The family of Sergio Valenzuela, a fugitive wanted in connection with two Antelope Valley killings, reported Friday that he was shot and killed in Mexico in the early morning hours of Sunday, Feb. 23.
The family of Sergio Valenzuela, a fugitive wanted in connection with two Antelope Valley killings, reported Friday that he was shot and killed in Mexico in the early morning hours of Sunday, Feb. 23.
LOS ANGELES - More than 20 fire stations could close and 157 firefighters could lose their jobs under a budget cut prompted by November's passage of Proposition 218, L.A. County Fire Chief P. Michael Freeman said.
LOS ANGELES - Dressed like commandos, masked robbers bungled a bank heist in North Hollywood Friday and came out firing, unleashing their arsenal on police, bystanders, cars and even the TV choppers broadcasting it all live.
When the shooting stopped, two robbers were dead and at least five bystanders and nine police officers were wounded by gunfire.
March 2
LANCASTER - Antelope Valley residents can ride the rails from Lancaster to Los Angeles on Saturdays at a reduced rate, while people there can come have a look up here. The service is funded through June.
March 4
PALMDALE - As space shuttle Endeavour's external air-lock was lowered into place Thursday, Boeing North American workers delighted in the fact that modification and maintenance work is weeks ahead of schedule and under budget.
March 5
PALMDALE - For the second time in nine months, voters in the Palmdale School District rejected an $81 million bond to ease crowding in the district's schools.
LANCASTER - Visitors to Lancaster's Municipal Stadium will be treated to a sight befitting a facility with a name like The Hangar: A NASA research aircraft perched atop a pedestal at the stadium's entrance. The F/A-18 was ferried to its new home Tuesday and carefully mounted atop the 28-foot-high pedestal.
March 6
LITTLEROCK - Lancaster Vice Mayor Henry Hearns recently announced that he wants to turn a school under construction at Littlerock's First Missionary Baptist Church into a charter school.
PALMDALE - With only eight votes returned in the first of three assessment district postcard elections, the city must face the possibility of layoffs of 30 to 40 more employees, Palmdale's director of human resources said Wednesday. City Manager Bob Toone blamed the layoffs on the cost of a $1.1 million citywide landscaping district, which the city took over after voters approved Proposition 218 on last November's ballot.
March 7
PALMDALE - Sheriff's deputies closed off a residential westside street Thursday night after receiving reports that a man with a gun was barricaded alone in one of the homes.
PALMDALE - The Metro Freeway Service Patrol, which provides free emergency road service to motorists stuck on the Antelope Valley Freeway, extended its reach this week into Palmdale, officials announced.
March 8
LANCASTER - Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies confirmed that the mother of a 9-year-old boy with Down syndrome who perished in a fire last month has been arrested on suspicion of the murder of her son.
EDWARDS AFB - A $65 million megaproduction on the history of the Apollo space program called, "From the Earth to the Moon," the largest production of its kind by HBO, wrapped up three days of filming here Friday.
PALMDALE - A standoff that began Thursday night when a man kept dozens of sheriff's deputies at bay by threatening them with a handgun, ended in the man's surrender at 5 a.m. Friday after a special weapons team fired teargas into the barricaded house.
March 9
LANCASTER - A man who sat on his screaming, bleeding girlfriend, stabbing her with a 9-inch blade at a motel room Saturday, was shot and killed by a Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy.
LANCASTER - Antelope Valley College must do a better job of serving its students, according to a survey by a consultant with USA Group Noel-Levitz.
Although the Feb. 18-22 survey of 500 students revealed a need to improve recruiting practices and overall student services, several departments at the college received high marks from the students.
March 11
LANCASTER - Three armed and masked robbers escaped with an undisclosed amount of cash from the Edwards Federal Credit Union Monday after a brazen midday holdup.
PALMDALE - Albert B. McCord, 52, former deputy executive director of the city's Community Redevelopment Agency, died of an apparent heart attack Sunday - just two weeks after he was suddenly laid off from his job.
LOS ANGELES - Palmdale's short-lived "lien queen" Margaret Elizabeth Broderick turned long-time jailbird Monday when a judge sentenced the Freemen anti-government student to 16 years and six months in prison for running a homemade check scam business that sought to drain $900 million from the federal banking system.
March 12
PALMDALE - Sheriff's Sgt. Kevin Carney, head of the Antelope Valley's child-abuse office and a high school board member, is on paid leave pending an investigation.
Business owner and community activist Dixie Eliopulos has been named Woman of the Year for the 36th Assembly District by Assemblyman George Runner.
March 13
SACRAMENTO - Californians in the state's most populated areas suffered about 12% fewer crimes last year in the largest one-year decrease on record, according to the state Justice Department's first totals for all of 1996.
QUARTZ HILL - Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies arrested two men late Wednesday night in connection with an armed bank robbery earlier in the day.
Frank S. Donato, past president of the Antelope Valley-East Kern Water Agency, will soon become the ninth director of the Antelope Valley Fair and Alfalfa Festival, filling a vacancy created when Rita Burleson left in September.
Donato was appointed Friday by Gov. Pete Wilson, who also reappointed school administrator Jim Lott and attorney Rob Parris, whose four-year terms recently expired.
March 14
LANCASTER - In psalms, prayers, laughter and tears, family, friends and community leaders said goodbye Thursday morning to Albert Byron McCord, a man remembered for touching the lives of working families everywhere in the Antelope Valley.
PALMDALE - More than 300 young bicycle motocross racers, some from as far as Valencia and Apple Valley, filled the Palmdale City Council chambers and outside courtyard to hear leaders ask for the council's support and assistance.
March 15
PALMDALE - State Assemblyman George Runner, R-Lancaster, kicked off a campaign Friday to lure work on the joint strike fighter to the Valley and create a strategy to strengthen the California aerospace industry.
