2000 The year in review

July 15-31

July 15

PALMDALE - The parolee involved in an accident that left four people dead Thursday had barely been out of prison a year the day of the fateful crash on Sierra Highway.

Shawn Beavers, 27, of Rosamond was sent to prison on March 20, 1998, for possession of a controlled substance. He was released on parole on June 21, 1999.

July 16

LANCASTER - Forty-three balloon-toting, teddy-bear hugging children filled the usually drab halls of the Antelope Municipal Courthouse on Saturday, waiting with their new but not-quite-official parents.

All that stood in the way of legal parenthood was an oath and a signature on a finalization form.

July 17

PALMDALE - Making sure children are safe on the way to and from school is a team effort involving children, drivers - and especially parents, local crossing guards say. The recent death of 9year-old Myisha Adams near Cactus Elementary School has renewed calls for emphasis on safety around area schools.

July 18

LANCASTER - The search for Michelle O'Keefe's killer is going national.

"America's Most Wanted," the weekly television show on the Fox network which takes law enforcement agencies' toughest cases to millions of television viewers, will feature O'Keefe's unsolved murder later this month.

PALMDALE - The Palmdale Regional Airport development plan has stagnated because of a city of Los Angeles airport commission obstinately committed to expanding Los Angeles International Airport.

Fifth District Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich called the five-member Los Angeles World Airports commission "people who have sight but no vision."

July 19

LANCASTER - The Lewis sisters - Ramona Beck, Armitta Granicy and Dorothy Manning - were in court Tuesday morning. The trio, along with Granicy's husband Robert, 63, face misdemeanor charges related to the way iodine crystals have been sold at Granicy's Valley Wide Feed Store in Lancaster.

July 20

PALMDALE - In a split vote, the Palmdale School District trustees on Tuesday reaffirmed a 11.4% pay increase for superintendent Nancy Smith.

The 3-2 vote marked the second time trustees voted for the pay hike after questions were raised about the legality of the first vote, which took place in a closed executive session at a special emergency meeting.
LAKE ELIZABETH - Hot, dry air and brisk winds made the Antelope Valley and Lake Elizabeth ripe for fires, and there was a rash of them late Wednesday afternoon. Fifty acres of brush were torched in a single hour, threatening nearby homes.

July 21

PALMDALE - A vote by Palmdale School District trustees this week to raise Superintendent Nancy Smith's salary by 11.4% has sparked backlash from one parent. Anthonette Vidal put board members Tom Lackey and Velma Trosin on notice Tuesday night that she is pursuing a recall campaign against them.

July 22

PALMDALE - An anonymous informant, purporting to be part of the staff at the Antelope Valley Career Planning Center, triggered a fraud probe by Los Angeles County investigators.

Meanwhile, the $762,000 in federal funding to the center may be blocked while county officials seek answers about how the nonprofit agency will serve clients after laying off most of its staff, shrinking its ranks from more than a dozen to only four employees.

July 23

PALMDALE - Barrel Springs Elementary School is like an older sibling who finally got his own room. The year-round, kindergarten through seventh-grade school once shared space with Palmdale School District's Buena Vista Elementary School.

July 24

PALMDALE - "Six hundred Nazi-style camps are already built - waiting for innocent citizens who tick off Uncle Sam!" alleges an article recently published in the Weekly World News.

You know the Weekly World News, that bastion of high journalistic standards, commonly found at the supermarket checkout stand. The publication that has uncovered such investigative stories as a Loch Ness-type monster in Florida's Lake Okeechobee.

WASHINGTON - As a vice presidential candidate, Dick Cheney would give George W. Bush an instant shot of gravitas and energize the Republican Party, while reassuring the public that Bush has a battle-tested No. 2 to deal with foreign and domestic problems, party activists and political analysts said Saturday.

"He's very thorough, very fair, always prepared, very stable. I think that's what people saw during the Persian Gulf War," said Becky Constantino, the Wyoming Republican Party chairwoman.

July 25

LANCASTER - The criminal case against Jill Harris came to an abrupt halt Monday when Superior Court Judge Steven Ogden granted a prosecution motion to dismiss a felony theft charge against the ousted executive director of the Antelope Valley High Schools Education Foundation.

The case, according to the parties, was dismissed "in the interests of justice."

LANCASTER - Jill Harris, forced to resign in November from her $70,000-a-year post as executive director of the Antelope Valley High Schools Education Foundation, is suing the foundation and the county of Los Angeles.

Harris has filed a lawsuit against the county and another lawsuit against the education foundation for alleged wrongful termination, racial harassment, sexual harassment and retaliation.

July 26

GONESSE, France - With flames and smoke streaking from its engines, an Air France Concorde crashed into a hotel outside Paris shortly after takeoff Tuesday. At least 113 people died.

It was the first fatal crash for the needle-nosed supersonic aircraft, and all other Concordes - for 30 years the pride of French and British aviation - were grounded.

July 27

Whatever the grand jury saw during its tour of juvenile detention centers in north Los Angeles County, it's not there anymore.

In a censorious report issued last month, two or three county citizens serving on a grand jury bemoaned the living conditions in county youth camps they toured.

The grand jury specifically targeted the Lancaster and Lake Hughes facilities.

July 28

LANCASTER - Nearly two years have passed since a swarm of FBI agents and hazardous materials investigators descended upon the Lancaster Public Works yard, acting on tips from former employees that the site was an environmental mess. How big of a mess was it? County hazardous materials investigators endeavored to find out, as did federal prosecutors and Lancaster officials.

July 29

The Antelope Valley's contingent of Republican delegates is cruising into Philadelphia this weekend to pledge support for Texas Gov. George W. Bush as the party's candidate for U.S. President. It's the Republican National Convention, the Grand Old Party's biggest party, and a select few have invitations to "The Floor."

July 30

LANCASTER - Despite bans on the use of treated human waste as fertilizer on farmland, the Antelope Valley remains knee-deep in the debate about the use of biosolids.

The debate over the use of fecal fertilizer has raged in the Antelope Valley for a decade, pitting environmental activists against farmers and carrying the debate into California courtrooms.

July 31

PALMDALE - Two Palmdale teenagers died early Sunday morning after they were thrown from a vehicle that went airborne on the Antelope Valley Freeway.

The 16-year-old and 17-year-old boys were passengers in a 1995 Ford Escort driven by 18-year-old Sofiha L. Ponce, also from Palmdale.

Uploaded December 26, 2000