Dozens of Ross Valley parents, neighbors and children staged a peaceful protest Monday morning in Fairfax as state education officials visited the new Ross Valley Charter School on the campus of White Hill Middle School. Conn Hickey, chief financial officer for the Ross Valley Charter School, said he was not focusing on the demonstration as he and other staff were busy getting ready for Wednesday’s first day of school.

As a tenant in Marin some years back, single mom Caroline Peattie had to uproot herself and her child frequently when the landlord would decide to sell the property or make other changes. “I had to move four times in the first eight years of my son’s life,” said Peattie, now exective director of San Rafael-based Fair Housing Advocates of Northern California.

“Bumblebee,” a spinoff from the “Transformers” film series, is the major Paramount film being shot in Marin, a Paramount spokesperson confirmed Friday. The spokesperson, who was unnamed, declined further elaboration except to say the film is due for a summer 2018 release. The Paramount confirmation came as other news surfaced in recent days pointing toward the film.

More than 50 Tamalpais High School students, teachers, parents and administrators gathered Thursday in a show of unity after someone spray-painted racist graffiti Wednesday on one of the campus buildings. “That’s what Tamalpais is about — community,” said senior T.K. Dahlke, 17, a member of the student body leadership who helped organize the rally in front of the campus arches.

Two major players in Marin’s growing effort to help poor people who need health care, housing and other services are reconfiguring their roles aiming to help protect clients and patients from potentially shattering losses in federal funding in the current political climate. Linda Tavaszi, CEO of Marin Community Clinics, will shift to CEO of Ritter Center in San Rafael, effective Sept. 1.

Andy Bachich calls it his “field of dreams.”. Now he hopes they will come. The dream is the new Andy’s Local Market, the successor to Bachich’s grocery store at the palm-tree-lined Loch Lomond Marina. “It’s more than just a grocery store,” he said of the market that opens Saturday. “It’s a destination, here along the waterfront.”.

In a revitalized effort, San Rafael is proposing a new sidewalk repair program aimed at moving toward the center of the cost-sharing spectrum between the public and private property owners. “Two years ago, the burden was all to the homeowners in paying the costs,” said Ray Moritz, a professional tree consultant who is working with the Gerstle Park Neighborhood Association.

A six-story-high apartment complex with metro-style stacked mechanical parking is under review by San Rafael officials for a “gateway” area of the city. Members of the San Rafael Design Review Board this week took a conceptual first pass through plans, submitted by Seagate Properties Inc. and designed by architect Kava Massih, for Third Street in the block bounded by Tamalpais and Lincoln avenues.

San Geronimo Golf Course, a popular Marin golfing destination since it opened in the mid-1960s, is up for sale. That fact is triggering rampant social media speculation and “Save the Golf Course” signs among Marin residents whose lives have been intertwined for decades with the 157-acre property at 5800 Sir Francis Drake Blvd. in West Marin.

Paramount Pictures Corp. is planning to shoot a new, as yet unannounced, feature film in Marin, according to local film industry spokespeople. “They’re supposed to start prepping (to shoot the new film) on Monday,” said Mark Walter, general manager of the Mare Island studio space where Paramount is now staging its Bay Area projects.

Marin supervisors agreed Tuesday to enhance the county’s social host ordinance to add more specifics on marijuana use, expand locations for alleged violations to party buses and limousines and to increase the range of mandatory restorative justice programs for offenders. The board voted 5-0 in favor of the changes following testimony from members of the Marin Youth Commission, the Marin Youth Leadership Institute and Communities Mobilizing for Change on Alcohol.

Marin public agencies have a $1 billion unfunded pension liability — the amount of future pension obligations guaranteed public workers but not currently held in reserve, according to a new Marin County Civil Grand Jury report. “The Budget Squeeze: How Will Marin Fund Its Public Employees Pensions?”.

Hugs from supporters mixed with tears of joy and relief Monday night after Dominican Sisters of San Rafael’s housing use permit amendment won a 5-0 favorable vote from the San Rafael City Council. “It’s been so long,” said Sister Patricia Simpson of a nine-month-long approval process that included three appeals from next-door neighbor Christopher Dolan, an attorney.

Lowell Fire at 1,700 acres and now 20 percent contained as of 10 a.m. More than 1,400 firefighters now at the scene. The two Cal Fire firefighters burned at the Lowell Fire on Sunday were released Sunday night. Both are from the Mendocino unit. “They are both in good spirits and anxious to return to the firefight,” said Cal Fire Communications Chief Dan Berlant.

A financing double-whammy is looming over the newest major widening project on Highway 49 in Grass Valley, but Caltrans is moving ahead with public outreach as planned. The state transportation agency will hold an information session 4-7 p.m. Aug. 5 at Grass Valley City Hall on the project, planned for an approximately 2-mile-stretch south of Grass Valley starting just north of the La Barr Meadows Road intersection to just before the McKnight Way interchange.

From his poised, intense and flawless delivery and his complete memorization of 16 pieces ranging from Adele to Bach, you’d never guess that Sunday was James Shawcross’ first-ever public concert. “He certainly loves to perform — and he’s also composed and able to speak to a crowd,” said musician Tom Whinnery of Sacramento, one of about 130 people at the free event.