Five Things To Know This Week: City Lawsuits, Wet Weather, Evolution on the Big Screen

Five Things appears Mondays on Alameda Patch and offers a window into what's happening on the Island in the week ahead. Look also for Patch's Get Out weekend planner on Thursdays and our Grab and Go kids activity guide on Wednesdays. Send ideas for Five Things to janonpatch@gmail.com.

1. Yikes, . Visiting family from out of town was asking me whether this kind of rain and wind is typical of March. I’m not the kind of person who tracks that kind of thing in my head (which is full of to-do lists, snatches of news I saw online and miscellaneous maternal worries). Weather Underground tells us we’ve had 2.58 inches of rain so far this month and usually have about 1.77 inches by this time, so it looks like it is indeed wetter than usual, with days more rain in the immediate forecast. What do you guys think … is this blustery weather unusual for the start of spring?
2. The departure of has taken new twists recently, as both (as reported in the Alameda Journal here) have filed claims against the city for being placed on administrative leave. On Friday, Mayor Marie Gilmore and Councilmember Lena Tam issued a statement saying the council’s action in placing them on leave was “on very solid legal ground.”
3. A few public meetings to note this week: The is looking tonight at a strategic analysis of whether its 30-year-old rate structures make sense in today’s world; Alameda’s on Wednesday is examining the countywide transportation plan; and the Thursday is planning with its workgroups.
4. is speaking Tuesday evening at about her new book on little girls and all things pink; she’s done great writing in the past about the challenges young women face in getting through adolescence with some sense of themselves intact. Meanwhile, local author will speak at the on about living a frugal life.  
5. ’s classic movie series offers the chance to see on the big screen Wednesday and Thursday. It’s a 1960 movie set in 1925 about the trial of a teacher accused of teaching evolution; its themes echo even now in 2011.

Plan ahead: opens on Friday, April 1, at the . This is your first chance to see the best of what came from , each making images of their own assigned chunk of Alameda.