VAN NUYS - An Antelope Valley man was convicted of 20 sex crimes and other felonies for his role in a 1996 home invasion in which four women were viciously raped at gunpoint and four men were robbed and terrorized.
VAN NUYS - An Antelope Valley man was convicted of 20 sex crimes and other felonies for his role in a 1996 home invasion in which four women were viciously raped at gunpoint and four men were robbed and terrorized.
The guilty verdicts against Arturo Martinez marked the second conviction in the case. Martinez's co-defendant, gang member Richard Nieto, was found guilty by a separate jury on the same 20 counts a week earlier.
EDWARDS AFB - Two days after media nationwide reported the story of a heroic 13-year-old girl's 20-mile trek in subfreezing temperatures to save her family, authorities launched an investigation into the actions of the girl's mother.
Authorities are investigating whether the girl's mother, Jennifer Carpenter, left her two young children to fend for themselves when the family became lost on Edwards Air Force Base in the Mojave desert.
Dec. 17
PALMDALE - Companies working on the Joint Strike Fighter in California could receive a $10,000 tax-savings incentive per employee if a proposed bill passes the Legislature in January.
The joint strike fighter is envisioned as a family of aircraft sharing the same basic airframe and major components but adaptable for all branches of the U.S. military.
PALMDALE - With the possibility of yet another round of military base closures looming, a top Air Force general gave Edwards Air Force Base some reassuring news: The base will not be targeted.
In fact, the base's workload should grow next year as testing of unmanned aircraft continues and the F-22 Advanced Tactical Fighter arrives, Gen. George Babbitt, head of Air Force Materiel Command, said.
Dec. 18
PALMDALE - Biliteracy, also known as two-way language immersion, is coming to the Palmdale School District. Under an agreement approved by the school board Tuesday, the University of California Reading and Literature Project will train teachers for a pilot program slated to begin next July in some kindergarten or preschool classes.
NORTH EDWARDS - Investigation of a mother who left her two young children in a desolate area on Edwards Air Force Base last weekend in freezing weather continued Wednesday and expanded to include the father of the children, an Air Force staff sergeant at the base.
PALMDALE - A courthouse task force that disbanded nearly four years ago has been revived to explore short- and long-range solutions to problems of courthouse overcrowding in the Antelope Valley.
Dec. 19
LANCASTER - Declaring "I want my day in court," Antelope Valley Hospital head Robert Harenski has asked his board of directors to enter arbitration to settle several issues concerning his past compensation.
Harenski, chief executive officer of the health care district that runs AV Hospital, made his request less than 12 hours after board members voted 3-2 to approve the terms of a new employment contract for him.
LOS ANGELES - A Palmdale woman was one of 20 people indicted this week on charges of bankruptcy fraud and other counts in the latest crackdown on crimes perpetrated in the busiest bankruptcy court in the United States, officials said.
Defendants range from corporate moguls concealing millions of dollars and creditors to entrepreneurs filing fraudulent bankruptcies for the purpose of stalling foreclosures.
Dec. 20
More than half of the Antelope Valley's public high school seniors will not go to college next fall, according to statistics from the California Department of Education.
Of the Antelope Valley Union High School District's 1995 graduating class of 2,067 students, 41.6% attended a state college during the 1995-96 school year. Of those, 149, or 7.2%, attended University of California or California State University schools.711 students, or 34.4%, enrolled in a community college.
Twice as many graduating seniors from private Antelope Valley high schools go to college than those who graduate from local public schools, statistics show.
Private schools reported 95% to 96% of 1997 graduates went on to two- or four-year colleges, compared to the most recent statistics for the Antelope Valley Union High School District that show 41.6% of its 1995 graduates went on to college.
EDWARDS AFB - A decline in major aircraft testing and evaluation, as well as a drop in the workforce, is imminent at the Edwards Air Force Base Flight Test Center, base commander Maj. Gen. Richard L. Engel said.
Manpower reductions this year, with the completion of most of the B-2 bomber testing and other continuing projects, trimmed another 800 people from the flight test center workforce, Engel said.
Dec. 21
The bottom line with the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) is that any high school student who scores an average score is eligible to attend a California college upon graduation.
But only 30% to 40% of Antelope Valley high school seniors even take the SAT exam each year.
These students scored an average 973 points of a possible 1,600 in the most recent testing.
LANCASTER - Antelope Valley Hospital could end up paying Chief Executive Officer Robert Harenski for the rest of his life under agreements being considered by the board of directors.
Under a new employment contract that Harenski has yet to accept but the board approved Wednesday, the CEO is to get a four-year contract that runs until Jan. 3, 2002.
Dec. 23
PALMDALE - Lt. Col. Peter "Pete" Drinkwater will retire from his post as commander of Air Force Plant 42 next month.
LANCASTER - After a closed session discussion that left no one in a holiday mood, Directors of the Antelope Valley Hospital voted 3-2 Sunday to give final approval to a settlement pact and new employment contract for Chief Executive Officer Robert Harenski.
Dec. 24
PALMDALE - Assemblyman George Runner announced a proposal to allow psychiatric hospitals to release patient information to law enforcement officers conducting criminal investigations. Runner announced the legislation during a Palmdale Rotary luncheon.
Dec. 25
MOJAVE - Scaled Composites, world-renowned for its innovations in aircraft development, is fabricating a prototype of its highflying Proteus aircraft. A first flight is set for the summer.
Dec. 26
LANCASTER - Christmas was cheerier for patients and staff at Antelope Valley Hospital this year, thanks to 14 Jewish volunteers who worked at the gift shop and the reception desk and helped patients and staff throughout the hospital.
Dec. 27
DAVIS - On New Year's Eve, there will be two "last calls" at most California bars- one for drinkers, the other for smokers.
"It will be `Happy New Year, put out your cigarettes,' " said Bob McNeil, manager of Plainfield Station, a bar and grill outside this Sacramento suburb. "I think we all might be having that last cigarette right at 11:55 p.m."
Dec. 28
SAN FRANCISCO - California consumers won't have to choose their new electricity providers as soon as expected, but they'll get their rate reductions anyway.
That's because the new organization that will oversee the state's power transmission grid is having computer problems, which has forced an indefinite delay of the Jan. 1 deregulation of California's energy market.
Dec. 30
MOJAVE - Authorities said they captured the man suspected in the kidnapping and sexual assault of a young Mojave woman Saturday.
The 20-year-old woman disappeared just after 9 p.m. Saturday from her job at a local gas station, prompting family and friends to organize a 60-person search party - complete with a helicopter and two airplanes.
Dec. 31
CALIFORNIA CITY - All five family members perished here when a fire raced through their mobile home, authorities reported.
