Serious crime in the Antelope Valley in the first three quarters of 1996 rose 2% compared to the same period in 1995, crime statistics indicate. Leading the surge of so-called Part 1 crimes was forcible rape, which increased more than 25% - from 82 in 1995 to 103 in 1996.
Jan. 2
LANCASTER - Madison Grace York waited until 5:31 a.m. Wednesday, Jan. 1, to make her entrance as the first Antelope Valley baby of 1997. She was welcomed as the first girl in the family by father Ron and mother Luella York and her three older brothers, 9-year-old Daniel, 6-year-old Derick and 4-year-old Dustin.
Jan. 3
LANCASTER - After years of study and discussion, the city is poised to take the first concrete steps toward relocating the Antelope Valley Fairgrounds to a new site west of the Antelope Valley Freeway. The Lancaster Redevelopment Agency will consider buying a 225-acre site bounded by the freeway, 30th Street West, and avenues G-8 and H.
TULSA, Okla. - An official in the Tulsa District Attorney's Office said he will decide whether arrests will be made in connection with the death of popular aerospace worker Robert Mark D'Errico, 33, killed at a nightclub while on a business trip 1,500 miles from his Lancaster home.
Jan. 4
HI VISTA - Residents of this community in the eastern Antelope Valley came here to escape the perils of city life. Instead, they were taken for a ride by an alleged high desert hustler.
Jan. 5
LANCASTER - Officials are ready to begin talks about a possible operational takeover of High Desert Hospital. Two Las Vegas firms - Altila, a health care consulting and management firm, and RPS Corp., a real estate development firm - have teamed to offer a plan for privatizing High Desert Hospital.
LANCASTER - More than 300 people, including Lancaster city officials and law enforcement representatives, assembled at a synagogue to talk about how to eradicate hatred and stop violence against ethnic and religious groups.
LANCASTER - Los Angeles sheriff's deputies said they have identified and kept tabs on the Valley's 3,000 gang members - about 80 of whom are classified as skinheads.
Jan. 7
LOS ANGELES - Claiming federal authorities confiscated her mail, thus slowing her plans for a sentencing defense, convicted Palmdale "lien queen" Margaret Elizabeth Broderick won a postponement of judgment day when U.S. District Judge Dickran Tevrizian agreed to reschedule sentencing for March 10.
LANCASTER - Adding 2,200 feet to the main runway at the Gen. William J. Fox Airfield will have no significant affect on the environment, the Federal Aviation Administration concluded in a study.
Jan. 8
LANCASTER - A teenager who was beaten and stabbed with a screwdriver during a racially motivated attack at Antelope Valley High School is seeking at least $60 million in a civil lawsuit filed against his assailants and the high school district.
LANCASTER - The elementary school district has pledged to meet six conditions as part of a deal to resolve alleged racial harassment complaints being investigated by the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights since last May.
Jan. 9
LANCASTER - Prompted by the alleged kidnapping at knifepoint of a 6-year-old boy Tuesday, officials stepped up law enforcement patrols in the vicinity of Mariposa School, only to discover Wednesday that the boy hadn't been kidnapped at all. He concocted the tale.
ANTELOPE ACRES - The 31year-old community center will be put on the auction block by the Los Angeles County tax assessor unless its board of directors can come up with $8,000 by February.
PALMDALE - After seven years of negotiations, lawsuits and notices of default, the Ritter Ranch project faces a foreclosure sale today.
Jan. 10
SACRAMENTO - The attorney for the California Water Resources Control Board said the panel is leaning toward revoking a general order under which the Lahontan regional board was allowing sludge to be spread on Antelope Valley farms.
PALMDALE - When developers surprised the Palmdale City Council by seeking indefinite delay on action for the already long-delayed College Park project, the council came back with a surprise of its own - unanimous and immediate approval of the project plan.
SACRAMENTO - Newly elected Antelope Valley Assemblyman George Runner introduced a bill that would make it a misdemeanor to "perform or offer to perform body piercing upon a person under the age of 18 years without the written consent of that person's parent or guardian."
Jan. 11
LANCASTER - The South Coast Air Quality Management District board will spend $100,000 to install a video-conferencing system linking the Lancaster and Monterey Park juvenile dependency courts. The air-quality management district's interest in the plan is its potential to reduce smog levels generated by those who must make the roughly 170-mile roundtrip between the two cities.
LANCASTER - A controversial ice and roller skating complex was approved by the Lancaster City Council despite strong, organized opposition from residents living near the proposed construction area.
PALMDALE - A clothing manufacturer that announced big plans for a new plant inside a proposed industrial park, is being given 30 days to "put up or shut up." The Community Redevelopment Agency ultimatum, as articulated by City Councilman Terry Judge, gives Bella del Sol Industrial Park developers 30 days to make good on a surety bond agreement for the proposed project at Avenue M and 10th Street West.
Jan. 12
Love 'em or hate 'em, there comes a time you need 'em on your side.
So say many residents of unincorporated Antelope Valley communities on the subject of their grass-rooted but sometimes contentious rural town councils, now in their eighth year of existence.
Jan. 14
LAKE HUGHES - An unassuming blip on weather radars last week turned into a storm with some punch, bringing the Antelope Valley its first true snow in more than a year. The storm was preceded by heavy rains that contributed to a major-injury crash, school closures and sagging power lines.
LANCASTER - Residents of Hi Vista and Llano who bought property from former Lancaster developer Marshall Redman will not be kicked off their land, said the court-appointed receiver assigned to resolve problems caused by the sales.
Jan. 15
LOS ANGELES - The Sunny Ranchos Market, also known as the S-R Market at Avenue G and 140th Street East, will stay open, a county hearing officer at the Los Angeles County Planning Department decided Tuesday morning.
That's good news not only for the new owners, John and Linda Lee of Antelope Acres, but for residents of the communities of Sunny Ranchos, Alta Vista and Hi Vista, who would have to drive 15 to 30 miles to Lancaster for many of the products available at the S-R Market. Many area residents stop by the store for small items like milk, bread and beverages.
TULSA, Okla. - Four months after Lancaster resident Robert Mark D'Errico died in a Tulsa nightclub he visited while on a business trip, officials have filed second-degree murder charges against the three men they say killed him.
LEONA VALLEY - Seven years after starting a story that took painstaking and often permanent twists, the Leona Valley Town Council and some 60 residents closed the book Monday on what some called a modern version of David and Goliath. The only agenda item at the council's regular meeting was a champagne and cake celebration marking the foreclosure last week of the $80 million, 11,000-acre Ritter Ranch Co. master-planned community in west Palmdale.
Jan. 1
Serious crime in the Antelope Valley in the first three quarters of 1996 rose 2% compared to the same period in 1995, crime statistics indicate. Leading the surge of so-called Part 1 crimes was forcible rape, which increased more than 25% - from 82 in 1995 to 103 in 1996.
Jan. 2
LANCASTER - Madison Grace York waited until 5:31 a.m. Wednesday, Jan. 1, to make her entrance as the first Antelope Valley baby of 1997. She was welcomed as the first girl in the family by father Ron and mother Luella York and her three older brothers, 9-year-old Daniel, 6-year-old Derick and 4-year-old Dustin.
Jan. 3
LANCASTER - After years of study and discussion, the city is poised to take the first concrete steps toward relocating the Antelope Valley Fairgrounds to a new site west of the Antelope Valley Freeway. The Lancaster Redevelopment Agency will consider buying a 225-acre site bounded by the freeway, 30th Street West, and avenues G-8 and H.
TULSA, Okla. - An official in the Tulsa District Attorney's Office said he will decide whether arrests will be made in connection with the death of popular aerospace worker Robert Mark D'Errico, 33, killed at a nightclub while on a business trip 1,500 miles from his Lancaster home.
Jan. 4
HI VISTA - Residents of this community in the eastern Antelope Valley came here to escape the perils of city life. Instead, they were taken for a ride by an alleged high desert hustler.
Jan. 5
LANCASTER - Officials are ready to begin talks about a possible operational takeover of High Desert Hospital. Two Las Vegas firms - Altila, a health care consulting and management firm, and RPS Corp., a real estate development firm - have teamed to offer a plan for privatizing High Desert Hospital.
LANCASTER - More than 300 people, including Lancaster city officials and law enforcement representatives, assembled at a synagogue to talk about how to eradicate hatred and stop violence against ethnic and religious groups.
LANCASTER - Los Angeles sheriff's deputies said they have identified and kept tabs on the Valley's 3,000 gang members - about 80 of whom are classified as skinheads.
Jan. 7
LOS ANGELES - Claiming federal authorities confiscated her mail, thus slowing her plans for a sentencing defense, convicted Palmdale "lien queen" Margaret Elizabeth Broderick won a postponement of judgment day when U.S. District Judge Dickran Tevrizian agreed to reschedule sentencing for March 10.
LANCASTER - Adding 2,200 feet to the main runway at the Gen. William J. Fox Airfield will have no significant affect on the environment, the Federal Aviation Administration concluded in a study.
Jan. 8
LANCASTER - A teenager who was beaten and stabbed with a screwdriver during a racially motivated attack at Antelope Valley High School is seeking at least $60 million in a civil lawsuit filed against his assailants and the high school district.
LANCASTER - The elementary school district has pledged to meet six conditions as part of a deal to resolve alleged racial harassment complaints being investigated by the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights since last May.
Jan. 9
LANCASTER - Prompted by the alleged kidnapping at knifepoint of a 6-year-old boy Tuesday, officials stepped up law enforcement patrols in the vicinity of Mariposa School, only to discover Wednesday that the boy hadn't been kidnapped at all. He concocted the tale.
ANTELOPE ACRES - The 31year-old community center will be put on the auction block by the Los Angeles County tax assessor unless its board of directors can come up with $8,000 by February.
PALMDALE - After seven years of negotiations, lawsuits and notices of default, the Ritter Ranch project faces a foreclosure sale today.
Jan. 10
SACRAMENTO - The attorney for the California Water Resources Control Board said the panel is leaning toward revoking a general order under which the Lahontan regional board was allowing sludge to be spread on Antelope Valley farms.
PALMDALE - When developers surprised the Palmdale City Council by seeking indefinite delay on action for the already long-delayed College Park project, the council came back with a surprise of its own - unanimous and immediate approval of the project plan.
SACRAMENTO - Newly elected Antelope Valley Assemblyman George Runner introduced a bill that would make it a misdemeanor to "perform or offer to perform body piercing upon a person under the age of 18 years without the written consent of that person's parent or guardian."
Jan. 11
LANCASTER - The South Coast Air Quality Management District board will spend $100,000 to install a video-conferencing system linking the Lancaster and Monterey Park juvenile dependency courts. The air-quality management district's interest in the plan is its potential to reduce smog levels generated by those who must make the roughly 170-mile roundtrip between the two cities.
LANCASTER - A controversial ice and roller skating complex was approved by the Lancaster City Council despite strong, organized opposition from residents living near the proposed construction area.
PALMDALE - A clothing manufacturer that announced big plans for a new plant inside a proposed industrial park, is being given 30 days to "put up or shut up." The Community Redevelopment Agency ultimatum, as articulated by City Councilman Terry Judge, gives Bella del Sol Industrial Park developers 30 days to make good on a surety bond agreement for the proposed project at Avenue M and 10th Street West.
Jan. 12
Love 'em or hate 'em, there comes a time you need 'em on your side.
So say many residents of unincorporated Antelope Valley communities on the subject of their grass-rooted but sometimes contentious rural town councils, now in their eighth year of existence.
Jan. 14
LAKE HUGHES - An unassuming blip on weather radars last week turned into a storm with some punch, bringing the Antelope Valley its first true snow in more than a year. The storm was preceded by heavy rains that contributed to a major-injury crash, school closures and sagging power lines.
LANCASTER - Residents of Hi Vista and Llano who bought property from former Lancaster developer Marshall Redman will not be kicked off their land, said the court-appointed receiver assigned to resolve problems caused by the sales.
Jan. 15
LOS ANGELES - The Sunny Ranchos Market, also known as the S-R Market at Avenue G and 140th Street East, will stay open, a county hearing officer at the Los Angeles County Planning Department decided Tuesday morning.
That's good news not only for the new owners, John and Linda Lee of Antelope Acres, but for residents of the communities of Sunny Ranchos, Alta Vista and Hi Vista, who would have to drive 15 to 30 miles to Lancaster for many of the products available at the S-R Market. Many area residents stop by the store for small items like milk, bread and beverages.
TULSA, Okla. - Four months after Lancaster resident Robert Mark D'Errico died in a Tulsa nightclub he visited while on a business trip, officials have filed second-degree murder charges against the three men they say killed him.
LEONA VALLEY - Seven years after starting a story that took painstaking and often permanent twists, the Leona Valley Town Council and some 60 residents closed the book Monday on what some called a modern version of David and Goliath. The only agenda item at the council's regular meeting was a champagne and cake celebration marking the foreclosure last week of the $80 million, 11,000-acre Ritter Ranch Co. master-planned community in west Palmdale.
