Timeline California 1999-2000
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1999 Jan 1, The
110th Tournament of Roses was celebrated in Pasadena with a crowd of
750,000.
(SFC, 1/2/99, p.A18)
1999 Jan 1, A new 50 cent per pack
tax on cigarettes, mandated by Proposition 10, went into effect.
(SFC, 12/31/98, p.A1)
1999 Jan 1, Strict rent control
ended with the 1995 Costa-Hawkins law, which permitted unlimited rent
increases on vacant units. The law targeted Berkeley, East Palo Alto,
Cotati, Santa Monica and west Hollywood and was phased-in over 3 years.
(SFC, 1/2/99, p.A13)
1999 Jan 2, Gov. Wilson appointed
former Sen. Quentin Kopp as judge in the San Mateo County Superior
Court.
(SFEC, 1/3/99, p.D1)
1999 Jan 3, The SF Giants beat the
Packers in the final minute of play to win a spot in the NFC playoffs.
(SFC, 1/4/99, p.A1)
1999 Jan 4, Joseph Fraham Davis
Jr. was inaugurated as the state's 37th governor. Gray Davis was the
state's first Democratic governor in 16 years.
(SFEC, 1/3/99, p.A1)
1999 Jan 4, Jose Medina was
appointed by Gray Davis to serve as the chief of Caltrans.
(SFEC, 1/31/99, p.A14)
1999 Jan 6, Gov. Davis in his
State of the State speech made education the centerpiece of his
administration. He unveiled a $444 million education proposal.
(SFC, 1/6/99, p.A1)(SFC, 1/7/99, p.A1)
1999 Jan 8, Gov. Davis sent the
Legislature a $76.2 billion state budget.
(SFC, 1/9/99, p.A1)
1999 Jan 12, Pacific Bell cut ADSL
Internet access to $39 a month with installation and equipment at $198.
(SFC, 1/13/99, p.B1)
1999 Jan 16, Methodist ministers
in Sacramento, Ca., blessed the union of 2 lesbians in contradiction to
Church law.
(SFEC, 1/17/99, p.C1)
1999 Jan 21, The state Supreme
Court ruled that sex offenders can be kept in custody for years after
their prison terms if they are considered a danger to society.
(SFC, 1/22/99, p.A1)
1999 Jan 22, In Fresno Vasily
Petrovich Losev (45) killed his 3 sons (aged 2 to 9), set fire to their
apartment and then killed himself. He was about to lose his sons to his
wife.
(SFC, 1/25/99, p.A12)
1999 Jan 25, Bakersfield got 6
inches of snow.
(SFC, 1/26/99, p.A19)
1999 Jan 26, San Ramon passed an
ordnance prohibiting the sale of laser pointers to minors.
(SFC, 1/27/99, p.A1)
1999 Jan, A gambling commission
was to begin working based on legislation signed by Gov. Pete Wilson in
1997.
(SFC, 10/13/97, p.A1)
1999 Feb 2, Gov. Gray Davis on a
visit to Mexico disclosed an agreement to get Mexico's leading
telecommunications firm to relocate its US headquarters from Houston to
San Diego. He negotiated the deal with Telmex chairman Carlos Slim Helu.
(SFC, 2/3/99, p.A1)
1999 Feb 3, Gov. Davis met with
Fernando Canales Clariond, governor of Nuevo Leon, and witnessed a
"Direct Line" meeting between the governor and citizens seeking direct
action.
(SFC, 2/4/99, p.A2)
1999 Feb 5, The Bureau of ATF
planned to allow California winemakers to attach new labels promoting
the health benefits of wine.
(SFC, 2/5/99, p.A1)
1999 Feb 5, Herbert Kline,
documentary film maker, died.
(SFC, 2/12/99, p.A24)
1999 Feb 9, Jaturun Siripongs was
executed at San Quentin 16 years after he was sentenced for the murder
of 2 people during a robbery in Orange County.
(SFC, 2/9/99, p.A1)
1999 Feb 10, A Vietnamese
shopkeeper in Westminster, Orange County, Ca., was assaulted and began
a riot when he displayed a poster of Ho Chi Minh in his shop window.
(SFC, 2/11/99, p.A3)
1999 Feb 15, Carole Sund (42),
Julie Sund (15) and Silvina Pelosso were last seen at the Cedar Lodge
motel in Portal, Ca. The trio were visiting the area from Eureka.
Carole Sund's wallet and credit cards were found in Modesto on Feb 19.
The FBI acknowledged Feb 21 that the disappearance was being treated as
a kidnapping and a $250,000 reward was offered. Their rented Pontiac
was found burned near Long Barn in Tuolemne County on Mar 18 and 2
burned bodies were found in the trunk. Cary Stayner, motel maintenance
man, later admitted to the murders and faced trial in 2002. Stayner was
convicted on Aug 26 and was sentenced to death Dec 12.
(SFC, 2/23/99, p.A1)(SFC, 3/18/99, p.A1)(SFC,
3/20/99, p.A1)(SFC, 7/25/02, p.A17)(WSJ, 8/27/02, p.A1)(SFC, 12/13/02,
p.A1)
1999 Feb 16, In LA a number of
possessions of O.J. Simpson were auctioned off to cover his 1997 legal
suit. A conservative Christian group purchased his Hall of Fame plaque
and other memorabilia and burned it the following day
(SFC, 2/18/99, p.A3)
1999 Feb 17, It was reported that
Mark Hughes (43), founder of Herbalife International, planned to build
a $50 million home on a 157-acre site in the Benedict Canyon area of LA.
(WSJ, 2/17/99, p.B12)
1999 Feb 19, Milpitas pediatrician
Katherine Wong disappeared while skiing in Bear Valley. Her remains
were found in a ravine June 8.
(SFC, 6/10/99, p.A1,10)
1999 Feb 20, In Ventura Gladis
Soto (38) shot her husband, Pedro Alba, in his sleep and then
dismembered his body with an electric saw. She put his limbs into
plastic bags and set them on fire at a remote part of the Ventura
River. She was sentenced in 2000 to 52 years to life in prison.
(SFEC, 2/27/00, p.D4)
1999 Feb 24, The Library of
California was reported to be a computer network linking the state's
8,000 public and private libraries.
(SFC, 2/24/99, p.CA4)
1999 Feb 24, In Santa Ana Charles
Chitat Ng was convicted of killing 2 babies, 3 women and 6 men during
the mid 1980s. His trial had thus far cost taxpayers over $9 million.
(SFC, 2/25/99, p.A1)
1999 Feb 26, Pacific Lumber
rejected the state and federal deal to save the Headwaters Forest.
(SFC, 2/27/99, p.A1)
1999 The Fireman’s Fund Insurance
Co. donated $20,000 to the political fund of insurance commissioner
Chuck Quackenbush, who had allowed the company to may a $550,000
payment to a special fund following an exemption from a state review of
claims from the 1994 Northridge earthquake.
(SFC, 4/7/00, p.A3)
1999 Mar 1, Minutes before a
midnight deadline Pacific Lumber agreed with government negotiators on
a $480 million deal to preserve the Headwaters Forest. 10,000 acres of
old growth forest was to be sold and protection was imposed on 211,000
acres of adjacent lands. The price for the 7,400 acres was $380 million
plus some land-swapping and log-harvesting options.
(SFC, 3/2/99, p.A1)(SFEC, 7/4/99, p.T6)
1999 Mar 4, Researchers reported
that data revealed a new active fault system under Los Angeles that
probably caused the 1987 Whittier Narrows earthquake. It was christened
the Punete Hills fault.
(SFC, 3/5/99, p.A7)
1999 Mar 4, The Trust for Public
Land purchased 53 acres on the shores of Tomales Bay for $1.3 million
and added it to the state park system. The Tomales Bay State Park now
includes 2,100 acres.
(SFC, 3/5/99, p.A18)
1998 Mar 4, The state Fish and
Game Commission voted to change the status of bighorn sheep from
threatened to endangered. Fewer than 120 were reported living, possibly
due to the rise in the protected cougar population.
(SFC, 3/6/99, p.A18)
1999 Mar 13, US Marines engaged in
a mock urban battle in Monterey.
(SFEC, 3/14/99, p.A1)
1999 Mar 15, The Citizen's
Compensation Committee voted to increase the salaries of the state
Legislature leaders by 7.5%. This put the salaries of Sen. Burton and
Villaraigosa at $113,850.
(SFC, 3/16/99, p.A13)
1999 Mar 16, A 93-acre property of
old-growth redwoods near Santa Cruz was purchased by the Trust for
Public Land. It was immediately sold at a discount to the state Dept.
of Parks and Recreation. The property was to be added to the adjacent
Nisene Marks State Park.
(SFC, 3/17/99, p.A14)
1999 Mar 18, UC regents approved a
plan effective 2001 to admit the top 4% of each high school in the
state to its 8 undergraduate campuses. This was expected to make an
additional 3,600 students eligible for the UC system.
(SFC, 3/18/99, p.A1)(SFC, 3/20/99, p.A22)
1999 Mar 19, Attorney Gen'l. Bill
Lockyer announced that he would not interfere with the implementation
of the 1996 Prop. 215 for the medical use of marijuana.
(SFEC, 3/21/99, p.D1)
1999 Mar 20, The 128-acre Legoland
California, a children’s theme park, was scheduled to be completed in
Carlsbad by the Danish toy company.
(USAT, 5/7/98, p.1D)(SFC, 1/9/99, p.B8)(SFEC,
2/7/99, p.T3)
1999 Mar 20, A $2 million gift
from Alvina Lepori Cerruti (d.1998) was presented to 3 North Coast
agencies in Point Arena. Recipients included the Point Arena Medical
Center, the Shamli Volunteer Hospice and the Redwood Coast Fire
Protection District.
(SFC, 3/25/99, p.A19)
1999 Mar 24, A robber managed to
steal $2.3 million from a Loomis armored truck as it traveled on I-80
between SF and Sacramento. The heist was not reported until May 6.
(SFC, 5/7/99, p.A21)(SSFC, 7/15/01, p.A19)
1999 Mar 24, Bruce Nausler (63)
and Laura Lynn Webster (31) lured a 17-year-old girl from a restaurant
and then drugged her, bound her and molested her on videotape. Nausler,
a multimillionaire owner of a Sacramento storage company, committed
suicide Apr 17 near Fort Bragg.
(SFC, 4/20/99, p.A20)
1999 Mar 25, Gov. Davis ordered an
end to the use of MTBE in California.
(SFC, 3/26/99, p.A25)
1999 Mar 25, A female body was
found off Highway 120 at the southern end of Lake Don Pedro and it was
identified as 15-year-old Julie Sund, one of 3 people missing since Feb
16.
(SFC, 3/27/99, p.A1)
1999 Mar 26, The body of Clarissa
Ernst (8) of Shasta Lake was found in Happy Valley. Jeffery Couts (28)
was arrested after turning himself the next day. He was charged with
kidnapping and 1st degree murder.
(SFEC, 3/28/99, p.D2)
1999 Mar 29, Robert McKinney,
modernist painter and sculptor, died at age 75 in Santa Rosa.
(SFC, 4/2/99, p.D6)
1999 Apr 1, Residents in the 310
area code of LA will need to begin using an 11 digit code. The
area code overlay requires the use of 1 plus the area code plus the
phone number.
(SFC, 12/30/98, p.A9)
1999 Apr 1, Wilson Riles, the
first black to hold statewide office in California, died at age 81. He
served as the state's schools chief from 1970-1982.
(SFC, 4/3/99, p.A17)
1999 Apr 3, A small plane crashed
in a snowstorm San Diego County and 4 people on board were killed.
(SFC, 4/5/99, p.A5)
1999 Apr 6, The decomposed body of
Terry Ray of Salida in Stanislaus County was pulled from the Tuolemne
River. Ray sold counterfeit mailbox keys and false ID cards to Michael
Larwick and Eugene Dykes. His brother, Dennis Ray, later reported that
Terry had witnessed the rape of Julie Sund in Modesto and may have been
killed to cover up the Sund slayings.
(SFC, 5/7/99, p.D5)(SFC, 5/10/99, p.A13,18)
1999 Apr 10, Tzambo, the oldest
silverback gorilla at the LA Zoo, died of heart disease at age 28.
(SFEC, 4/11/99, p.C3)
1999 Apr 11, The Spenceville
Wildlife Preserve, 11,213 acres west of Grass Valley, was discussed as
a candidate for the proposed Waldo Reservoir.
(SFEC, 4/11/99, p.C1,5)
1999 Apr 12, The 36-mile Carmel
River was named as the nation's 8th most endangered river.
(SFC, 4/12/99, p.A19)
1999 Apr 14, State Attorney Gen'l.
Bill Lockyer began an investigation into the recent high gasoline
prices in California.
(SFC, 4/15/99, p.A1)
1999 Apr 16, Skip Spence, an
original member of the Jefferson Airplane and Moby Grape rock groups,
died at age 52 in Santa Cruz.
(SFC, 4/17/99, p.A19)
1999 Apr 20, The state Senate
Transportation Committee passed a bill to establish a new Bay Area
Water Transit Authority. The goal was to get workers onto
high-speed ferries on the SF Bay within 5 years.
(SFC, 4/26/99, p.A17)
1999 Apr 21, The Nature
Conservancy announced the purchase of the Howard Ranch, a 12,362 acre
parcel along the Consumnes River in southeastern Sacramento
County for $13.6 million.
(SFC, 4/22/99, p.A19)
1999 Apr 28, Rory Calhoun
(76), Western film star, died in Burbank, Calif., from emphysema and
diabetes. He starred in the 1950s TV series "The Texan."
(SFC, 4/29/99, p.D6)(www.imdb.com/name/nm0001983/)
1999 Apr 29, In Petaluma police
arrested 2 youths and detonated 5 pipe bombs at Petaluma Junior High
School.
(SFC, 4/29/99, p.A3)
1999 Apr, In Riverside County a
butterfly bank was founded by Escondido developer Greg Reden. He
proposed to sell acreage to developers who wished to develop land that
was part of the habitat of the endangered quino checkerspot butterfly
to comply with a 1981 amendment to the Endangered Species Act.
(WSJ, 4/14/99, p.CA1)
1999 May 3, A jury in Orange
County declared that Charles Ng should die by lethal injection for the
murder of 6 men, 3 women, and 2 baby boys during the 1980s.
(SFC, 5/4/99, p.A1)
1999 May 3, In Costa Mesa a car
intentionally crashed into the schoolyard of the Southcoast Early
Learning Center killing 2 children and injuring 5 people. The driver
said he wanted to 'execute" children.
(SFC, 5/4/99, p.A3)(WSJ, 5/5/99, p.A1)
1999 May 4, Manuel Babbitt (50), a
Vietnam veteran, was executed at San Quentin, Ca., the day after his
birthday, for the 1980 murder of an elderly grandmother in Sacramento.
He refused his last meal and asked that the $50 allotted be given to
homeless Vietnam vets. Babbitt was buried May 10 in Wareham, Mass.,
with full military honors
(SFC, 5/4/99, p.A1,7)(SFC, 5/11/99, p.A4)
1999 May 14, Kenneth E. Hayes and
Michael S. Foley were busted for growing marijuana on a Petaluma farm.
899 plant were found along with hashish and a rifle. The case went to
trial in 2001 under a medical marijuana defense. A Sonoma County jury
acquitted the 2 men.
(SFC, 4/13/01, p.A19)(SFC, 4/19/01, p.A15)
1999 May 17, The US Supreme Court
ruled that California cannot pay lower welfare benefits to new
residents as proposed in a 1992 state law.
(SFC, 5/18/99, p.A1)
1999 May 18, Pres. Zedillo of
Mexico planned a 3-day visit to California.
(SFC, 5/8/99, p.A1)
1999 May 21, In LA Margaret
Laverne Mitchell (54), a 102 lb. homeless and mentally ill woman, was
shot and killed by officer Edward Larrigan (27) after she allegedly
lunged at him with a 13-inch screw driver on La Brea Ave.
(SFC, 5/25/99, p.A15)(SFC, 5/31/99, p.A15)
1999 May 23, Girard Bloch (81)
reached the top of El Capitan, and broke his own record, set in 1986,
as the oldest person to scale the rock.
(SFC, 5/24/99, p.A17)
1999 May 26, Alice Adams,
acclaimed author, died at age 72. Her novels included "A Southern
Exposure," and "Listening to Billie." He collected short stories
included "Beautiful Girl" and "The Last Lovely City."
(SFC, 5/28/99, p.D8)
1999 May 27, The state Assembly
passed a bill to restore the 8-hour workday for 8 million California
nonunion workers.
(SFC, 5/28/99, p.A1)
1999 May 29, Prime Minister Goh
Chok Tong visited Northern California and expressed his country's
interest in becoming a knowledge-based regional hub.
(SFEC, 5/30/99, p.B1)
1999 May 27, Four fires erupted
from lightning. 3 were surrounded after 2 days but the fire at Joshua
Tree National Park remained out of control after burning some 11,000
acres of the 794,000-acre park. 90% of the fire at Joshua Tree was
contained by May 31. 13,900 acres of the desert burned.
(SFC, 5/31/99, p.A14)(SFC, 6/1/99, p.A14)(SFC,
6/2/99, p.C7)
1999 May 31, It was reported that
Mike Moshier (51), founder of Millennium Jet Inc. in Santa Clara, Ca.,
had developed the SoloTrek XFV, a single passenger flying vehicle, that
could fly at 80 mph for up to 90 minutes as high as 10,000 feet on a
single tank of 87-octane gas.
(SFC, 5/31/99, p.E3)
1999 May 31, Charles Pierce,
legendary drag performer, died at age 72 in North Hollywood.
(SFC, 6/2/99, p.A9)
1999 Jun 1, In Napa ground
breaking ceremonies were held for the new $70 million, 80,000 sq. ft.
American Center for Wine, Food and the Arts. The center was initially
envisioned by Robert Mondavi.
(SFC, 6/2/99, Z1 p.2)
1999 Jun 4, Senators Diane
Feinstein of California and Harry Reid of Nevada announced the Lake
Tahoe Restoration Act. The bill would authorized $300 million over 10
years to restore clarity and health to Lake Tahoe.
(SFC, 6/5/99, p.A1)
1999 Jun 6, Two men and a boy from
Redwood City were killed when their van, carrying 13 people, blew a
tire on Highway 101 near the Russian River. Jose Baillon (12), Marvin
Bonilla (26) and Faustino Castaneda died when the van tumbled over 100
down an embankment following a camping trip to Lake Mendocino.
(SFC, 6/8/99, p.A1)
1999 Jun 6, Rick Fields (57),
journalist an author, died in Fairfax. His work included "How the Swans
Came to the Lake: A Narrative History of Buddhism in America."
(SFC, 6/9/99, p.C6)
1999 Jun 9, Frank Gambalie III
(28) parachuted from the top of El Capitan and then drowned in the
Merced River while trying to escape from park rangers. His body was not
recovered until July 7.
(SFC, 7/17/99, p.A22)
1999 Jun 11, Eugene "Rufus" Dykes
(32), a key suspect in the killing of 3 Yosemite tourists, was reported
to have admitted involvement in the killings.
(SFC, 6/12/99, p.A1)
1999 Jun 12, In LA the new 4.6
mile Hollywood extension of the new subway system, the Metro Rail Red
Line, opened.
(SFEC, 6/13/99, p.D4)
1999 Jun 12, In Upland a woman
(38) and her 9-year-old daughter were found slain in their home. A
6-year-old son was found sleeping and a 14-year-old son, Paul Yum, was
missing along with the family 1997 Mercedes-Benz.
(SFEC, 6/13/99, p.D4)
1999 Jun 13, A rockslide below
Glacier Point in Yosemite killed one rock climber and injured 4 others.
Peter Terbush (22) died while tethering a rope for a climber.
(SFC, 6/14/99, p.A1)(SFC, 6/15/99, p.A1)
1999 Jun 14, It was reported that
California picks its prison phone company by selecting the offer with
the biggest commission, fording prisoners to pay highly inflated rates.
(SFC, 6/14/99, p.A1)
1999 Jun 15, The Costanoa Coastal
Lodge and Camp was scheduled to open on the San Mateo County coast in
Big Basin Redwoods State Park near Ano Nuevo. Rates ran from $25 for a
tent site to $275 top line lodging.
(SFC, 6/3/99, p.A19)
1999 Jun 16, The California High
Speed Railway Authority recommended that San Francisco and San Jose be
part of a $23.3 billion bullet train stretching from San Diego to
Sacramento. A link to Oakland was put on study.
(SFC, 6/17/99, p.A22)
1999 Jun 17, Methanex Corp. of
Canada sued California for $970 million over the state ban on the
gasoline additive MTBE. A NAFTA investor rights provision was cited as
the basis for the suit. In 1998 Canada overturned a ban on MMT when it
was challenged in a similar suit by Ethyl Corp. of Virginia
(SFC, 6/18/99, p.A1,19)
1999 Jun 17, A group led by Clint
Eastwood, Arnold Palmer and Peter Ueberroth agreed to buy the Pebble
Beach golf course and other properties for $820 million.
(SFC, 6/18/99, p.A1)
1999 Jun 18, In Sacramento
arsonists struck 3 Jewish synagogues within 45 minutes and caused
nearly $1 million in damage.
(SFC, 6/19/99, p.A1)
1999 Jun 21, The Wilderness
Society in its 3rd annual listing of the country's most endangered
federal parks, forests and refuges, had California leading with 3 sites
listed: old growth in the Sierra Nevada; the Mojave National Preserve
and the Klamath Basin.
(SFC, 6/21/99, p.A5)
1999 Jun 21, Carol Chase (56),
mayor of Cloverdale, was found dead in her parked car in her garage.
The death was later ruled a suicide.
(SFC, 9/4/99, p.A26)
1999 Jun 22, It was reported that
California had a backlog of over 2.5 million unserved warrants.
(SFC, 6/22/99, p.A1)
1999 Jun 23, An environmental
coalition issued its "Fields of Poison" report that slammed the state
on pesticide regulation and enforcement.
(SFC, 6/23/99, p.A15)
1999 Jun 29, Gov. Davis signed a
$79.3 billion spending bill, the 1st ontime budget in 6 years.
(SFC, 6/30/99, p.A1)
1999 Jun 30, Charles Ng (38), Hong
Kong émigré and former US Marine, was sentenced to death
for 11 murders between 1984-1985.
(SFC, 7/1/99, p.A17,24)
1999 Jun 30, In Orinda police
found the decomposed body of Margaret Bodfish at 616 Miner Rd. Bodfish
lived as a man following a sex change and was found with major trauma
to the head.
(SFC, 7/1/99, p.A20)
1999 Jul 1, In Happy Valley near
Redding Gary Matson (50) and Winfield Scott Mowder (40), both gay, were
found shot to death. On Jul 7 Benjamin Matthew Williams (31) and James
Tyler Williams were arrested in Yuba City in connection with murders.
The 2 brothers were also suspected in the Sacramento synagogue arsons.
In 2001 Benjamin Williams was sentenced to 30 years in prison and James
to 21 ¼ years for the arson charges.
(SFC, 7/10/99, p.A1)(SFC, 7/12/99, p.A1)
1999 Jul 1, Oakley, Ca., was
incorporated. It had a population of 26,500.
(SFC, 7/3/00, p.C2)
1999 Jul 2, The Choice Medical
Group clinic in Sacramento was firebombed. The clinic offered abortions
once a week.
(SFC, 7/3/99, p.A15)
1999 Jul 2, In Trinity County a
controlled burn went out of control and some 2 dozen homes were
completely destroyed. Damages were estimated at $1.6 million and 2000
firefighters reached 70% control by July 4.
(SFC, 7/5/99, p.A20)
1999 Jul 4, Jonique Williams (4)
of Oakland disappeared from a relative's pool party in Modesto. She was
found dead in the pool the next day. An autopsy later reported that she
died of asphyxiation.
(SFC, 8/4/99, p.A1)
1999 Jul 5, In Riverside County 2
Union Pacific freight trains collided and derailed 9 locomotives. Some
10,000 gallons of diesel fuel was spilled and 2 crewmen were injured.
(SFC, 7/6/99, p.B2)
1999 Jul 6, SF Supervisor called
on state and local officials to investigate ending the tax-exempt
status of the LDDS after the Mormon church group sent its members
letters telling them to support a California initiative banning gay
marriages.
(SFC, 7/7/99, p.A13)
1999 Jul 12, A flash flood left
one person dead a 5 injured in the San Bernadino Mountains.
(WSJ, 7/13/99, p.A1)
1999 Jul 19, Gov. Davis signed the
nation's most comprehensive assault weapons ban to take effect Jan 1.
He also signed a bill that limited handgun purchases to one per month.
(SFC, 7/20/99, p.A15)
1999 Jul 21, Roman Catholic Bishop
Z. Patrick Ziemann resigned as spiritual leader of Santa Rosa after
Rev. Jorje Hume Salas filed a lawsuit accusing him of coercion and
sexual abuse. Ziemann later acknowledged an inappropriate "personal
consensual relationship."
(SFC, 7/24/99, p.A15)
1999 Jul 21, The Huntington
Library opened an exhibit for the giant, stinky Amorphophallus titanum
blossom. The Titan arum produces the world's largest flower and 63,000
visitors came to see it by Aug 5.
(SFC, 8/7/99, p.A19)
1999 Jul 22, Joie Ruth Armstrong
(26), naturalist for the Yosemite Institute, was found murdered and
beheaded in Yosemite National Park. Cary Stayner (38), a motel
maintenance man, was sought in relation to the murder. Staynor was
arrested July 24 and admitted to the February murders of Carole Sund,
Juli Sund and Silvina Pelosso. In 2000 Stayner pleaded guilty to
federal murder charges. As of 2008 he was still on death row at San
Quentin, Ca.
(SFC, 7/24/99, p.A1)(USAT, 7/26/99,
p.1A)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cary_Stayner)
1999 Jul 29, Gov. Davis and
opponents of Prop. 187 announced an agreement. The measure was to be
left as a law outlawing the manufacture and use of false documents to
conceal illegal immigration status.
(SFC, 7/29/99, p.A1)
1999 Jul 30, Waste Management
began hauling lead-contaminated dirt from the Altamont Landfill to the
Kettleman Hills hazardous waste site. The dirt was from the SF Pacific
Bell Park baseball site.
(SFC, 7/31/99, p.A11)
1999 Jul, In King 800 workers of
City Teamsters Local 890 began a strike against Basic Vegetable
Products over pay and benefits. By Nov over 600 workers had crossed the
picket lines to work.
(SFC, 11/12/99, p.A1)
1999 Aug 2, The state Supreme
Court upheld the right of a judge to ban racial slurs in the workplace.
(SFC, 8/3/99, p.A1)
1999 Aug 2, Concrete pipes snapped
free from a tractor-trailer and 6 people in 2 cars were killed in Kern
County. The truck driver was booked for investigation of drunken
driving.
(SFC, 8/3/99, p.A1)
1999 Aug 9, Thirteen farmworkers
were killed when their van collided with a big rig near Five Points in
Fresno County.
(SFC, 8/10/99, p.A1)
1999 Aug 10, In Granada Hills, Los
Angeles County, Buford Oneal Furrow (37) opened fire at a Jewish day
camp center and wounded 1 adult, a teenager and 3 children. Buford also
shot and killed postal worker Joseph Ileto. In 2001 Buford agreed to
plead guilty for a mandatory life sentence.
(SFC, 8/11/99, p.A1)(WSJ, 8/11/99, p.A1)(SFC,
8/12/99, p.A17)(SFC, 1/24/01, p.A4)
1999 Aug 11, Buford O. Furrow Jr.
surrendered to the FBI in Las Vegas and confessed to wounding 5 people
in LA and killing mail carrier Joseph Ileto (39). He said that he
wanted his act to be "a wakeup call to America to kill Jews."
(SFC, 8/12/99, p.A1,17)
1999 Aug 12, Los Angeles County
prosecutors charged white supremacist Buford O. Furrow (b.1961) with
murder and five counts of attempted murder, all filed as hate crimes,
in the August 10 wounding of five people at a Jewish community center
and the shooting death of a Filipino-American mail carrier. Federal
prosecutors already had charged Furrow in the postman’s slaying. In
2001 Furrow pleaded guilty to all of the counts against him. In
exchange for pleading guilty, Furrow avoided a possible death sentence,
but was instead sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of
parole. Furrow expressed no regrets for any of his crimes.
(AP,
8/12/00)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buford_O._Furrow,_Jr.)
1999 Aug 12, In Porterville, Ca.,
a man shot and killed his wife and 3 daughters (2,7,11). An explosion
resulted after the shooting when fire spread and ignited flammable
liquid.
(SFC, 8/14/99, p.C14)
1999 Aug 23, The State Supreme
Court ruled that Prop. 5, passed by 63% of the vote last Nov., was
illegal under a constitutional ban on Nevada-style casinos. Lawmakers
quickly scrambled to help save Indian gaming.
(SFC, 8/24/99, p.A1)(SFC, 8/25/99, p.A21)
1999 Aug 26, Monsignor Thomas
Keyes resigned from his post as financial officer of the Santa Rosa
Catholic diocese after heavy losses were discovered by church officials.
(SFC, 2/11/00, p.A1)
1999 Aug 27, Gov. Davis was
scheduled to sign legislation against cheap handguns with controls on
gun shows and a requirement for trigger locks on new firearm sales.
(SFC, 8/27/99, p.A1)
1999 Aug 28, The 33rd Renaissance
Pleasure Faire opened in Vacaville for a weekend run to Oct 17.
(SFC, 8/31/99, p.D1)
1999 Aug 28, Fires in the Trinity
Alps Wilderness began and burned over 86,000 acres by Oct 1 and
continued. The "Big Bar" fire burned for 71 days and covered 139,000
before rains helped to extinguish it in late Oct.
(SFC, 10/1/99, p.D6)(SFC, 11/2/99, p.A2)
1999 Sep 1, In Riverside the body
of a woman was found burned beyond recognition in an orange grove.
(SFC, 11/22/99, p.A24)
1999 Sep 4, Gov. Davis and Indian
tribes reached a tentative agreement on a ballot measure defining the
legal bounds of Indian gambling.
(SFEC, 9/5/99, p.C10)
1999 Sep 6, The dredge Stuyvesant
spilled an estimated 2,000 gallons of bunker fuel in Humboldt Bay
during dredging operations.
(SFC, 9/10/99, p.A19)
1999 Sep 8, The Hare fire began at
Los Padres National Forest and burned 35,000 acres by Oct 1 and
continued burning.
(SFC, 10/1/99, p.D6)
1999 Sep 10, Gov. Davis and the
leaders of 58 Indian tribes signed an agreement on gambling that
allowed the tribes to run casinos and the number of slot machines to
more than double.
(SFC, 9/11/99, p.A1)
1999 Sep 14, It was reported that
the $200 million Belmont Learning Complex in downtown LA was built over
an oil field plagued by explosive methane gas.
(SFC, 9/15/99, p.A22)
1999 Sep 14, The Agua Caliente
tribe of the Cahuilla Indians signed an agreement with Gov. Davis to
maintain operations of its casinos.
(SFC, 9/15/99, p.A22)
1999 Sep 14, In Anaheim, Ca., Dung
Trinh killed 3 employees at West Anaheim Medical Center during a
shooting spree. He was despondent over the death of his mother.
(SFC, 9/15/99, p.A6)
1999 Sep 17, The 42nd Monterey
Jazz Festival began.
(SFEC, 9/19/99, p.C13)
1999 Sep 21, In LA a special board
of inquiry opened a corruption probe into the Los Angeles Police Dept.
(SFC, 9/22/99, p.A3)
1999 Sep 22, Lightning ignited a
tire dump near Westley in the Central Valley near Tracy. On Oct 1 oil
from the burning tires later forced officials to hire a Texas strike
team to suppress the oil-based fire. The tire fire was reported
extinguished Oct 27.
(SFC, 9/23/99, p.A1)(SFC, 10/2/99, p.A17)(SFC,
10/29/99, p.A19)
1999 Sep 22, A 4.2 earthquake was
centered between Santa Rosa and Rohnert Park on the Healdsburg-Rogers
Creek Fault.
(SFC, 9/23/99, p.A19)
1999 Sep 27, Gov. Wilson signed a
comprehensive health care package that included a bill to allow
patients to sue their HMO for damages from denied treatments.
(SFC, 9/28/99, p.A1)
1999 Sep 29, A California appeals
court ruled that gunmakers can be held responsible for the criminal use
of their weapons. The ruling was made in association with the 1993 SF
massacre at 101 California.
(SFC, 9/30/99, p.A1)
1999 Sep 29, The Peninsula Open
Space Trust announced the $1 million acquisition of a 493-acre property
near the epicenter of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake.
(SFC, 9/30/99, p.A25)
1999 Sep 30, It was reported that
the Western oak beetle, P. pubipennis, and the oak ambrosia beetle, M.
scutellare, were decimating black, tan and coast live oak trees across
northern California. Sudden Oak Death was later attributed to a fungus
of the genus Phytophthora. The pathogen was later reported to be
related to a fungus that was destroying Port Orford cedars in the
Pacific Northwest. In 2001 it was reported that the pathogen had been
found on rhododendron plants in Europe and California. In 2001 it was
found that the compound phosphonate was effective in eliminating the
deadly lesions of sudden oak death.
(SFC, 9/30/99, p.A21,26)(SFC, 7/15/00, p.A17)(SFC,
8/1/00, p.A13)(SFC, 9/23/00, p.A1)(SFC, 1/11/01, p.A17)(SFC, 3/9/01,
p.A1)
1999 Sep 30, The punctured body of
Steve Foth, a SF record store owner, was found outside San Diego. Lena
Hixon (22), a prostitute, Willard Hall (19) and Ronie Sherrors were
later arrested and charged with murder, robbery and kidnapping.
(SFC, 10/18/99, p.A6)
1999 Oct 2, Gov. Davis signed 3
gay rights bills that included domestic partners benefits to state
workers and protection for gay and lesbian high school students.
(SFEC, 10/3/99, p.A1)
1999 Oct 4, Gov. Davis signed a
thrill-ride inspection bill into law. There had been 12 reported
amusement park deaths from 1973-1996.
(SFC, 10/5/99, p.A1)
1999 Oct 10, Dena Raley (36)
disappeared from Modesto.
(SFC, 4/21/03, p.A17)
1999 Oct 11, Gov. Davis signed a
California bill that required set a nurse-to-patient ratio of 1:6
beginning Jan 1, 2004. It was the 1st such law in the US. The ratio was
to go to 1:5 in 2005.
(WSJ, 10/12/99, p.AA1)(SFC, 3/4/05, p.A1)
1999 Oct 12, Wilt Chamberlain,
basketball legend, died at age 63 in Bel Air, Ca.
(SFC, 10/13/99, p.A1)
1999 Oct 16, A 7.0 earthquake,
centered near Joshua Tree, Ca., struck in the Mohave Desert. An Amtrak
train was derailed, but there were no deaths.
(SFEC, 10/17/99, p.A1)(WSJ, 10/18/99, p.A1)
1999 Oct 21, A van accident on
Highway 101 near Atascadero left 7 people dead from the Kingdom of
Jesus Christ church in Carson.
(SFC, 10/23/99, p.A1)
1999 Oct 21, H. Stuart Hughes,
Prof. of History at Harvard and later San Diego, died at age 83. His
work included 12 books with 6 on the intellectual and cultural history
of Europe, 2 general histories, 3 collections of essays and the
autobiography: "Gentleman Rebel: The Memoirs of H. Stuart Hughes."
(SFEC, 10/24/99, p.C7)
1999 Oct 22, Jan Davis (60),
co-owner of an aerial photography business in Santa Barbara, plunged to
her death during a skydiving stunt from El Capitan in Yosemite. The
stunt was to protest the banning of sport parachuting from cliffs in
national parks.
(SFC, 10/23/99, p.A1)
1999 Oct, Jon Hunt of Elk Grove,
Ca., won the Pumpkin contest at Half Moon Bay with a 991 pound gourd.
(Ind, 9/29/01, 5A)
1999 Nov 7, Joe Serna Jr. (60),
mayor of Sacramento, died from cancer. He became the city's first
Latino mayor in 1992.
(SFC, 11/8/99, p.A3)
1999 Nov 8, It was reported that
the California Nature Conservancy negotiated a deal with Denny Land
& Cattle to keep the 34,000-acre Denny Ranch near Red Bluff
permanently wild for $3 million.
(SFC, 11/8/99, p.A1)
1999 Nov 16, California sued the
federal government to block extensions on 36 undeveloped offshore oil
leases signed by the Clinton administration Nov 12.
(SFC, 11/17/99, p.A3)
1999 Nov 27, In Compton a taxi
collided with the southbound Blue Line train in a failed attempt to
beat the crossing. 6 people were killed.
(SFC, 11/29/99, p.A3)
1999 Nov 29, It was reported that
a Medi-Cal scam centered in the Armenian immigrant neighborhoods of Los
Angeles may total over $1 billion in fraud.
(SFC, 11/29/99, p.A3)
1999 Dec 1, Paul Loutzenhiser of
San Rafael was arrested on charges that he plotted with his son, Myles,
to murder his wife. Myles had contacted police and agreed to tape his
father hatching the plans. Loutzenhiser was convicted Aug 11, 2000. He
was sentenced 25 years to life.
(SFC, 8/12/00, p.A15)(SFC, 11/1/00, p.A23)
1999 Dec 4, Rose Bird (b.1936),
25th Chief Justice of the California’s highest court, died of cancer.
She had taught criminal and consumer law at Stanford Law School
(1972-1974). In 1977 she was appointed as chief justice by Governor
Edmund G. Brown, Jr. She left office in January 1987. As Chief Justice
she was chair of the Judicial Council of California, the constitutional
body responsible for improving state court administration.
(SFEC, 12/5/99,
p.A1)(www.law.stanford.edu/library/wlhbp/articles/RoseBird120699.htm)
1999 Dec 9, The Air Resources
Board approved a new gasoline formula that eliminated MTBE while
maintaining strict air quality requirements.
(SFC, 12/10/99, p.A1)
1999 Dec 9, Seven Marines were
killed after a CH-46 Sea Knight helicopter crashed while ferrying
troops between ships 14 miles off Point Loma, Ca.
(SFC, 12/10/99, p.A3)(SFC, 12/11/99, p.A3)
1999 Dec 10, The South Coast Air
Quality Management District (AQMD) reached an agreement with
environmentalists for cleaning up smog in the Los Angeles region with
specific deadlines through 2010.
(SFC, 12/11/99, p.A14)
1999 Dec 11, In Napa Silverio
Espinoza (49) barged into the house of his estranged wife, shot and
killed his daughter (19) and her boyfriend (21) and injured 5 others
before police shot and killed him.
(SFEC, 12/12/99, p.C5)
1999 Dec 14, In Mission Viejo,
Ca., a main water pipeline ruptured and cut supplies to 14 communities
in south Orange County.
(SFC, 12/15/99, p.A3)
1999 Robert Dawson and Gray
Brechin published "Farewell, Promised Land: Waking Up From the
California Dream," a photo-journalist documentation of the
environmental costs to the state's prosperity.
(SFEC, 4/18/99, BR p.1,8)
1999 Gerald W. Haslam, Alexandra
Haslam Russell and Richard Chon published "Workin' Man Blues: Country
Music in California."
(SFEC, 5/16/99, BR p.2)
1999 J.S. Holliday published "Rush
For Riches: Gold Fever and the Making of California."
(SFEC, 7/11/99, BR p.1)
1999 Margaret Owings (d.1999 at
85) published "Voice from the Sea: Reflections on Wildlife and
Wilderness." She was president of Friends of the Sea Otter when it was
founded in 1968 to the early 90s.
(SFC, 1/25/99, p.A20)
1999 Stephanie S. Princetl
authored "Transforming California: A Political History of Land Use and
Development."
(SFEC, 9/19/99, BR p.12)
1999 Gary Webb (1955-2004), San
Jose news reported, authored “Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and
the Crack Cocaine Explosion.”
(SFC, 12/13/04, p.B3)
1999 The Eclectic Orange Festival
began in Orange County.
(WSJ, 10/30/01, p.A21)
1999 The LS Staples Center, home
to the LA Clippers and Lakers, and the NHL Kings, was completed for
$375 million.
(SFC, 5/21/01, p.A3)
1999 Craig Williams helped launch
Architects Without Borders in Santa Rosa, Ca. The non-profit int’l.
humanitarian relief organization aimed to provide technical assistance
for communities recovering from natural disasters, conflicts and
chronic economic problems.
(SFCM, 8/28/05, p.4)
1999 California lost $52 million
on a computer system that was to have allowed county welfare offices to
communicate with each other.
(SFEC, 8/8/99, Z1 p.6)
1999 The Palisades Trail, part of
the Robert Louis Stevenson State park, was expected to be completed in
the hills above Napa Valley.
(SFC,11/25/97, p.A15)
1999 Ron Burkle (46), California
businessman, sold his food chains, including Alpha Beta, Ralph’s and
Food 4 Less, to Kroger for $13 billion.
(SFC, 5/2/06, p.D1)
1999 Hollinger Int'l. led by
Conrad Black purchased the Mammoth Times of Mammoth Lakes, Ca., for
$1.75 million. Less than 2 years later it was sold to Horizon
Publications, controlled by Black and COO David Radler, for $1.
(WSJ, 1/30/04, p.A1)
1999 California’s Coyote Valley
Dam fish imprinting facility at Lake Mendocino was established as
mitigation for the construction of the dam in 1959. In 2006 a hatchery
accident killed some 100,000 yearling trout.
(SFC, 1/21/06, p.B1)
2000 Jan 1, In California the
Uniform Electronic Transactions Act became law. It validated all
transactions formed, transmitted and recorded electronically, with
certain exemptions. The California Student Safety and Violence
Prevention Act became law.
(SFEC, 1/2/00, p.B1)(SFEC, 1/30/00, p.D1)
2000 Jan 4, Two gunmen broke into
the home of Kim Fang (49), a retired plastic surgeon, in Alamo. Fang
killed one man, wounded the other and was himself killed. The thieves
were identified as Mesa Kasem (22) and Soknoeum Nem (21), both members
of a Stockton street gang called the Asian Street Walkers. In 2002
Soknoeum Nem was found guilty of 1st degree murder. Nem was sentenced
to life in prison.
(SFC, 1/6/00, p.A1)(SFC, 1/7/00, p.A17)(SFC,
6/19/02, p.A15)(SFC, 7/26/02, p.A23)
2000 Jan 5, Gov. Davis declared a
"war on mediocrity in our public schools." He called for greater
incentives to teachers and a financial rewards program for students.
(SFC, 1/6/00, p.A1)
2000 Jan 7, It was reported that
some 142 known gangs operated in Stockton with at least 2,900 members.
(SFC, 1/7/00, p.A17)
2000 Jan 11, Pres Clinton signed a
proclamation for the California Coastal National Monument, which
includes thousands of islands, rocks and reefs along the 840 mile
California coast.
(SFC, 1/12/00, p.A3)(WSJ, 1/12/00, p.A4)
2000 Jan 14, In Modesto police
officers Kevin Bertalotto (41) and Chuck Cahoone (34) were injured and
Miguel Peralta Torres (41) was killed during a robbery at a jewelry
store. 3 people escaped the scene. Police later arrested Miguel's
sister Socorro Peralta Torres (42).
(SFC, 1/15/00, p.A19)(SFEC, 1/16/00, p.C4)
2000 Jan 24, Robert Hertzberg was
elected the next Speaker of the Assembly.
(SFC, 1/25/00, p.A3)
2000 Jan 25, The LA School Board
voted 5 to 2 to abandon the toxic site where the costly Belmont
Learning Complex was under construction due to the presence of
explosive methane gas. $135 million was spent on the 35-acre site.
(SFC, 1/26/00, p.A4)
2000 Jan 31, Alaska Airlines
Flight 261, an MD-83 jet with 88 people bound for Seattle from Puerto
Vallarta, Mexico, crashed about 2.7 miles north of Anacapa Island, Ca.
There were no survivors. A stop had been scheduled in SF.
(SFC, 2/1/00,
p.A1)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaska_Airlines_Flight_261)
2000 Jan, In 2004 accounting
records from a Washington state energy case detailed how Enron traders
manipulated the Western energy market on 88% of 537 days between Jan
2000 and June 2001 reaping profits of $1.1 billion.
(SFC, 6/15/04, p.E1)
2000 Feb 1, In downtown Sonoma 13
businesses were burned at the Marketplace Shopping Center on Napa
St. with $5 million in damage. Geoffrey Meyers was arrested on
suspicion of arson along with 2 teenagers.
(SFC, 2/5/00, p.A19)
2000 Feb 7, Two small planes
collided over the Sylmar section of northeast Los Angeles and 4 people
were killed as debris fell on the Cascades Golf Club.
(SFC, 2/8/00, p.A11)(WSJ, 2/8/00, p.A1)
2000 Feb 10, Gil Garcetti, LA
district attorney, said that as many as 100 cases had been tainted by
planted evidence, false testimony and other police abuses. His office
had found over 40 people wrongly prosecuted by officers of the LAPD
Rampart Division. In 2005 LA said it would pay $70 million to settle
some 214 lawsuits related to the Ramparts Division.
(SFC, 2/11/00, p.A3)(SFC, 2/26/00, p.A3)(SFC,
4/1/05, p.A3)
2000 Feb 10, In Rohnert Park 2
women were stabbed to death and a suspect was taken into custody.
Matthew Shawn Beck (26) was later charged in the slaying of Sandra
Lorraine Napier (36) and her mother, Marcella Yvonne Napier (63).
(SFC, 2/11/00, p.A20)(SFC, 4/7/00, p.D6)
2000 Feb 12, Charles Schulz
(b.1922), creator of the Peanuts cartoon, died in Santa Rosa,
California, at age 77. His final cartoon was scheduled to run in the
Feb 13 Sunday newspapers. In 2007 David Michaelis authored “Schulz and
Peanuts: A Biography.”
(SFEC, 2/13/00, p.A1)(AP, 2/12/01)(WSJ, 10/12/07,
p.W5)
2000 Feb 16, An Emory Worldwide
DC-8 crashed after lifting off from Mather Airport near Sacramento and
all 3 crew members were killed. A disconnected part in the control
system was later blamed for the crash.
(SFC, 2/17/00, p.A1)(SFC, 4/21/01, p.A2)
2000 Feb 17, The state PUC
approved a $453 million rate increase for PG&E effective
immediately. Average residential bills were expected to increase $70
per year.
(SFC, 2/18/00, p.A1)
2000 Feb 23, At Pelican Bay State
Prison guards shot and killed one prisoner and wounded 15 others as
they quelled a prison yard riot between some 150 black and Latino
inmates. Prison officials found 89 knives made by inmates at the site
of the brawl.
(SFC, 2/24/00, p.A1)(SFC, 2/25/00, p.A1)
2000 Feb 23, Professors at UC
Santa Cruz voted to require letter grading for the 1st time in the 35
year history of the campus.
(SFC, 2/24/00, p.A17)
2000 Feb 25, Rafael Perez, ex-Los
Angeles police officer, was sentenced to 5 years in prison for stealing
8 pounds of cocaine in 1998. As part of his plea bargain Perez exposed
corruption in the LAPD Rampart Division.
(SFC, 2/26/00, p.A3)
2000 Mar 3, Bernard Parks, chief
of the LA Police Dept., ordered the disbanding of the anti-gang units
called Community Resources Against Street Hoodlums. The units were
formed in the 1970s under Chief Daryl Gates.
(SFC, 3/4/00, p.A3)
2000 Mar 3, A mother, Sandy
Mitchell, and 6 children were killed on a remote stretch of North
Livermore Ave. when their van blew a tire, hit a tree and erupted in
flames. The father, Dennis Mitchell, survived the crash.
(SFC, 3/4/00, p.A1)(SFEC, 3/5/00, p.A1)
2000 Mar 6, Gasoline prices in
California reached an average $1.63 per gallon.
(SFC, 3/7/00, p.A1)
2000 Mar 6, California voters
passed Prop. 22, the gay marriage ban authored by Sen. Pete Knight
(d.2004), and Prop. 1A, an approval of Indian gaming rights. Prop. 1A
enabled tribes to negotiate compacts with the state to operate casinos
with slot machines and house banking.
(SFC, 3/9/00, p.A1)(SSFC, 6/1/03, p.D6)
2000 Mar 8, Large casinos
announced plans to expand tribal casinos following the approval of
Proposition 1A.
(SFC, 3/9/00, p.A1)
2000 Mar 13, The Tribune Co.
bought the LA Times in a $6.5 billion merger with the Times Mirror Co.
This ended 119 years of ownership of the LA Times by the Otis and
Chandler families.
(SFC, 3/14/00, p.A1)
2000 Mar 13, The glassy-winged
sharpshooter, Homalodisca coagulata, was reported to be causing severe
damage to grape leaves in southern California. The pest also
transmitted Pierce's disease, which could devastate wine crops.
(WSJ, 3/13/00, p.B1)
2000 Mar 15, Darrell Keith Rich
(45), serial killer, was executed at San Quentin, Ca. His was the 8th
execution in the state since the reinstitution of the death penalty.
(SFC, 3/15/00, p.A1)(SFC, 12/13/05, p.A13)
2000 Mar 16, Gov. Davis and other
constitutional officers were given a 6.1% salary increase. Davis'
annual salary would become $175,000 if accepted.
(SFC, 3/17/00, p.A3)
2000 Mar 31, Gov. Davis planned to
sign a bill to make this birthdate of Cesar Chavez a state holiday. The
bill got stuck in the Assembly and only a resolution honoring Chavez
was passed.
(SFC, 3/29/00, p.A3)(SFC, 3/31/00, p.A3)
2000 Apr 8, The California Music
Awards ceremonies in SF (Cammies) gave 5 awards to the LA band Rage
Against the Machine.
(SFEC, 4/9/00, p.C9)
2000 Apr 11, Pope John Paul II
appointed Las Vegas Bishop G. Patrick Ziemann as the Bishop of the
Santa Rosa Diocese.
(SFC, 4/12/00, p.A1)
2000 Apr 15, Pres. Clinton created
Giant Sequoia National Monument in Sequoia National Park. It protected
328,000 acres and 34 groves of Sequoias from timber harvest within 2
½ years.
(SFEC, 4/16/00, p.C7)
2000 Apr 18, Richelle Cherry (21)
disappeared in Seaside in Monterey County. Her body was discovered July
3 in a shallow grave near some abandoned barracks at Fort Ord.
(SFC, 5/17/00, p.A23)(SFC, 7/7/00, p.A24)
2000 Apr, Online DMV car
registration in California was set to begin on a limited basis.
(SFC, 1/19/00, p.A3)
2000 Apr, Jacob “Koki” Orgad (44)
was arrested for leading a smuggling ring that imported millions of
dollars worth of Ecstasy from France. The [Rave] party drug was
increasingly popular among teenagers and young adults.
(SFC, 6/14/00, p.A10)
2000 Apr, Sarah Phillips (13) was
found strangled to death at her home in Vacaville, Ca. Curtis Wilson
(19) was arrested and later convicted of murder and attempted rape,
based on DNA evidence. The conviction was upheld by the California’s
Supreme Court in 2006.
(SFC, 7/7/06, p.B2)
2000 Apr, Harold Patton, former
stage manager for Ray Charles, died at age 71 in Burbank. Over his life
Patton amassed the largest collection of African-American literature in
the country.
(SFCM, 12/10/00, p.11)
2000 May 8, Some 8,000 teachers
rallied in Sacramento for more education funding.
(SFC, 5/9/00, p.A17)
2000 May 11, It was reported that
the glassy-winged sharpshooter bug was found in grapevines near Lodi.
The bug spreads Pierce’s disease, which is lethal to grapevines.
(SFC, 5/11/00, p.A3)
2000 May 12, Jane Davenport
Jansen, founder of the Quarryhill Botanical Garden in Glen Ellen, died
at age 60.
(SFC, 5/18/00, p.A25)
2000 May 27, In Los Angeles the
stabbed bodies of Albert Patton (90) and wheel-chair bound Edna Patton
were found in their home. The couple were philanthropists in their poor
community. Steve Jackson (35), a cocaine addict and former tenant, was
later arrested for the murder.
(SFC, 6/7/00, p.A4)
2000 May 27, Three men (17-24)
were shot and killed in Santa Cruz and police arrested 3 men (18-20)
from Watsonville for the murders.
(SFEC, 5/28/00, p.C2)
2000 May 28, Lori Gonzalez (19),
the granddaughter of Police Chief Bernard Parks, was shot and killed by
a gang member targeting her companion, Ernest Gray. Samuel Sharad
Shabazz (18) was arrested for the shooting 11 days later.
(SFC, 6/9/00, p.A5)
2000 May, In Sacramento the new
$48 million Raley Field baseball park opened for the River Cats AAA
team. It was the most expensive minor league ballpark ever built.
(SSFC, 6/24/01, p.T8)
2000 Jun 6, A state of emergency
was declared in Marin county due to the rapid spread of a mysterious
disease that killed oak trees. Sudden Oak Death was first reported in
1995. The death of the oak trees was later attributed to a fungus of
the genus Phytophtora, the same kind of organism that caused the Irish
potato famine from 1840-1850.
(SFC, 6/7/00, p.A17)(SFC, 8/1/00, p.A13)
2000 Jun 8, Five people were
killed in a van crash on State Route 65 north of Bakersfield. The dead
included 3 prisoners and a federal marshal.
(SFC, 6/9/00, p.A4)
2000 Jun 11, The 1612 “Le
Carrousel du Roi,” a French equestrian ballet, was reconstructed at
Heather Farms Park, Walnut Creek, as part of the 6th biennial Berkeley
Festival and Exhibition.
(SFEC, 6/4/00, DB p.38)(SFEC, 6/11/00, p.D9)
2000 Jun 12, The 100th US Open
Golf Championship began at Pebble Beach in Monterey County.
(SFC, 6/8/00, p.A1)
2000 Jun 14, It was reported that
the Picayune Rancheria tribe of the Chukchansi Indians planned a $167
million casino on Highway 41 at Coarsegold, 25 miles outside of
Yosemite National Park.
(SFC, 6/14/00, p.A1)
2000 Jun 16, A fire In Napa Valley
at a warehouse of the Korbell Champagne Cellars, the Frank-Rombauer
Cellars, destroyed 85-90 thousand cases of wine and damage was
estimated at up to $40 million.
(SFC, 6/17/00, p.A13)
2000 Jun 23, The federal
government pledged over $22 million to help fight the glassy-winged
sharpshooter, a pest threatening the California vineyards.
(SFC, 6/24/00, p.A1)
2000 Jun 23, In Gilroy a
firebombing of a home on Second Street left 3 people dead. Police later
arrested Gilbert Guzman (21), James Rusich (25) and Michael Carl
Freitas (18) on charges of murder and arson.
(SFC, 7/14/00, p.A19)
2000 Jun 24, The last leg of the
Red Line subway in Los Angeles opened. The 17.4 mile LA subway took 15
years to build at a cost of $4.7 billion.
(SFC, 6/24/00, p.A1,15)
2000 Jun 28, Chuck Quackenbush,
state insurance commissioner, resigned from office.
(SFC, 6/29/00, p.A1)
2000 Jun 30, Gov. Davis signed a
$94.4 billion budget, the largest in California’s history.
(SFC, 7/1/00, p.A1)
2000 Jun, The 33 prisons in
California housed 161,000 inmates.
(SFC, 7/11/00, p.A28)
2000 Jul 19, The Peninsula Open
space Trust announced that it would purchase Bolsa Point Ranches, 1,719
acres of coastal land south of Pescadero, for $39 million.
(SFC, 7/20/00, p.A1)
2000 Jul 21, In Monterey Park, LA
Ct., Richard Flores (42) was stabbed to death along with his 3
children, aged 13-17, as they slept. His wife, Sylvia was wounded. An
adopted daughter (16) and her boyfriend (17) were arrested for the
murders.
(SFC, 7/28/00, p.A6)
2000 Jul 22, Christopher McCulloch
(13) and Blaine Talmo Jr. (14) were bludgeoned to death on a school
playground in La Crescenta, Ca. Michael Demirdjian (15) was later
convicted and sentenced to 2 consecutive 25-years-to-life terms for
murder by torture.
(SFC, 10/25/06, p.B12)
2000 Jul 25, Thousands of tons of
anchovies washed up on the beaches near Half Moon Bay. The die-off was
said to be an annual event and some said it was the largest in 10 years.
(SFC, 7/25/00, p.A1)
2000 Jul 31, Gov. Davis named
Justice Harry Low (69) to succeed Chuck Quackenbush as insurance
commissioner.
(SFC, 8/1/00, p.A1)
2000 Jul 31, A fire in the Sequoia
National Forest swelled to over 63,000 acres and it was estimated to
take nearly 2 weeks to surround it.
(SFC, 8/1/00, p.A3)
2000 Aug 8, Audiotapes recorded
Enron traders deliberately congesting Western power lines: “If you can
congest it, that’s a moneymaker no matter what.”
(SFC, 6/15/04, p.A1)
2000 Aug 13, Gunmen robbed a
Costco store in Van Nuys and shot and killed one shopper, Owen
Alexander Wolf (29), and wounded 2 others. Suspect Ramon Gutierrez (38)
was wounded and arrested. 2 others escaped with a driver.
(SFC, 8/15/00, p.A3)
2000 Aug 14, The Democratic
convention opened in Los Angeles at Staples Auditorium. Demonstrators
fought with police following a concert by the band Rage Against the
Machine as Pres. Clinton spoke. The concert followed a “March of
Corporate Shame” through downtown LA.
(SFC, 8/15/00, p.A5)
2000 Aug 18, Gov. Davis officially
established March 31 as a state holiday to honor Cesar Chaves, the
Latino labor leader (d.1993).
(SFC, 8/19/00, p.A20)
2000 Aug 23, Pres. Clinton ordered
millions in relief funds for electricity users in southern California
and an investigation into the state’s power market.
(SFC, 8/24/00, p.A1)
2000 Aug 23, In Merced County
Jonathon David Bruce (27) stabbed to death 2 children, Ashley and John
William Carpenter (9&7), with a pitchfork. Bruce was shot and
killed by sheriff deputies.
(SFC, 8/25/00, p.A10)
2000 Sep 3, The Paul Bunyan Days
logging show was held in Fort Bragg.
(SFC, 9/4/00, p.A1)
2000 Sep 3, A 5.2 earthquake was
centered in Napa and injured over 40 people.
(SFC, 9/4/00, p.A1)
2000 Sep 2, In Stockton Richard R.
Brown (27), an unemployed cook, stabbed to death his father,
grandmother, girlfriend and her toddler. Brown was arrested Sept. 4.
(SFC, 9/6/00, p.A7)
2000 Sep 9, California celebrated
its 150th birthday. The end of the statewide Sesquicentennial
Celebration. It began Jan 24, 1988 in honor of the gold rush and ended
on the 150th anniversary of statehood.
(SFEC, 1/4/98, Z1p.4)(SFC, 9/8/00, p.A3)
2000 Sep 12, Gov. Davis signed a
huge expansion of the Cal Grant program and committed at least $1.2
billion annually for eligible college students.
(SFC, 9/11/00, p.A1)
2000 Sep 13, It was reported that
state Board of Equalization had substantially reduced the property
assessments of large corporations over the last 10 years, as
assessments on private homes and commercial property climbed.
(SFC, 9/13/00, p.A1)
2000 Sep 15, The 43rd annual
Monterey Jazz Festival opened.
(SFC, 9/18/00, p.F3)
2000 Sep 16, In Los Angeles bus
drivers went on strike.
(SFEC, 9/17/00, p.A2)
2000 Sep 18, In Sacramento Tou
Tong Xiong (52) shot and killed a security guard at a Social Security
office and wounded a bystander. He was upset over being denied a claim.
(SFC, 9/19/00, p.A8)
2000 Sep 19, Gov. Davis signed
into law a bill that required testers of consumer products to use
federally alternatives to animals.
(SFC, 9/20/00, p.A1)
2000 Sep 30, Gov. Davis signed
legislation to extend low-cost health care for the poor and a bill to
continue health coverage for children of legal immigrants.
(SFEC, 10/1/00, p.D1)
2000 Oct 4, The trial of 4 LAPD
officers began. Edward Ortiz, Brian Liddy, Paul Harper and Michael
Buchanan stood trial under accusations by former officer Rafael Perez,
who received a lenient sentence for stealing $1 million in cocaine from
a police evidence room in exchange for testifying on Rampart anti-gang
officer misconduct.
(SFC, 10/5/00, p.A3)
2000 Oct 5, The state Supreme
Court ruled that an employer can fire an employee if the company has a
legitimate business reason to do so.
(SFC, 10/6/00, p.A1)
2000 Oct 17, The month long Los
Angeles transit authority strike ended following negotiations brokered
by Jesse Jackson.
(SFC, 10/18/00, p.A3)
2000 Oct 20, In Yreka Edward
Lansdale (68) shot and wounded Amber Pierce (26) during his trial for
sex crimes against Pierce. Lansdale also wounded Pierce’s husband
before taking his own life at the Siskiyou County courthouse.
(SFC, 10/21/00, p.A3)
2000 Oct 23, The state Industrial
Welfare Commission voted to increase the minimum wage to $6.75 over 2
years.
(SFC, 10/24/00, p.A3)
2000 Oct 25, Gov. Wilson announced
a .25% cut in the sales tax.
(SFC, 10/26/00, p.A3)
2000 Nov 7, Voters in Mendocino
County faced Measure G, which would forbid local sheriff’s deputies
from arresting anyone with 25 or less flowering female marijuana plants.
(SFC, 10/29/00, p.A5)
2000 Nov 5, An Amtrak train hit a
truck and derailed in Ventura County. Sergio Mendoza (29), the truck
driver, was killed.
(SFC, 11/6/00, p.A3)
2000 Nov 7, California voters
approved Prop 39 for school bonds to pass with a 55% majority. Prop 36,
the Substance Abuse and Crime Prevention Act, was also approved. It
called for transferring drug arrestees from the criminal justice system
into treatment programs. Voters approved Prop. 1A, a pro-Indian
gambling measure.
(SFC, 11/9/00, p.A1)(SFC, 11/13/00, p.A1)(SFC,
5/11/04, p.B8)
2000 Nov 9, William Leonard
Pickard (55) and Clyde Apperson (45) of California were indicted by a
grand jury in Kansas City for running a massive LSD laboratory inside a
decommissioned nuclear missile silo in Wamego, Ka. Leonard was
sentenced on November 25, 2003 to two concurrent life sentences without
parole. Apperson was sentenced on November 24, 2003 to 30 years of
imprisonment without the possibility of parole.
(SFC, 12/7/00,
p.A1)(http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle-old/313/pickard.shtml)
2000 Nov 15, In Los Angeles 2
police sergeants and one officer were convicted on conspiracy charges,
falsifying arrests and lying in sworn court testimony.
(SFC, 11/16/00, p.A1)
2000 Nov 30, The state Supreme
Court ruled that the 1996 Proposition 209 banned state and local
governments from giving preferences to women and minorities in
contracting, hiring and college admissions.
(SFC, 12/1/00, p.A1)
2000 Dec 8, The Federal Energy
Regulatory Commission (FERC) lifted California’s $250 per megawatt-hour
price cap and prices skyrocketed. Enron Corp. issued internal
memorandums that its schemes to boost profits had nearly caused the
lights to go out in California.
(SSFC, 2/4/01, p.A18)(SFC, 5/10/02, p.A1)
2000 Dec 8, US Representative
Julian Dixon died at age 66. He represented the west Los Angeles 32nd
district since 1979.
(SFC, 12/9/00, p.A12)
2000 Dec 11, PG&E warned that
it could soon run out of money due to high power demands and lack of
reserves.
(SFC, 12/12/00, p.A1)
2000 Dec 13, The US energy
secretary exercised emergency authority and ordered 12 generating
companies to sell power to California.
(SFC, 12/14/00, p.A1)
2000 Dec 15, The US Congress added
the Dillonwood Grove, 1,540 acres, to Sequoia National Park.
(SFC, 12/19/00, p.A25)
2000 Dec 19, Four companies in LA
County agreed to pay $73 million to help clean an ocean dump used for
DDT. Montrose Chemical, Aventis Crop-Science USA, Chris-Craft
Industries and Atkemix Thirty Seven Inc. settled the suit.
(SFC, 12/20/00, p.A3)
2000 Dec 22, A judge overturned
the convictions of 3 police officers (Ortiz, Liddy, Buchanan) in the
Rampart corruption scandal. Judge Jacqueline Connor said the jury
focused on the wrong point of law.
(SFC, 12/23/00, p.A1)
2000 Dec 24, Susan Berman (55),
writer and Las Vegas mobster’s daughter, was found slain in her Los
Angeles home. She authored “Easy Street” in 1981.
(SFC, 1/5/01, p.A1,14)
2000 Dec 31, Former California
Sen. Alan Cranston died at age 86.
(SFC, 1/1/01, p.A1)
2000 Dec, California applied for
federal approval for a supplemental health insurance program called
Healthy Families. It was approved in Jan, 2002.
(SFC, 1/24/02, p.A3)
2000 The Bancroft Library released
a new set of taped lectures on California history featuring historians
J.S. Holliday, James Rawls and Robert Hirst.
(SFC, 1/1/01, p.A22)
2000 Dolan H. Eargle Jr. authored
“Native California Guide: Weaving the Past and Present.” It surveyed
143 present-day California Indian communities.
(SFC, 12/31/00, BR p.12)
2000 Jack Foley authored “”O
Powerful Western Star: Poetry & Art in California.” The book
included a 50-page, 50-year timeline of creative expression.
(SFC, 4/13/00, p.B1)
2000 Construction on the new UC
Merced campus was scheduled to begin. Environmental concerns delayed
construction.
(SFC, 1/16/98, p.A17)(SFC, 1/1/01, p.A15)
2000 A jury awarded $88.5 million
in lawyer’s fees after a DMV smog-impact fee, charged to out-of-state
drivers moving to Ca., was overturned. This amounted to $8,000 an hour.
An appeal panel reduced the award to $18.2 million in 2002.
(SFC, 7/23/02, p.A14)
2000 In San Diego 8 teenagers
(14-17) were charged with robbing and beating 5 migrant nursery workers
(55-69). The teenagers were charged as adults under Prop 21. The
teenagers challenged the juvenile justice law.
(SFC, 12/5/01, p.A1)
2000 In Ukiah, Ca., the Ukiah
Brewing Company became the 2nd certified organic restaurant in the US.
(SFC, 12/31/03, p.E7)
2000 The Carrizo Plain, a quarter
million acres of San Joaquin Valley grassland, was declared a National
Monument in the closing days of the Clinton administration. It is
located between San Luis Obispo and Bakersfield.
(SSFC, 9/30/01, p.T5)
2000 In California some 116,000
teenagers became pregnant and almost 44,000 of them chose to have an
abortion, including 1,620 under the age of 15.
(Econ, 10/15/05, p.34)
2000 California Fish and Game
Dept. began looking into bird deaths at Searles Lake in Searles Valley,
San Bernardino County. From 2001-2007 some 348 to 706 birds died at the
lake each year. Searles Valley Minerals, formerly IMC Chemicals,
produced soda ash, boron minerals and sodium sulfate there and pumped
spent brine to form the lake. The birds had died of salt toxicosis. The
lake was also a natural repository of arsenic. Numerous area workers
complained of health problems following their employment. In 2008 the
company was sold by an affiliate of Sun Capital Partners Inc. to Nirma
Ltd., an India-based company.
(SSFC, 7/6/08, p.A10)(SFC, 7/7/08, p.A9)
2000-2001 Enron made almost $1 billion off of
California’s energy crises during this period. In 2006 Timothy Belden,
the architect of Enron’s market manipulation schemes, said the profits
came during the 9 months at the height of the crisis. He admitted to
shipping power out of California and then selling it back, creating the
appearance of a shortage, and jacking up prices.
(SFC, 3/2/06, p.C1)
2000-2001 A new 70-acre shopping mall in El Dorado
County will feature the old Missouri Flat cemetery in a 3-acre preserve
in the parking lot.
(WSJ, 12/16/98, p.CA3)
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Subject = California
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