Propositions designed to maintain the current level of fire protection in the Antelope Valley and library service in local rural areas will go before voters Tuesday.
Propositions designed to maintain the current level of fire protection in the Antelope Valley and library service in local rural areas will go before voters Tuesday.
Proposition E would replace an existing fire tax that expires July 1 and Proposition L would do the same for a library tax in Lake Los Angeles, Littlerock and Quartz Hill. Each requires a two-thirds majority vote for approval.
June 3
DENVER - Timothy McVeigh was convicted Monday in the deadliest act of terror on U.S. soil, a verdict that brought jubilation and bitter tears to relatives of the 168 people killed in the Oklahoma City bombing.
LANCASTER - There are few glitches in the new system of distributing family welfare checks in the Antelope Valley, recipients say.
Los Angeles County this week began a face-to-face payment plan for families on Aid to Families with Dependent Children. In the Antelope Valley, checks are now being picked up by recipients at Antelope Valley Check Cashing offices in Lancaster and Palmdale.
PALMDALE - Four years after discussions started on where to locate a full-service Palmdale sheriff's station, escrow has closed on 11.5 acres of land for the new facility.
June 4
When the chips were down on Election Day, voters decided to ante up for continued fire protection and library services. Propositions E and L were both passing by substantial margins.
LOS ANGELES - County Supervisors unanimously voted to oppose a federal plan that could bring nuclear waste by train through Lancaster and Palmdale on the way to a proposed Nevada storage site.
EDWARDS AFB - Beginning this month, a handful of aircraft and as many as 80 people will be reassigned to Dryden Flight Research Center from Ames Research Center in Mountain View.
QUARTZ HILL - Authorities suspect an arsonist may have set off a lunchtime fire Tuesday that destroyed a 30-year-old structure at Quartz Hill High School, causing an estimated $20,000 damage.
June 5
LOS ANGELES - Nearly seven of 10 voters who cast ballots in the countywide election Tuesday signed on for replacement taxes to keep fire and library service at current levels.
PALMDALE - The Los Angeles County Claims Board has approved a $30,000 settlement with a Palmdale man who sued after being arrested at the Antelope Valley Mall for wearing a baseball cap backward on his head.
The board unanimously approved the offer. On top of the $30,000, the mall will pay an additional $15,000 to settle the case.
PALMDALE - A pair of suspected Antelope Valley bank robbers, a man and wife, were arrested Wednesday afternoon after a 45-minute standoff with sheriff's deputies at a Palmdale residence. It was the fourth standoff in the Valley in three weeks.
June 6
PALMDALE - Space is not just a destination for Lockheed Martin Skunk Works' X-33 space shuttle prototype. It's also what the company needs more of so that as many as 1,800 additional employees can work on new company projects.
Nearly 600,000 square feet of working space will be added at one of the city's biggest employers by the end of the year as Skunk Works prepares to work on contracts it won last year, a company spokesman said Thursday.
BORON - An environmental group's widely publicized claim that U.S. Borax is among the state's leading air polluters is being disputed not just by the company, but by officials of two regional air quality management agencies that regulate the company's plants.
June 7
PALMDALE - City planning commissioners voted 3-0 to recommend the City Council prohibit the use of human sewage sludge as a fertilizer or soil amendment on farmland within the city.
PALMDALE - Although Assemblyman George Runner's bill promoting a study of possible division of Los Angeles County has received majority support in the lower house of the state Legislature, it has no backing from the county supervisor who represents the Antelope Valley.
Fifth District Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich told the Palmdale City Council that instead of solving the county's financial problems, Runner's bill would add to them.
June 8
Of nine Antelope Valley group homes agencies housing troubled and abused children since 1995, one has been closed by the state, another had its residents removed by the county and a third has been cited for problems.
Of the remaining six, one opted to close its seven local homes over funding woes; one was inspected but the results not yet finalized; and four are open and awaiting surprise audits by the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services.
The dropout rate in the Antelope Valley Union High School District continues to fall, from 2.1% in 1991-92 to 1.1% in 1995-96, the last full school year, according to a report by the California Department of Education.
June 10
PALMDALE - The B-2 stealth bomber, considered a dead bird just two weeks ago, is expected to rise from the ashes during a House subcommittee vote today, according to U.S. Rep. Howard P. "Buck" McKeon.
PALMDALE - The City Council may dissolve two existing landscape maintenance assessment districts Wednesday and form a number of new ones based on the mail-in votes of municipal property owners.
June 11
Crime in the Antelope Valley dropped slightly from 1995 to 1996, Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department statistics show.
LANCASTER - Antelope Valley College trustees ejected a longtime English instructor from their board meeting Monday after he criticized college President Dr. Linda Spink and called for her resignation.
English instructor John Hall was in the middle of criticizing Spink when board members interrupted him, saying he had gone too far.
LANCASTER - An electiontime slander lawsuit filed by Superior Court Commissioner Victor I. Reichman against talk show host Herb Nero has been dismissed as an attempt to stifle free speech. Along with his ruling, issued June 3, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Stuart T. Waldrip said Nero can request reimbursement of his attorney fees.
June 12
LANCASTER - Antelope Valley College instructor John Hall is investigating the possibility of a formal teachers union complaint or legal action against the college after its board ejected him from a meeting Monday night.
LOS ANGELES - A husband and wife, who owned an escrow company that once did business in the Antelope Valley, were both sentenced to prison Wednesday in what has been called "the largest independent escrow fraud case in state history."
LANCASTER - The District Attorney's Office has declined to prosecute an activist arrested and jailed last month for distributing literature outside the state prison in Lancaster.
June 13
PALMDALE - Property owners in 91 housing tracts voted to continue paying their landscape maintenance fees, while those in 83 tracts voted to discontinue the payments, city officials stated Thursday.
EDWARDS AFB - Testing of the B-2 stealth bomber, which was expected to end next month, will continue indefinitely, an Air Force spokeswoman said.
But most of Northrop Grumman's 400 B-2 workers at the base will lose their jobs because just one B-2 will remain when the contract expires July 1.
June 14
DENVER - Timothy McVeigh was condemned to death Friday for the Oklahoma City bombing, accepting the ultimate punishment without so much as a blink.
CALIFORNIA CITY - Thousands of Catholics make their way to the high desert on the 13th of each month, hoping to catch a glimpse of the Virgin Mary at Our Lady of the Rock, a shrine east of California City.
But some residents fear Old World faith could meet modern day lawsuits if the still informal gathering doesn't get a formal event permit from California City's City Hall.
June 15
LANCASTER - Students from the Palmdale Learning Plaza were grounded Saturday by 30 mph-plus winds. But that didn't keep them from going out to make their debut as avionic engineers.
The plane they built - four years in the making - was to be rolled out and flown at Fox Airfield, with each student taking a turn as passenger.
