1999 The year in review

October 16-31

Oct. 16

SAN FERNANDO - A judge set Dec. 28 as the execution date for a Palmdale man convicted nine years ago of raping and murdering an 18-month-old toddler. "I am now signing the death warrant," Superior Court Judge Ronald S. Coen said Friday. The judge's signature comes three months after the state Supreme Court upheld Ricky Lee Earp's death sentence.

PALMDALE - A production executive from Texas with major experience on the F-16 fighter program will succeed Jack S. Gordon as chief of the Lockheed Martin Skunk Works when Gordon retires at the end of the month, the company announced Friday. Robert T. Elrod will become the new president of Lockheed Martin Skunk Works on Nov. 1.

LANCASTER - Narcotics deputies have discovered a working meth lab in a westside Lancaster home and a family of seven - including five children - living inside a fume-filled house. At about 9 p.m. Thursday, Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies raided a house on the 43000 block of Fairlee Drive. In the garage they found an illegal drug lab in the first stage of cooking about an ounce of methamphetamine.

Oct. 17

JOSHUA TREE - A magnitude-7.0 earthquake in the eastern Mojave Desert hurled shock waves through California and the Southwest early Saturday, derailing a passenger train and knocking out power to thousands, but causing only scattered damage and a handful of injuries.

If it's not built, they can't come. That is how the situation remains with a new building at the Prime Desert Woodland Preserve after city officials terminated a $1.664 million-deal with a contractor to build improvements at the site at 35th Street West and Avenue K-8.

Oct. 18

PALMDALE - Work finally began this weekend on a railroad overpass in Palmdale that sometimes posed a hazard to motorists passing below. On Sunday, two lanes on the southbound side of Sierra Highway between avenues R and S were closed as Union Pacific railroad crews began repairing the overpass, built in 1967.

Oct. 19

PALMDALE - Global Hawk, Northrop Grumman Corp.'s premiere remotely piloted spy bird, soon will be nesting at Air Force Plant 42. Northrop Grumman Corp. officials said Monday it will move operations activities for its unmanned aircraft systems from Hawthorne and San Diego to Palmdale.

LOS ANGELES - California counties are receiving $362 million for child development programs in the first distribution of funds from a voter-approved tobacco surtax. Proposition 10, the tobacco tax ballot initiative spearheaded by film director Rob Reiner last November, sets aside 20% of revenues for education, health and child care programs from prenatal to age 5.

Oct. 20

MOJAVE - A test model of a launch vehicle that would go up like a rocket and land like a helicopter moved 4,300 feet down a runway in its first forward flight. The Roton Atmospheric Test Vehicle was in the air at Mojave Airport for three minutes, 47 seconds, including a sustained hover at the end, Rotary Rocket Co. said in a statement Monday.

LOS ANGELES - A development deal for Palmdale Regional Airport was finalized Tuesday by Los Angeles World Airports, the branch of L.A. city government that runs the Palmdale airport. The unanimous votes followed an Oct. 1 announcement by Palmdale Mayors Jim Ledford of Palmdale and Richard Riordan of Los Angeles to work together to market the airport as an alternative to congested Los Angeles International.

Oct. 21

LANCASTER - California has the unwelcome distinction of leading the nation in illegal methamphetamine labs. Of the roughly 1,300 labs discovered nationwide last year, 55% of them were in the state.

Now, the state is fighting back. Methamphetamine - an illicit drug whose influence has reached "epidemic" proportions in the state - will become more difficult to produce now that a new law limits the sale of ephedrine, a key ingredient in the drug.

PALMDALE - The state Supreme Court on Wednesday allowed a Los Angeles court commissioner to sue a former radio talkshow host for allegedly saying the commissioner likes rapists and sets them free early. The justices unanimously denied a review of appeals by talk-show host Herb Nero and his former radio station, KHJJ, who said the accusations against Victor Reichman during a 1994 political campaign were constitutionally protected criticism.

Oct. 22

LANCASTER - The Los Angeles County Probation Department officially celebrated the opening of the new Juvenile Services office in Lancaster on Thursday with an open house and ribbon-cutting ceremony.

Oct. 23

MOJAVE - Marconi Flight Systems Inc. is set to deliver the first of 35 Boeing 737 passenger aircraft it's retrofitting with headup displays for American Airlines. Marconi officials will hand over the keys to American in a ceremony on the Mojave Airport flight line shortly before noon today.

PALMDALE - A man suspected in a murderous Long Beach armored car robbery and shooting led sheriff's deputies on a highspeed chase Friday that climaxed with a wild foot pursuit through the shops and stores of the Antelope Valley Mall. Marcus Vanson, 27, was wanted in connection with a Tuesday armored car robbery in which Dwight Medrano, a guard, exchanged shots with the robbers and was critically wounded.

WASHINGTON - To save its expensive F-22 fighter from congressional budget-cutters, the Air Force is willing to sacrifice the less-costly joint strike fighter, to the consternation of the Navy and the Marines who also want to use the cheaper plane, a senior Air Force official said.

Oct. 24

PALMDALE - Bianca Perez has missed half her son's infant life. Jacob, now 2, was a year old when his biological father, Desmond Moreland, 33, abducted him in Las Vegas during a scheduled visitation.

The man and his son finally were located Friday evening when Moreland, a Quartz Hill resident wanted in connection with an armed robbery and shooting in Long Beach, was arrested Friday evening in Palmdale.

QUARTZ HILL - More than 100 students, parents, teachers and high school officials hit the streets Saturday to promote the high school district's $91 million bond measure on the Nov. 2 ballot.

Carrying signs that read "Vote Yes on Measure E" and "QHHS Wants a New Cafeteria," supporters of the Antelope Valley Union High School District's bond measure gathered at George Lane Park for a 9:30 a.m. kickoff rally.

Oct. 25

BARSTOW - A congressional effort to buy up 432,000 acres of former railroad land between Needles and Barstow isn't moving fast enough for environmentalists who engineered the deal. Catellus Development Corp., one of the nation's largest publicly owned real estate companies, wants to sell off the former Santa Fe and Southern Pacific land, much of which lies within the Mojave National Preserve and Joshua Tree National Park.

Oct. 26

PALMDALE - A televised candidate forum for the Palmdale City Council election aired voter concerns about whose interests various candidates are serving in their quest for three positions on the next council. Emergent in the debate between candidates is whether people seeking city office are beholden to Assemblyman George Runner, R-Lancaster. The Valley legislator recently proposed uniting Palmdale and Lancaster.

Oct. 27

LANCASTER - A serial robber who has snatched money from the cash registers of at least six Valley businesses struck again Monday night, prompting detectives to ask for the public's help. Since Oct. 14, the man deputies are calling "the McDonald's robber" has struck as many as seven Lancaster businesses, deputies said.

PALMDALE - The candidates running for Palmdale mayor all support Measure E, the bond to build new high schools. They also like City Manager Bob Toone; they all want a hospital in Palmdale; and they all want Palmdale to remain a separate city from Lancaster. Beyond that, Palmdale's four mayoral candidates - especially incumbent Jim Ledford and challenger Rick Norris - agreed little and sparred much at a televised candidate forum at the Jones Intercable studio Monday night.

Oct. 28

VICTORVILLE - Filled to the gills with goods from Hong Kong, a Boeing 747-200 touched down at Southern California Logistics Airport on the high desert this week, ushering in a new era for the Victor Valley as a hub for international air cargo. From this week forward, officials hope Victorville will become a major West coast hub for international air cargo.

Oct. 29

PALMDALE - With construction on Dillard's department store nearly complete, company executives are predicting one of the most lucrative retail openings in the franchise's history. Dillard's executives gave city officials and media a tour of the two-story 150,000-square-foot department store in the east wing of the Antelope Valley Mall on Thursday to promote its grand opening.

PALMDALE - Democrats now have a majority of registered voters in Palmdale. The Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder Office reported that of 42,702 registered voters in Palmdale, 17,831 are Democrats and 17,291 are Republicans, leaving 7,580 with other political affiliations.

Oct. 30

PALMDALE - Los Angeles County sheriff's Sgt. Kevin Wright Carney, one of 23 candidates seeking election Tuesday to the Palmdale City Council, was arrested early Friday on suspicion of molesting a teenage girl, according to sheriff's officials. A 23-year veteran of the department, Carney's current bid for council had been endorsed by Assemblyman George Runner, R-Lancaster, the Antelope Valley Republican Assembly and a county deputies' union, the Association for Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs.

TORRANCE - A rosy picture for the future of Southern California aerospace was painted Friday during a gathering of aerospace industry leaders, one of whom said more than 15,000 aircraft will be needed by industry in the next 15 to 20 years. The prediction was made during the second annual Aerospace Outlook Conference at El Camino College in Torrance.

Oct. 31

PALMDALE - A campaign brochure showing Palmdale City Council candidate Rod Penner shaking hands with U.S. Congressman Howard P. "Buck" McKeon should not be construed as an endorsement for election, McKeon spokesman David Foy said Friday. The brochure's photograph was taken at an ice cream social fundraiser for McKeon in August, Foy said.

PALMDALE - The Moving Wall is coming. The mobile tribute to American troops killed in Vietnam will be in the Valley from Tuesday until Monday, Nov. 8, at McAdam Park in Palmdale. American flags will line Palmdale Boulevard from the Antelope Valley Freeway to 30th Street East, directing people to the Moving Wall, a half-size replica of the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington, D.C.

Uploaded December 27, 1999