Downstroke

Richard Ellison, who was the associate vice president for university advancement at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, will begin on May 4. He will be in charge of fund-raising efforts for the university that will go toward scholarships academics and the new Associated Students recreation center that goes to a student vote on March 8 and 9.

During his time at Cal Poly, Ellison was a key figure in the school’s $250 million fund-raising campaign and helped restructure the institution’s entire advancement organization. He also had a hand in facilitating $15 million for the school’s college of business and $1 million for the Children’s Center.

Ellison earned a BS and MBA from Pepperdine University and went on to hold three administrative positions at the school.

Checkmate: The El Rey Theatre in downtown Chico will be closing its doors for the final time Thursday night, March 3, after its showing of the hit movie Sideways. El Rey manager Richard Gorman announced the final curtain call after hearing word from the Regal Entertainment Group. In what has come to be seen as an unfortunate inevitability, the historic theater will soon become office and retail space. Eric Hart, a local developer, and Tom van Overbeek of San Jose will assume ownership. Much of the equipment used at the El Rey will be sent over to the Senator Theatre, also owned by Overbeek and Hart.

Party on, dudes… Chico police were called out to West 7th and Hickory streets Friday night to break up a student brawl that involved beer, a BB gun and a baseball bat.

It apparently started when four party dudes went looking for a drunk friend on the west side. They drove past some other dudes at 710 Hickory who just happened to be firing a BB gun at random passersby. The dudes in the car didn’t like being shot at, so one of them got out and started yelling at the BB gun dude. That dude didn’t want to be yelled at, so he shot the other guy with BBs until the gun was empty. Then he tried to hit the other dude with the gun but missed and dropped it.

The dude that got shot with BBs was hella pissed by this time, so he tackled the other dude, but the other dude’s friend got a bat and whacked him on the back of the head. He went to the hospital. Both dudes were arrested on assault charges.