1999 The year in review

February 8-12

Feb. 8

NEWHALL - If a growing Virginia energy company gets the go-ahead from the California Energy Commission, clouds of steam may someday hover over the desert east of Mojave like they do now in Placerita Canyon along the Antelope Valley Freeway in Newhall. The same company that operates the Newhall power plant, AES Corp., wants to build a similar but larger power plant six miles east of Mojave along Highway 58.

PALMDALE - Truckers would be allowed to park big rigs in three areas of the city under a proposal slated for Planning Commission review. The proposal could come before the commission on Feb. 18, if city reports are prepared in time.

LANCASTER - About 100 students seeking bachelor's degrees learned how they could be officially enrolled at a California State University and get their degrees without ever having to leave the Antelope Valley.

The students, part of California State University, Bakersfield's regional extension program at Antelope Valley College, were present at an orientation Friday night to learn how their academic lives were going to change with the advent of the new satellite campus.

ROSAMOND - How to best fill a vacancy on the Southern Kern Unified School District's governing board has led to differing schools of thought leading up to an April 13 special election. Rosamond businessman Timothy A. Schank, a candidate for the position, said voters must be allowed to pick the successor of former school board member Paul Rodriguez, who left the area in September.

Feb. 9

TULSA, Okla. - The defense rested its case Monday against two men accused of killing Lancaster resident Robert Mark D'Errico during a scuffle in a nightclub outside Tulsa called Lady Godiva's. The defense rested on day six of the trial of Chad Wayne Hillman and Travis Lee Shannon, who are charged with second-degree manslaughter in the death of D'Errico.

LANCASTER - The city's bill for legal experts and other hired help to advise it during the nearly three-month-old federal probe of suspected dumping at the Public Works yard is heading toward the half-million dollar mark.

The city recently paid $174,000 to Waterstone Environmental, the consulting firm the city retained in late November after FBI agents raided the 22-acre Public Works yard, seizing documents and looking for evidence of toxic waste dumping.

EDWARDS AFB - Kevin L. Petersen was named the new director of NASA Dryden Flight Research Center, saying that he hopes to continue the center's progress in developing X-planes and cutting-edge aeronautic vehicles.

Petersen said he wanted to continue X-plane work at Dryden like the X-38, which had a successful drop test last Saturday, and the X33, which is scheduled to fly in July 2000 from Edwards Air Force Base.

MOJAVE - Bill White isn't ashamed to admit he's using the environment as leverage in his battle to keep a new freeway bypass from sidestepping his town. White said his opposition to the proposed Highway 58 bypass, which would skirt the 4,000 population of Mojave, has been ignored by Caltrans long enough.

WASHINGTON - When his impeachment trial ends - probably later this week and almost certainly in acquittal - President Bill Clinton will not surround himself with grinning Democrats and declare himself exonerated, his aides say.

MOJAVE - Giving Mojave an added economic boost, approximately 120 to 140 new jobs will be coming to the area as Marconi Flight Systems has been awarded an Air Force contract to upgrade KC-135 air refueling tankers. The $36 million contract to perform navigation upgrades on nearly half the tanker fleet, an estimated 220 aircraft, will run until the end of 2003, according to the Air Force.

Feb. 10

TULSA, Okla. - A mistrial was declared Tuesday in the trial of a Travis Lee Shannon, the man prosecutors say is most responsible for the death of Lancaster resident Robert Mark D'Errico at Lady Godiva's exotic nightclub in September 1996 while a second man was found innocent of the crime.

PALMDALE - Gale force gusts from the Southwest whipped light rains into a frenzy, causing a storm-like atmosphere in the Antelope Valley well into Tuesday afternoon. Gusts to 44 mph were recorded throughout the Valley, ushering in a dust storm that caused a 12-car pileup along Avenue P near 20th Street East, causing a dozen motorists to smash into each other when visibility eroded to zero.

PALMDALE - Widening Highway 138 to four lanes may reduce the risk of head-on collisions, but it would also increase the speed limit on the winding, hilly road - known by those who travel it as "Deathway," or "Blood Alley."

More than 80 people have died in auto accidents on the portion of Highway 138 from the Antelope Valley Freeway to Interstate 15 in the last five years, according to California Highway Patrol statistics.

Feb. 11

PALMDALE - After months of postponements, the City Council on a 4-0 vote Wednesday officially declared a default in payments on bonds sold for the initial development of the Trade and Commerce Center business area. The move means owners of property in the center have failed to keep up with payments due on $34.8 million worth of bonds.

Hazardous conditions caused schools in the Hughes-Elizabeth Lake Union School and Tehachapi Union School districts to close. With temperatures dipping to 22 degrees overnight in the Lake Hughes area, interim Superintendent Andy Rutledge said the decision to cancel classes Wednesday was made because of heavy ice on the roads.

WASHINGTON - Three moderate Republican senators from the northeast - James Jeffords of Vermont, Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania and John Chafee of Rhode Island - declared Wednesday they would vote to acquit President Bill Clinton of both articles of impeachment in the Monica Lewinsky affair, the clearest sign yet as the trial neared an end that the charges would fall far short of conviction and possibly even shy of a bare majority.

LOS ANGELES - Diana Beard-Williams' attorney filed an action this week asking a court of appeal to stay a recent court order barring Beard-Williams from conducting business for the nonprofit Palmdale Education Foundation as its executive director. She is currently on paid administrative leave from her job as Palmdale School District's publicist.

Feb. 12

LANCASTER - Every donation made to the Palmdale Education Foundation is accounted for, and the proof is in a folder in the Palmdale School District office, Diana Beard-Williams said Thursday. During a sworn deposition, the spokeswoman for the Palmdale School District and director of the Palmdale Education Foundation broke her silence in a controversy over supposedly missing funds.

PALMDALE - Changes intended to help developer R. Gregg Anderson make the long-planned Rancho Vista golf course a reality were given the first of two required approvals by the City Council on Wednesday. The changes will be up for final approval Feb. 24. If a second nod is forthcoming, one of the major changes would extend the deadline for the completion of the Rancho Vista project from May 2003 to May 2008.

LITTLEROCK - With Valentine's Day around the corner, many Antelope Valley residents will be scrambling for the perfect gift. For Littlerock resident Janice Wise, the only gift she wants to give her husband of 22 years is a kidney.

WASHINGTON - With acquittal assured, the Senate talked its way through a final full day of closed-door deliberations Thursday at President Bill Clinton's impeachment trial, set for climactic noontime votes today in the case that one Democrat called "this sordid saga."

Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine became the fourth Republican to declare her intention to vote to acquit on both charges, following the lead of other moderates who broke party ranks a day earlier. Several senators predicted that Susan Collins of Maine would be the fifth, although her office declined comment.

Uploaded December 17, 1999