1999 The year in review

June 1-14: Milosevic accepts peace plan for war in Kosovo

June 1

LOS ANGELES (AP) - The flapping of flags, the crack of rifles and the lonely sound of "Taps" marked Memorial Day on Monday as Californians, including a prisoner of war recently freed from Yugoslavia, honored the war dead.

Army Staff Sgt. Andrew Ramirez of East Los Angeles, released after more than a month's captivity, was grand marshal at a Memorial Day parade in the Canoga Park area.

June 2

LANCASTER - At the end of a largely secret court proceeding, a judge ordered a Palmdale man to stand trial for the kidnapping and murder of his girlfriend on New Year's Day.

Judge Steven Ogden banned the public - including the press - Friday from Adrian Chaparro's preliminary hearing. Ogden said he needed to do so to safeguard the defendant's right to a fair trial.

LANCASTER - There's no dirt to dig up on Lancaster's Public Works yard, city officials said this week, but they will not show the report which makes that claim.

The city paid $174,000 for an environmental report that demonstrates that the ground turned in an FBI investigation of allegedly illegal dumping is essentially clean.

June 3

LOS ANGELES - Responding to an investigation showing that the Palmdale Family Support office has been mismanaged, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday ordered the facility to be monitored closely.

The investigation, detailed in a report delivered last week to the board, indicates that workers at the District Attorney's Palmdale Family Support office carelessly discarded personal client information in open Dumpsters.

June 4

BELGRADE, Yugoslavia - Caving in to Russian and Western demands, Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic accepted a peace plan for Kosovo on Thursday that is designed to end mass expulsions of ethnic Albanians and 11 weeks of NATO airstrikes.

PALMDALE - An explosion at the Palmdale Water District's treatment plant sent a contractor to the hospital and closed a section of Avenue S east of the 14 Freeway for 90 minutes Thursday.

The unidentified worker, who sustained first- and second-degree burns on his arms, was transported to Antelope Valley Hospital.

June 5

PALMDALE - City officials have agreed to spend as much as $2 million to help Antelope Valley Hospital construct a new full-service medical facility in Palmdale.

LANCASTER - A guard shot and wounded a prisoner Friday as corrections officers quelled a brawl involving 123 Hispanic and white convicts at California State Prison Los Angeles County, a spokeswoman said.

Officials at the west Lancaster prison did not know as of late Friday afternoon whether the guard fired a warning shot or attempted to shoot the rioting prisoner, said Diane Gonzales, a public information officer.

June 6

EDWARDS AFB - From the halls of Montezuma to the shores of Rogers Dry Lake?

The squadrons of Marine Aircraft Group 46 Detachment Bravo began to move to the quick step of the John Philip Sousa's "Washington Post March."

June 7

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - Space shuttle Discovery and a crew of seven returned to Earth on Sunday following a successful delivery run to the new international space station.

Hanging over the flawless nighttime touchdown, though, was uncertainty about the next shuttle flight and follow-up trips to the space station.

June 8

LOS ANGELES - Two reputed white supremacist gang members will face trial for the attempted murder of a Lancaster black man attacked in a shopping center parking lot last March.

Prosecutors contend Shaun Broderick, 19, and Christopher Crawford, 25, attacked Nathanial Harris in the parking lot of the Lancaster Wal-Mart only because Harris is black. Both defendants are reputed members of the Nazi Low Riders, a white supremacist, skinhead gang.

PALMDALE - Cars passing under the two railroad overpasses in Palmdale are in danger of being hit by falling rocks that slip between the cracks of the decrepit bridges.

The concrete supports of the railroad overpasses over 25th Street East, south of Avenue S, and Sierra Highway, north of Avenue S, have fallen into a state of disrepair.

ROSAMOND - The California Highway Patrol is investigating a new lead in the mysterious disappearance of an 80-year-old Glendale man.

Alexander Betaivaz reportedly called home at 3 p.m. May 19, and said he had gotten lost on his way to a doctor's appointment in North Hollywood. He has not been heard from since.

LANCASTER - The pediatric intensive care unit at Antelope Valley Hospital has been forced to close with the departure of its medical director and pediatric specialist, Dr. Theresa Longo.

Longo left the unit on a medical leave of absence May 28, said Mathew Abraham, AV Hospital's chief executive officer.

June 9

LAKE LOS ANGELES - Sheriff's deputies found more than they bargained for at a Lake Los Angeles home Tuesday morning when they went to assist a Department of Children and Family Services investigation.

What they discovered at the home in the 39400 block of 162nd Street East was a small methamphetamine lab that exposed several deputies to toxic fumes from laboratory chemicals.

ROSAMOND - The body of a Glendale man, missing since May 19, was found by searchers Tuesday in the desert west of Rosamond.

California Highway Patrol and Glendale Police Department officers found the body of Alexander Betaivaz late Tuesday afternoon after following up on a tip from an off-road motorcyclist. Mojave CHP officers began searching the desert area west of 170th Street West and Rosamond Boulevard on Monday after motorcyclist Saul Zambrano reported to the CHP Monday that he may have spotted Betaivaz' abandoned car late last week.

June 10

LANCASTER - She was sweet 16 and pregnant. And she says she has no clue how her livein boyfriend got killed in their bedroom with a hammer and gun.

Now 18, Amy Preasmyer testified for several hours Tuesday that she never wavered in her claim of loving her 21-year-old fiance.

June 11

PALMDALE - A hotel, restaurants, retail stores, an ice skating rink and sports-related outlets, and a 16-screen, stadium-seating theater may spring up within a year at Avenue P and Division Street if a development effort by Ben and David Cipranic proves successful.

On Wednesday, the City Council voted unanimously to assist the Cipranics in that venture, providing them with a $2.5 million finance package with $800,000 in state street-improvement funds, $450,000 in drainage funds and a $1.3 million loan in federal business funds.

PRISTINA, Yugoslavia - Yugoslav troops rumbled out of Kosovo in trucks, armored cars and buses Thursday, prompting NATO to suspend its punishing 78-day air war and the United Nations to authorize a heavily armed security force to restore peace and begin reconstruction.

LANCASTER - A Quartz Hill High School freshman has been sentenced to home probation after admitting he plotted with a classmate to make bombs and maps showing placement of the devices on the campus.

Antelope Valley Juvenile Court Judge Chesley McKay made the ruling Wednesday. The boy, whose name was not released because he is a juvenile, will remain on home probation until he is 21 years old or officials deem he has completed his sentence.

PALMDALE - A qualified "Yea!" was Antelope Valley College President Linda Spink's response to the City Council's approval of an environmental impact report for a 540-acre housing development in Palmdale.

The approval comes with 80 acres set aside for a Palmdale AV College campus.

June 12

LANCASTER - Facing narcotics and weapons charges, the owners of Vic's F & M Liquors in Palmdale have agreed to forfeit their liquor license, officials at the state Depart ment of Alcoholic Beverage Control said Friday.

The store's owners, Nasry Haddad, 44, and son, Hilal Haddad, 20, agreed to stop selling liquor on Aug. 26, in return for permission to sell their liquor license, ABC said.

LANCASTER - An 11-yearold Lake Los Angeles boy admitted Friday to bringing a loaded .25caliber handgun to Wilsona Elementary School in May and threatening two students.

Antelope Valley Juvenile Court Judge Chesley McKay ordered the Probation Department to find a "suitable placement" for the boy, which could mean living in a foster home, a group home or with a relative.

VAN NUYS - A September trial date has been set for a Lake Los Angeles couple accused of starving their severely disabled daughter to death in 1996.

Michael and Kathleen Gentry's first trial ended May 6 in a mistrial after the jury said it was hopelessly deadlocked. The jury was stuck at 10-2 to acquit the Gentrys of murder.

June 13

WASHINGTON - The House has voted to include $187 million for upgrades to the B-2 stealth bomber in its version of a defense spending bill.

The B-2 stealth bomber's strong debut performance in Kosovo spurred the House Armed Services Committee late last month to authorize an the additional money for the program.

LANCASTER - They were attractive, popular high school girls seemingly living a real-world version of "Beverly Hills 90210," the TV show that chronicled the lifestyle of upwardly mobile teens.

But this version took place on the streets of Lancaster. Although it included some girls' ideas of glamour, like wild parties, a rich boyfriend with a BMW and a trip to Santa Monica for a model shoot, it also had a downside.

June 14

PRISTINA, Yugoslavia - Ducking at the sound of gunfire, patrolling cautiously to avoid the ire of Serbs, thousands of NATO peacekeepers spread out Monday across Kosovo. Some uncovered grim evidence of atrocities as they tightened their control of the province.

Serb forces complying with the pullout ordered by NATO to end the 78-day air war mixed in with civilians fleeing in columns up to 500 vehicles long. Some ethnic Albanian homes were set ablaze by Serb troops leaving Kosovo.

LE BOURGET, France - Antelope Valley airpower is flexing a strong arm at the Paris Air Show.

The Proteus, built by Scaled Composites in Mojave, made its international debut this week.

The high-flying, multi-functional bird is drawing crowds of onlookers, a spokeswoman for the Mojave aerospace company said Monday.

Uploaded December 21, 1999