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Protesters target FedEx
Hip Portland
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Fall Arts Preview
Daniel Reichard
The
www.ebar.com
Since 1971, the newspaper of record for the San Francisco Bay Area LGBTQ community
Vol. 48 • No. 35 • August 30-September 5, 2018
SF seeks new plan to combat rise in STDs by Matthew S. Bajko
Missing man Brian Egg
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Courtesy SFPD
2 arrests made in headless torso case by Ed Walsh
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an Francisco police announced Tuesday that two men have been arrested in the case of a headless torso that was found in a missing gay man’s home. At the news conference, Investigations Bureau Commander Greg McEachern defended the department’s response to calls from friends and family of Brian Egg, 65, who lived at the Clara Street home and had not been seen since late May or June. Police entered Egg’s home for the first time August 14, after being alerted by neighbors that a private crime scene cleanup company had arrived at the house. Once inside, they noticed odors and chemicals in the house and conducted a thorough search of the home. It was then that police discovered a corpse with its head and hands missing in a fish tank that was hidden in the home. The remains have not been identified, pending DNA analysis, but friends and family members believe the body is that of Egg. Robert McCaffrey, 52, was arrested at the home, and Lance Silva, 39, was arrested at another location. Both men were initially charged with homicide, ID theft, elder abuse, and financial crimes. The San Francisco District Attorney’s office dropped the charges pending further investigation. McCaffrey was released but Silva was detained in Alameda County for a parole violation.
Something wrong
Long before police entered Egg’s home, his brother, Devon Egg, sensed something was wrong. The Florida resident called his brother at his San Francisco home and an answering machine picked up. His brother never used an answering machine. And the recorded voice was not his brother’s. The mysterious man on the machine asked callers to leave a message. He called again later and someone answered the phone who identified himself as Nate. He said Brian was out walking his dog and that he would have him call right back. That was sometime in late June or early July. No one called back. On Tuesday, McEachern defended the department’s response. McEachern said that officers went by the home twice to check on Egg but there was no answer at the door and officers left. He said officers went by the home a third time August 7 after a family member filed a missing persons report and, again, there was no answer and officers left. See page 13 >>
Jane Philomen Cleland
A hot Silicon Valley Pride
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plash bar was one of numerous contingents that took part in the Silicon Valley Pride parade Sunday, August 26, in San Jose. Donald Tietjen, center, in red, was enthusiastic as he
and the others marched under warm skies. Local reports noted that this year’s parade had about 100 floats. Thousands of people enjoyed the festival.
fter a decadelong rise in the transmission of sexually transmitted diseases in San Francisco, local health officials are seeking a new plan to reverse Rick Gerharter the troubling trend. Similar to how Dr. Susan Philip the city pioneered a “Getting to Zero” plan to drastically reduce the transmission of HIV by 2020, public health leaders are in talks to create a multi-pronged strategy for reducing STDs rates. A key part of the plan calls for greater collaboration between the Department of Public Health’s sections focused on HIV prevention and STD control. “We have to create a roadmap for getting us to where we want to be,” said Deputy Health Officer Dr. Susan Philip, the director of the disease prevention and control branch in the health department’s Population Health Division. “The only way to serve people well is to take a holistic look at their health and specifically at hepatitis See page 9 >>
Safe injection plan could face fed challenge by Liz Highleyman
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an Francisco Mayor London Breed and community advocates opened a realistic model safe injection site in the Tenderloin Wednesday, August 29, as Governor Jerry Brown makes a decision about state legislation to authorize a working pilot program and the U.S. attorney general’s office warns that such efforts could face “aggressive action.” Dubbed Safer Inside, the full-scale prototype at Glide Memorial Methodist Church will be open for four days to give city officials and the public an opportunity to see what a working facility would look like and hear from experts about how it would operate. Mayor London Breed, who lost her younger sister to a drug overdose, spoke at a news conference in Boeddeker Park following a site tour. “We are here today to save lives. That’s what this is about. It is a proven, evidence-based approach to solving a public health crisis,” Breed said. “We know that there are legal challenges, but here in San Francisco we are not afraid. We have faced worse obstacles in trying to move this city and this country forward. Today you find a community of people who will stand strong and who will do the right thing. The lives of the people we are trying to help are counting on it.” Supervised injection facilities allow people to use drugs under the watch of medical staff, reducing the risk of overdose deaths. They
Liz Highleyman
Mayor London Breed toured the Safer Inside demonstration project Wednesday with Glide clinical director Dr. Kenneth Kim.
provide sterile needles, which prevents transmission of HIV and hepatitis B and C, and offer clients an entry point for seeking medical care and addiction treatment. Indoor sites also reduce street-based drug use and improper syringe disposal, seen as a growing problem in the city. San Francisco is among several cities – including New York, Philadelphia, and Seattle – vying to open the first supervised injection facility in the United States. The city is home to an estimated 22,500 people who inject drugs, and had
193 overdose deaths last year, Breed said. There are currently around 100 safe injection sites worldwide. Vancouver’s Insite, the first North American facility, has 13 injection booths and served over 7,300 clients in 2017. A recent study found that a single supervised injection facility of the same size in San Francisco could avert at least three new HIV infections and 19 cases of hepatitis C per year, while saving the city $3.5 million annually. The Safer Inside demonstration site, See page 12 >>
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