2006 THE YEAR IN REVIEW CRIME, GOVERNMENT, VETS ARE TOP HEADLINES FOR A.V.

Byline: JIM SKEEN Staff Writer

PALMDALE -- A shocking crime against a child, a new man at Palmdale's helm and an overdue welcome home were among the Antelope Valley's top stories of 2006.

Topping the list of stories for the year was a crime that truly shocked Antelope Valley residents -- the rape of a 10-year-old girl in August at an Antelope Valley Mall movie theater. Three weeks later sheriff's deputies arrested a 31-year-old fast-food restaurant worker, described by his attorney as mentally disabled.

The suspect drew detectives' interest during a visit to his father, a registered sex offender who lived a mile from the mall.

Ranking second on the top story list is the start of construction of the Palmdale Regional Medical Center. Once completed, tentatively set for late 2007, the facility will end Palmdale's distinction as California's largest community without a hospital.

Palmdale has been without a major medical facility since Desert Palms Hospital closed in 1996.

The hospital will be operated by Pennsylvania-based Universal Health Services, the same company that operates Lancaster Community Hospital.

Coming in at No. 3 was the state decision to assign a trustee to oversee Antelope Valley High School. The school was among the first six in the state to face sanctions because of lagging standardized test scores.

Trustee Nadine Barreto, who has the authority to overrule local administrators' decisions, will leave if test scores improve sufficiently this year.

Barreto is recommending overhauling the school's special-education program, creating a welcome room for new students and instituting steps to develop ``teacher ownership'' of the school.

Barreto also called for monitoring student discipline and teacher absences, looking at assessment data on an ongoing basis to make sure students are mastering what they are being taught, and providing help to students who are performing two grade levels below in reading and math.

The fourth big story this year was the changing of the guard in Palmdale City Hall. After 20 years as the city's top administrator, Bob Toone decided to retire.

During his tenure, Toone guided Palmdale as its population soared from about 30,000 residents to more than 130,000. Among his accomplishments is winning a competition with Lancaster as the site of the Antelope Valley Mall, setting the stage for the city to become the region's retail center.

Stepping in as the city's new leader is Steve Williams, formerly Palmdale's director of public works and, more recently, assistant city manager. Williams officially took the title of city manager in December.

The No. 5 story is one that will continue into the coming year -- figuring out what is going on with the housing market. After five years of skyrocketing, Antelope Valley home prices stagnated through most of 2006.

Realtors said the change seemed to be a return to normal -- though no one had seen normal for 25 years, through a two-decade roller-coaster ride of booms and busts.

After the valley's real estate bust following a 1980s boom, median prices bottomed out in 1999 at $75,000 in Lancaster and $84,000 in Palmdale. In 2006 the medians topped out at $388,500 in Palmdale and $340,000 in Lancaster.

At No. 6 was a story about a long overdue welcome -- honoring Vietnam War veterans. The Antelope Valley honored the Vietnam vets with a Veterans Day parade along Lancaster Boulevard.

Operation Welcome Home was organized by volunteers, headed by Vietnam veterans Gary Chapman and Ray Santana, after they walked in a national Welcome Home parade in 2005 in Las Vegas. About 2,000 veterans participated in the parade.

Ranking seventh in the top 10 was the effort to place a moratorium on parolees coming into the region. Reflecting long-standing suspicions that prison parolees were being steered to the Antelope Valley from other areas of Los Angeles County, state prison officials agreed to stop sending parolees to the valley unless they had valley connections predating their imprisonments.

While the valley's population climbed about 50 percent in 15 years, its parole population more than doubled to about 1,700. In the agreement brokered by state Sen. George Runner, R-Lancaster, state prison officials also agreed to add more parole agents to watch local parolees and to start using Global Positioning System devices to track high-risk sex offenders.

Ranking eighth was a story about a pair of school bond measures being voted down. Antelope Valley Union High School District and Westside Union School District officials were left to contemplate putting more portable classrooms onto campuses and switching to year-round schedules after two multimillion-dollar bond measures failed in June to get the votes they needed to pass.

The high school district's $177.5 million Measure E and Westside's $67.5 million Measure K each got more than 52 percent, but it was short of the 55 percent needed. School officials said voters may have been worried about higher gas prices and the high taxes that come as home values climb.

At No. 9 was a story of an accident that claimed the life of a motorcycle deputy. Pierre Bain become the second Antelope Valley deputy to die in the line of duty in less than three years.

Bain, a 15-year Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department veteran, was riding after a speeder last March when another vehicle pulled in front of his motorcycle at an east Lancaster intersection.

More than 1,000 law enforcement officers, civic leaders, family and friends attended his funeral. The last deputy killed was Lake Los Angeles Deputy Steve Sorensen, who was shot to death in 2003 at an isolated desert trailer while investigating a routine trespassing case.

Capping the list for 2006 was the pullout of Palmdale's only airline, Scenic Airlines. Antelope Valley's first commercial airline service in nearly seven years halted after little more than a year of operations.

Scenic Airlines pulled out in January, saying it wasn't carrying enough passengers to and from north Las Vegas.

In a bid to try to bring in an airline that can actually gain a foothold in the region, a government coalition came up with $4.6 million in incentives. The incentives are aimed at promoting and underwriting any new airline service to Palmdale.

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CAPTION(S):

4 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) Palmdale's only airline, Scenic Airlines, halted operations at Palmdale Regional Airport after little more than a year.

Hans Gutknecht/Staff Photographer

(2) Riders on the Palmdale Chamber of Commerce float cheer veterans in the Operation Welcome Home Parade in Lancaster on Nov. 11.

Jeff Goldwater/Staff Photographer

(3) Gary Chapman, left, and Cliff Barth lead Vietnam veterans from all branches of the armed forces in the Operation Welcome Home Parade in Lancaster.

(4) Makana Smith, left, and Isabelle Decker are among participants in the Operation Welcome Home Parade in Lancaster.