New postmaster is sworn in

When Victor Maldonado was a boy, his father drove a yellow Volkswagen. And his father's song, played on the car's 8-track tape player, was "Please Mr. Postman," by The Marvelettes. His theme song was well-chosen, because Victor's father worked for the United States Postal Service.

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Anonymous donor helps student go to conference

Overcoming the challenges of dyslexia to become a stellar student, Justin Grissom is accustomed to defying overwhelming odds. But coming up with more than $2,000 so he could attend an upcoming Washington D.C. student conference was daunting, but still not too much for the rooted-in-faith Grissom family.

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IN BRIEF

Eleventh Street will be closed between Main Street and Smoketree from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. March 30-31. This closure will allow the contractor to grind and repave Eleventh Street for the new Walgreens development.

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Former supervisor dies

John Joyner, the former county supervisor who conducted a study addressing the feasibility of the High Desert breaking off and forming its own county, died Monday, March 20 at a hospital in Palm Springs. He was 76.

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Marriott Courtyard hotel planned for Hesperia

Hesperia's skyline is about to get a bit taller in 2007.

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Graffiti costs city $150,000 annually

A permanent marker costs less than $2 at area stores. Graffiti clean-up - whether the graffiti comes from markers, paint and other materials - has a somewhat higher price tag: The City of Hesperia annually pays out more than $150,000 to clean up graffiti around the city.

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Hesperia Elks announce scholarship winners and runners

Richard Garcia, Exalted Ruler of the Hesperia Elks Lodge #2646 recently announced the names of the six students who will each receive $800 from "The Most Valuable Student" state program.

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VOICES: Turtle Tales by Margaret E. Furman

Road rage, pipe bombs, potholes, gridlock and high speed chases down the freeway are traffic conditions that are present on the High Desert as they are down below. Only the relative number of incidents and the degree of impact on our life style is debatable. Just reciting the list makes me stress out.

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A VIEW FROM MAIN STREET

It's interesting to see how differently the Mojave Water Agency's board of directors and the Hesperia City Council handled respective controversies regarding one of their own. Recently, MWA director Richard Hall, who is also on the Hesperia Recreation Park District board, was accused of failing to pay up on an employee contract he had with a woman he met on a single's Web site. Although Hall's situation is still being looked at, the MWA board of directors asked Hall to resign his position.

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Frontier Homes celebrates with open house soiree

There was a fountain of chocolate, drinks from the bar, a colorful selection of culinary goodies -- coconut shrimp, bruschetta and pasta primavera, to name just a sample -- and, of course, a long, red carpet.

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VOICES: TAD HONEYCUTT

It wasn't all that long ago that High Desert residents had to pack up the family and drive 45-minutes down the hill to do anything but our most basic shopping. Fortunately, those days have long since passed. Now, instead of going to the shopping centers and theaters down the hill, those retail, dining and entertainment opportunities have, literally, come to our neighborhoods.

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Ready, set ... talk

As a member of the Victor Valley College faculty, Mimi Sawan of Guardian Medical was accustomed to addressing people, but her fear of public speaking never really went away.

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VOICES: GIL ZANK

The Coffee Club resulted from a Regional Ambassador meeting in 1993. There, I met an ambassador from San Bernardino who mentioned a weekly event they had -- at that time 75 to 100 people were attending at 7:30 a.m. -- for free coffee and donut holes. It was very successful.

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SHERIFF'S LOG

Unknown suspects are identified by race only for the purpose of aiding identification.

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Mr. Podegracz (et al) goes to Washington

Hesperia officials are looking to put more of residents' tax dollars to work on major city projects. They aren't looking to raise taxes, however, but to bring some federal tax revenue back from Washington.

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ROOM TO GROW

Hesperia's explosive growth rate has meant local government has had to scramble to keep up with demand for services, whether it's having enough classrooms for students, staff at the city planning department able to meet the needs of builders or a library large enough for a city of 80,000 residents.

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School district moves from portables into former Main Street medical building

For years, the Hesperia Unified School District's administrators, who oversee everything from hiring teachers to what food gets served in the school cafeteria, have been squatting on the edge of Mesa Grande Elementary School's campus.

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Oxford Owls land in their own nest

Hesperia's sixth graders got their own schools this year, separate from the student bodies of the city's elementary and middle schools. But the best laid plans of mice and educators often go awry, and both sixth grade academies ended up living under the same roof due to construction delays.

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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Should churches and synagogues be owned and operated by the government? Should church and synagogue attendance be compulsory? Should taxpayers be taxed for the support of churches and synagogues?

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SHERIFF'S LOG

Unknown suspects are identified by race only for the purpose of aiding identification.

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HESPERIA UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT POLICE LOG

* A female person was cited for battery and annoying a child at Ranchero Middle School.

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Another cheerleader photo

Here's an additional photo of the victorious Sultana High School cheerleaders.

Sultana cheerleaders top of the California pyramid

Sultana cheerleading coach Dale Ford's letterman's jacket has arms armored with state championship patches. For the second time in two years, Ford will have to find room for another patch in the shape of the state of California.

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Middle school under lockdown after apparent false tip to CHP

Ranchero Middle School was under lockdown last Friday morning after law enforcement authorities received an anonymous call that a gunman was in a classroom at "Rancho" Middle School. The tip proved to be apparently false.

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ExCEL program means grants for teachers and scholarships for students

The Hesperia Unified School District's ExCEL program not only pays off for students who take part in the program, which provides additional for students based on their specific educational needs, but it's also providing Hesperia's teachers with more resources and, starting this year, graduates with scholarships to help continue their education.

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In Brief

The westbound Main Street #2 lane between 9th and 11th Street will be closed between 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. on March 14-16. The closure will allow for street improvements required for a new development project along the north side of Main Street.

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'Our kids are in very good hands'

After shadowing Hesperia Junior principal Larry Silverman for most of a school day last Wednesday, Alan E. Adams experienced an epiphany: Today's public schools are different than when he was a student decades ago, but that's OK.

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Desert Studies by Richard Doornbos

Are you aware that, sometime on any given night, one can view about forty percent of the night sky? All the constellations and planets that are not too near the Sun at present and after dark can be viewed. Only about ten percent of the sky, in the proximity of the setting or rising Sun, can not be viewed. But not the stars, and constellations normally visible during the daytime.

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School District Police Log

* An unknown suspect removed an unattended MP3 player at Hesperia High School.

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Sheriff's Log

Unknown suspects are identified by race only for the purpose of aiding identification.

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Letter to the Editor

March is Red Cross Month. Each year, the President of the United States declares March "Red Cross Month." This annual event provides a unique opportunity to think about the important role the Red Cross plays every day right here in the High Desert.

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A View From Main Street

When most of us think of heroes we think of brawny firefighters or police officers dressed in handsome blue. We think of the quarterback on our favorite football team, or perhaps a singer who belts out a heartfelt anthem for a generation. But heroes who often go unnoticed are the men and women of the local Citizens on Patrol who give countless hours of volunteer time to supplement the force of San Bernardino County Sheriff deputies stationed here in Hesperia.

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Carlo's Car Care Corner, by Carlo Berro

In our last column, we talked about budgeting for car repairs in the new year. It can be a very difficult decision to make, whether or not to buy a new car or to repair the one you have. For those of you who choose to get a new car, most of your repairs should be covered under a warranty or extended warranty that is offered by the car manufacturers through the dealer. And, for those of you who decided to keep you cars or purchase maybe a pre-owned vehicle, there are still basic maintenance and repairs that you need to have done in order to keep these cars in good shape.

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Door opens for Hesperia Star cartoonist

Cartoonist David Penn II waited so long for this, it wasn't even funny.

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Congratulations to Freedom Award winner Carmen Gutierrez

Carmen Gutierrez, staff writer for the Hesperia Star's sister newspaper, El Mojave, won a 2006 Best of Freedom award for her article "Un Piano, rosas y un amor."

Congratulations, Carmen!

Here's a link to Carmen's award-winning story.

Banana museum slips into Hesperia

Unique collection finds new home at park district-run Harrison Exhibit Center

The city of starry nighttime skies, tumbleweeds a-tumblin' and new houses aplenty is now the official home to one of the most unique attractions in the world -- the International Banana Club Museum.

(Read more here.)

School officials call Hesperia campuses safe, monitor Apple Valley abduction scares

In the face of a rising number of apparent abduction attempts around Apple Valley schools, Hesperia Unified School District officials say Hesperia schools are safe and well-monitored by school police and sheriff's deputies.

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In Brief

The Hesperia Sheriff's Station will be hosting the next Citizens on Patrol Academy beginning on April 17. Anyone 18 years or older who is interested in becoming a volunteer is encouraged to contact their local police station for an application. The deadline for applying is March 31. All applicants must pass an oral interview and background investigation.

(Read more here.)

Mesquite to be paved... at last

If you were attending Mesquite Trails Elementary School during the 1998-1999 school year, odds are that, seven years later, the quality of Mesquite Road is no longer a major issue for you, now that you're a student at Hesperia Junior High School or Hesperia High School.

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A boy, a skateboard and new hope

Holiday gift prompts sixth-grader to surpass expections of therapists

Therapists at Lucy Siegrist School in Hesperia were beginning to believe that one boy's quest to walk had gone about as far as it could -- until the adolescent was given a skateboard.

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High Desert Science Fair this Saturday

Region's best young minds - including kindergartners - converge on Hesperia High

The High Desert's youngest scientists - many of them too young to drive, some of them too young to see PG-13 movies - will be strutting their intellectual stuff this Saturday morning at Hesperia High School, at the High Desert Science Fair.

(Read more here.)

Voices: Beau Yarbrough

Read Across Topaz Elementary

In a city where my wife grew up and my father-in-law runs the family business, everyone knows me, or at least that's how it seems.

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Home builder Centex to open Hesperia truss-building plant

'Significant' new jobs to be created, says official

Hesperia, already in the middle of a home-building boom, will soon be exporting parts for homes outside of the city in mass quantities, once a new factory is built in the city later this year.

(Read more here.)

A VIEW FROM MAIN STREET

Victor Valley Union's move is a good first step

The biggest local news, in my opinion, is the "resignation" of Silverado High Principal Susan Levine.

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Ivory Passions

Hesperia High School piano students finding excellence comes sooner than later

With her dark, long hair swooshing side-to-side, body swaying and fingers dancing across an expanse of black and white, classical pianist Sydney Han makes the Baldwin baby grand piano come alive. Except for a tiny hitch in the middle of her demonstration performance, Han's blazingly fast rendition of Bach's "Solfeggietto" speaks of a mature player who has slaved at practice hours each day for many years.

(Read more here.)

A well-read article

It's always impossible to know what sort of story will get the most reaction from readers.

In my first month at the Hesperia Star, I wrote a story about a gay church in conservative Hesperia. To this day, not a peep from the readers.

Later, I did a story about a man whose roosters were seized on suspicion that he was raising them for cockfighting. The pro-cockfighting folks from around the country filled my e-mail and voicemail inboxes with outraged responses.

And now, a story about how the Hesperia Unified School District is using early intervention to catch students before they get categorized as learning disabled due to their academic performance and thus having one of the lowest percentages of special education students in the state has had my e-mail inbox swelling to the bursting point again.

This time, though, it's with positive e-mails, with educators from as far away as Scotland wanting to know more. They saw a link to the story in a weekly news round-up e-mail from the Council for Exceptional Children.

You never can tell.