Free Republic

When Bruce Bastian of Utah stood up Saturday night at a San Francisco dinner and wrote a $1 million check for the campaign against Proposition 8, he made it clearer than ever that November's ballot fight over a ban on same-sex marriage won't be a California-only affair. Supporters of the effort to ban same-sex marriage already have taken in more than $1.2 million from out-of-state contributors for the fall campaign. And even before Bastian, a co-founder of the WordPerfect software company, opened his checkbook, gay and lesbian rights groups and their supporters from around the country had put more than...

SAN FRANCISCO -- A former executive of the Haight Ashbury Free Clinics was sentenced Wednesday to seven years in state prison for defrauding the San Francisco nonprofit out of $773,000, authorities said. Carl Gill, 47, of Oakland was charged four years ago in the case. He was sentenced by Judge Cynthia Lee in San Francisco Superior Court after pleading guilty to two felony counts of grand theft and six counts of tax evasion, prosecutors said. He also agreed to pay restitution of $773,000, plus $174,000 in back taxes and $1,400 in fines. Authorities at the Haight Ashbury Free Clinics said...

San Francisco -- Saying he wants to start his second term with a clean slate, Mayor Gavin Newsom today asked all city department heads and anybody he has appointed to serve on a city commission or board to hand in their letters of resignation. On Friday, Newsom also told all senior staffers in his office to do the same. Newsom told department heads at his regular Monday department head meeting that he wanted each of them to turn in letters of resignation, but didn't say how many resignations he ultimately would accept, according to Mitch Katz, director of the city's...