Lancaster

In the brutal cycles of California real estate, the Antelope Valley has been among the last to boom, the first to bust and the slowest to recover. But in the High Desert, separated from downtown Los Angeles by 65 miles and a mountain range, the housing market is finally gaining steam after the latest debacle, underscoring the strong recovery across the region. The reason is simple: Big new houses are selling in the $200,000 range, a mere fraction of home prices across much of the region.

In the brutal cycles of California real estate, the Antelope Valley has been among the last to boom, the first to bust and the slowest to recover. But in the High Desert, separated from downtown Los Angeles by 65 miles and a mountain range, the housing market is finally gaining steam after the latest debacle, underscoring the strong recovery across the region. The reason is simple: Big new houses are selling in the $200,000 range, a mere fraction of home prices across much of the region.

The evening that brothers Kevin and Ricky Nettles were abducted outside their Los Angeles mechanic's shop, one of their employees said they were visited by an armed man who looked like a police detective. The employee, 67, described in court last week how on that November day in 1999 he saw onetime Los Angeles and Oakland Raiders defensive end Anthony Wayne Smith stop Ricky Nettles in the street and usher him into the back of a car, where another man sat behind the wheel. "He told me he was taking [Ricky]

SHENZHEN, China - Gov. Jerry Brown, visiting the headquarters of an electric car and bus manufacturer here, announced Tuesday that the company would open a factory in Lancaster, the first Chinese-owned vehicle plant on American soil. The firm, Build Your Dreams, or BYD, will put 10 new plug-in buses on the streets of Long Beach beginning next year after assembling them in the Lancaster facility, with hopes of producing dozens more in coming years. "It's very significant," said Brown, speaking in this southern port city on the last full day of his weeklong visit to China.

Re "Lancaster takes a long view on crime," Aug. 25 Two principles underlie a country's descent into fascism: One, if you don't have anything to hide, you shouldn't resist government invasion of your privacy; and two, the ends justify the means. With its defense of the aerial surveillance of its residents, Lancaster is following the playbook to the letter. Never mind the 4th Amendment or the history of governments abusing this sort of "protection" of their citizens. No, just sit quietly and accept your loss of freedom.

Los Angeles County sheriff's homicide detectives are investigating the circumstances surrounding the fatal shooting of a teenager at a party in Lancaster early Saturday, authorities said. The shooting occurred about 1 a.m. in the 700 block of East Avenue K Street, authorities said. The unidentified victim was pronounced dead at the scene. The shooting took place in a house where a large party was taking place, some witnesses told KABC-TV and City News Service. Authorities provided no additional information.

Once again Lancaster has been vindicated - or "blessed," as the city's press release put it - by a court ruling upholding its practice of opening City Council meetings with a prayer. On Tuesday, a federal appellate court affirmed a district court ruling that a single reference to Jesus Christ in an invocation did not violate the constitutional separation of church and state. But regardless of what the courts say about its legality, opening council meetings with a prayer is inappropriate, and it should stop.

When the eight-minute promotional video wrapped up, Lancaster Mayor R. Rex Parris' review wasn't entirely flattering. The movie-making seemed amateurish in spots, and, in some shots, he and others would have benefited from a little makeup. Most important, the mayor told his staff, there weren't enough Asians in the video. "If we're going to try to attract members of the Asian business community, we need to have more Asians in there," Parris told staffers. The promotional video, which Parris requested be re-shot before being dubbed in Mandarin, is part of a larger strategy that Lancaster hopes will help it attract Chinese investment and create jobs in a region where unemployed is pegged at 17%. The city is sending business delegations to China, partnering with a Chinese sister city, and using a language tutor to teach bureaucrats Mandarin.

We want sophisticated technology to protect us. But we don't want it to stalk us. A new aerial surveillance system that the city of Lancaster put into place last week to reduce crime has the potential to do both, although with some strict monitoring, it might accomplish the former without subjecting residents to the latter. Officials in the high-desert city unveiled a program in which a small plane, manned by a pilot and equipped with cameras capturing real-time video footage of the landscape below, will fly in a loop at 3,000 feet.

In the Antelope Valley, Lancaster is known for its aerospace connections, its annual poppy festival and its arid desert atmosphere. But soon enough, if Mayor R. Rex Parris has his way, Lancaster may be headed for a new reputation as what he calls "alternative energy capital of the world." "This is the best-kept secret in Los Angeles County," Parris said. "With the uniqueness of our latitude and longitude and elevation and air quality, we're going to produce more energy than we consume before 2020."

A 19-year-old Lancaster man was in jail Thursday after allegedly stabbing a woman multiple times and later leading deputies on a short foot chase. When deputies responded to a “family disturbance” call Saturday, suspect Jaquain Smith had already fled the scene, Sgt. Ronald DiGiovanni of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department's Lancaster station said in a statement. Wednesday afternoon, while the 20-year-old stabbing victim was at the sheriff's station telling deputies she had received threats from the suspect, she spotted Smith standing at a bus stop nearby.

The spotlight shines this week on legendary film stars Debbie Reynolds, Burt Lancaster and Montgomery Clift. Reynolds, who turned 81 on Monday and has a new book coming out, "Unsinkable," came to fame in the 1950s and is still going strong.  American Cinematheque's Egyptian Theatre is celebrating the musical-comedy star with "A Hollywood Life: The Unsinkable Debbie Reynolds" retrospective. It starts Thursday evening with the 1955 romantic comedy "The Tender Trap" with  Frank Sinatra and the 1963 comedy "Mary, Mary" with Barry Nelson.

Burt Lancaster was the first movie star I ever met. I've encountered others since, but the circumstances have never been so dramatic. The year was 1971 and I was a young reporter for the Washington Post covering the Cannes Film Festival on my own dime. Few Americans made the trek in those days, which is why Lancaster's publicist contacted me and asked if I wanted to be part of a small lunch the actor was giving for journalists at the glamorous Hotel du Cap, a legendary spot perched just above imposing rocks that jut boldly into the Mediterranean.

Los Angeles County sheriff's homicide detectives are investigating the circumstances surrounding the fatal shooting of a teenager at a party in Lancaster early Saturday, authorities said. The shooting occurred about 1 a.m. in the 700 block of East Avenue K Street, authorities said. The unidentified victim was pronounced dead at the scene. The shooting took place in a house where a large party was taking place, some witnesses told KABC-TV and City News Service. Authorities provided no additional information.

The California golden poppies aren't popping right now at the Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve in Lancaster. Southern Californians wait each year to see whether the state flower will turn the reserve and surrounding areas into fields of blinding orange. "Debbie Downer warning ... we probably won't really have a peak at all this year. Many of the plants that have managed to squeeze out a small poppy have desiccated mid-bloom," says a post on the reserve's Facebook page.

Once again Lancaster has been vindicated - or "blessed," as the city's press release put it - by a court ruling upholding its practice of opening City Council meetings with a prayer. On Tuesday, a federal appellate court affirmed a district court ruling that a single reference to Jesus Christ in an invocation did not violate the constitutional separation of church and state. But regardless of what the courts say about its legality, opening council meetings with a prayer is inappropriate, and it should stop.

Opponents say a plan to use aerial surveillance to monitor neighborhoods in Lancaster raises the potential for government-sanctioned snooping. But city leaders insist the new initiative will be used strictly to fight crime. The aerial surveillance program, slated to begin by May, will involve a piloted Cessna 172 fixed-wing aircraft with high-tech optical equipment that will record the movements of people on the ground. The plane will circle the Antelope Valley city at altitudes of 1,000 to 3,000 feet some 10 hours a day. The technology, developed by the Lancaster-based Spiral Technology, Inc., includes the use of infrared imaging.

Officials in Lancaster are crediting the city's new aerial surveillance system with aiding in the capture of a suspect wanted in connection with a double slaying. The incident unfolded Tuesday when Los Angeles Police Department officers were conducting undercover surveillance of an apartment complex on the east side of Lancaster, looking for a man wanted in connection with two homicides, according to a statement from the Los Angeles County sheriff's station in Lancaster. Shortly before 3 p.m., the officers determined that their suspect was inside one of the apartments and called on deputies to help take him into custody.

Religious leaders may deliver opening prayers at Lancaster city council meetings and mention Jesus if they like, as long as a variety of denominations are invited, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled. Lancaster Mayor Rex Parris says the prayers have unified the community, and the lawsuit was about “making Jesus a dirty word.” Sectarian prayers are not prohibited at government meetings, the court said, and the city has not endorsed one religion over another, even though a majority of the prayers are Christian.