1999 The year in review

March 1-7: Lancaster honors Tuskegee Airmen

March 1

LANCASTER - The city unveiled a monument Sunday, dedicated to the Tuskegee Airmen, the first black flying unit.

The dedication ceremony capped off daylong activities commemorating the World War II flying unit.

PALMDALE - Sheriff's units shut down portions of Palmdale Boulevard late Saturday night to break up rioting caused by more than 300 teenagers and young adults in town for the "Battle of the Imports" drag racing event.

Deputies from the Lancaster, Palmdale, and Santa Clarita Sheriff's stations, as well as the California Highway Patrol and Los Angeles County Fire Department, responded to a disturbance call at the Motel 6.

LANCASTER - Lockheed Martin Skunk Works machinists and aerospace workers voted to strike Sunday. The strike will begin at 12:01 a.m. Saturday.

Prior to the strike vote, union members rejected a proposed contract, according to Gary Holt, area director for Area 4 of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers District Lodge 725.

March 2

MOJAVE - Seeking to symbolize the dawn of a new era when space travel becomes as common as flying on an airliner, Rotary Rocket rolled out its 63-foot Roton atmospheric test vehicle Monday.

It's the first commercially funded, full-scale space vehicle to be unveiled in an emerging modern-day space race. The prize is capturing a portion of what Rotary Rocket estimates to be a $50 billion satellite launch market over the next decade.

PALMDALE - In the face of an impending strike by 1,846 Lockheed Martin Skunk Works machinists and aerospace workers - nearly one-third of the workforce here - representatives of the company are being tightlipped about their next move.

The strike, which was voted on and approved by members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers on Sunday, is expected to begin at 12:01 a.m. Saturday.

EDWARDS AFB - More than 30 years after the X-15 and its pilots left the skies, another rocketplane arrived at Edwards Air Force Base this week to continue high speed, high-altitude research. The unnamed aircraft, the X-34, will undergo most of its testing in New Mexico and Florida.

March 3

LANCASTER - Cheers of jubilation echoed through the cafeteria at Lancaster Elementary School on Tuesday night as voters approved Lancaster School District's $28.1 million school bond.

LANCASTER - Two couples were terrorized during separate home-invasion robberies on Sunday and early Monday morning. One robbery is being labeled as a hate crime.

PALMDALE - The saga of the Palmdale Education Foundation took another dramatic turn Monday with information that the foundation's executive director Diana Beard-Williams allegedly asked a local caterer to alter charges to two special events paid for with foundation funds last year.

PALMDALE - In a surprise move, the VentureStar Limited Liability Corp. has been developed under the aegis of Lockheed Martin Skunk Works. Jerry Rising, former Skunk Works vice president for the X-33 and reusable launch vehicles, has been named president.

March 4

PALMDALE - A van veered off the road, smashing into a power pole Wednesday afternoon, inflicting serious injuries on two teenage foreign exchange students from South Korea and closing down traffic on busy Avenue S.

WASHINGTON - Disclosing an abortion and thoughts of suicide, Monica Lewinsky gave the world an unabashed account of her life Wednesday and unleashed her long-pent-up loathing for Kenneth Starr's investigation of her affair with President Bill Clinton.

PALMDALE - An allegation of co-mingling of funds leveled by Diana Beard-Williams, the controversial chief executive of the troubled Palmdale Education Foundation, raised the ire of a local service club.

LONG BEACH - Two 17-year-olds were detained Wednesday in connection with a brutal home-invasion robbery in Lancaster on March 3, after a man arrested for vehicle burglary in Long Beach pointed out the pair to the law.

PALMDALE - A special Palmdale Education Foundation board meeting ended abruptly when executive director Diana Beard-Williams suddenly charged several members, grabbing the chair's gavel. Diana Beard-Williams' bizarre behavior startled board members and the audience, who thought she intended to attack foundation President Kathe Duren and district Superintendent Nancy Smith.

March 5

PALMDALE - It's four down and 49 to go after workers on Thursday knocked down the first of 53 homes slated for demolition in one of the city's older neighborhoods. All 53 homes are owned by Beverly Hills physician Milton Avol, who lost his last legal battle Feb. 22, when Los Angeles Superior Court Judge David Yaffe rejected his request for an injunction against the city.

ROSAMOND - Kern County Sheriff's deputies are investigating a Rosamond High School football standout - running back Oscar Reyes - as the primary suspect in a string of recent area car burglaries. Investigators have connected eight car burglaries in a residential area in Rosamond.

March 6

EDWARDS AFB - The continued downsizing of the U.S. Air Force will result in the loss of 123 jobs at the nation's top test flight base in the next fiscal year, it was announced Friday. The Pentagon announcement outlined a plan it is calling the "reallocation of manpower."

EDWARDS AFB - In a jettison scene not unlike those in Hollywood's galaxy-far-far-away films, an unmanned lifeboat for the planned international space station plummeted to Earth on Friday. X-38 vehicle 132, the second to be carried aloft under the wing of a B-52 bomber during testing at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center on Edwards Air Force Base, was released at 26,000 feet.

LANCASTER - Superior Court Judge Michael S. Luros received accolades from peers, prosecutors, peace officers and others on Friday when he was named Antelope Valley's Judge of the Year for 1998 by the AV Bar Association.

March 7

PALMDALE - A small group of people spent their Saturday morning at the Antelope Valley Mall protesting President Bill Clinton's escape from impeachment. The group stood near the mall's 10th Street West entrance in Palmdale and held up a large banner which described Clinton as the "rapist president."

PALMDALE - Antelope Valley historian and long-time educator Fred Strasburg died Saturday morning. He was 56.

Strasburg, who became the Palmdale city historian, underwent surgery to remove a brain tumor Aug. 6, 1997, and returned to work shortly afterward.

Uploaded December 17, 1999