European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - December 22, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Sunday december 22, 1991 the stars and stripes c Page 3card touted food Stamps replacement Albuquerque . A a plastic card that is used Here instead of food Stamps is credited with boosting the morale of the county a welfare recipients. A the difference. Is like Daylight and dark a said Truett Gill president of the new Mexico grocers association. A Many people had a put Down feeling when they used the food Stamps. They done to feel it  the county a electronic benefits Transfer Pilot project which began in september 1990, replaces the coupons in the Federal food stamp program run by the . Department of agriculture. The Experiment will last three years. Federal agriculture officials said the project in Bernalillo county where 22,000 residents receive food subsidies is the largest of its kind in the nation. The us a said Simitar Pilot projects Are under Way in communities in Pennsylvania Maryland and Minnesota. The Agency this month published guidelines for other locales wishing to establish a card program. The cards Are Slid through a machine at a stores checkout counter. Then the food card customer enters an identification number on a Keypad. The store Cash Register tells the machine the size of the Bill and that amount is subtracted from the customers monthly food subsidy. The store is credited for the Purchase. Card holders can spend Only what they Are allocated and they done to get Cash As change. All but 4,000 recipients have switched to plastic and the rest should get their cards by february said John Waller who directs the Albuquerque based program at the state health services department. He said the cards should save the government Money compared to the paper coupons which must be printed and sent monthly by certified mail. It also eliminates the problem of Black marketing and lost or stolen food Stamps. Retailers Benefit because employees done to have to count stamp and bundle the coupons. A us a report on the programs efficiency is due next Spring. The Federal government spent about $546,000 on the Albuquerque project. Because the machines Are also used for regular credit cards the grocer must pay part of the installation fees. A the Federal government is the biggest Winner because it is a Cost effective approach a Waller said. A those coupons Are just about As expensive to produce As currency. It is an outdated Mode of delivering  Gill said the cards avoid misuse of the Federal food benefits a sometimes people would bring in a Dollar stamp buy something for a dime and then buy booze or something with the 90 cents left a Gill said. Some people still use the cards illegally however. One Man was spotted outside of a supermarket Selling turkeys and hams he bought with his  Force Cut out to be police officers Palo Alto Calif. Apr the latest cop on the beat in this town and other american cities is Flat lifeless and a stiff conversationalist. But the life size cardboard cutouts Are helping Cut Down on crime. The photographs Are credited with reducing shoplifting in a Colorado food store by 25 percent and the Dallas police department praised their deterrent effect even though a supermarket Chain there quit using them. A a it a like a scarecrow. People see the image and they think of a real cop a said Ron Jones president of Palo Alto based colossal graphics inc., a manufacturer of clone a cop cutouts. A a it a the psychological intimidation  the cutouts Are popular in Britain with women living alone. They buy the cutouts on the Assumption that criminals will mistake them for real officers and stay away. In the United states Flat cops Are standing guard in Illinois Texas Colorado and California usually to deter shoplifters. Manufacturers photograph real police officers to make the models. Often police departments Send letters to stores telling them of the product. Police chief James Cost in Campbell a Community South of Palo Alto was enthusiastic about the program after one of his officers posed for a cutout. Cost wrote to businesses in Campbell urging them to use the cutouts which Cost $400 apiece. The department plans to buy them then distribute them free to interested business owners. Quot if Well pay $400 for a gun Why not pay $400 for a cardboard cutout people sort of snicker. But if it works lets go give it a try a said Cost noting that a real cop costs the department about $60,000 a year with benefits. The Oakland police department has asked about clone a cops but it. Fred Peoples said he did no to know of plans to buy them. A it sounds Good on paper but you wonder whether its Worth going through with. I done to think its a High priority at this time a he said. In Colorado Springs colo., cub foods produced its own cop clones paying police officers to Model. The Flat cops watch Over health and Beauty aids and the officer Greg Finch holds a cutout bearing his image outside of a drug store in Campbell Calif. Tempting bulk food bins. A a it a been a very big Success for us a said merchandising manager Mike Arnold. He said shoplifting is Down about 25 percent. The Dallas police department distributed the cutouts in Kroger stores in 1989. They guard a dominoes pizza franchise and an apartment House business office in a drug plagued neighbourhood said it. Stan Kay. An initial 40-Day study showed the cutout cops Cut crime 71 percent in those businesses according to the department. A we done to have any real figures but we have a Good feeling about it a Kay said. Charlie Tyner head of Security for Kroger in Dallas said the cutouts were removed after a few months because they Are a just too Large and got in the Way. Theft also picked up after shoplifters got used to the cutouts he  surrenders after 16 years on drug warrant Seattle apr a Man whose conscience prompted him to surrender to face a 16-Ycar-old drug warrant was fined $5,000 Friday and sentenced to 120 Days of work release. Rudolf Valentino Santos was one of 14 people indicted in connection with a 9-ton shipment of mexican marijuana that was smuggled through Seattle in 1975. The 46-year-old Vietnam Veteran Wasny to being sought by police and Wasny to listed on any crime computer. But he Felt living in fear of arrest and keeping the secret of his past from All except his wife was a a thousand times worse than Vietnam a said his lawyer Michael h. Rosen. Santos who now lives under an assumed name near Richmond va., surrendered sept. 10. Prosecutors allowed him to plead guilty to a reduced charge. Lewis refused to reveal Santos new name for fear his children would be harassed. A what you have done takes a very special kind of courage a . District judge Barbara Rothstein told Santos. A i truly commend what you have done to make amends and make an end to this. It will truly be Over for you. Deep Down inside your life will truly be  Santa arrives in Nick of time for woman Pittsville wis. Apr a visit from old St. Nick saved 87-year-old Marie Ludewig a night of pain. Bruce Leberg dressed As Santa Claus visited his former cub scout Den Mother and found that 10 minutes earlier she had tripped Over a Stool broken her hip and collapsed. Leberg stepped inside and heard her say a please help me  Ludewig who lives alone said she would have lain in pain All night thursday had Santa not arrived and had Ner taken to the Hospital for surgery. Leberg said he believes his visit was More than a coincidence. A maybe in be been involved too Long with Santa Claus but i think it was the Miracle of Christmas a he  doubtful about accepting Cuba s offer Berlin up a Cuba has offered to put up former East German Leader Erich Honecker who is wanted in Germany but the chances that the two would be Able to Fly out of Moscow Are Akin to russian Roulette Honecker a wife Margot said saturday. Honecker 79, has been holed up for Over one week at the residence of the chilean ambassador in Moscow to avoid extradition to Germany. The former stalinist Leader faces charges of manslaughter for his alleged a shoot to kill Quot order which led to the death of 200 people who tried to flee communist East ctr Many Between August 1961, when the Berlin Wall was built and november 1989, when it fell. Margot Honecker told the Berliner Kurrier am sonntag weekly in a Telephone interview from the residence that the cuban authorities had said she and her husband could travel to Cuba. She said that they would first travel to North Korea which has also offered to put them up but added that they would Only leave the embassy grounds if russian president Boris n. Yeltsin guarantees them Safe passage in writing. A anything else would be too dangerous a she told the weekly. Asked about the chances they will be allowed to Fly out she said a the Outlook is in our eyes russian  she said she expected to spend Christmas at the ambassadors residence and that she and her husband would probably watch a video of doctor Zhivago. Erich Honecker ruled fast Germany along hard line communist lines for 18 years until he was swept from Power oct. 18, 1989 a one year before German reunification