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A shallow double earthquake just four miles from Gilroy was reported early Monday morning according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

The Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office has charged two alleged drug dealers with murder in relation to the fentanyl overdose death of 18-month-old Winter Doe. The charges come five months after Winter’s parents, Derek Vaughn Rayo and Kelly Gene Richardson, became the first in...

Santa Clara County law enforcement officers can expect to have a

GILROY—While other football players in California were sleeping and dreaming about the upcoming season, Christopher’s were watching their dream come true and working towards achieving a new one.

Hundreds of people flocked to see the creek overflow at Christmas Hill Park, saying it was a way of celebrating water in the face of a long drought. 

He was by all accounts the perfect firefighter, a good husband and dad, a quiet man of strength and courage who never boasted, loved toy trains and put his life on the line for others.And Ruben Gomez also was the first Hispanic firefighter in Alameda County.In the on-again, off-again rainstorm of March 11, they laid Fire Capt. Gomez to rest in Gilroy, the town in which he was raised, one of 18 children. He was 82.So special was his memory to those with whom he served in the Alameda Fire Department for 26 years that more than two dozen of its active and retired firefighters attended the funeral at St. Mary Roman Catholic Church on First Street.And although Gomez had retired to San Martin in 1991, a gleaming red Alameda Fire Department ladder truck made the 90-minute drive to Gilroy to represent that city’s appreciation for his long service, which included an award for valor for risking his own life to save a brother firefighter’s life. It was an incident he never even mentioned to his family until it came out in an awards ceremony, to his wife’s great surprise.Members of Gomez’s family, including four children, some of his 12 grandchildren, 27 great-grandchildren and scores of friends filled the church for the funeral Mass and the burial at St. Mary Cemetery.“He was such a kind man,” said his wife of 62 years, Melicia, 79, who’s known as Millie. They met at a dance in Gilroy, after her future husband had moved with his family to California from El Paso, Texas, in 1942 and she had moved to Gilroy from Brawley.Ruben Gomez graduated from Gilroy High School in 1953; he and Millie were married the same year at St. Mary’s Church.His widow described Ruben as a man who loved dancing, from Mexican to swing, and looked forward each year to a hunting trip with fellow firefighters to Colorado or Idaho.“Hunting season, that was his thing,” she said, adding, “It was just wonderful for him to go.”His other love was toy trains, which he collected with relish, scouring yard sales and flea markets for collectable engines and cars, according to his family.Daughter Maria Gomez, 51, of Morgan Hill agreed, describing her dad as dark-haired, light-skinned with brownish-greenish eyes and always on the thin side.“He was very quiet and very strict with us kids. He came from a generation that did not show a lot of emotion” so he showed his love and affection by doing for others, she said.In her case, it was to teach her all he knew about working around the house and on cars, to the point that she loved doing mechanical work on her own car and knew he’d be quick to pitch in, saying, “get out of the way, you’ll make a mess,” she said.He bought Maria her first car, a 1955 Chevrolet, when she was 12. She said she still has it.“That is how he showed affection, by doing things for you; he was always willing to help someone out,” she said.The couple’s other children are Barbara Burrows of Livermore, Ruben Gomez, Jr. of Van Nuys and David Gomez of San Martin.Gomez was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease six years ago and it took his life, Maria Gomez said.After marrying, the newlyweds moved to Oakland, and later to Hayward, where Gomez worked for Babcock Manufacturing, a fabricator of workshop vises. It was there that a foreman urged him to take the test for the Alameda Fire Department.He was hired in 1964 but kept working part-time for Babcock and worked the two jobs until he retired in 1991, Maria said.“He’d walk in the house in his fire department uniform and go into his room and come out in his street clothes and go to his part-time job,” she said, recalling their days in Hayward.When her parents in 1991 wanted to  “come home” to South County and relocated to San Martin, she followed them to Morgan Hill, Maria said.And while he never boasted or bragged about it, she said the family is very proud of the fact that he was the first Hispanic firefighter in Alameda County.“There was still a lot of prejudice at that time,” she said.By all accounts, Ruben Gomez had a reputation for selfless courage on the fire line, a great sense of humor with his brother firefighters—and for being a terrific cook in the firehouse.None of which he shared with his family.He was quiet and reserved, Maria said, and he never shared in kitchen duties at home. So it came as a complete surprise when his fellow firefighters revealed he had a terrific sense of humor, cooked the best Mexican food and earned a medal for valor in the line of duty.The latter went unknown to his family until Ruben told Millie they had to attend an awards ceremony—where, it turned out, he received a medal of valor for pulling an unconscious partner from a burning and smoke-filled building.Millie Gomez recounted how her husband and his partner were nearly overcome by smoke in the pitch-black dark of the building and had to feel their way along the walls for an exit. After making it out and to a nearby fence, Ruben turned to see his partner was not behind him. He returned to the burning building and, groping in the dark, located his unconscious partner and pulled the man to safety, she said. At the ceremony, his tearful partner thanked Gomez for saving his life.At the Alameda Fire Department, Chief Doug Long remembered Gomez as “very competent and knowledgeable man, quiet and soft spoken” and someone people liked to be around. He was held in the highest regard, Chief Long said.Long and Gomez served together for three years during Gomez’s tenure from August 15, 1964 to Oct. 1, 1991.So devoted was he to the fire service that his widow wanted him to be buried in his fire captain’s jacket, but was terribly conflicted because she also wanted to keep the jacket among the memories of her husband.She asked if the jacket could be put on her husband for the funeral, then be returned to her before the burial, but was told that to put the garment on him it would have to be cut all the way up the back and fitted onto him. She could not do that to the jacket.Maria Gomez said that after she shared her mother’s quandary with the Alameda Fire Department, three firefighters sent their own jackets to be used, her aunt did a few alterations on one, including making copies of adornments specific to her father’s uniform, and Capt. Ruben Gomez, Alameda County’s first Hispanic firefighter, was buried in one those.  

More than 30 horse lovers upset with the Santa Clara County animal control unit’s handling of a case involving malnourished horses at two South County ranches picketed in front of government offices in San Martin Monday morning.“It’s reached a point where we want people to hear us and do something about it,” said Morgan Hill resident Debra Kenyon as passing motorists honked their horns in support. “Action speaks louder than words.”Kenyon held up a sign that read, “Animal Control says the horses are getting better! Really?,” and included three color photographs of a horse named “Braiden” taken at different times, showing its declining health over time. The final image has Braiden lying on the dirt of a Center Avenue ranch in unincorporated Gilroy.“Braiden, why have they let this happen?,” the sign read in smaller print. “Please, help us save Braiden and the other horses.”Protesters—coming from places such as San Jose, Santa Cruz, Hollister, Morgan Hill and Gilroy—lined the southbound side of Monterey Road in front of the county sheriff’s station. They held up signs with different slogans on them, most calling for action to save the horses they say are still suffering at the Gilroy ranch. One sheriff’s deputy stood nearby to keep an eye on the protesters, who parked their cars across the road on Highland Avenue and walked over to Monterey Road for the demonstration.“I want something done about this,” said Hollister resident Carol McGill, who volunteers at the Equine Rescue Center, which purchased 10 sickly horses from the same rancher who runs the Gilroy property Sept. 24. Those horses—which were found malnourished at the rancher’s Morgan Hill pasture—are still housed at the ERC in Paicines. “I want the horses removed from this man. Something has to be done,” McGill continues. McGill said one of the horses from the Morgan Hill pasture on Maple Avenue died the morning after its arrival. ERC founder Monica Hardeman, also picketing Monday, paid $11,000 for the 10 emaciated horses—including the one that died, which they named “Justice”—from Morgan Hill rancher Humberto Rivas. Hardeman and her staff have been nursing the horses back to health.“They’re doing great except for Justice. That was just disgusting how that all transpired,” McGill added.In the Morgan Hill case, Rivas said he received the horses in bad shape from another horse rancher he had done business with over the years because they could not take care of the animals. He was trying to nurse them back to health before selling them. Rivas leases both the Morgan Hill and Gilroy properties, where he keeps dozens of horses, according to neighbors.In September, a group of Morgan Hill neighbors started a Facebook page titled “Morgan Hill Horses In Need,” documenting the poor health of the horses being kept by Rivas in Morgan Hill and Gilroy. Images of the malnourished horses went viral on the social media site, drawing news media attention and prompting the district attorney’s office to take notice.“We need to be a voice for the animals because they cannot speak for themselves. We need to do that for them,” said Santa Cruz resident Kim Baker, who wore a horse mask and brought her granddaughter to Monday’s demonstration. “If good doesn’t stand up, then bad will prevail.”Morgan Baker, who grandma said is home-schooled, had her own thoughts on the horse situation. A youth participant in Gymkhana, an equestrian event, Morgan, decked out in cowgirl gear, said: “They shouldn’t be abused. All other things are taken care of and the horses are just forgotten.”Lori Yeilding, a volunteer at the Valley View Ranch Equine Rescue At Ranch Forgotten Horse Sanctuary, said situations involving the mistreatment of horses—similar to what is being alleged in Morgan Hill and Gilroy—happen “all over the country.”“It’s a never-ending problem,” Yeilding said. “We just want justice and humane treatment of horses.”Coming down from San Jose were Steve and Katrina Gordy—who shared with fellow picketers a similar situation in Milpitas that they felt was mishandled by animal control.“I just hope (this South County situation) gets more exposure,” said Katrina Gordy, who believes that animal control does not want to take on the expense of caring for the horses. “Either animal control just refused to act or really is just not educated enough. Maybe it’s a combination of both.”The Times previously reported that animal control is continuing its investigation and the district attorney’s office is waiting for that report. Check back later for updates to this developing story.