After conducting an extensive national search for a new Superintendent, the Board of Directors of Berkeley Unified School District have unanimously selected a finalist for the position, Dr. Donald Evans. Dr. Evans currently serves as the Superintendent of Hayward Unified School District. -more-

University of California at Berkeley has a new police chief, campus officials announced Thursday. -more-

"A city without graffiti is like a field without flowers." -- Tulz1996

"It's not art or vandalism. It's art because it is vandalism." -- Josiah Rodgers -more-

Northern California Islamic Council (NCIC), an umbrella organization that aims to provide a united Muslim voice to the Northern California community, is in shock and disbelief by the bomb blasts at the Boston Marathon, that killed at least 3 people and left scores injured. -more-

Excellent work by Messrs. Price and Bailey showing the visual impact of various heights of possible development adjacent to Aquatic Park as seen from the west.

I believe it would be a valuable service to the community to show the impact of those various heights of development on views of the bay from several locations in the Berkeley/Oakland flatlands.

My personal belief is that it is unconscionable that developers might have the legal right to build large structures anywhere along the bay front that exploits the aesthetic benefits of the bay for its tenants while blocking the bay views of tens of thousands of flatland residents. -more-

Yesterday CalPERS shortened the rate smoothing period. This has major implications for Berkeley's budget. Employers' rates will go up by about 50 percent. This will mean even larger cuts to the city services and higher taxes unless there are substantial changes to employee compensation and employee contribution to benefits. How are we going to fix this as well as our decaying infrastructure? -more-

This is a response to Jack Bragen's article, "Response to Letter by Judi Iranyi." Mr. Bragen is responding to my April 13, 2013, article, "Making Laura's Law More User Friendly." -more-

We have been having Comcast problems and have not been able to send out this week's batch of special links to subscribers. We're working on it, but if you're reading this you probably figured out how to get to the site yoursel -more-

None of the reports I've seen about the young man who died in Watertown, Massachusetts, as police pursued him in their search for those responsible for the Boston marathon bombing took note of his first name. It was Tamerlan, an Anglicization of the name of a 14th century folk hero, Timur, who led the armies of what my first Russian teacher at my Massachusetts college used to call "the Wild Tribes of Central Asia". The Emperor Tamerlan ( alternatively Timur, Tamerlan, Tamburlaine) is described in Wikipedia as a Turkic ruler who conquered West, South and Central Asia and founded the Timurid dynasty. He was a romantic warrior who captured the imagination not only of Central Asians, but of Europeans. He was the subject of a 16th Century play by Christoper Marlowe and a 19th Century epic poem by Edgar Allan Poe, among others. One might speculate that whoever gave Tamerlan Tsarnayev his name was familiar with the historic associations, and even that the young man who has been accused of being a bomber might have fancied himself the 21st Century incarnation of the ancient hero. -more-

Given the Sandy Hook Elementary School killings, the shootings at a supermarket near Tucson, the pleas for gun control legislation by the parents of the Sandy Hook victims, and the testimony by Gabrielle Giffords, victim of the supermarket shootings, you would think that reasonable gun control legislation would likely pass in the U.S. Senate. Regrettably, it is not to be. -more-

According to a report by the National Intelligence Council, Global Trends 2030, seventeen years from now the world will be remarkably different: “There will not be any hegemonic power… China alone will probably have the largest economy.” Why can’t the US plan for this and reduce our defense expenditures? -more-

It occurred to me that a column about the things that matter the most to persons with mental illness would be fairly "on the mark." Getting and keeping adequate housing is pretty high on the priority list. Additionally, we must deal with the following life difficulties: getting and remaining on the right medications; surviving on the very limited income we have; relationships, both finding them and making them work; finding and maintaining a meaningful regular activity (or otherwise, what to do with our time.) In this week's column, I will try to briefly touch upon all of the above. -more-

“Of all the passions, the old man should avoid a foolish passion for women,” advised The Old Man’s Guide to Health and Longer life with rules for diet, exercise, and physic for preserving a good constitution and preventing disorders in a bad one, by J. Hill, M.D., member of the Imperial Academy (1764). John Hill (1714-1775) also opined that to marry was everyone’s duty, except for the aged. -more-

Breathing a deep sigh of relief having mailed off my 2012 Income Tax return, I am now seeking ways to relax and unwind. Fortunately there are absolutely scads of entertaining and educational activities, which I list below in no particular order: -more-

—"A crack is growing. The shape of time is changing. Only a few can see it." Ragged Wing, Berkeley's plucky little movement theater troupe, has announced the opening of co-founder/artistic director Amy Sass' new, prize-winning (Playground's June Anne Baker Award) play, 'Time Sensitive,' running Thursdays through Saturdays at 8, April 18-May 18—as the inaugural production at their new theater, Sanctuary for the Arts, 496-38th Street (at Telegraph), Oakland, two blocks from MacArthur BART ... Sass, a talented director, will be at the helm in a show which "combines clockwork choreography, rhythmic fugue & ice art into a fantastical tale that urgently asks: How do we hold a moment, if we constantly crave the next big thing? $25-$40 (sliding scale). 1-800-316-8559; raggedwing.org (Ragged Wing's David Stein directs a rare reading of a Wolfgang Hildeshimer play—see below: ) -more-

Theatre of Yugen, the Bay Area's classical Japanese theater company (& the only company in North America that practices & performs Kyogen, the classical Japanese comedy that is staged between Noh plays) is performing their annual show of Kyogen comedies, 'Sorya!,' minimalist stagings of rigorous physical theater—like dance or martial arts in its patterns—that portrays medieval comic types, almost the Japanese equivalent of Chaucer or Boccaccio: servants tricking masters, wives fooling husbands, pompous priests & judges made fun of ... -more-

San Francisco Cabaret Opera, that redoubtable touring show out of goat Hall Productions, is staging scenes & arias from Mozart, Weill & Menotti this Saturday & Sunday at 8, in the Community Music Center, 544 Capp Street (between 2th & 21st), in San Francisco's Mission District, to open their 13th season, "Mischief & Mayhem"--featuring the direction of Michelle Jasso, Choreography by Brittany Blakenship--& at the piano, Skye Atman, presiding over a fine cast: Sibel demirmen, Zoltan DiBartolo, Steve Hoffmann, Alexis Lane Jensen, Justin Marsh, Letitia C. Page--& founder/artistic director Harriet March Page. General admission, $15; Cabaret table seats, $25; Seniors & students: $10. (707) 451-8396; goathall.org -more-