CALIFORNIA IN BRIEF : EAST PALO ALTO : Drug-Plagued Area to Get More Police

In an outpouring of support for a 60-year-old anti-drug activist wounded by gunfire, a San Mateo County supervisor told a cheering crowd that the board will donate $500,000 to hire five police officers for crime-plagued East Palo Alto. Joaquin DeMonet, developer of a proposed complex in the city’s Whiskey Gulch district, also announced at a City Council meeting that he will donate $100,000 to enable the city to hire a sixth officer. About 100 people packed the council meeting one week after anti-drug activist C.W. Roddy was slightly wounded in the stomach by a gunman who blasted her house with semiautomatic weapons fire on New Year’s Day.