Oct. 1
LANCASTER - To the dismay of Antelope Valley environmentalists, the Lahontan Regional Water Quality Control Board issues permits allowing landowners to spread human wastes from Los Angeles on local farms.
The permits are being granted without public announcement and under regulations that remain under appeal to state officials.
About a dozen Rosamond High School students are suspended after they ditch class to protest an updated dress code that, among other things, prohibits students from wearing colored rubber bands in their hair.
Oct. 2
Trustees of the Keppel Union School District exempt some newly hired teachers from credential requirements. A resource specialist certificate is waived for a specialeducation teacher, a special-education credential is waived for another and a bachelor's degree requirement is waived for a bilingual kindergarten teacher.
Oct. 3
PALMDALE - Members of a young family escapes with their lives and the clothes on their backs after fire breaks out in their apartment.
VAN NUYS - For the second time, a mistrial is declared in the same double-murder case as a jury says it is hopelessly deadlocked, in part because its only black member refuses to deliberate a black defendant's fate.
The same thing happened in the first murder trial of ex-con Homer Tyrone Lewis, 31, of Lancaster, according to court records.
EDWARDS AFB - Funds to consolidate all of NASA's research aircraft at Dryden Flight Research Center are being retained in the federal budget. That consolidation could mean 300 new jobs locally, a NASA official says.
LANCASTER - Lancaster city officials are on the verge of snaring a warehousing and distribution center that will employ about 200 workers.
Oct. 4
PALMDALE - Mayor Jim Ledford announces that the city plans to bring in a new electronics manufacturer that will employ 300 people in a 125,000-square-foot facility to be built in the vicinity of the Palmdale Auto Mall, south of Avenue P and north of Palmdale Boulevard.
TULSA, Okla. - Authorities confirm that they have identified at least two suspects in the possible homicide of Robert Mark D'Errico, a longtime Lancaster resident and ex-Antelope Valley High School standout football player who died Sept. 24 in a scuffle at a bar.
PALMDALE - A meeting in San Francisco between Palmdale city officials and the primary lender for Ritter Ranch Co. has disappointing results, according to City Manager Bob Toone.
Oct. 5
LOS ANGELES - Palmdale "lien queen" Margaret Elizabeth Broderick is found guilty by a jury on all 26 counts of conspiracy, money laundering and making homemade banker's checks for Freemen-style seminars.
As of Jan. 1, the 23-year-old AV Literacy Council will close its doors to most adults who wish to learn to read or learn English.
Due to dwindling donations and a lack of volunteers, the organization decided in late September to discontinue its tutoring programs for all but mentally disabled people, council President Nancy Wolfen said.
PALMDALE - A specialmission C-130 Hercules arrives, marking the beginning of a consolidation of all of Lockheed Martin's Ontario facilities at Skunk Works hangars at Air Force Plant 42 by March 1998.
Oct. 6
LANCASTER - More than half of all new Antelope Valley College students place below the college level in reading, writing, and mathematics, according to data from college assessment test.
LOS ANGELES - "Lien Queen" Margaret Elizabeth Broderick, the Palmdale woman convicted on 26 felonies stemming from her Freeman-style check seminars, is ordered to forfeit $1.2 million in cash and assets to the federal government.
Oct. 8
TULSA, Okla. - Those who watched Robert Mark D'Errico die in a Tulsa nightclub say the 33year-old Lancaster man was tortured, that nightclub employees are covering it up and that police don't seem interested in the truth.
LOS ANGELES - Stealth bombers should continue to roll off Palmdale assembly lines, and the X-33 must be funded through the end of its flight tests, Gov. Pete Wilson tells Small Manufacturers Association of California members.
Oct. 9
EDWARDS AFB - Air Force pilots take a seat in an SR-71 spy plane for the first time since the aircraft were grounded in April. Air Force officials say they found a funding discrepancy between the intelligence and defense budget appropriations and authorizations that showed they ran out of money to fly the planes.
Oct. 10
LOS ANGELES - Aerospace and defense probably won't rebound to the heyday of the 1980s, and contracts for new aircraft could be cut in half now that the Cold War is over, a panel of analysts and consultants say.
However, experts tell Small Manufacturers Association members thar they believe aerospace and defense work are beginning to stabilize, and new national security issues will shape the industry's future.
EDWARDS AFB - A NASA Dryden Flight Research Center team finishes the 42nd flight in a more-than-yearlong look at a modified F-16 wing wearing a $14 million laminar-flow "glove," which reduces the thin, turbulent layer of air that flows naturally across aircraft wings.
MOJAVE - The East Kern Municipal Court in Mojave expands, allowing county employees more work space and easier access to paperwork, as well as offering citizens quicker window service and, it is hoped, speedier trials.
LANCASTER - A Rancho Sante Fe development company proposes an amusement complex on 28¼ acres southeast of 27th Street West and Avenue I.
Oct. 11
LANCASTER - Fourteen workers in an East Avenue K-6 industrial complex are taken to area hospitals after being overcome by fumes from a nearby fiberglass business.
TULSA, Okla. - When longtime Lancaster resident Robert Mark D'Errico died Sept. 24 while grappling with bouncers at a Tulsa striptease club, official accounts of the incident suggested he was drunk, belligerent and picking fights with security personnel.
Now, more than two weeks after D'Errico's death, Tulsa Police Department Chief Ronald Palmer acknowledges that at least one witness to the altercation has asked to change his statement, and that the department eagerly awaits the chance to talk to two more witnesses whose singular version of what took place is in stark contrast with that of nightclub employees.
PALMDALE - More than a dozen of the 23 contractors still awaiting payment for work they performed on the troubled Ritter Ranch master-planned community attend a meeting at Palmdale city council chambers to find out when - or if - they would be paid.
LANCASTER - Claire Spiegel, a Lancaster 85-year-old who says she "stays young" through volunteering, is named "Senior of the Year" at the sixth annual Antelope Valley Senior Expo, held Thursday at the Antelope Valley Fairgrounds.
Although only 5 feet in height, Spiegel stands tall on the stage as she accepts the award, sponsored by High Desert Medical Center and the Antelope Valley Press.
Oct. 11
PALMDALE - In a move reminiscent of Los Angeles' "Together We're the Best" campaign after the riots of 1992, the Palmdale Chamber of Commerce introduces a new slogan intended to improve the image of the city: "The Spirit of Palmdale."
LANCASTER - Foes of using human sewage to fertilize local farm lands fill the city council chambers, some accusing state water officials of sneaky tactics to grant use permits and demanding a court injunction to prevent farmers from spreading sludge to grow crops.
PALMDALE - Civilian volunteer observers are again credited for catching illegal dumpers here, and this time the trash is hazardous waste material being discarded near a city water well.
Oct. 13
AGUA DULCE - A single engine Cessna 182 crashes after attempting to land on a dirt road in a private gated community.
LANCASTER - City Councilman Michael Singer files a lawsuit against the city and Mayor Frank Roberts alleging ballot-box stuffing and a refusal to provide an accurate count of ballots cast in the April 9 municipal election.
Oct. 15
PALMDALE - A 24-year-old Palmdale man accidentally shoots himself to death while standing in an Antelope Valley Transit Authority bus. When Richard Cameron Dixon throws a duffel bag onto a seat, the loaded sawed-off shotgun inside discharges, killing Dixon.
Oct. 16
LANCASTER - Attorneys for Morgan D'Errico say they intend to file a civil law suit within 30 days seeking damages in the death of Robert Mark D'Errico, the popular local aerospace worker who died in a Tulsa, Okla., bar Sept. 24 while there on a business trip.
PALMDALE - Holders of $20.5 million worth of private bonds used to make improvements in the vicinity of the Palmdale Auto Mall are asking city officials to deliver the money with interest.
City officials say Palmdale doesn't have the money to pay the bondholders, and wouldn't be obligated to pay in any event.
Oct. 17
LANCASTER - City attorneys deny City Councilman Michael Singer's claims that officials participated in a fraudulent election, calling Singer's lawsuit contesting the April 9 mayor's race "a bunch of generic allegations."
PALMDALE - School trustees approve putting an $81 million general obligation bond on the March 1997 ballot.
Oct. 19
LANCASTER - A majority of City Council members say they would formally censure Councilman Michael Singer if given the opportunity this coming week.
Mayor Frank Roberts, Councilmen Jim Jeffra and the Rev. Henry Hearns say their potential public criticism stems from a lawsuit Singer filed against the city and Roberts, alleging ballot-box stuffing in the April 9 municipal election.
Oct. 20
EDWARDS AFB - Harsh winds that at times obscure a clear view of the flight line with blowing dust don't dissuade more than 175,000 people from coming to the Edwards Air Show.
LANCASTER - Doors to the new $6.1 million county Regional Library at 601 West Lancaster Blvd. will swing open at 10 a.m. Monday, a month after staff members and more than 60 volunteers lugged 160,000 texts, 40,000 magazines and countless other videos, pamphlets and miscellaneous items from the old 18,700-squarefoot library at 1150 West Ave. J.
Oct. 21
PALMDALE - Rubbish company co-owner Phil Arklin says he will take "any and all actions I have to take" to keep the City Council from giving more of his Lancaster customers to Waste Management, Inc.
Oct. 23
PALMDALE - If shuttles land in Palmdale from space, Rockwell Space Systems' orbiter maintenance facility could pick up additional work preparing modified spaceships for missions.
Oct. 24
LANCASTER - Some current and former residents of Lancaster Community Shelter are asking why a man died earlier this week while sleeping in a vacant lot in sub-freezing temperatures directly across from the homeless shelter.
PALMDALE - The statelong water trough running through the southern Antelope Valley is bone-dry where construction crews are inspecting sections of the California aqueduct and repairing a 250-foot stretch damaged by earthquake movement.
Oct. 25
LANCASTER - Attorneys file a lawsuit to prevent the Phillips-Van Heusen Corp. from closing up to five stores at the Lancaster Factory Stores outlet center.
LANCASTER - A chamber literally jammed with fans of AV Rubbish co-owner Phil Arklin erupts in cheers when the City Council votes to table a decision on a controversial proposal designed to favor Arklin's competitor, Waste Management, Inc.
The council's 5-0 vote follows a surprise announcement from City Manager Jim Gilley, who says the rival trash hauler agreed to meet at the bargaining table and negotiate their contracts.
Oct. 26
LANCASTER - City officials, staff members and the public vent their criticism of a lawsuit filed by Councilman Michael Singer, but the council stops short of voting to censure him.
Oct. 27
EDWARDS AFB - With the prospect of faster, cheaper and more reliable spaceships, NASA is setting a new course that could revolutionize the way we look at aerospace.
And the Antelope Valley will likely be at the heart of those developments, NASA officials say.
Oct. 29
PALMDALE - Businesses, industries and job seekers score a victory with the announcement that Palmdale and Lancaster have won a regional Enterprise Zone designation that will offer big savings in state taxes.
LANCASTER - Controversial spreading of dried sewer sludge violates at least three permit provisions, a state water board inspector says.
Oct. 30
LANCASTER - State water officials stop - at least temporarily - shipments of sewage sludge to an eastside farm after workers violated conditions of a permit allowing them to apply the waste to cropland.
LANCASTER - Fifteen Antelope Valley High School students are on out-of-school suspension this week after a homecoming prank that school officials say went too far.
The Lancaster home of the school's activities director was the target of what students describe as an annual homecoming ritual of toilet-papering a teacher or administrator's house. But school officials say the kids, including student body officers, athletes and cheerleaders, went too far this time.
Oct. 31
The first major winter storm hits the Antelope Valley with a punch, dumping more than an inch of rain in some areas and knocking out electrical power to 10,500 residents.