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San Jose Pride coming up
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Radio host makes ass of self
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Festival Opera's 'Fella'
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Fox bars Karger from debate O by Lisa Keen
penly gay presidential candidate Fred Karger will once again be left out of a nationally televised debate among Republican presidential hopefuls – this time, in Iowa on Thursday, August 11, just ahead of the Ames Straw Poll on Fred Karger Saturday. Karger said that he See page 12 >> meets the criteria Fox
Vol. 41 • No. 32 • August 11-17, 2011
Lee’s candidacy eclipses Castro debate by Matthew S. Bajko
I
t had been carefully planned, with 10 questions culled from neighborhood concerns to be parceled out amongst nine leading candidates to answer. But Monday night’s mayoral debate at the Castro Theatre went off script with interim Mayor Ed Lee’s declaring his candidacy that morning. The reversal by Lee, who for months insisted he would not seek a full term as mayor, jolted what had been a rather ho-hum race and brought out a packed, boisterous audience to the city’s LGBT neighborhood movie house for the August 8 forum. The introduction of Lee on stage was
Mayor Ed Lee speaks with fellow candidates Supervisors John Avalos and David Chiu at the mayoral forum sponsored by the Duboce Triangle Neighborhood Association and the Castro/Eureka Valley Neighborhood Association. Rick Gerharter
met by prolonged boos and catcalls of “liar” as well as applause. He wasn’t alone in engendering ill will from the audience; state Senator Leland Yee (D-San Francisco) also received a fair amount of booing when he was introduced. But Yee later won over many in the crowd when he called on Lee to resign as mayor now that he is a candidate for the office. “Had the mayor said he would in fact run,” said Yee, “he wouldn’t have gotten the votes” to serve out the remainder of former
Mayor Gavin Newsom’s term. City Attorney Dennis Herrera also needled Lee for his about-face. While he noted he believes Lee to be an “honest man,” Herrera also questioned “will he be his own man and stand up to powerful interests?” The answer, Herrera implied, is no. “He said he wouldn’t run for a full term. After months and months of talking to powerful people he changed his mind,” said Herrera. See page 13 >>
Open Hand Ex-SJ center treasurer to founder be sentenced for embezzlement Ruth Brinker S dies by Seth Hemmelgarn
by Cynthia Laird
R
uth Brinker, the retired grandmother who in 1985 started delivering meals to people living with AIDS and went on to found Project Open Hand, died Monday, August 8 at the Rick Gerharter Eden Villa Assisted Ruth Brinker Living Facility in San Francisco. She was 89. She died after a series of strokes and the effects of vascular illness, the agency said in a statement. Ms. Brinker, who had retired from a career in food services, heard about a neighbor who See page 3 >>
an Jose’s Billy DeFrank LGBT Community Center, which has seen financial and leadership troubles in recent years, is set to mark another unpleasant milestone Tuesday, August 16. Former volunteer secretary/treasurer Nicholas Rice-Sanchez, 26, is expected to be sentenced in Santa Clara County Superior Court for embezzling almost $40,000 from the nonprofit. Rice-Sanchez, who had been a board member in 2010, pleaded no contest to a single felony charge in May. Such a plea is legally equivalent to a guilty plea. Meanwhile, the center, just west of the South Bay city’s downtown area, is down to three board members. However, board President Chris Flood said the nonprofit’s not in any danger of closing. The center can have up to 15 board members. Asked about whether having only three people on the panel presents problems, Flood said he and the two others are basically “taking the job of an executive director and dividing it among the three of us, and it seems to be working.” Flood has been president since February 2010 and has served on the board for a total
of almost seven years. Other board members are Vice President Greg Belaus and Treasurer Patrick McAtee.
Complaint
Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Department
Former DeFrank board treasurer Nicholas Rice-Sanchez, shown here in his booking photo, pleaded no contest to an embezzlement charge and is expected to be sentenced next week.
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According to a complaint filed October 1, 2010 in Santa Clara County Superior Court in San Jose, between the period February 1, 2010 and June 30, 2010, Rice-Sanchez (whose last name appears in court documents as Ricesanchez) was charged with one count of felony embezzlement. Flood said someone came to the June board meeting last year and told members that they thought Rice-Sanchez, who ran for San Jose City Council in 2008, was stealing from the center. Minutes from that meeting say that Rice-Sanchez was absent from the session. They don’t explicitly refer to the conversation with Rice-Sanchez’s friend. Flood said he checked bank records, and they reflected charges generated in Puerto Rico on a center ATM card. Rice-Sanchez also paid for other personal expenses using the center’s money, Flood said. Rice-Sanchez never responded to center officials when they tried to find out what was going on, he said. See page 12 >>