QUARTZ HILL - Paraclete High School graduates pay special tribute to injured classmate Brant Theurer, 17, who, although confined to a wheel chair and unable to speak, recovered from a monthslong coma to attend graduation.
This story appeared in the Antelope Valley Press December 24, 1996.June 1
QUARTZ HILL - Paraclete High School graduates pay special tribute to injured classmate Brant Theurer, 17, who, although confined to a wheel chair and unable to speak, recovered from a monthslong coma to attend graduation.
Backed by cheers of "We love you, Brant," two former football teammates carry his wheelchair onstage. Theurer smiles as the principal hangs a medal around his neck to honor "outstanding spirit."
June 2
PALMDALE - A local court official and the American Civil Liberties Union take issue with truancy ordinances adopted by Lancaster, Palmdale and Los Angeles County. Juvenile Traffic Court Referee David Beach said the cities may call the statutes truancy ordinances. But what they really amount to are daytime curfew laws.
PALMDALE - Through thousands of phone calls and knocks on doors, Palmdale School District officials and parents hope to parlay a $52,790 campaign budget into $81 million worth of school construction in the June 4 election.
June 4
SACRAMENTO - Dropout rates continued to decline in public high schools throughout the Antelope Valley last year, according to an annual report from the California Department of Education.
LOS ANGELES - County officials routinely complain that the county's poor financial health is the result of dwindling revenue from the state, but a new study puts the blame squarely on the county and its spending habits.
June5
PALMDALE - A city official says Ritter Ranch Co. must resume construction on its master-planned community within two weeks or lose public financing. A notice of default issued in March will reach its deadline on June 15, says Palmdale City Manager Bob Toone.
SACRAMENTO - A legislative amendment to be heard by an Assembly committee next week would permit Antelope Valley Hospital District to sell up to half its assets without a public vote, or sell the entire hospital with majority voter approval.
But Robert Harenski, AV Hospital's chief executive officer, rejects suggestions that potential sale of the hospital to a private health-care company is a motivator for the amendment to AB 2142.
"There's never been any intent to sell the hospital," says Harenski in a telephone interview from Sacramento.
June 6
PALMDALE - Palmdale School District may take another stab at passing the $81 million general obligation bond narrowly defeated by voters.
The outcome is 120 votes short of approval. Of 4,252 votes counted, 2,206 are in favor and 1,544 are against.
June 8
PALMDALE - Rockwell's bid to keep B-1B maintenance and modification projects in Palmdale is strengthened by the Air Force's first acknowledgement it might not do the work itself.
June 11
PALMDALE - Los Angeles County District Attorney Gil Garcetti dedicates a new child-support office at 1020 East Palmdale Blvd. marking the official opening of the Antelope Valley Family Support Office, a 43-employee facility that assists some 40,000 parents in receiving court-ordered monies.
LANCASTER - Four courageous Antelope Valley citizens are honored by Los Angeles County District Attorney Gil Garcetti, including a Palmdale man who chased two fleeing suspects until the drive shaft fell out of their car.
Tom Cowan, Harold Lewis, Dale Robert Punter and Rick Wyngate are four of seven recipients recognized with Courageous Citizen Awards during a Lancaster West Rotary luncheon.
June 12
LANCASTER - Businessman and longtime Republican leader Frank Visco is named delegation floor whip for the state Republican National Convention in San Diego in August. Visco is the first Antelope Valley Republican to be appointed by the state's leadership to the floor whip post.
PALMDALE - Orbital Sciences Corp., based in Virginia, wins the first of two contracts to build a scale model intended to improve cutting-edge technology and lead to the next-generation space shuttle.
June 13
LANCASTER - Plastic surgeon John Manning is picked to replace neurologist Harvey Birsner on the Antelope Valley Hospital board of trustees.
QUARTZ HILL - Some Westside Union School District parents are protesting proposed changes in math classes that would eliminate textbooks, reduce traditional math problems and increase group activities.
ACTON - As the Acton-Agua Dulce Unified School District emerges from its fiscal troubles and tries to build a new high school, it will have a new superintendent at the helm. The board of trustees vote 5-0 to give Joseph B. Crawford a three-year contract for the superintendence. He will start work July 1.
June 14
PALMDALE - More than 160 library supporters fill the City Council chambers in support of expanded library services. Wearing blue ribbons and speaking of crowded conditions, potential cuts in service and fewer hours, the supporters plead with council members to spend money on the Palmdale City Library rather than a new courthouse.
LANCASTER - Antelope Valley Hospital directors assure the public there are no plans to sell or lease assets of the non-profit institution to a for-profit hospital or health-care corporation.
VAN NUYS - A Lancaster ex-con, convicted in April of nine felonies including robbery and sex crimes committed during a home invasion robbery, is sentenced to 131 years to life in prison Thursday.
June 15
PALMDALE - Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies believe new block grant money will help them take back more Palmdale neighborhoods from drug dealers and gangs.
The $262,741 grant will allow the city to hire two additional sheriff's deputies to work in Partners Against Crime.
June 16
PALMDALE - Two men are killed in a shootout when a rival gang crashes a party.
June 18
PALMDALE - A Palmdale School District parent says the sex- and AIDS-education curricula are too explicit and wants them dropped from sixth-grade classes and revised for seventh and eighth grades.
June 19
LOS ANGELES - Satisfied by a change in the way the county will tax large parcels, and convinced that the Antelope Valley will get its fair share of improvements, Fifth District Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich drops opposition to a county parks assessment.
June 20
LAKE ELIZABETH - More than 300 Los Angeles County firefighters battle an early afternoon brush fire that rages out of control for more than five hours, scorching nearly 2,000 acres.
June 21
PALMDALE - Ritter Ranch Co. is in foreclosure. Banker's Trust Co. and the original property owners both file a notice of default with the Los Angeles County Recorder, beginning foreclosure proceedings that could be concluded in about four months.
QUARTZ HILL - A pilot math program criticized by some parents as deficient in basic skills is unanimously approved by the Westside Union School District board of trustees.
The program, which features five new courses recently approved by the state, will be used in yet-to-be-chosen classrooms throughout the district starting this fall.
June 22
PALMDALE - Ritter Ranch Co. principal Merv Adelson meets with a hand-picked group of 15 community leaders to discuss ways of keeping the project alive.
"It will be a disaster to anyone with a financial stake in Palmdale if Ritter Ranch is allowed to go down," Adelson tells the group.
EDWARDS AFB - It isn't the laser-shooting X-Wing or Tie Fighter from "Star Wars," but it's a weapon that could easily pass for something in a science fiction movie. And it's coming here for tests in 2001.
It's a laser weapon, mounted on a Boeing 747, that will be tested for its ability to destroy a missile's gas tank and return the missile to its sender, says Connie Rankin, Air Force Phillips Laboratory's New Mexico spokeswoman.
June 23
PALMDALE - No matter who wins the coveted contract to build the model for the next generation space shuttle X-33, the Antelope Valley will have a role in its development. Announcement of the NASA contract is expected within the next two weeks.
The total number of crimes reported at the Lancaster Sheriff's Station for the first quarter of 1996 dipped 9.9% compared to the same period last year, according to Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department statistics.
June 25
Four healthy babies - one boy and three girls - believed to be the first set of quadruplets born in the Antelope Valley, arrive at AV Hospital, making medical history.
The parents are Diane and Rob Rowe of Lancaster, who have been anxiously awaiting the arrival of the quadruplets since January. Their father is a U-2 test pilot at Lockheed Martin Skunk Works, and both parents are majors in the U.S. Air Force Reserves. Both are 39 years old.
ACTON - Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies capture a man and woman just minutes after the pair robbed the Acton branch of Antelope Valley Bank.
June 26
PALMDALE - About 1,000 jobs and most of the work from Lockheed Martin's Ontario plant are coming to Palmdale's Skunk Works by mid-1998, the company announces.
PALMDALE - City officials send Ritter Park Associates notice that the Ritter Ranch development is in default on its bond agreements with the city.
June 27
LANCASTER - Owners of a jewelry store are in good condition after being shot during a late-morning robbery.
Authorities respond to the store just minutes after five men escape with several hundred dollars cash and up to $250,000 in diamonds and other jewelry.
June 29
PALMDALE - A proposed college campus will move closer to reality if the Palmdale Planning Commission grants a conditional use permit for a 540-acre project located southeast of the city.
Antelope Valley College and property owner David P. Bushnell want a permit to build a 10,000-student community college, an 18-hole golf course, two parks, a commercial center and more than 800 houses on the site.
LANCASTER - Four days after their birth, the Antelope Valley's first-ever quadruplets - Sophie Louise, Robert Arathorn, Hannah Marie and Lorraine Renee Rowe - are in good condition Friday in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit of Antelope Valley Hospital.
June 30
PALMDALE - There are big smiles at Chelsey Thomas' eighth birthday party, but none more beautiful than hers.
The first birthday smile of her young life is a birthday wish come true for blond, blue-eyed Chelsey. Just two months ago, she underwent the second of two operations to give her the facial nerve required to smile.
LANCASTER - Traffic on the Antelope Valley Freeway is predicted to at least double in the next 20 years, according to a report by the Southern California Association of Governments.