LANCASTER - The county District Attorney's office files misdemeanor embezzlement charges against Tom Shelton, the husband of City Councilwoman Deborah Shelton.
March 1
LANCASTER - The county District Attorney's office files misdemeanor embezzlement charges against Tom Shelton, the husband of City Councilwoman Deborah Shelton.
Shelton is charged with grand theft for allegedly embezzling $1,500 from a foreign exchange student.
QUARTZ HILL - David Keser, once known as the "king" of Antelope Valley sports promotions, is indicted on charges he lied in a 1995 bankruptcy filing by stashing $70,000 in inventory in his garage.
Four Antelope Valley doctors are accused of billing taxpayers twice for the same work in a probe of fraudulent billing practices.
The obstetricians were paid by Medi-Cal for treating patients in their private practices when they were working for Los Angeles County at High Desert Hospital, according to search warrants.
EDWARDS AFB - The Air Force Flight Test Center will cut 228 civilian positions this year, and more than half of its positions by 2001 to meet federal workforce reduction requirements.
March 2
PALMDALE - A contract expires between Lockheed Martin and a union representing about one-third of Skunk Works employees, but both sides are continuing negotiations to resolve differences and avoid a strike.
March 3
LANCASTER - A recommendation by a state budget watchdog agency may delay or even terminate plans for an Antelope Valley veterans home.
The recommendation by the Legislative Analyst's Office proposes a one-year moratorium on development of any veterans homes besides the ones that already exist in Yountville and Barstow.
ROSAMOND - Kern County waste management officials include a large swath of land west of Rosamond in their short list of potential sites for a huge regional landfill. But opponents say the proposed site - an eight-square-mile expanse near 140th Street West, seven miles north of Rosamond Boulevard - holds sacred Native American ceremonial sites and sits atop groundwater flowing into the aquifer used by Lancaster and Palmdale.
March 5
LOS ANGELES - High Desert Hospital would lose 75 beds in five years under a plan to restructure the county health system.
March 6
LANCASTER - City Council members unanimously agree to set the city's vegetative management in-lieu fees at a flat rate of $600 an acre.
Since December 1991, developers have paid the in-lieu fees for building in areas thought to contain distinctive desert habitat. Those fees were to pay the costs of buying properties for five proposed prime desert woodland sites.
March 7
LANCASTER - James Jeffra raises $10,389, the most money among the eight candidates campaigning for the open City Council seat in April's election.
On his campaign statement spanning Jan. 1 to Feb. 24, Jeffra shows funds of $8,889, making his contributions greater than those of Els Groves, with $5,941; Art Nash, with $5,437; George Root, with $3,597; Frank Astourian, with $2,859; and Jacob Flaming, with $56.
March 8
LAKE LOS ANGELES - Frank Donaldson Sr. remains on the Wilsona School District board despite having moved out of the area, district officials say. Although Donaldson, who reportedly has a heart problem, has missed two meetings, he continues to receive the health insurance that comes with the position.
LANCASTER - A maximumsecurity inmate is reported in stable but serious condition after being stabbed at the state prison.
March 9
PALMDALE - Desert Palms Community Hospital announces it will close next week, leaving the nation's second fastest growing city without a hospital and putting 235 people out of work.
The closure is blamed on doctors' unwillingness to refer patients to the facility, insurers' insistence on paying lower fees, the hospital's location on the San Andreas Fault and a recent increase in non-paying patients.
March 10
LANCASTER - A committee that supported would-be high school trustee Bob Turner drops its petition for a special election, citing higher-than-expected costs to hold the election. That means newly appointed Trustee Steve Landaker will probably get to keep his seat on the Antelope Valley Union High School District board until it expires in November 1997.
March 12
LANCASTER - A Los Angeles County Sheriff's deputy involved in a fatal off-duty automobile accident Sunday is arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol.
An Assembly committee approves a bill by Assemblyman William J. "Pete" Knight that would require California voting materials be printed only in English.
March 13
LANCASTER - Two white Lancaster teens identified in court as skinheads are ordered to stand trial on charges of beating and repeatedly stabbing a black, 16yearold high school student last December.
March 14
LOS ANGELES - The county Regional Planning Commission unanimously rejects plans for a gas station, mini-mart and carwash at the Avenue S interchange of the Antelope Valley Freeway.
LANCASTER - A freshman is arrested Wednesday on suspicion of planting a fake bomb at Lancaster High School.
The incident marks the second time in two days that sheriff's arson investigators respond to reports of a bomb being placed on a local high school campus.
March 15
PALMDALE - Lockheed Martin Skunk Works union members, who voted to reject a new contract, will begin striking at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday if a better deal isn't offered.
PALMDALE - Work is stalled at the 10,625-acre Ritter Ranch planned community, while Ritter squabbles with its former general contractor.
Meanwhile, Palmdale officials say they will withhold about $3.5 million in bond monies owed to Ritter for public projects until the company catches up with another $7.5 million of construction required in Ritter's contract with bondholders.
March 16
Palmdale's only hospital closes.
About 100 employees gather at the main entrance to Desert Palms Community Hospital to watch the American flag be lowered at 5 p.m. Friday. Cheers erupt after taps is blown.
PALMDALE - County deputies and state officials close down a moving and storage company they say is responsible for bilking thousands of dollars from customers and local truck rental merchants.
Authorities charge that Larry Phillips, 51, of Palmdale rented Ryder and U-Haul trucks to operate his furniture moving business. Then, they said, he not only neglected to pay for the truck rentals, but in many cases did not deliver the furniture.
March 17
LANCASTER - Juvenile Court officials are studying whether to divide dependency and delinquency departments between Lancaster and Sylmar.
Members of the local legal community had feared that both departments would move out of Lancaster by May 1.
March 19
LANCASTER - As workers dangle in the air to finish a 130foot communication tower, Antelope Valley officials gather below to dedicate the new sheriff's station complex at Sierra Highway and Lancaster Boulevard.
Deputies will begin moving into the new 51,000-square-foot complex April 1, and operations will be transferred there beginning May 1.
PALMDALE - Lockheed Martin Skunk Works union members will not strike today as threatened. New contract negotiations continue.
March 20
LOS ANGELES - County Supervisors consider a plan to reopen Palmdale's only hospital as a clinic.
Health Services Director Mark Finucane recommends that the county consider running an urgent-care clinic 12 to 16 hours a day at the shuttered Desert Palms Community Hospital on East Avenue S.
LANCASTER - If everything goes as planned, city officials hope to be operating a major soccer complex by this time next year.
The City Council, seated as the Redevelopment Agency board, votes to approve spending $217,000 a year for the next 10½ years for 230 acres of land at 30th Street East and Avenue L. One hundred sixty-nine acres will be set aside for the soccer complex.
March 21
PALMDALE - Discussion of yet another consolidation in the aerospace industry have Antelope Valley officials wondering what's next if Rockwell International sells its defense and aerospace divisions.
Published reports say Rockwell may sell its estimated $3.5 billion aerospace and defense divisions. There are two potential takers - Boeing Corp. and McDonnell Douglas Corp.
March 22
LANCASTER - Hundreds of welfare recipients and employees evacuate a Los Angeles County welfare office after a phony pipe bomb was found in an employee's locker.
PALMDALE - Antelope Valley aerospace workers receive an election year nugget when President Bill Clinton orders the first production B-2 to be modified as the stealth bomber fleet's 21st member.
March 23
PICO RIVERA - Sen. Bob Dole appeals to Californians for support by suggesting President Bill Clinton's defense cuts undermined U.S. military readiness and punished the state's economy. For the first time, Dole advocates doubling the size of the nation's B-2 stealth bomber fleet.
LANCASTER - To a Palmdale Chamber of Commerce director, Friday's event at Snooky's bikini bar was just a routine ribboncutting.
But to six people carrying protest signs nearby, it indicated chamber acceptance of what they view as pornography and immorality.
Snooky's, which opened in August, recently joined the Palmdale chamber - as all licensed businesses are allowed to do, Director Shirley Tuttle said. And membership entitled the bar to a ribboncutting ceremony.
March 24
LANCASTER - The Antelope Valley Union High School District reports a record-low dropout rate for 1994-95, according to documents sent to the state Department of Education. The high school district saw the percentage of students dropping out tumble from 23.4% in 1990-91 to 1.6% in 1994-95.
March 26
PALMDALE - Antelope Valley Auto Center dealers are asking for financial help in the form of loan extensions from Palmdale's Redevelopment Agency.
Llano homeowners offer to drop opposition to a planned gravel plant in exchange for road improvements and other concessions.
March 27
LANCASTER - Records seized by the FBI at a local hotel could link an Antelope Valley group to the allegedly criminal actions of the militant antigovernment Freemen.
March 28
As FBI agents in Montana continue a standoff with the antigovernment Freemen, Los Angeles federal prosecutors seek a restraining order against a Palmdale woman who espouses the radical sect's teachings.
The U.S. Attorney's Office seeks to restrain Margaret Elizabeth Broderick, a former bank mortgage underwriter who hosts seminars at a Lancaster hotel to teach people to make homemade checks and file liens against the government.
PALMDALE - Northrop Grumman officials say that 575 workers in the Antelope Valley will lose their jobs by year's end, despite work transforming a B-2 prototype into the 21st stealth bomber.
Of the 2,100 Southern California layoffs, about 1,700 will occur before July 1, with the rest of the reductions occurring by the end of the year, says a Northrop spokesman.
March 29
PALMDALE - The City Council approves a $250,000 development loan for one Antelope Valley Auto Center dealership and gives a 10-year repayment extension to five other dealers with similar loans.
March 30
LOS ANGELES - A year after the Antelope Valley's most serious hate crime, three self-described white supremacists admit they tried to kill a Lancaster man and an 11-month-old baby girl because the victims are black.
Deputy District Attorney Carla Arranaga says the three pleaded no contest to two counts each of attempted murder, as well as admitted allegations of civil rights violations.
EDWARDS AFB - Lockheed Martin Skunk Works' latest star soars through the sky, performing well in its first flight test at NASA Dryden Flight Research Center. DarkStar, an unmanned spy plane, makes a 20-minute journey to an altitude of 5,000 feet.
March 31
PALMDALE - Lawyers and their clients may no longer have to leave the Antelope Valley for civil trials if Palmdale finds funding and support for a temporary courthouse near City Hall.
City officials are searching the redevelopment budget for money to buy land around City Hall, bulldoze some old residences and assemble a courthouse with portable buildings.
LANCASTER - Plans to house inmates in gymnasiums at the state prison while reducing the number of correctional officers would seriously jeopardize safety. That's the viewpoint of about a dozen prison employees, including correction officers, cooks and teachers, who picketed outside the main gate of California State Prison Los Angeles County.