1999 The year in review

March 15-24

March 15

LANCASTER - Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies, acting on a tip from an unnamed informant, arrested four suspects late Saturday night in connection with a string of three recent home-invasion robberies.

March 16

LAS VEGAS - Pilot error, training shortfalls, leadership problems and burnout are among the factors blamed for a midair crash of two Air Force helicopters that killed 12 airmen. One of those killed was Airman 1st Class Justin Wotasik of Palmdale.

LANCASTER - Campus security requested sheriff's deputies help them catch the person or people posting Ku Klux Klan literature around Antelope Valley College this week.

PALMDALE - A weakening storm from the Gulf of Alaska peppered the high desert with trace snow and intermittent showers on Monday, creating dangerous traffic conditions on the southern portion of the Antelope Valley Freeway. One weather-related accident caused catastrophic injuries to a Valley commuter whose legs were nearly sheared off.

VAN NUYS - A Rosamond man was sentenced to 15 years to life Monday for strangling his estranged wife and then dumping her body in the California Aqueduct nearly two years ago. Superior Court Judge Patricia Ann Bigelow sentenced Scott Glenn Mullins to prison for murdering his wife, Renee, in August 1997.

LANCASTER - David Raymond Thomas not only burned his bridges with acquaintances, but authorities say he also burned a couch, a garage, an apartment building and numerous trash bins and Dumpsters. The 21-year-old Lancaster man allegedly settled disputes by setting things on fire, said Detective Sgt. John Ammett, with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department arson/explosives detail.

March 17

PALMDALE - Waste Management, which serves most of Lancaster and the north Valley, has signed an agreement to acquire AV Rubbish, the Valley Press has learned.

LANCASTER - The Planning Commission voted 5-0 Tuesday night to prohibit the stockpiling and spreading of sludge within city limits. The measure won't become law unless the City Council approves it on March 23.

March 18

PALMDALE - Two Palmdale gang members agreed this past week to accept terms of 30 years in state prison for a shooting spree that wounded three women at the Antelope Valley Fairgrounds in January 1998.

The spree left the unintended victims with bullet wounds, while the intended victim, a member of a rival gang, went unscathed. It also left one of the shooters with a gunshot wound inflicted by his cohort.

March 19

PALMDALE - Northrop Grumman is taking a larger role in development of Kistler Aerospace Corp.'s reusable rocket, becoming an investor in the proposed $700 million project. Under a $145 million contract, Northrop is already a subcontractor on the project, developing and building the composite skins as well as the structure of the Kistler vehicle, called the K-1.

LANCASTER - A lack of interest in commuter flights to Las Vegas, Los Angeles and other tourist and business destinations has shot down plans by a local company to bring such service to the Antelope Valley.

March 20

WASHINGTON - Congressman Howard P. "Buck" McKeon, citing threats of a ballistic missile attack on the United States, spoke Thursday on the House floor in favor of legislation calling for rapid development of a national missile defense system.

McKeon, R-Santa Clarita, a member of the House Armed Services Committee, joined a bipartisan majority that supported H.R. 4, a bill that would declare as official U.S. policy a commitment to deploy a national missile system as soon as possible.

PALMDALE - The highestranking paid staff member of the Palmdale Chamber of Commerce will step down next month. Leigh Engdahl, the chamber's chief executive, who is largely credited with shepherding the organization through its recently completed accreditation process, plans to marry and move to Simi Valley.
OVER THE ATLANTIC - With the Breitling Orbiter 3 team closing in on becoming the first to fly a balloon nonstop, nonrefueled around the world, Dick Rutan's hopes of capturing his second great aviation milestone appear to have ended. Friday evening, as the Breitling team of Swiss psychiatrist Bertrand Piccard and British adventurer Brian Jones was being swept across the Atlantic at 100 mph, Rutan reflected on what he called the "the last aeronautical milestone" being erased.

SACRAMENTO - As aerospace jobs continue to drift away from California, Antelope Valley's Assembly representative is issuing an urgent call for action.

Assemblyman George Runner's call to arms centers around bringing the largest military contract in the nation's history to Air Force Plant 42, Site 4 in Palmdale.

March 21

LANCASTER - Lancaster Baptist Church today will open the largest auditorium in the Antelope Valley and Pastor Paul Chappell expects a full house.

LANCASTER - Palmdale could get a full-fledged medical facility with emergency care instead of the primary-care "healthplex" proposed this past year, said Antelope Valley Hospital's new chief executive officer, Mathew Abraham.

PALMDALE - The first homes in the beleagured Ritter Ranch housing project may be up for sale by 2000.

Ritter Ranch's new developer said he expects a resolution to his company's bankruptcy problems and a resumption of work within two months.

March 24

BELGRADE, Yugoslavia - NATO's secretary-general ordered airstrikes against Yugoslavia on Tuesday after President Slobodan Milosevic rebuffed a last-ditch peace offer for Kosovo and revved up his war machine by declaring a state of emergency.

LEONA VALLEY - A wayward bull was placed into state custody on Tuesday morning after escaping from his pasture and attempting to spend the night on the town with a herd of cows belonging to a neighbor.

Uploaded December 17, 1999