1998 Review April Part 2

LANCASTER - Mayor Frank Roberts and Councilman Henry Hearns, both fresh from sweeping victories, predicted a City Council that will work together in harmony with close cooperation. The two council veterans said they are excited about having Andy Visokey and Michelle Idleman on board the newly formed council.

WASHINGTON - The Pentagon expects to delay for a year final approval for production of F-22 fighters, but a top defense official expressed confidence in development of the radar-evading plane.
April 17

LAKE LOS ANGELES - The builders of a movie location on an isolated desert intersection may have to tear it down before it's completed because of a complaint by a nearby rival. And that rival may have to clean up his site to remain in compliance with his Los Angeles County conditional use permit.

PALMDALE - Congressman Howard P. "Buck" McKeon is launching a congressional investigation to determine if the Internal Revenue Service targeted California taxpayers for audits.
April 18

SIMI VALLEY - Regional planning officials acknowledged that northern Los Angeles County areas, including the Antelope Valley, were shortchanged in a 20-year plan to meet the transportation needs of fast-growing Southern California.

April 19

LANCASTER - The Promise Keepers came to the Antelope Valley Friday night, bringing the offer of peace to the 1,450 men and boys gathered in Challenger Hall at the Antelope Valley Fairgrounds.
LANCASTER - Thousands of people from Maine to California came to Lancaster's seventh annual California Poppy Festival, which began Saturday at Lancaster City Park. The festival, a two-day event featuring music, food and festivities, is celebrated each year to commemorate the orange-colored state flower, which usually blooms abundantly in Antelope Valley.
April 21

LOS ANGELES - The number of hate crimes in the Antelope Valley has dropped, according to a report by the Los Angeles County Commission on Human Relations. Figures for 1997 showed 33 reported hate crimes in the Antelope Valley, compared to 40 in 1996. Countywide, there were 820 hate crime incidents reported in the county's 88 cities.
April 22

LOS ANGELES - County supervisors unanimously rejected mandatory trash service for residents of the Antelope Valley who live outside of Lancaster and Palmdale.
April 23

QUARTZ HILL - An underground 60-inch pipeline in Quartz Hill could ease flooding, keeping businesses along 50th Street West high and dry, a county supervisor's aide told the Town Council.

PALMDALE - In a $1.4 billion deal not expected to affect its more than 300 employees in the Antelope Valley, Tracor Inc. of Austin, Texas, announced it will merge with English defense giant The General Electric Co.

LANCASTER - A top Lancaster state prison official unveiled for city officials the plan to convert a portion of the facility into an inmate reception center - a move that could bring as many as 30 new jobs to the city.
April 24

LANCASTER - Antelope Valley Hospital has paid a private, San Francisco-based consultant more money than its chief administrative officer currently earns. Now, hospital officials are contemplating whether to make that consultant a permanent member of the administrative staff.

VICTORVILLE - A state water quality control agency ordered Bio Gro Systems Inc. to stop spreading sewage sludge on a ranch northwest of Lancaster until flood control issues are resolved.
April 25

ROSAMOND - Authorities say nothing was there, but about a dozen people who called the Valley Press Thursday night claimed something was. That something was described as a large craft lingering above the Albertson's grocery store at about 9:15 p.m. It made no noise, but its lights caused motorists to park and gawk, and some to call the newspaper.
April 26

BORON - It's party time in this mining town, and merchants are planning such a big blowout it will take a week just to gear up. The 60th anniversary of the town's founding will take place May 2, with the Twenty Mule Team Museum as the centerpiece.

ACTON - An alleged kidnapper shot a Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy in the abdomen after a car chase Saturday morning, then apparently turned the weapon on himself and took his own life with a gunshot to the head.
April 28

LANCASTER - LeAnn Rimes and Bryan White will fill the bill as "top notch, top-of-the-line entertainers," the main headliner act of the 1998 Antelope Valley Fair concert series.

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Edwards Air Force Base will never be targeted for closing and the Antelope Valley will continue to be a pipeline for aerospace projects, a top Air Force official told the Antelope Valley Board of Trade.
April 29

EDWARDS AFB - Maj. Gen. Richard L. Engel will step down as Edwards AFB commander this summer to become commandant of the Industrial College of the Armed Forces.
April 30

LANCASTER - The Lancaster City Council unanimously approved participating in a study that would examine the implications of breaking Los Angeles County in two.

PALMDALE - Residents of south Antelope Valley need a primary-care "healthplex" facility, not a full-service hospital with emergency services, according to a report presented to the City Council.