PALMDALE - An employee of Palmdale's Department of Motor Vehicles office has pleaded guilty in connection with the sale of an illegal driver's license.
PALMDALE - An employee of Palmdale's Department of Motor Vehicles office has pleaded guilty in connection with the sale of an illegal driver's license.
LANCASTER - Antelope Valley College instructor John Hall filed a lawsuit in federal court against four members of the college board of trustees and AVC security Capt. Tom Bryant, alleging an infringement of his free-speech rights. Hall was forcibly removed from the June 9 board meeting after he refused to stop speaking during the public-comments section of the meeting.
July 17
SAN FRANCISCO - Los Angeles County lost a state Supreme Court appeal Wednesday and must repay 90,000 welfare recipients $73 a month that it illegally withheld from their benefits for two years.
PALMDALE - Lockheed Martin attorneys and City Council members have reportedly overcome obstacles to the company's development of a business park. The resolution followed a closeddoor City Hall session Tuesday.
SACRAMENTO - The Joint Legislative Audit Committee agreed with Assemblyman George Runner's request that the state auditor investigate Los Angeles County's spending of more than $80 million on eight courthouse projects - including one slated for the Antelope Valley - with not a single courtroom built.
LANCASTER - Officials from Michaels Stores Inc. confirmed Wednesday that they will build a regional distribution center in the newly approved Fox Field Industrial Corridor. Michaels, a leading retailer of arts, crafts, frames and floral merchandise, had $1.4 billion in sales for 1996.
The 432,000-square-foot structure will be built at Avenue H and 35th Street West for $16 million to $19 million, according to city Redevelopment Director Stafford Parker.
July 18
PALMDALE - The first of 18 McDonnell Douglas A-4 Skyhawk fighters has arrived for flight tests at Air Force Plant 42. Lockheed Martin's Ontario division is finishing work on the aircraft for the Argentine government, said Ron Lindeke, a Lockheed Martin Skunk Works spokesman. The work should be finished by the end of the year, then it will be transferred to Palmdale for flight tests before they are delivered, he said.
SACRAMENTO - The bill that would commission a study on the benefits of splitting up Los Angeles County passed in a Senate floor vote. The bill now goes to the governor's desk for signature into law.
July 19
LANCASTER - Sheriff's officials are investigating a fire that caused about $215,000 damage to two homes on the city's east side Friday.
ROSAMOND - Kern County Sheriff Carl Sparks joined Supervisor Steve A. Perez as guest speakers at a Town Council meeting here Thursday and announced their intent to substantially increase the ranks of the Kern County Sheriff's Department.
July 20
Hundreds of people from throughout the Antelope Valley came together in services Friday night and Saturday morning to pay last respects to Rosemary Dispenza, eulogized as a woman whose love and service to community knew no boundaries - social, political or racial.
July 22
PALMDALE - The National Weather Service issued a tornado warning for northeast Los Angeles County Monday after a pilot reported seeing a funnel cloud moving in a northeasterly direction about 15 miles east of Palmdale.
LANCASTER - The Watch and Wager off-track betting center will be the first building relocated to the new Antelope Valley fairgrounds, officials said. Relocation could come as soon as next spring, fair manager Dan Jacobs said at a presentation of the future fairgrounds' design.
July 23
PALMDALE - A sprinkling of rain fell in the Antelope Valley Tuesday afternoon, creating slick roadways, but no major injury accidents, and decreasing sweltering summertime temperatures in some areas to below 80 degrees.
LANCASTER - Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies cordoned off an area in the vicinity of 25th Street West, just north of Avenue J, late last night after they came under automatic weapon fire by a man barricaded in a residence.
July 24
LANCASTER - Jim Gilley will remain Lancaster's city manager until 2002 under a contract extension granted Tuesday by the City Council.
PALMDALE - The Boogie Woogie Mamas, a group of senior tap dancers from Caravan Dance Studio in Palmdale, won four golds and a total of seven awards at the Headliners Performing Arts Competition National Championships in Charlotte, N.C.
LANCASTER - A standoff Tuesday night involving a man armed with a high-powered rifle ended when sheriff's deputies killed the man amid a hail of gunfire.
July 25
PALMDALE - A multimillion dollar contract for a Valleywide Head Start program was announced Tuesday by the city of Palmdale and Palmdale School District officials. The program, expected to serve 800 students and require 100 new employees, will be paid for by $6 million awarded to the school district from the federal government.
LANCASTER - Antelope Valley Hospital ended its 1996-97 fiscal year with a $6.7 million surplus, Chief Financial Officer Robert Anderson reported Wednesday.
July 26
LANCASTER - An 18yearold Quartz Hill High School star wrestler has pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor battery charge stemming from a ditch party in May in which the defendant engaged in sex acts with a minor.
July 27
PALMDALE - Highland High School students are once again coming to the defense of a pond adjacent to their school, this time because district work crews have begun draining water from it. In its five years of existence, the pond, which is actually a flood retention basin, was almost replaced by both portable classrooms and tennis courts. Now, it's facing partial drainage.
Antelope Valley school districts are declaring the state's class-size reduction program a success. Teachers responding to a Westside Union School District survey, said students improved in reading and math since class sizes were reduced, and teachers also reported a dramatic decline in discipline problems.
July 29
LANCASTER - A $1.65 million courthouse addition and sheriff's department renovation were dedicated Monday, a long-awaited day for parents relying on the return of dependency court services and crime victims needing specialized detectives.
LANCASTER - Employees at the welfare office were greeted by a frightful sight when they showed up for work Monday: A cow's severed tongue suspended by wire from a tree. Worse yet, 16 neatly folded and blood-stained pieces of paper, stuck into the tongue with straight pins, contained the names of some Department of Public and Social Services employees.
PALMDALE - Major chunks of Lockheed Martin's Ontario operations - including about 800 workers - have relocated to Palmdale and the rest of it soon will follow, Skunk Works officials said. Ceremonies Monday marked the opening of a new 70,000 squarefoot building that houses offices and a warehouse for "Big Safari," a modification program for seven C130 Hercules cargo planes already here, with more to follow.
July 30
PALMDALE - City officials and representatives of the Chatsworth-based Senior Systems Technology reached an agreement Monday under which the company is to build an electronics manufacturing plant in the city's Trade and Commerce Center.
PALMDALE - Builders of the radar-evading B-2 bomber have often touted the aircraft's ability to survive in hostile territory. The stealthy bomber proved them right again in a tight U.S. House of Representatives defense budget battle Tuesday.
The B-2 debate was part of a defense appropriations bill providing $248 billion for defense programs in fiscal 1998. The bill, which gives the Pentagon $4.4 billion more than the administration requested, passed 322-105.
