Traffic Stop Yields Drugs
Morgan Hill – Drugs, cash and other items were confiscated by Morgan Hill police officers early Tuesday morning during a car stop for a vehicle code violation. Cpl. Ray Ramos discovered 1.3 grams of marijuana, two tablets of ecstasy, 2.4 grams of mushrooms, one ounce of cocaine, scales, cell phones and cash when he pulled over a car with three teenagers at approximately 11:50pm on Monday.
All three were released Tuesday morning pending charges, said Cmdr. David Swing.
County Pushes to Allow Food Stamps in Restaurants
Gilroy – What good is a can of soup, asks David Cox, if you don’t have a can opener?
Food stamps can be traded for breads, cereals, canned goods and produce – but not readymade foods. That limit frustrates advocates for the homeless, who say the restrictions aren’t practical for people without kitchens.
“There are delis in our area that provide healthy, pre-prepared foods that they could access – but they can’t,” said Cox, executive director of St. Joseph’s Family Center in Gilroy, which helps the chronically homeless apply for food stamps under a new countywide program.
County officials are piloting a program to link homeless people with food stamps, and are planning programs to allow the homeless to use stamps on hot food from grocery delis and inexpensive restaurants, said Maureen O’Malley-Moore, a policy analyst for county supervisor Don Gage. To make it work, county staff are looking at how to get scanners for Electronic Benefit cards into the eateries the homeless are most likely to use. Only the chronically homeless will be eligible.
“Restaurants will have to pay a fee to allow their machines to do this for us,” said Denise Boland, interim CalWORKs administrator for the county Social Service Agency. “It’ll probably be chains that see enough profit to make this profitable for them. But they’ll also have to meet certain criteria. It’s got to be nutritional, and it’s got to be a good value.”
Suspected Homeless Man Found Dead Near RR Tracks
Gilroy – Coroners have identified a man found dead last Friday near the railroad tracks as
73-year-old David Sneddon.
Sneddon was found east of the Longhouse Restaurant in Gilroy at the crossing of Howson and Monterey streets. His cause of death is still being determined, and toxicology reports have yet to be completed. Police are not investigating the death as suspicious, said Gilroy Police Sgt. Jim Gillio, who said the man appeared to be transient.
Waitress Sandra Gorman was organizing menus when an unidentified homeless man came in, agitated, asking her to call 911. He spoke little English, she said, but was able to tell her, “I think there’s a guy dead across the street.”
Gorman dialed 911, then followed the homeless man out across Monterey Street to where Sneddon’s body lay in the grass. A blanket and a basket full of belongings lay beside him, Gorman said.
The man appeared to be sleeping, and there were no cuts, bruises or signs of distress on his body, she said.
