Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed
Big Screen — Movie commentary
Blurt — Music's inside track
Booze News — San Diego spirits
Classical Music — Immortal beauty
Classifieds — Free and easy
Cover Stories — Front-page features
Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes
Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts
Feast! — Food & drink reviews
Feature Stories — Local news & stories
Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore
From the Archives — Spotlight on the past
Golden Dreams — Talk of the town
The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it
Letters — Our inbox
Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites
Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans
Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists
Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news
News Ticker — News & politics
Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated
Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna
Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated
Poetry — The old and the new
Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers
Reading — The hunt for intellectuals
Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails
San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds
SD on the QT — Almost factual news
Sheep and Goats — Places of worship
Special Issues — The best of
Street Style — San Diego streets have style
Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves
Theater — On stage in San Diego this week
Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative
Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work
Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego
Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads
Your Week — Daily event picks
Sweetwater's Funds for Education
Super article. I don't know who your sources are, but there are only about 5 people I know of that know all that. And one of them is sadly buried now. I'd love to be of any help possible to you Ms. Lazzaro in future research. The "UT editorial" you mentioned? That was mine. It's not "Watchdog" reporting to just rehash what the DA is saying at the press releases, your article shows vast insight into the ugliest dirtiest few who run an otherwise challenged but beautiful district. On the first day of corruption class 101 Gandara didn't even bring his book, but Ed Brand was GIVING the lecture. Ed Brand talks about previously being an ASB advisor at Sweetwater High and from this experience he gained keen insight into where money could come from: athletic gear, soft drinks, snacks, graduation & ring vendors, pizza, you name it, he soon got his fingers in it. Gary Zarecky was a basketball shuckster there at the same time in the 70's who had his hand out all over town and took the basketball team all over the world with magical monetary resources. Brand looked up to him. Although Brand couldn't even keep a lid on his own kids who were busy stealing basketball tickets and selling them on the cheap on the side; yep...the apples didn't fall far from the tree. Little in the way of records were ever kept for any of this fundraising, I'm SURE it ALL went to the kids. In 1995 Brand sat down the 9 ASB directors from every high school in the district to a breakfast hosted by our colleague Bill McLaughlin at the top floor of "The Executive Club (when Bill was still little people but had loftier ambitions) and more or less announced to them/us that the Borg, I mean Brand, was now in charge of consolidating all contracts and that together we would all prosper. Besides myself, the rookie, he was talking to a table of Titans of Student Activities in the district, people like Rindone who had negotiated directly with the commodities market to get the nation's best senior ring deal and Mike Swift who literally had just finished writing the country's first million dollar soda contract. It didn't make a lick of sense. The whole City in our view below us? Ours...if we'd just let him turn that rock into a loaf of bread. Up until that time we would consult with each other as colleagues and strike our own deals, usually using local vendors when possible. It became readily apparent that not only would contracts be put out to bid for a collective best price but that they were now going to be looking for "something extra" for the superintendent and board to have kicked back to them. Strangely Brand never asked any of the experienced people like Rindone or Smith into these meetings, it was— January 15, 2012 1:17 a.m.