EDWARDS AFB - An area near Haystack Butte is environmentally sound for launching the X-33, the next-generation space shuttle prototype, according to a NASA draft environmental statement. Construction on the 25-acre site east of Phillips Laboratories is complete and construction is expected to begin in October.
July 2
LANCASTER - Eastside Union School District officials announced plans to build a new middle school at 30th Street East and Avenue I in Lancaster - provided voters approve a $15.5 million bond measure this fall.
PALMDALE - Valley officials got a taste of independence Tuesday at the first meeting of the new Antelope Valley Air Pollution Control District.
July 3
PALMDALE - In the hangar where the X-33 space shuttle prototype will be assembled, U.S. Rep. Jerry Lewis, R-Redlands, told Lockheed Martin Skunk Works' employees that money to fund the project is secure.
CALIFORNIA CITY - Steve West will remain as city manager until Dec. 31 while he and the City Council continue to negotiate terms of his employment.
July 5
PALMDALE - Lockheed Martin Skunk Works, builder of the F-117 stealth fighter, also would build the stealthy B-2 bomber under a proposed $11.6 billion purchase of Northrop Grumman announced Thursday.
SACRAMENTO - The state's Joint Legislative Audit Committee will hold a hearing July 16 to consider whether the state auditor should investigate Los Angeles County's beleaguered courthouse-construction program. The investigation was requested by Assemblyman George Runner, R-Lancaster.
SANTA CLARITA - A wildfire erupted Thursday in Placerita Canyon, scorching 400 acres, forcing the Antelope Valley Freeway's closure and delaying thousands of Antelope Valley commuters headed home for the Fourth of July weekend.
July 5
PASADENA - After a wild ride across a cold and barren landscape, NASA's Pathfinder came to rest on a Martian plain Friday, inaugurating a new era in the search for life on Mars by transmitting the first photographs from the red planet's surface in two decades.
July 6
LANCASTER - More than 13,500 Lancaster School District students will find their school year has been turned upside down by a new year-round schedule. Trustees approved an application for a $1.16 million year-round education operational grant for the district's 15 schools.
July 8
PALMDALE - Mayor Jim Ledford said Palmdale's City Council will discuss a ballot measure on Wednesday that would allow citizens to vote on whether Palmdale and Lancaster should share sales tax revenues on a per-capita basis.
July 9
LANCASTER - City officials said Tuesday they hope to eliminate traffic gridlock at one of the city's busiest interchanges by the year 2000, with the help of a grant from the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA).
Improvements on the Antelope Valley Freeway and Avenue L overpass will be funded by a $2.4 million dollar grant the city received from the MTA.
LOS ANGELES - A Lancaster couple were convicted Tuesday of grand theft and securities fraud stemming from a 1980s Ponzi scheme in which investors, mostly Los Angeles school teachers, were bilked out of millions of dollars. After 24 days of deliberations, a Superior Court jury convicted David Robert Missman, 60, of 16 counts of grand theft and 32 counts of securities fraud. The jury found him not guilty on three counts and deadlocked on 17 others.
July 10
LANCASTER - A jury Wednesday found that an off-duty Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy illegally fired at a group of teenage vandals last year and then lied about the incident in a written report. Deputy Bobby Rodriguez was found guilty of one misdemeanor and four felonies that included discharging a firearm from a vehicle, assault with a deadly weapon and filing a false report. He was acquitted on four other felony allegations.
PALMDALE - Kaiser Permanente intends to build a new health-care clinic at 45th Street East and Avenue S to improve service to members in the south end of the Antelope Valley, officials announced Wednesday.
July 11
PALMDALE - Assistant City Manager Ron Creagh was laid off by City Manager Bob Toone Thursday, a day before a number of employee layoffs were expected to be announced within Palmdale's city government.
PALMDALE - Businesswoman, community activist and city council candidate Rosemary Dispenza was admitted to Antelope Valley Hospital Thursday afternoon with a gunshot wound to the head.
July 12
LANCASTER - Nearly 20 people offered to replace a 71-year-old Lancaster man's wheelchair, which was stolen from his home Wednesday, after his plight was detailed in Thursday's Valley Press. Offers were still coming late Friday.
PALMDALE - Rosemary Dispenza, well-known community volunteer, businesswoman and City Council candidate, died at 11 a.m. Friday after suffering a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head a day earlier.
July 13
LANCASTER - Michaels, the national arts and crafts retailer, has reportedly agreed to build a regional distribution center and warehouse in the newly approved Fox Field Industrial Corridor.
PALMDALE - Boeing North American Space Systems Division's modification and maintenance center still relies on shuttle work and manufacturing, but company managers are seeking new work to stabilize employment. The facility also manufactures parts for the upcoming International Space Station and the Boeing 777 and 737 passenger aircraft.
July 15
TEHACHAPI - Residents seeking to remove four of five members of the City Council as well as Tehachapi's city clerk were slated to make their third attempt at presenting notices of recall Monday. The first notice, submitted in May, "was not done right," recall proponent Loretta Fleming said.
PALMDALE - A butter-fingered armed robber successfully stole a large amount of money from a bank Monday, only to see the cash scatter in the wind after he inadvertently dropped it in a parking lot while fleeing.
