1999 The year in review

October 1-15: Palmdale Regional Airport plan gains new life

Oct. 1

LANCASTER - After a twomonth investigation, sheriff's deputies from the Lancaster narcotics team arrested a pair of suspected drug dealers and seized more than $250,000 of methamphetamine at an east Lancaster home. Deputies served a search warrant at a house in the 200 block of East Avenue G4 on Wednesday. Inside the house they discovered more than six pounds of methamphetamine.

Oct. 2

The Palmdale Regional Airport may be closer to fruition. Mayors Jim Ledford of Palmdale and Richard Riordan of Los Angeles on Friday joined L.A. city Councilwoman Ruth Galanter in announced a commitment by the metropolis and its airport agency to develop and market the airport ads a partial solution to Southern California's air transportation needs.

PALMDALE - A real estate agent for the Costco warehouse store said Friday that Palmdale officials approached him with an offer of a free building and free land to relocate Lancaster's popular retail store. Earlier this month, the Lancaster City Council voted unanimously to spend at least $3.9 million to help expand Costco and keep the warehouse in town.

Oct. 3

LANCASTER - An unidentified 19-year-old man died early Saturday morning of stab wounds, the result of a fight outside Mr. Cue's Billiards at 2033 West Ave. J.

LANCASTER - Work on a new $2.9 million civil courthouse will begin Monday in Palmdale, members of the Antelope Valley Bar Association learned Friday. The four-courtroom facility will be completed by August 2000, Palmdale City Attorney Matt Ditzhazy told fellow attorneys.

Oct. 4

PALMDALE - Authorities closed a three-mile stretch of Antelope Valley Freeway late Sunday night to traffic in both directions after a tractor-trailer overturned and the incoherent driver said he was carrying dynamite. The California Highway Patrol closed the freeway between Avenue S and the Pearblossom Highway exit after 9 p.m.

Oct. 6

PALMDALE - A clear majority of candidates seeking election to the Palmdale City Council soundly on Monday rejected a suggestion that Palmdale and Lancaster should re-form as one city. Fifteen of 18 candidates seeking four seats on the City Council opposed the formation of a single city, an idea proposed last week by Assemblyman George Runner, R-Lancaster.

Oct. 7

LANCASTER - A contract dispute between Antelope Valley Hospital and Blue Cross of California may bleed patients dry. People insured by the giant medical plan may pay more for health-care services at the Valley's largest hospital, while the insurer continues to negotiate payment fees with hospital administration.
LANCASTER - A young couple pleaded innocent Wednesday to charges of robbing and murdering 65-year-old John Gailer, a genial and much-loved Palmdale resident. James Patrick Wood, 22, and his girlfriend, Sarah Jordan Ellis, 20, are being held without bail in the Los Angeles County jail.

BAKERSFIELD - Kern County is one step closer to phasing out the use of sludge, the byproduct of treated sewage that is often used as a fertilizer. The Kern County Board of Supervisors voted 5-0 Tuesday to adopt a "negative declaration" regarding the proposed phase-out.

Oct. 8

LANCASTER - A $165 million windfall has a Los Angeles County children's services commission asking Antelope Valley residents how they want the money spent. Members of Los Angeles County's Children and Family First-Proposition 10 Commission conducted its first public forum Thursday, asking Valley residents for their input on a proposed county strategic plan.

LANCASTER - Grace Graham Pickus, a Lancaster resident since 1927, was named 1999 Senior of the Year at the Antelope Valley Senior Expo on Thursday at Challenger Memorial Center on the Antelope Valley Fairgrounds.

LOS ANGELES - Los Angeles City Councilwoman Ruth Galanter said a plan to reopen Palmdale Regional Airport needs to be put in writing. Galanter on Thursday called for a plan to be prepared in writing within six months to ensure that the airport does reopen.

SANTA CLARITA - The Los Angeles Basin just got a few minutes closer for Valley commuters. With the opening of a second, 10.7mile segment of the high-occupancy vehicle lane on the Antelope Valley Freeway, from Sand Canyon to Escondido Canyon roads, those drivers who have passengers are expected to have a smoother ride on the 14 Freeway.

Oct. 9

LANCASTER - The men who first bridged the gap between air and space were honored Friday night by the Flight Test Historical Foundation at its annual Gathering of Eagles. Honored were X-15 test pilots A. Scott Crossfield, William H. Dana, Joe H. Engle, William J. "Pete" Knight and Fitz Fulton.

LANCASTER - Coward. White-trash animal. Pathetic. Those were the words Ricky Cowles' family used to describe Billy Hoffman, the 21-year-old failed store clerk convicted of ambushing Cowles in his bedroom and killing him with a hammer and gun. Now, Hoffman is going to prison for life.

CANYON COUNTRY - Transit Mixed Concrete's proposed mine in Soledad Canyon was dealt another blow Friday when U.S. Rep. Howard P. "Buck" McKeon announced he would introduce a bill to prohibit the company from excavating on the site northeast of Santa Clarita.

Oct. 10

BAKERSFIELD - Former President Gerald Ford roused 12,000 business supporters and conservatives gathered in Kern County on Saturday, declaring that the U.S. economy is on a roll because of the victory of democratic capitalism in the world. At the Bakersfield Business Conference, Ford credited Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan for current U.S. prosperity.

Oct. 11

EDWARDS AFB - Hollywood superstars Danny DeVito and Michael Dorn paid a visit to Edwards Air Force Base on Sunday during its annual air show. The two Hollywood superstars helped inspect the Air Force Thunderbirds before the pilots hopped in their F-16s to thrill thousands.

PALMDALE - A veteran sheriff's deputy who received the department's highest honor this year - the Medal of Valor - was arrested by FBI agents Friday morning for allegedly soliciting the attentions of underage girls via the Internet. Deputy Steven Brown, 41 and a 14-year veteran, was arrested at 10 a.m. Friday by officers and agents from the Sexual Assault Felony Enforcement (SAFE) team, a multi-jurisdictional task force headed by the FBI and including fellow sheriff's deputies.

PALMDALE - Phil Wyman, a Republican who represented the 34th state Assembly District from 1979 to 1992, said he will seek the high desert seat in 2000.

BAKERSFIELD - Sally Ride, the first American woman in space, and pioneering Apollo astronauts Wally Schirra and Frank Borman urged the U.S. government to return to the moon and get going on a human mission to Mars. Appearing before an audience of more than 12,000 American flagwaving business conference guests, the trio was joined by "Rocket Boys" author Homer Hickam, the NASA scientist whose life story became the film "October Sky."

Oct. 12

LANCASTER - Antelope Valley Hospital on Monday had yet to reach terms with the Blue Cross of California health insurance company on amounts to be paid for patients' treatment. According to Mathew Abraham, the hospital's chief executive officer, Blue Cross representatives said a written proposal intended to address "at least part of the problem" would be delivered by express mail to the hospital either late Monday or early today.

Oct. 13

CALIFORNIA CITY - Hoping to house some of the state's illegal immigrants, Corrections Corp. of America is pursuing a contract for its private prison in California City. According to a U.S. Federal Bureau of Prisons memorandum, there is a "solicitation proposal to provide contractorowned or contractor operated (security prison) to house 7,500 lowsecurity-risk inmates who are nonU.S. citizens."

PALMDALE - After a turbulent tenure as the Palmdale School District's first SAGE planetarium director, John Shobbrook has resigned. Shobbrook, who has had the job for a short 14 months, resigned Friday and plans to return to his native Australia, where he will head up the district's Computer Linked American Southern Sky (CLASS) telescope project.

Oct. 14

WASHINGTON - The House on Wednesday approved a $268 billion defense spending bill that finances the biggest military pay raise in nearly two decades, scales back the Air Force's prized F-22 stealth fighter program and seeks to reverse a Pentagon decline in readiness.

The bill also pumps billions of dollars into military spending for projects at Edwards Air Force Base, China Lake Naval Weapons Station and subcontracting work performed at Lockheed Martin Skunk Works in Palmdale.

PALMDALE - Doctors say it will take 69-year-old Irma Burks six months to recover from her injuries. Burks sustained four broken fingers, a broken collarbone, broken ribs, a punctured lung and a cut on her forehead that required stitches when two men attempted to snatch her purse in the Stater Bros. market parking lot at 47th Street East and Avenue S on Saturday.

LANCASTER - Blue Cross of California health insurance company and Antelope Valley Hospital "agreed on a tentative contract" Wednesday to restore the medical facility's affiliation with the insurer, according to hospital Chief Executive Officer Mathew Abraham. However, Michael Chee, spokesman for Blue Cross, was less optimistic, saying nothing had been signed.

MOJAVE - Marconi Flight Systems Inc. has completed cockpit upgrades to 13 U.S. Air Force KC135 Stratotankers at its Mojave Airport operation. The company is expected to upgrade 167 more of the aircraft by the end of 2002.

LOS ANGELES - The Palmdale Regional Airport inched closer to creation Wednesday, as a motion passed the Los Angeles City Council that would produce a timeline and a budget for developing facilities and marketing the airport to airlines.

Oct. 15

PALMDALE - City Manager Bob Toone inched closer to an annual salary that is comparable to other managers of cities similar in size around Southern California. The City Council voted 3-1 Wednesday to raise Toone's salary 2.5% from $139,363 to $142,913 a year, with Shelley Sorsabal dissenting.

PALMDALE - Jack S. Gordon, president of the legendary Lockheed Martin Skunk Works that developed the U-2 and the original stealth fighter, will retire later this month, leaving his executive suite to a successor who will be named today.

SACRAMENTO - The gay son of Sen. William J. "Pete" Knight calls his father's March ballot initiative effort to ban gay marriages in California uncaring and uninformed. David Knight, a cabinet maker in Baltimore, Md., wrote an opinion piece in a Los Angeles newspaper on Thursday attacking Senator Knight's initiative.

LANCASTER - Local financial consultants were up in arms Wednesday after learning Antelope Valley Hospital had terminated its nonprofit status with the federal government 18 years ago. Hospital officials contended the alarm was premature and most likely unfounded.

Uploaded December 27, 1999