Sept. 1998: AV Hospital CEO, Harenski, resigns

Some investors reported feeling a bit lightheaded during Monday's massive selloff on Wall Street.

That's to be expected. After all, the market's been at dizzying heights of late.

WASHINGTON - The Clinton administration moved quickly Monday to assure investors that the U.S. economy is essentially sound despite the secondbiggest point drop in Wall Street history.

Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin said he had talked to President Clinton, who was on Air Force One on his way to a summit in Russia, after Monday's stock market closed with the Dow Jones industrial average down more than 512 points.

LANCASTER - Robert Harenski's tenure as chief executive officer of Antelope Valley Hospital ended abruptly Monday when the medical facility's board of directors voted unanimously to pay him $280,480 to resign.

According to terms reportedly found agreeable by both the CEO and the board, Harenski will receive a lump-sum payment of $275,000, with the appropriate taxes withheld.

LANCASTER - Longtime Antelope Valley resident Bill Gillis, a Pearl Harbor veteran and veteran newsman who turned out thousands of news stories, sports stories and columns during nearly a half century in local journalism has died. He was 77.

Services have been scheduled for Mr. Gillis, who died Sunday morning, Aug. 30, in Lancaster.
Sept. 2

LANCASTER - California's average verbal and math SAT scores edged up for the fourth straight year while averages in Antelope Valley high schools dipped slightly according to figures released today by the state Department of Education.

Statewide, verbal scores lagged behind the national average, but math scores were just above it. Locally, scores slid down in both categories by a few points.

PALMDALE - It took nearly three months for the District Attorney's Office to find out what Stella Hansen already knew - that she indeed had custody of her two teenage girls.

During that time, the District Attorney's Bureau of Family Support - in charge of managing child support cases - garnished thousands of dollars from Hansen's paycheck, making it nearly impossible for the Palmdale mother to buy her kids new school supplies.

LOS ANGELES - A $1-peryear lease for a planned fourcourtroom courthouse on Palmdale's evolving town square received approval by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday.

The agreement is expected to relieve pressure on the Los Angeles County court system's Lancaster facility, which attorneys say is so crowded patrons pack the halls while waiting to see a judge or pay a traffic ticket.

LOS ANGELES - The rest of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors decided Tuesday to support Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich's efforts to pressure the state to install concrete barriers along deadly state Highway 138 east of Palmdale.

Construction to widen the twolane highway to four lanes from Palmdale to state Route 18 in San Bernardino County is planned for 2002, but Antonovich said in light of the high number of car crashes along the roadway, something must be done immediately.
Sept. 3

PALMDALE - A near midair collision between two passenger jets blamed on an air traffic controller at the Los Angeles Center in Palmdale was caused by inadequate staffing, a controller's union spokesman said Wednesday.

The Federal Aviation Administration blamed the controller for a momentary lapse that set two airliners on a collision course at 25,000 feet at 3:40 p.m. Monday.

HALIFAX, Nova Scotia (AP) - A Swissair jetliner with 229 people aboard crashed off Nova Scotia late Wednesday after the pilot reported smoke in the cabin and attempted an emergency landing at Halifax International Airport.

Rescuers said people had been found in the water southwest of Halifax, but it is unclear whether anyone had survived the crash.

PALMDALE - On Monday, Oct. 5, the Antelope Valley Press will become a full seven-day daily newspaper with publication of its first Monday edition.

William C. Markham, president of Antelope Valley Newspapers Inc., publishers of the Antelope Valley Press, said the new day of publication is being added in direct response to strong demand from readers and advertisers.

AGUA DULCE - Long before the Hacienda Vasquez Trailer Park sign was posted at 32590 Agua Dulce Canyon Road, the property its 72 trailer pads now sit on was a botanical garden filled with nearly every tree, shrub, flower and plant that would grow in the arid San Gabriel Mountains.

During the past 20 years, and especially during the past three, the park has become known more for its growing crime rate than for its towering pines; more for its putrid septic systems than for its oldest-city-park-in-theneighborhood feel.

PALMDALE - A group of parents, employees and business people have accused the Palmdale School District of nepotism, racism and discrimination.

The group also accused administrators and high-level employees of circumventing school board policies, practices or directives.
Sept. 4

EDWARDS AFB - The countdown is under way for 18 states competing for the VentureStar spaceport.

The first site-selection criterion, a request for qualifications, is due Sept. 8. California has been pitching three sites to VentureStar contractor Lockheed Martin.

LANCASTER - City officials are investigating allegations that the superintendent of Public Works misused city employees and equipment for personal errands, falsified purchase orders to create a lavish office and authorized dumping of hazardous material.

The allegations come from past and present employees working under Public Works Superintendent David Mulkey, whose 100-member operation is seen by some as being undermined by a management style that relies on favoritism and intimidation.

LANCASTER - If the bidding at Thursday's 43rd annual Kiwanis Junior Livestock Auction at the Antelope Valley Fair is an indication of how the local economy is fairing, the Valley's doing pretty well.

Although bidding was rather low-key compared to previous years, the results weren not, as buyers rewarded 4-H, Future Farmers of America and Junior Grange members for their hard work by paying $413,864 for 521 animals.

LANCASTER - Just about everybody who knew "Gillis" has a story to tell about him, a story that's either funny, quirky, practically unbelievable or unbelievably sincere.

Nearly 100 of those with tales about William Grant Gillis - just plain Gillis to his friends, his readers and sometimes even his wife and children - were at Sacred Heart Church Thursday morning to tell him goodbye for the last time.
Sept. 5

NELLIS AFB, Nev. - Two helicopters whose crews were believed to be navigating through the desert darkness with nightvision goggles crashed in rugged terrain near the mysterious Area 51. All 12 aboard were killed.

Recovery crews struggled through the arid peaks and ravines Friday, looking for the remains and clues to the cause of the crash.

PALMDALE - Isis, the Egyptian goddess of fertility and magic, is casting her spell on the high desert.

Tropical storm Isis, downgraded from a hurricane rating after it hit the coast of Mexico on Wednesday, unleashed sporadic showers and drove summer temperatures to winter levels in the the Antelope Valley on Friday.

LANCASTER - A 43-yearold theater arts student took an unloaded shotgun into an Antelope Valley College classroom early Friday and was arrested for possession of a weapon on a school campus.

The suspect, Richard Chavez, told sheriff's deputies he took the unloaded gun to class because of the instructor's assignment.

The students reportedly were assigned to bring an object holding emotional value to the school's acting-fundamentals theater course.

LLANO - A single-passenger, home-built plane crashed and disintegrated Friday, killing the pilot.

Debris was scattered over more than 100 feet of the soggy, rain-soaked land near Avenue S and 185th Street East where the unidentified pilot apparently may have attempted to make an emergency landing in his kitmade plane.

Residents in the cluster of nearby homes heard the plane sputtering overhead about 7:50 a.m. and then the loud crash of the plane's carriage hitting the ground.
Sept. 6

PALMDALE - A 19-yearold Palmdale High School graduate and Eagle Scout was named Saturday as one of the dozen service members killed early Friday in the crash of two helicopters near Nellis Air Force Base, Nev.

Airman 1st Class Justin Wotasik, a para-rescue specialist, was reported aboard one of the two HH-60G Pave Hawk helicopters that crashed during a practice mission over rugged terrain near the highly secret Test Area 51 in Nevada.

PALMDALE - The end of an orbiter modification job leaves mixed emotions at Boeing Reusable Space Systems in Palmdale.

On one hand there's the satisfaction of completing on time and on budget the $71 million Atlantis modification - largest for any space shuttle.

But completion means the modification team will be cut back and some employees will be laid off.

Atlantis will leave Air Force Plant 42 Site 1 on Sept. 21 and head to Kennedy Space Center.

LANCASTER - The double rainbow in the sky over Saturday's Rural Olympics at the Antelope Valley Fair was gone by the end of the hay loading contest, but not the rainbow of smiles on the faces of Chris Planellas and Jack Allewyn, who took home first-place winnings of $2,500 in the prestige event.

The Rural Olympics showcases hard efforts of working folks, and no efforts were harder than those put forward by Allewyn and Planellas. The pair loaded, unloaded and stacked 48 bales of hay in 3 minutes, 31.33 seconds.
Sept. 8

PALMDALE - Moves are under way to revive construction in three dormant housing developments on the city's west side: City Ranch, Ritter Ranch and Joshua Ranch.

In August, the Planning Commission granted builder Kaufman & Broad permission to change a portion of its 1,985-acre City Ranch project, to be built between 20th and 40th streets west south of Elizabeth Lake Road and north of Avenue S.

LANCASTER - "It's been a great run," said Antelope Valley Fair Manager Dan Jacobs on Monday, the final day of the 11day fair. "We're up across the board - attendance, concessions and fun."

The 60th fair, themed A 60 Carrot A-Fair, had its share of ups and downs, Jacobs said, but finished on an upswing - through Sunday, paid attendance was ahead of 1997's total by 6,200 people and concession revenues were up 12% from the year earlier.

LANCASTER - A Lancaster man searching for his wife after an argument scoured his Lancaster neighborhood Sunday, beating and stabbing neighbors who said they didn't know where she was.

The man with the knife, 28year-old George McCollom, was finally stopped after a neighbor with a shotgun fired a blast into McCollom's stomach.

CANYON COUNTRY - Three Canyon Country men were arrested Saturday after allegedly throwing chunks of asphalt at passing cars on the Antelope Valley Freeway and assaulting a group of elderly Hispanics as they walked along a bike trail.

The crimes occurred at about 6:30 a.m. Saturday along the bike trail near the Antelope Valley Freeway and Nugget Drive, according to a report from the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Santa Clarita Valley Station.
Sept. 9

ST. LOUIS - Without a doubt or an asterisk, Mark McGwire and his mighty swing broke Roger Maris' home run record Tuesday night with plenty of games to spare.

Historic No. 62 was a line drive to left, punctuating a chase that reinvigorated baseball and captivated the nation.

LANCASTER - Every year California schools need on the average of 20,000 new teachers, a number more than twice that of new teaching credentials issued yearly, according to education analysts.

Add to that about 25,000 teachers needed to meet class-size reduction goals, and the result is a growing shortage of teachers in California.

Many among the new crop of teachers don't last beyond five years in the classroom.

EDWARDS AFB - The Pentagon has told Congress it doesn't want to pay to put the storied SR-71 Blackbird spy plane back in the skies.

In a letter to Congress, the Pentagon asked that the $39 million in SR-71 operating funds line-item vetoed last year by President Bill Clinton be "reprogrammed" to other military uses.

PALMDALE - A time limit on a city-backed incentive package could spur the Price-Costco company into opening a membership warehouse on 10th Street West near Avenue P.

Whether the company will do so remains unanswered, but negotiations are under way, said Danny Roberts, assistant executive director of Palmdale's Community Redevelopment Agency.
Sept. 10

WASHINGTON (AP) - Independent counsel Kenneth Starr sent Congress 36 sealed boxes filled with "substantial and credible" evidence of wrongdoing by President Bill Clinton on Wednesday, triggering the nation's first formal impeachment review since Watergate a quarter-century ago.

House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Democratic leader Dick Gephardt pledged before Starr acted that they would make a bipartisan effort to review the politically explosive report, delivered in the shadow of the midterm elections. The two men then met into the evening to thrash out plans to make much of the material public within a few days, and govern Congress' subsequent review.

LANCASTER - Residents of a west Lancaster community pleaded with City Council members Tuesday night to uphold an 18-year promise to maintain the area's rural atmosphere.

The council voted 4-1 in favor of subdividing lots on 15th and 20th streets west near avenues L and M, with Mayor Frank Roberts casting the only opposing vote.

PALMDALE - Long before Kenneth Starr's report on President Bill Clinton arrived at the Capitol on Wednesday, it was generating calls to the office of Antelope Valley Congressman Howard P. "Buck" McKeon.

"We have had well over 100 calls in the last three weeks from constituents regarding this," McKeon spokesman David Foy said Wednesday.

"Ninety percent of them want the president either to be impeached or to resign," Foy said. "It's certainly the largest volume of calls we've gotten in such a short period of time on any issue this year."

LANCASTER - A student taking evening classes at Antelope Valley College was the target of an unknown shooter with a pellet gun late Tuesday.

Kirk Collins, 40, of Littlerock, was hit in the shoulder around 7:30 p.m. in the parking lot near the child development building.

"The student was getting books out of the backseat when he said he felt a stinging pain in his shoulder," said Steve Standerfer, public relations director for Antelope Valley College.

LANCASTER - Antelope Valley College security has had a busy week with a cafeteria fistfight, a student toting guns to class, and Tuesday night, someone shooting a student with a pellet gun in the campus parking lot.

Though the three incidents do not exactly constitute a wave of violent crime, people on campus are talking about safety issues.