1999 The year in review

January 12-20

Jan. 12

PALMDALE - An Antelope Valley court Monday issued a temporary restraining order forbidding Diana Beard-Williams, the executive director of the Palmdale Education Foundation, from conducting any foundation financial transactions.

At the same time, R. Rex Parris, the attorney who filed the request for the restraining order, said that some foundation money may be unaccounted for.

LANCASTER - Detectives arrested a pair of gang members in connection with a rival gang stabbing outside the Lancaster courthouse.

Edward Baltazar, 20, and Jose Del Rio, 20, both of Lancaster, were arrested late Thursday for investigation in the stabbing of a 16year-old rival gang member outside the Lancaster courthouse Thursday.

EDWARDS AFB - The second Tier 3 Minus DarkStar highaltitude unmanned aerial vehicle has completed its first high-altitude flight, reaching an altitude of 25,000 feet, the Air Force announced Monday.

DarkStar is a reconnaissance aircraft developed in Palmdale at Lockheed Martin's Skunk Works.

Jan. 13.

LANCASTER - Antelope Valley College unveiled the longterm site plans for the proposed Palmdale campus Monday night after the college board of trustees approved the plans by a unanimous vote.

LANCASTER - More than 16 deputies cleared a crowded Lancaster courtroom Tuesday, with a judge concluding there were gang members in the audience who posed a security risk.

PALMDALE - An apparent cash envelope purportedly containing $2,700 belonging to the philanthropic Palmdale Education Foundation remained missing Tuesday.

The money reportedly was left in the office of the foundation's executive director, Diana Beard-Williams.

LANCASTER - Radical changes are on the horizon for some Air Force bases, but Edwards Air Force Base should look the same for years to come, said Brig. Gen. Todd Stewart, Air Force Materiel Command's civil engineer.

Jan. 14

WASHINGTON - Bracing for opening arguments in his impeachment trial, President Bill Clinton said Wednesday he will tend studiously to "the business of the people" while his fate is settled in historic Senate proceedings. House prosecutors said Monica Lewinsky had recently rejected their request for a voluntary interview.

PALMDALE - People lined up out the door at Valley post offices, temporarily cleaning out the Palmdale office's supply of onecent stamps.

LANCASTER - The City Council voted 5-0 Tuesday to ban the building of apartments for 45 days after city officials warned the council about a flurry of recent inquiries from apartment building developers.

TULSA - One of a trio of defendants accused of smothering and crushing Lancaster resident Robert Mark D'Errico to death in an exotic nightclub in Oklahoma may escape jail time entirely and pay only a $3,000 fine for his part in the crime.

Daniel Patrick Harris appeared in a Tulsa courthouse Tuesday where a judge ordered him to pay $3,000 restitution to D'Errico's widow, Morgan, and his four young daughters.

SACRAMENTO - Taking a page from the notebooks of some of the state's kindergarten through 12th-grade schools, Assemblyman George Runner on Wednesday proposed making all state universities year-round.

PALMDALE - The city's latest attempt to demolish 58 dilapidated homes owned by Beverly Hills slumlord Milton Avol was halted by another legal maneuver Wednesday when Avol's attorneys obtained a temporary stay.

LANCASTER - Motorists racing north on the Antelope Valley Freeway will no longer gaze on the young, desirable faces of the Girls of Vivid, adult film performers who until recently adorned a video store billboard.

The images were taken off the freeway billboard Monday, after protest by civic groups, elected officials and churches.

Jan. 15

PALMDALE - Adult-video distributor Greg Poulin told the City Council on Wednesday he would ask local business operators to remove the adult-oriented banners that have angered some residents.

Poulin said he would inform the council of the results of his request within 48 hours.

LANCASTER - An employee with the California State PrisonLos Angeles County in Lancaster has received a $100,000 settlement, ending a three-year battle over a sexual harassment case.

Cathy Gullett, an office assistant at the state prison, filed her suit in Los Angeles Superior Court on July 29, 1996.

WASHINGTON - The House prosecutors sought Thursday to build a conspiracy case against President Bill Clinton, but along the way they misstated a few of the facts and stretched some others in an effort to portray the evidence in the most dramatic light.

Jan. 16

PALMDALE - A $3.3 million cut in the Air Force Plant 42 budget has left officials scrambling to fill the gap in order to avoid suspension of the operations at the Plant 42 runway.

A spokesman for Congressman Howard P. "Buck" McKeon said that if the budget cut stands, the result would be "disastrous." No plane could fly in or out of Plant 42.

PALMDALE - Diana BeardWilliams confirmed Friday that she withdrew money from the Palmdale Education Foundation, saying she did so in order to protect the money from the school district for which it was raised.

Beard-Williams, on paid administrative leave since Dec. 21 from her post as spokeswoman for the Palmdale School District, told KHJJ radio talk show host Phil St. George she withdrew $4,200 of the $5,900 in a foundation account.

LANCASTER - School volunteer and parent Donita Winn, who is leading the effort to pass a $28.1 million school bond March 2, said her biggest fear is voter apathy.

That fear was dispelled Thursday night as several hundred parents, teachers, children, school officials and others jammed into the Jack Northrop Elementary School auditorium for a rally.

Jan. 17

WASHINGTON - With a final flourish, House prosecutors demanded President Bill Clinton's removal from office Saturday, telling a hushed audience of senators that otherwise the presidency itself may be "deeply and perhaps permanently damaged."

LAUGHLIN, Nev. - A Palmdale man turned himself in to a hotel security guard early Saturday, claiming to have stabbed his wife to death along Angeles Forest Highway south of Palmdale.

Richard James Poynton, 48, reportedly told security officers at a Laughlin hotel "that he had killed his wife somewhere in the area of Palmdale," Las Vegas police Lt. Ed Pitchford said.

Jan. 18

LANCASTER - Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies say details are sketchy on what sparked a gang shooting Saturday night in the 1200 block of West Avenue H12.

Deputies responding to a "shots fired" call and arrived to find Peter Lujan, 21; Christina Lujan, 21; and Andy Clark, 18, with gunshot wounds.

Jan. 19

PALMDALE - Tax records for the past two years indicate the Palmdale Education Foundation spent more on itself than it did on helping schools and students.

PALMDALE - A Palmdale Education Foundation member questioned the way $11,000 worth of grants was approved by the group last year.

Foundation member James E. Brown requested a meeting of the board of directors and others members when he discovered two grants may have been approved without going through proper channels.

Jan. 20

LOS ANGELES - In the wake of a gang-related stabbing at the Antelope Valley Courthouse, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday unanimously approved interim security measures for the Lancaster facility.

Last week, 16 deputies emptied a courtroom during a gang-related trial when a judge cited the presence of gang members in court as a security risk.

LANCASTER - Difficulties in manufacturing composite hydrogen tanks are pushing back the expected launch date of the X-33, a $1 billion prototype for a reusable launch vehicle, a Lockheed Martin Skunk Works spokesman said Tuesday.

LANCASTER - Authorities are on the lookout for three suspects who forced a trucker at gunpoint away from his $200,000 rig and load.

The hijackers then left the longhaul trucker stranded in the middle of the desert.

Uploaded December 17, 1999