2000 The year in review

April 1-30: Incumbent mayor Roberts wins in landslide

April 1

LANCASTER - A 15-year-old Antelope Valley High School student is being held at Sylmar Juvenile Hall on charges that he attempted to rape a disabled teacher and tried to kill another teacher.
PALMDALE - The city will have a 24-hour "emergent" care center by Sept. 15 and a new hospital in coming years, representatives of Antelope Valley Hospital said Thursday.

LANCASTER - The mother accused of backing up her daughter in a tussle with a cheerleader at Lancaster High School told a judge Friday she didn't do anything wrong. Julia Arburtha, 37, is charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor, disturbing the peace on a school campus and unlawful entry to a school campus.

April 2

LANCASTER - Mayor Frank Roberts and political challenger David Abber won't be butting heads in a one-on-one debate before the city's April 11 election. Abber, 45, says he has repeatedly challenged Roberts to debate, but the mayor refuses to go head-tohead on the issues.

April 3

CANTIL - Eugene "Mac" McKendry remembers his former wife, aviator Florence "Pancho" Barnes, with great fondness. So to him, an early Sunday morning dedication in her honor at the Cantil Post Office seemed fitting.

Members of E Clampus Vitus, an all-male historical society, took time out to honor the former flying ace with a roadside monument in her name on Sunday.

April 4

PALMDALE - After serving 28 months on the Palmdale City Council - just a little more than half her term - Shelley Sorsabal resigned Monday, saying she was unwilling to endure the slings and arrows of a potential
recall.

April 5

PALMDALE - Seven people who were top contenders in the November election said Tuesday they would be interested in filling the City Council vacancy created Monday by the resignation of Shelley Sorsabal. Revving their engines to run again are Sandy Corrales, Al Beattie, Dawn Charlton, Alan Lee, David Collin, Bo Bynum and Rick Norris.

April 6

MOJAVE - Another uniquelooking airplane has emerged from the Scaled Composites prototype factory. This one, called the Adam M-309 and built for Adam Aircraft Industries in Colorado, looks normal from the nose to the wing.

April 7

PALMDALE - After he accepted command of Air Force Plant 42 on Thursday morning, Lt. Col. Celeo Wright's first words as the boss were these:

"Thank God! Whoo!"

April 8

EDWARDS AFB - Tests and more tests. Edwards Air Force Base environmental officials still don't know whether trenches near new enlisted dormitories contain breakdown components of a World War I-era chemical weapon - mustard gas.

PALMDALE - A two-story health clinic and a 24-hour care center at 40th Street East and Palmdale Boulevard could be open for patients by mid-September following plan approval Friday by Palmdale Planning Director Laurie Lile.

April 9

LANCASTER - Three grandmothers and a grandfather accused of selling large amounts of a substance used in the manufacture of methamphetamine pleaded innocent Friday to charges that they violated a new anti-meth law.

Robert Granicy, 63; Armitta Granicy, 59; Romona Ann Beek, 61; and Dorothy Manning, 67; operate Granicy's Valley Wide Feed Store at 43040 20th St. East.

April 10

If voters speak with their ballots, the Antelope Valley citizenry are a reticent bunch. In the March 7 statewide primary election, only 37.6% of registered voters in Lancaster and Palmdale turned out at the polls, while turnout around California surged to 54%, its highest for a presidential primary since 1976.

April 11

LANCASTER - The mom accused of jumping into a schoolyard scuffle has found herself under the law's microscope for the next three years. Julia Arburth, 37, pleaded no contest Monday to disturbing the peace on a school campus as part of a plea bargain arrangement.

PALMDALE - Accused Symbionese Liberation Army Terrorist Sarah Jane Olson traveled back in time Monday, becoming Kathleen Ann Soliah again. In the Sunday school room of St. Stephen's Lutheran Church of the Valley in Palmdale, the accused terrorist greeted acquaintances of more than 20 years past - people who knew her as Kathy Soliah, top student and Palmdale High spirit champ.

April 12

PALMDALE - A petition drive organized by union activists could force the City Council to rescind a recent amendment of its General Plan, which could make way for a shopping center at 47th Street East and Avenue S, with its primary anchor a Wal-Mart.

LANCASTER - Incumbent Mayor Frank Roberts handily shut out challenger David Abber in Tuesday's municipal election. Roberts secured more than 80% of the votes cast with all 32 city precincts reporting in.

April 13

LANCASTER - Blockbuster Video employees and customers are hoping to see the return of the Jedi master. Yoda, the cuddly Muppet Jedi who mentored Luke Skywalker in the third Star Wars epic, "Return of the Jedi," was abducted from the Blockbuster video store at 30th Street West and Avenue L by some agent of the dark side.

April 14

LOS ANGELES - Antelope Valley High School District Trustee Bill Olenick was arrested by Los Angeles Airport Police for allegedly hitting his wife while the couple were on an airplane returning from Mexico. The couple were reportedly on a Mexicana Airlines flight April 7.

April 15

VAN NUYS - Two former principals from schools attended by the deceased daughter of Michael and Kathleen Gentry testified against the couple Friday during their trial on charges of involuntary manslaughter. Authorities contend the Gentrys failed to prevent their severely disabled daughter, Lindsay, from wasting away and allowed her to starve to death in 1996.

April 16

There's supposed to be strength in numbers.

Palmdale Democrats have those numbers - their voters comprise the majority of the city's electorate - but that majority hasn't translated into strength.

Look across the spectrum of local, state and national representation, and it's clear Republicans maintain a vice grip on political puissance in Palmdale and the rest of the Antelope Valley.

April 17

PALMDALE - While there is a little relief in the nagging Antelope Valley gas-price saga, the frustration continues for many price-weary commuters and other motorists. For weeks, the Valley has experienced a surge in gas prices at most stations with even the least-expensive stations topping out at a little more than $1.80 a gallon for regular.

April 18

VAN NUYS - More former teachers of Lindsay Gentry testified against her parents Monday in the involuntary manslaughter trial of the couple.

Michael and Kathleen Gentry are accused of allowing their physically and mentally disabled daughter to waste away because they did not take proper steps to keep her nourished. When then15-year-old Lindsay Gentry died in 1996, she weighed about 45 pounds, but stood 4 feet, 10 inches tall.

April 19

PALMDALE - Sheriff's Lt. Rod Penner declined to confirm or deny Tuesday whether he would follow the lead of Shelley Sorsabal and resign from the Palmdale City Council. Given the opportunity to dispel political community rumors about his possible exit from council service, Penner offered no insight.

April 20

LANCASTER - San Bernardino County has earned the endorsement of the California Trade and Commerce Agency as the preferred spaceport for VentureStar, a next-generation space launch vehicle. VentureStar is being built by Lockheed Martin and NASA.

April 21

LANCASTER - A seventhgrade New Vista Middle School student allegedly attacked and assaulted a classmate Thursday, before the scrap escalated to an assault on a substitute teacher and the school's vice principal. The attacks allegedly broke out inside the classroom when a classmate of the suspect tried to defuse a feud between two students over a Walkman.

April 22

LOS ANGELES - Prosecutors will not file criminal charges against a 13-year-old boy involved in a November fistfight at Juniper Intermediate School that resulted in the death of another student.

Matthew Perry was expelled earlier this year by Palmdale School District trustees for taking part in the Nov. 19 fight that left classmate Stephan Corson dead.

April 23

AGUA DULCE - A small plane navigating through a thick fog struck the side of a mountain near the Antelope Valley Freeway and Escondido Canyon Road, killing the pilot. The pilot, a Santa Paula man who was not identified because his family had not yet been notified, was the only person aboard the plane.

April 24

LANCASTER - As the Antelope Valley enjoys its cleanest air in 30 years, the local Air Pollution Control District is trying to separate from Los Angeles County in a bid for more independence.

April 25

PALMDALE - Palmdale again will grapple with the question of whether Palmdale's threemember City Council can agree on appointing a fourth member to its ranks. The question is to fill or not to fill the latest vacant City Council seat.

April 26

VAN NUYS - Witnesses for the defense on Tuesday characterized Michael and Kathleen Gentry as loving parents who tried their best to get their daughter, Lindsay Gentry, to eat.

April 27

PALMDALE - The foundation has been set, and the chief executive of SR Technics America Inc. is ready to begin hiring people to handle the aircraft maintenance giant's first contract, a fleet of Federal Express DC-10s. SR Technics, the maintenance arm of SAirGroup, formerly SwissAir, will be hiring between 130 and 160 employees in early July.

April 28

LANCASTER - It has been 17 months since a battalion of FBI agents descended upon the city Public Works yard with backhoes and a search warrant looking for proof that a toxic waste dump existed on the site. A city source speaking on the condition of anonymity confirmed a report that the investigation is nearing an end and that the city of Lancaster will effectively be vindicated of wrongdoing in connection with purported illegal toxic dumping at the Public Works yard.

April 29

PALMDALE - Sheriff's deputies arrested a 15-year-old male student Thursday afternoon at Highland High School afternoon after the student allegedly threatened one of his teachers because she had given him a bad grade.

April 30

LANCASTER - Since the end of World War II, Jews set aside May 2 as the day they remember the killing of six million at the hands of Nazi Germany. Tuesday, at the Lancaster Performing Arts Center, the Jewish community of the Antelope Valley will join with people of all faiths and nationalities to remember victims of all holocausts.

Uploaded December 21, 2000