Without $75,000, The Everett Theatre faces closure

• Herald (Everett)

An international search for a Gates Foundation CEO ends on the Microsoft campus

• Seattle Times

The Gates Foundation names Jeff Raikes CEO

• Seattle Times

Columbus Symphony, deadlocked with musicians, shuts down

• Arts Journal

The dream of a cohesive Cascadia region never dies

• Vancouver Sun

The city of Vancouver is forcing its Maritime Museum to close, say officials

• Vancouver Sun

This Is War: An Oregon company scores a surprise hit with soldiers' video

• Oregonian (Portland)

Another mayoral spokesperson departs for the same nonprofit

Martin McOmber, senior communications and policy advisor for Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels, will leave city employment on Wednesday, April 30, to join Casey Family Programs as communications director. McOmber will feel right at home at Casey, because the managing director of communications there, Marianne Bichsel, was herself spokesperson for the mayor before joining the foundation in Seattle last fall.

Alex Fryer, communications advisor at the Office of Sustainability and Environment, will fill in until the mayor names a new comm director — though the official City Hall announcement today sure makes it sound like the job is Fryer's to lose.

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Discords in the violin sections

The concertmaster post (leader of the first violin section) is proving a hot seat in Seattle. Marjorie Kransberg-Talvi, longtime leader of the Pacific Northwest Ballet Orchestra, has resigned that post, unhappy at criticism of her playing by conductor Stewart Kershaw, effective the end of this season. Ingrid Matthews is taking a one-year leave from being leader of Seattle Baroque Orchestra, citing a need to take some time off. And turmoil continues at the Seattle Symphony.

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How about a nuclear museum on the UW campus?

I got a very interesting e-mail from Dr. Steven Gilbert, Phd., Vice President of Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility (WPSR). He'd read my recent piece about the possible tear-down of More Hall Annex (the old Nuclear Reactor Building) on the University of Washington campus, and he has a great idea for the facility: Turn it into a nuclear museum. In fact, WPSR is already at work on the museum project, and it might be the perfect tenant if the UW will reconsider its destruction of this fascinating, historic modern structure.

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Boeing gives the Smithsonian $5 million for a black history museum

• Associated Press

Critic: Was the Discovery Institute really uninvolved in that Intelligent Design movie?

• Slog

Mike Daisey: go back to repertory companies for regional theaters

• New York Times

Bruce Chapman: You don't have to be religious to believe in Intelligent Design

• Seattle Times

China firm that aids in Tibet crackdown gave money to Bill Clinton's charity

• Los Angeles Times

Video: The new high-end coffee trend in the UK takes its beans from cat poop

• KIRO-TV

Why the Dalai Lama will find Seattle his kind of town

• New York Times

Bring on Lama-Palooza

But please don't ask about independence for Tibet.

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Librarian Deborah Jacobs takes new job with Gates Foundation

Seattle City Librarian Deborah L. Jacobs, who joined the library system in 1997 and spearheaded a remarkable period of building new libraries, is leaving on August 10 to become deputy director of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation's Global Libraries Initiative. The announcement is a surprise, as Jacobs had expressed her desire to serve many more years as City Librarian.

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Seattle librarian Deborah Jacobs will join the Gates Foundation

• Seattle Times