 p.m.

Fans will be able to see who the Gaels will play in their first round game with the team at this event.

Players and coaches will be available throughout the event for autographs and pictures.

The first 300 fans to get to the event will also be receiving a free drawstring bag from Comcast SportsNet.

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 Moraga-Orinda Fire District Board decided at their meeting on March 6 that the best way to fill the spot left when Director Pete Wilson resigned would be to appoint a new member following an application process.

The Board members chose this method as opposed to holding a special election, which would have cost over $26,000. The special election also would not have been able to take place until Aug. 31.

As per the MOFD, interested individuals must meet the following requirements to apply:
-must reside in District 3 of the Moraga-Orinda Fire District
-must be 18 years of age
-must be a U.S. citizen
-must be a registered voter
-must be able to take the oath of office

To apply, submit a letter of interest and qualifications to MOFD Fire Chief Randy Bradley by March 16. All questions should be directed to (925) 258-4599.

The Saint Mary’s men’s basketball team finally did something they haven’t been unable to do in their last ten attempts: beat Gonazaga in the West Coast Conference Tournament. The Gaels beat the Bulldogs, 81-62, on Monday night in the WCC Tournament Final, earning an automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament (also known as “March Madness”).

This was the first WCC Tournament championship for the Gaels since 1997 and only the second since the tournament started in 1987. It is the sixth time the team has earned a berth into the NCAA Tournament. In their last appearance, in 2008, the Gaels were knocked out in the first round by Miami.

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.

After the Miramonte boys basketball team pulled off an upset in the quarterfinals, beating rival Campolindo, 57-45, the Matadors went into their Wednesday night semifinal against the number two seed, Analy High School, full of confidence.

The Matadors were able to pull off their second consecutive upset, beating Analy, 70-67, in a game that went into overtime. They will now face Bishop O’Dowd in the NCS Final on Friday night at 8:00 p.m. at Saint Mary’s.

Both the Campolindo and Miramonte girls lost their semifinal games. Miramonte lost a tight game against DFAL champion Dougherty Valley, 57-54. Campolindo was dominated by the overwhelming favorite, Bishop O’Dowd, 75-33. O’Dowd won their quarterfinal game against Albany, 62-14…

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.

Residents’ appeal of the 27-home Rancho Laguna II development, first heard in October, will have to wait at least another month.

Council had asked staff and the developer to come back with additional visual simulations showing what the project would look like as you travel south down Rheem Blvd. as well as the pros and cons of the various methods of stabilizing Rheem, which the developer has agreed to do as part of the project.

That has apparently taken longer than anticipated, and though Town Manager Mike Segrest said officials were hoping to continue the hearing at their next meeting on March 10, it has now been pushed back to April 14.

A group of 30 residents, many of whom live on nearby Birchwood Drive which overlooks the project site, appealed the project on the grounds that would negatively impact the environment and the scenic character of the area.

If you’ve got a few hours, you can read all of the project documents on the town’s Web site.

Despite losing to rival Campolindo twice during the regular season, the Miramonte boys basketball team were able to pull off the upset in the NCS quarterfinal against the Cougars. The Matadors won, 57-45, and will play at Analy on Wednesday night at 7:30 p.m.

The Campolindo and Miramonte girls’ teams both advanced into the semifinals. Campolindo beat Sir Francis Drake, 74-69, and will play against Bishop O’Dowd at Chabot College on Wednesday night at 6:30 p.m. Miramonte beat Analy, 55-52, and will play at Dougherty Valley at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday night.

The Acalanes boys were the other Lamorinda basketball team involved in the NCS quarterfinals. They lost their game against El Cerrito, 55-40.