1999 The year in review

July 15-31

July 15

WASHINGTON - U.S. Rep. Howard P. "Buck" McKeon said he will lead the California congressional delegation's efforts to bring joint strike fighter final assembly to California.

LOS ANGELES - Kathleen Ann Soliah, a one-time Palmdale High School cheerleader and reputed former Symbionese Liberation Army member, pleaded innocent Wednesday to attempted murder charges in regard to allegedly planting bombs under two police cars in 1975.

PALMDALE - An X-plane designed for out-of-this-world test flights will be developed and flown in the Antelope Valley, NASA and Boeing officials announced Wednesday. NASA and The Boeing Co. have entered into a $173 million agreement to develop the unpiloted X-37 Technology Demonstrator, a new experimental space plane.

PALMDALE - Kevin Foster, a 1989 Palmdale High School graduate and a member of the Los Angeles Police Department, is one of several officers being recognized as "Top Cops" by the National Association of Police Organizations.

July 16

LANCASTER - Illegal drug production in the Antelope Valley is prompting safety concerns among social workers who say they are swamped by workloads up to 50% above maximum - many of them cases involving parents mired in the methamphetamine trade. The heavy caseloads are generating high turnover at two local offices in Lancaster, social workers say.

WASHINGTON - A key House subcommittee's move to halt initial production plans for the Lockheed Martin F-22 would delay the program at least two years, cost taxpayers $6.5 billion and increase the risk American pilots will face in the years ahead, Air Force officials said Thursday.

VALENCIA - Hundreds of Antelope Valley and Santa Clarita civic officials, businesspeople, farmers, housewives and children poured into Valencia High School's auditorium Wednesday to protest a proposed 83 million-ton, 20-year mining operation on Soledad Canyon Road by Transit Mixed Concrete on Soledad Canyon Road.

July 18

HYANNISPORT, Mass. - The wedding of Rory Kennedy, daughter of late Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, was postponed indefinitely Saturday as word spread that John Kennedy Jr., his wife and his sister-in-law were reported missing aboard a plane en route to the celebration.

PALMDALE - A dark, shadowy figure angled through the bright blue sky above Air Force Plant 42's Site 4 in salute to a crowd filled with aviation pioneers and aerospace innovators on Saturday - 10 years to the day that the B-2 stealth bomber made its maiden voyage.

July 19

BOSTON - Forty-eight hours after John F. Kennedy Jr.'s plane plunged into the ocean off Martha's Vineyard, federal officials Sunday ended their search for survivors, effectively declaring Kennedy, his wife and her sister the victims of a fatal crash.

July 20

CAPE CANAVERAL - A potentially dangerous buildup of hydrogen gas in space shuttle Columbia's engine compartment stopped the countdown early Tuesday with just 6 1/2 seconds remaining. The increased concentration was detected just before the three main engines ignited.

July 21

LANCASTER - Thirty years ago Tuesday, on the moon - 240,000 miles from Earth - astronauts Neil A. Armstrong and Edwin A. "Buzz" Aldrin set their spacecraft down in the dusty Sea of Tranquillity. The Eagle had landed. Armstrong made the small step that became a giant leap for mankind. Aldrin followed. One of history's great days.

LOS ANGELES - Former Symbionese Liberation Army fugitive Kathleen Ann Soliah was ordered released from jail Tuesday after an outpouring of support from friends, family members and strangers who raised $1 million for her bail.

SAN FRANCISCO - A state rail authority left supporters of an Antelope Valley high-speed rail route hanging off a proverbial cliff again Tuesday. But, with the proposal of a rail spur to Santa Clarita, odds have increased that a bullet train will serve Palmdale.

July 22

AQUINNAH, Mass. - Navy divers found the bodies of John F. Kennedy Jr., his wife and sister-in-law in the wreckage of Kennedy's plane Wednesday, and his family prepared to return him to the sea for burial.

WASHINGTON, D.C. - When Washington lawmakers look at Lockheed Martin's F-22 Raptor and the defense giant's proposed design for the joint strike fighter, the X-35, the differences may seem as hard to recognize as a stealth fighter on a radar screen.

EDWARDS AFB - The F-22 Raptor successfully performed one of its most important and advanced capabilities - the ability to supercruise, or fly at a sustained speed greater than Mach 1.5 without afterburner.

July 23

PALMDALE - The long-awaited results of the state's Stanford Achievement Test to evaluate reading, writing and math skills have finally been released.

Previously delayed because a computer programmer misclassified 250,000 students as limited-English students, Valley educators say the newly released results still show an upward trend in learning.

FALMOUTH, Mass. - Family members watched mournfully from the deck of a Navy destroyer Thursday as the ashes of John F. Kennedy Jr., his wife and her sister were cast into the sea, consigned to the depths where they died.

WASHINGTON - The House approved a $266 billion defense budget Thursday, absent money to buy the first round of stealthy F-22 Raptor fighter jets the Air Force considers critical to future U.S. air superiority.

July 24

SACRAMENTO - A proposed law intended to keep cities from pirating each other's big-box retailers and auto dealerships was OK'd by the Senate Local Government Committee this week. According to Palmdale City Manager Bob Toone, the measure will have little effect on cities. Instead, he suggested that lawmakers focus on how the state redistributes its tax revenues among cities.

CALIFORNIA CITY - Unable to attract state inmates to the city's new 2,304-bed private prison, California City has agreed to broker deals that could bring federal inmates to the facility. With the approval of the City Council, municipal officials will be permitted to act as intermediaries between the prison's owner, Corrections Corp. of America, and federal agencies such as the Federal Bureau of Prisons, Mayor Larry Adams said.

LANCASTER - One of the Antelope Valley's own FBI agents has been honored as an agent in the best tradition of the bureau.

FBI Director Louis J. Freeh presented Bill Ayers, special agent from the FBI's Lancaster field office, with the FBI Director's Award for Sustained Distinguished Service.

July 27

SACRAMENTO - Drivers on Highway 138 beware: Tickets for speeding and other moving violations are now twice the price.

Gov. Gray Davis on Friday signed a bill by state Sen. William J. "Pete" Knight classifying State Route 138 a "Safety Enhancement-Double Fine Zone."

LANCASTER - More than 50 homeowners packed Assemblyman George Runner's Lancaster office Monday, asking the lawmaker to help them stop a nonprofit's plan to open three group homes in their upscale neighborhood. The Republican legislator said he understood their frustration but there was nothing legally he or they could do to stop the homes.

LANCASTER - As the result of a neighborhood feud that got out of hand, a Los Angeles County firefighter could lose his job, maybe even face prison. For all concerned, the neighborhood matter that started as a fight between boys becomes a harrowing ordeal and an unwanted trip through the courts.

July 28

CAPE CANAVERAL - With the first female commander at the controls, space shuttle Columbia returned to Earth late Tuesday after a quick trip to orbit to drop off the world's most powerful X-ray telescope.

Air Force Col. Eileen Collins landed the shuttle at 8:20 p.m. PDT, the first woman to ever do so.

LANCASTER - Minor problems have delayed the opening of the Interpretive Center at the Prime Desert Woodland Preserve.

Differing interpretations of architectural plans and a decision on how to apply plaster to the straw bales slowed the project and postponed the opening until mid-fall, said Bob Green, assistant director of the city's Parks, Recreation and Arts Department.

EDWARDS AFB - Forty Air Force spy planes expected to be in service by 2015 could be based at Edwards, bringing 820 military and civilian jobs to the area. A team from Air Combat Command studied the base's facilities, logistics, operations and communications capabilities earlier this month to see if Edwards would make the best nest for the Global Hawk. Global Hawk is a remotely piloted, unmanned aerial vehicle, designed to give battlefield commanders reconnaissance data in all weather conditions.

LANCASTER - The death toll and number of accidents on State Route 138 dropped dramatically during the past year. So far this year, according to California Highway Patrol statistics, the winding, two-lane highway has been the site of only one death, which occurred when a pedestrian walked into nighttime traffic March 19.

July 29

MOJAVE - Rotary Rocket Co.'s Roton atmospheric test vehicle approach and landing demonstrator made its first flight at 8:40 a.m. Friday at Mojave Airport. At the controls were pilot and chief Roton engineer Marti Sarigul-Klijn and copilot and Roton flight test director Brian Binnie.

MOJAVE - Waning investor interest has forced Rotary Rocket Co. to lay off half its work force since April and consolidate its Mojave flight test operation into two hangars it built last year on the airport's flightline.

The cutback means half of the nearly 30 Rotary Rocket employees based in Mojave have lost their jobs, as well as half of the company's employees at its Redwood City headquarters. Most of the workers were engineers and technical specialists who worked on propulsion systems not critical to the current phase of Roton atmospheric test vehicle, or ATV, testing.

ROSAMOND - A lone gunman held up the Rosamond branch of Antelope Valley Bank Wednesday morning, escaping without a trace in a daring, daylight robbery. The robber entered the bank around 10 a.m. wearing a ski mask and a hooded sweatshirt.

July 30

PALMDALE - City Council incumbents Joe Davies and David Myers announced Thursday they would not seek re-election Nov. 2.

ATLANTA - A "day trader" upset over stock trading losses opened fire Thursday in two brokerage offices, killing nine people and wounding 12 before escaping, then killed himself when stopped by police. Earlier, the gunman's wife and two children had been found beaten to death in their suburban home.

July 31

OSHKOSH, Wis. - A former Antelope Valley man was in critical condition Friday after his World War II-era plane crashed into another craft during takeoff at a sport aviation fly-in.

Laird Doctor, 56, was piloting a propeller-driven F-4U Corsair on Thursday when it clipped the wing of another plane on the ground at Wittman Regional Airport, said Dick Knapinski, a spokesman for the Experimental Aircraft Association, sponsor of the EAA AirVenture fly-in.

PALMDALE - The Boeing Co. has connected electrical power to its joint strike fighter X-32A concept demonstrator, a major milestone as flight tests approach.

The company's version of the joint strike fighter, which is expected to begin flight test in the spring of 2000, is in final assembly and systems installation at Air Force Plant 42's Site 1 in Palmdale.

Uploaded December 21, 1999