LANCASTER - A homemade bomb found in the parking lot of the Elks Lodge forces an hour-long closure of a mile-long stretch of road on Avenue K as the bomb squad detonates the device.Aug. 2
Aug. 1
LANCASTER - A homemade bomb found in the parking lot of the Elks Lodge forces an hour-long closure of a mile-long stretch of road on Avenue K as the bomb squad detonates the device.
Aug. 2
PALMDALE - Rockwell International Co.'s sale of its aerospace and defense business to Boeing could be good news for the Antelope Valley, officials say.
Aug. 3
LANCASTER - Directors of Antelope Valley Hospital vote 4-0-1 to invest $18 million in highreturn accounts to help pay off $47 million worth of bonds that will be due in 18 months.
The $47 million is a combination of $31 million in refinanced old debt and $16 million worth of recent capital-projects expenditures, Chief Executive Officer Robert Harenski says.
Aug. 4
BORON - After losing five businesses in the past year, Boron residents aren't sitting idle. Like their neighbors at Phillips Laboratories, they're pushing full-throttle into the future.
Their vision for Boron includes a thriving main street sustained by eateries, antique stores and freshly painted arbors showcasing aerospace displays. With any luck, the community could become known as the antique capital of the high desert, says F.O. Roe, president of the Boron Chamber of Commerce and organizer of the revitalization effort.
Aug. 6
LOS ANGELES - A two-time rapist is sentenced to 25 years in prison for murdering an elderly Palmdale man and burying him in a makeshift grave near Lake Hughes. The penalty is part of a sentence agreed upon in early July when 37-year-old Michael Francis Benanti pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter.
PALMDALE - The dentist who lost a $1.2 million judgment to a former patient says the jury's verdict is unfair and that he believes he was discriminated against because he is an immigrant.
Aug. 7
LANCASTER - After more than a decade of silence, retired Northrop Grumman test pilot Richard Thomas now can speak about a top-secret aircraft that helped define the technology used in the B-2 stealth bomber.
Tacit Blue was appropriately named because it was not spoken of outside the narrow group of Northrop and Air Force officials who knew about it. It was an aircraft so secret that its existence was officially acknowledged only in May, some 11 years after its final test flight.
LOS ANGELES - Federal criminal charges are brought against two reputed teenage skinheads who allegedly participated in a machete attack on a black Antelope Valley resident, a prosecutor confirms.
Aug. 8
PALMDALE - A high-ranking Air Force official congratulates Detachment 1 at Air Force Plant 42 for winning its first Organizational Excellence Award, a prestigious honor that recognizes outstanding operations.
LANCASTER - The 399 votes that put Frank Roberts into the city's first elected mayoral campaign cost $11.01 each, candidate financial statements show.
Roberts spent $38,509 garnering 3,499 of the 8,677 ballots cast in the April 9 mayoral contest - more than four times the cost of the votes collected by second-place finisher Michael Singer, who remains a city councilman.
PALMDALE - About 50 skateboarders put away their boards and gather at city hall "drawing boards" to design the first skateboard park in Palmdale.
Aug. 9
SANTA MONICA - Ellen Coussens and Concha E. Trippensee maintain they aren't concerned with who does better in today's Palms to Pines Air Race. They're more concerned about improving their piloting skills and having fun.
But Coussens and Trippensee - who live at Rosamond Sky Park, where they have hangars instead of garages in their back yards - will fly the same model of airplane in the 27th annual race, making them direct competitors.
PALMDALE - Michael DiGirolamo doesn't promise to bring commercial carriers like Southwest Airlines or powerhouse cargo fliers like Federal Express to Palmdale Regional Airport. His eyes are on some small charter cargo carriers. DiGirolamo, who began working two months ago as director of operations for the Los Angeles Department of Airports, said he believes his history with both large and small airports will help him find business for all L.A. airports.
Aug. 10
LANCASTER - The number of rape and child molestation victims treated the first six months of the year was 62% higher than the number of cases reported during the same time in 1995, an expert says.
LANCASTER - A tentative decision to route a high-speed rail line outside the Antelope Valley rouses disappointment among local officials, who say they are trying to change that plan.
Aug. 11
LOS ANGELES - A massive power outage strikes at least nine Western states Saturday, affecting millions of people, with reports of lost electricity extending from the Mexican border to Canada and as far east as Texas.
Aug. 13
BEND, Ore. - Rosamond copilots Concha E. Trippensee and Patricia McDuffee win the award for best first-time flyers in the 27th annual Palms to Pines Air Race, and fellow Rosamond Sky Park resident Ellen Coussens - a third-time veteran of the womenonly race - wins first place, securing the top spots for the only Antelope Valley pilots who competed this year.
Rare and scattered rains of August return to the Antelope Valley, dumping rain and hail on some areas, zapping power substations with lightning strikes and starting wind-whipped grass fires on the Valley's west side.
Aug. 14
PALMDALE - The next generation space shuttle model X-33 will be designed, built and assembled at Air Force Plant 42 once a new agreement freeing up hangar space at the Palmdale facility is complete.
Lockheed Martin Skunk Works and Rocketdyne, one of its partners in the X-33 development, are reported to be close to a memorandum of understanding. Once signed, the Skunk Works can build X-33 parts in a Boeing North American Aircraft building.
PALMDALE - The City Council approves the environmental impact report for a proposed Antelope Valley College campus off Barrel Springs Road, between 37th and 47th streets east. But the campus is still in limbo until the council approves the residential portion of the College Park project, which includes 898 houses, an 18hole golf course, two parks, hiking trails and a neighborhood shopping center.
LANCASTER - Tuesday's night game between the Lancaster JetHawks and the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes is suspended in the top of the ninth inning when The Hangar is evacuated because of a bomb threat.
CALIFORNIA CITY - Rick Norris, as executive vice president of United Tire Recycling Corp., plans to build a $27 million, 102acre auto tire recycling plant and industrial park along California City Boulevard, two miles east of the State Route 14 and adjacent to the Southern Pacific Railroad tracks.
Aug. 15
About $1,000 in campaign funds - the bulk of Democratic Assembly candidate Dave Cochran's war chest - turn up missing, and his campaign treasurer hasn't been seen since Monday, Cochran says.
KALAMAZOO, Mich. - Theresa Beltrami leads the Antelope Valley All-Stars to another victory in the Big League Softball World Series. The Palmdale High graduate drives in two runs with a second-inning single, pacing Antelope Valley to a 5-0 win over Canadian champion Victoria, B.C., at Vanderberg Park's Wilson Field.
Aug. 16
The Kern County Sheriff's Department confirms that Assembly candidate Dave Cochran's campaign treasurer - missing since Monday when he was first accused of embezzling funds from a political organization - was found dead in a Bakersfield motel room, an apparent suicide.
LOS ANGELES - An attorney representing a white teenager charged with attacking a black Lancaster teen says he'll request a review of hate-crime cases filed in the county to see if there is evidence of discriminatory prosecution.
Aug. 17
KALAMAZOO, Mich. - The Antelope Valley Big League Softball All-Stars, the West Region champions, are in today's Big League World Series final against Williamsport, Pa.
Aug. 18
LANCASTER - City Manager Jim Gilley would be allowed to earn extra income teaching a college-level class about government under a new contract provision to be considered by the City Council.
Aug. 20
KALAMAZOO, Mich. - Finally, a world championship flag flies over the Antelope Valley, just as the California Golden Bear will fly over Kalamazoo for the next year.
The Antelope Valley All-Stars are the new Big League Softball World Champions, beating Williamsport, Pa., 2-0, in the final game.
QUARTZ HILL - Kamleshwar Upadhya is one of the world's leaders in researching and developing composite materials used to make satellites and, eventually, the next-generation space shuttle.
American Society of Materials officials named Upadhya a fellow earlier this month, making him the top expert on densifying hightemperature, carbon-composite materials. The honor is one of the highest in the profession.
LANCASTER - Antelope Valley veterans are a step closer to getting a home here, but there's a lot of work ahead.
Gov. Pete Wilson signs two bills - one designating Lancaster as a site for a veteran's home, and the other appropriating California's share to build it.
Aug. 21
LOS ANGELES - The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors votes unanimously to fill the county's top administrative position with a man who recently held a similar position in San Diego County.
David E. Janssen, 51, will start work Aug. 25 as the chief administrative officer. He will make $180,134 a year as an "at-will" employee.
LANCASTER - One man is killed and two injured when a helicopter connected to the filming of a television commercial crashes into a rocky desert hillside near 150th Street East and Avenue L.
Aug. 21
LANCASTER - One of the three new double-decker commuter buses introduced by the Antelope Valley Transit Authority comes with a design flaw - riders taller than 5 feet 3 inches will have to duck while moving to their seats on the top deck.
Aug. 23
LANCASTER - The 58th annual Antelope Valley Fair and Alfalfa Festival, themed "Harvest Moons and Country Tunes," begins today, with an opening ceremony beginning at 4:45 p.m. and gates opening 15 minutes later.
PALMDALE - House Speaker Newt Gingrich will make his second visit to the Antelope Valley in four months this morning to again show Republican support for the the B-2 stealth bomber.
Student scores on the Scholastic Assessment Test, which plays a large role in admittance to most colleges, rose slightly last year in the Antelope Valley Union High School District.
Aug. 24
LANCASTER - City Manager Jim Gilley's job is guaranteed for the next four years at his current level of pay when three of five council members vote to extend his contract by two years, from Aug. 31, 1998 to Aug. 31, 2000.
LOS ANGELES - The righthand man to Palmdale "lien queen" Mary Elizabeth Broderick pleads guilty to 13 felonies stemming from his role as organizer, lecturer and banker in a Freemanstyle business that generated $800 million in bogus homemade checks.
Aug. 25
PALMDALE - No lights. No cameras. No action.
That's the story line of Antelope Valley Studios, Inc., a bankrupt but apparently still operational production company that stepped into the local spotlight in September 1993, opening its doors at 640 East Ave. P.
Aug. 27
GOLDEN VALLEY, Ariz. - A middle-aged man and a runaway teenage girl, both of Lancaster, are among three people arrested in connection with a triple homicide in Arizona on Aug. 15.
CASTAIC - Authorities are holding a 15-year-old boy on suspicion of deliberately starting what quickly became Los Angeles County's largest brush fire of the year.
Aug. 28
The bidding inside Jaqua Arena at Tuesday's 41st annual Kiwanis Junior Livestock Auction is hotter than midday outside as bidders reward 4-H, FFA and Junior Grange members for their hard work by paying $320,267.40 for the 589 animals auctioned off.
LANCASTER - Five test pilots - three still living - will have their names carved in granite monuments on Lancaster Boulevard when the seventh annual Aerospace Walk of Honor recognizes them Sept. 22.
Inductees this year include Henry E. "Hank" Chouteau, Col. Jesse P. "Jake" Jacobs Jr., John B. "Jack" McKay, Arthur K. "Kit" Murray and Col. Jack L. Ridley.
PALMDALE - Employment at Lockheed Martin Skunk Works will increase by about 500 people by the end of the year and by as many as 2,000 by the end of 1997, company officials say.
Aug. 29
ATLANTA, Ga. - Palmdale resident Pernell Cooper wins a bronze medal in powerlifting at the Paralympic games - a mighty feat considering he suffered a medical setback minutes before competing and missed two of three lifts.
Aug. 30
LANCASTER - An increase in the number of patients, plus patients who are coming in sicker, are making waits longer and longer for people seeking treatment at Antelope Valley Hospital's emergency room.
The closing of Palmdale's Desert Palms Hospital in March is largely blamed for the increasing waits.
LOS ANGELES - A man who was paid $3,000 by the FBI for information about Palmdale "lien queen" Mary Elizabeth Broderick testifies he worked for Broderick only a short time before realizing her homemade-check business was a scam.
Aug. 31
LANCASTER - For sale or lease: 1961-era hospital with 150 beds, 75 patients, 550 employees. Call the county of Los Angeles.
That, in a nutshell, is the condition of High Desert Hospital, for which the county is seeking a private buyer, operator or partner.
The facility's future and that of its employees will depend on the type of private health-care providers attracted by the county's requests for proposals, which will be issued in coming weeks.
MOJAVE - Tracor Flight Systems Inc. receives a $20.8 million contract to modify two Israel Aircraft Industries business jets.
The contract could lead to another $26 million in work.
Aeronautical Systems Center officials at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio awarded the multimillion-dollar contract to Tracor for modifying two fully equipped ASTRA SPX aircraft, which will replace two C-21 aircraft.