LANCASTER - Leaders in government, education, business, industry and law enforcement meet for a diversity workshop, swapping workforce success stories as well as learning about supporting people of different races, genders and classes.
Nov. 1
LANCASTER - Leaders in government, education, business, industry and law enforcement meet for a diversity workshop, swapping workforce success stories as well as learning about supporting people of different races, genders and classes.
LANCASTER - The city clears the last hurdle blocking the sale of $16.1 million in bonds to help a private corporation purchase two mobile home parks, Friendly Village and Hacienda Estates. A letter from the Internal Revenue Service confirms that Caritas Corp. of Laguna Niguel will be allowed to operate the parks on a non-profit basis.
Nov. 2
MOJAVE - The X-38, previously called the X-35, is an experimental aircraft that could lead to development of an emergency escape pod for the future international space station, and it is scheduled to arrive at Dryden Flight Research Center after Christmas.
The craft will be attached under the wing of a B-52 for drop tests expected to begin in February, said Lewis L. Peach, director of advanced projects for the office of space flight at NASA
headquarters.
Jeanne Sherman of Lake Los Angeles is named Volunteer of the Year in Southern California by the League of California State Park Non-Profit Organizations.
Sherman is recognized for more than 15 years of service to the Antelope Valley Indian Museum.
Nov. 3
LANCASTER - Lancaster's John Sharp flies an unofficial record 257 mph on his way to another top finish, nearly lapping the field of five other pilots in the semi-finals of the Fox Field National Air Races.
LANCASTER - Los Angeles County Sheriff's deputies, using search warrants to arrest narcotics dealers and then posing as the suspects, make 53 arrests in six hours Friday night.
Nov. 5
Permits allowing sewer sludge to be spread on Antelope Valley farms are under fire from two quarters this week.
Both L.A. County Supervisor Michael Antonovich and the staff of the regional water quality board are asking for the sludge spreading to stop.
Nov. 6
Antelope Valley Republican congressmen Howard P. "Buck" McKeon and William Thomas are on the road to re-election victories as votes are tallied late into the evening.
LANCASTER - Incumbent Steve Fox and candidates Deborah Rice and Larry Chimbole lead a trio of rivals in early election returns for three seats on the Antelope Valley Hospital Board of Directors.
In the race for the board's single two-year seat, physician John Manning, named to the board on an interim basis in June, leads three other contenders.
Nov. 7
Three local Republicans winning seats in the state Legislature this week say they are pleased with their victories but disappointed they will be in the minority party in Sacramento.
Figueroa, gathered 76,027 votes, or 33.6%.
Nov. 8
Even as churches in the Antelope Valley work to build faith of their members, the churches are also building on faith.
While working in "God's economy," the religious community also makes a healthy contribution to the secular economy through construction projects.
There are more than 300 religious organizations in the Antelope Valley and almost all are at some stage of a building program.
LANCASTER - A team of city officials hits a home run in St. Louis, bidding successfully to host the Amateur Softball Association's men's slow-pitch world championships in 1998.
Nov. 9
LOS ANGELES - A judge dismisses Lancaster Councilman Michael Singer's lawsuit against Mayor Frank Roberts and the city, ruling the election fraud claim was filed too late and contained a wrongly named party.
LANCASTER - The Lahontan Regional Water Quality Control Board directs its executive director to bring all requests for new permits to spread human waste sludge on local farmlands before the full panel for consideration.
Before the new direction, the executive director was allowed to grant permits without approval under a general board order adopted in September 1995.
ACTON - Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies catch three robbery suspects trying to get away after a holdup at the Acton branch of Antelope Valley Bank.
LANCASTER - Authorities arrest two self-described white supremacist skinheads for hate crimes after the pair allegedly ransacked six rooms at Park View Intermediate School, causing more than $25,000 damage.
The attack on the school is the fifth in six months.
Nov. 10
LITTLEROCK - No new election will be held for the town council and winners in the Nov. 5 election will be placed in office in January, with one notable exception - write-in candidate Jason Zink.
In a special council meeting, members of the council and election committee decide it would be counterproductive to hold another election. Instead, the council decides Zink would be an alternate on the council if he could verify his eligibility to serve.
Nov. 12
Proposition 215, the measure that would allow medical marijuana use, is facing a bagful of questions from legal and medical communities.
And while people such as California Attorney General Dan Lundgren and scores of other elected officials are eager to speak out against Prop. 215, Valley doctors and caregivers are reluctant to talk about how the measure will work - regardless of politics.
Veterans groups and onlookers gather at local cemeteries to honor those who made "the ultimate sacrifice" for their country.
Nov. 13
EDWARDS AFB - Aurora Flight Science's Theseus, a remotely-piloted aircraft prototype, goes into a tight spin, breaks apart in the air and crashes on a dry lake bed.
The crash occurs during the craft's sixth flight from NASA Dryden Flight Research Center.
LANCASTER - Once again, the City Council is slated to take up the topic of new contracts with its two waste-hauling companies, Waste Management and Antelope Valley Rubbish.
This time, the amended agreements are expected to get nods of approval from both the council and both haulers.
Nov. 14
PALMDALE - Authorities explode a homemade pipe bomb discovered near the California Aqueduct at Tierra Subida Avenue.
Nov. 15
PALMDALE - Local youths skate to victory when the City Council approves spending $10,000 on construction plans for a skateboard park.
LANCASTER - An expanding Federal Express delivery company will relocate from Palmdale to the Lancaster Business Park under an agreement approved unanimously by the City Council.
Nov. 16
LANCASTER - Senior citizens will see their trash bills drop $4.40 a month, while non-seniors will get a $1-a-month break under new contracts approved by the City Council.
The contracts are accepted by both city waste haulers, Waste Management Inc. and Antelope Valley Rubbish.
LANCASTER - The Lancaster JetHawks announce that Rick Burleson will be their new team manager in 1997.
Burleson, 45, is a 13-year major-league veteran. He spent the past 1½ seasons as the California Angels' third-base coach.
Nov. 17
PALMDALE - Lockheed Martin and Boeing Co. win separate $1.1 billion contracts to build fighter jet prototypes that could lead to a "family" of aircraft to serve the Air Force, Marines and Navy.
About 3,000 of three joint strike fighter variations are scheduled to be built for the services when a single contractor team is chosen in 2001.
PALMDALE - Lockheed Martin's receipt of a $1.1 billion contract to build two joint strike fighter prototypes is the most important decision made for the Antelope Valley in 20 years, a company official says.
In the boom-and-bust cycle of Antelope Valley aerospace, the four-year contract gives stability to the Skunk Works, says Paul Martin, tactical aircraft vice president.
A joint strike fighter staff of 100 people will triple to 300 by January and grow to a peak employment of 900 by 1998, he says.
Nov. 19
LOS ANGELES - Five Los Angeles gang members are found guilty of taking part in a 1995 crime spree that stretched from Inglewood to Lancaster and ended with the death of a baby girl.
Herman St. Aime and Marcel Cloud, both 30, and Ronald Earl Cains, 27, and Cephus Earl Sudduth, 26, are found guilty on six felony counts, including firstdegree murder, robbery and kidnapping.
The fifth defendant, Kenyon Pitts, 21, was convicted of murder and kidnapping. He was acquitted on charges of robbery, kidnapping for robbery and attempted robbery.
LANCASTER - Deputies believe two home-invasion robberies occurring within a three-hour period are probably unrelated.
Nov. 20
LANCASTER - Two men and a woman overpower an elderly Lancaster businessman in an apparent home-invasion robbery - the third in two days in the Antelope Valley.
PALMDALE - An air traffic controller here is named the nation's best at doing his job.
Air Traffic Control Association members honor Garry Todd Whitman for restarting a class to educate pilots about what air traffic controllers do.
LAKE HUGHES - A controversial fifth and sixth-grade teacher in Lake Hughes resigns amid accusations he failed to properly educate and discipline his class.
Nov. 21
PALMDALE - Completion of a $620,000 project to repave several streets in southeast Palmdale is expected by Thanksgiving, but some of the work has been a jolting - and sometimes expensive - experience for motorists.
Nov. 22
More than an inch of rain falls on the Antelope Valley, causing minor power outages as well as contributing to at least two major crashes on the Antelope Valley Freeway that back up traffic for four miles.
Nov. 23
LOS ANGELES - Highspeed trains will someday rush through the Antelope Valley.
That's the recommendation of the High Seed Rail Commission, which recommends the Antelope Valley over the Interstate 5 corridor for a high-speed rail line linking San Francisco and Los Angeles.
The board's vote is 5-4 in favor of the Antelope Valley, with the swing vote of Chairman Dean Dunphy putting the Antelope Valley on top. Dunphy is the state secretary for business and transportation.
Nov. 24
PALMDALE - Lockheed Martin Skunk Works employees who will be working 12-hour days to design the new joint strike fighter, celebrate their good fortune with spouses at a company-hosted dinner party for 100.
Nov. 26
PALMDALE - Will Kitto, 17, may not be perfect. But if you add his brain capacity to his family mathematical gene pool, you get one of those rare perfect scores on the math portion of the Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT).
Will scored 800 in math when he took the SATs in October.
Math is in the genes of the Palmdale High School senior, said his mother, Becky. Will's sister, Camille, now 20, also earned an 800 in math when she took the SAT a few years ago.
Nov. 27
City and state officials are touting a Money magazine survey as proof of the falling crime rates in Palmdale and Lancaster and of the falsity of some previously published reports that the Antelope Valley has become a hotbed of crime.
"I hope this dispels many of the atrocious rumors coming from the Los Angeles Times," says Antelope Valley Assemblyman-elect George Runner.
Nov. 28
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - A federal judge blocks enforcement of Proposition 209 and says civil rights groups have a "strong probability" of proving it is unconstitutional.
Proposition 209, approved by nearly 55 percent of California voters, prohibits racial or gender preferences in state government.
Nov. 29
LANCASTER - Many people have much to give thanks for as community organizations reach out to the Antelope Valley's lonely, ailing and homeless residents by providing them with a bountiful feast and companionship at Thanksgiving.
Grace Resources serves its fourth annual Thanksgiving dinner where hundreds of people show up for a hot meal and warm smiles.
PALMDALE - Tiana Ariaga Martinez, a sixth-grader at Barrel Springs Elementary School, wins a statewide award for an essay she wrote encouraging kids to stay off drugs.
She wrote the essay as part of a contest for Red Ribbon Week.
Nov. 30
LANCASTER - An 80yearold woman is knocked unconscious and suffers a broken ankle during a Thanksgiving Day homeinvasion robbery at her Lancaster apartment.