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Imperial Valley

Imperial Valley

can be seen as a straight line near the bottom of the image.]] The Imperial Valley is a region of southeastern California (USA) located, in part, between the Colorado River and the Salton Sea, the state of California's largest lake. Major population centers are El Centro and Brawley in California, and the twin border towns of Calexico and Mexicali. Locally, the terms "Imperial Valley" and "Imperial County" are used synonymously. Other regions in the vicinity of the Imperial Valley include the Coachella Valley, and Mexicali Valley (Baja California, Mexico), all of which lie within the Salton Sea watershed. In Mexico, this area of the Baja California peninsula is referred to as the Valle de Mexicali. Spanish explorer Melchior Díaz was one of the first Europeans to visit the area in 1540, and probably sent at least scouting parties into the valley proper. Although this region is a desert, with high temperatures and low rainfall of three inches (75 mm) per year, the economy is heavily based on agriculture due to the availability of irrigation water, which is supplied wholly from the Colorado River via the All-American Canal. A vast sytem of canals, check dams, and pipelines carry the water all over the valley, a system which forms the Imperial Irrigation District, or IID. The water distribution system includes over 1,400 miles of canal and with 1,100 miles of pipeline. The number of canal and pipeline branches number roughly over a hundred. Imported water and a long growing season allow two crop cycles each year, and the Imperial Valley is a major source of winter fruits and vegetables, cotton, and grain for U.S. and international markets. Alfalfa is another major crop produced in the Imperial Valley. The agricultural lands are also served by a constructed agricultural drain system, which conveys surface runoff and subsurface drainage from fields to the Salton Sea, which is a designated repository for agricultural runoff. A secondary industry of the Imperial Valley region is tourism. Many visitors come to the area to visit the Salton Sea (California's largest inland lake, which serves as a dumpout point for the overflow and drainage from the IID canal system and ditch drainage) and the Glamis Sand Dunes. Another unique feature of the Imperial Valley is the New River, which flows from south to north, from the nearby border city of Mexicali to the Salton Sea. Imperial Valley is crossed by Interstate 8, and California State Highways 7, 78, 86, 98, 111, and 115.

Trivia

Portions of the 2005 film Jarhead were filmed in the Imperial Valley because of its similarity to the desert terrain of Iraq. Mountains that were visible in the background during filming were digitally removed during postproduction.[http://akas.imdb.com/title/tt0418763/trivia]

External links

- [http://www.iid.com/ Imperial Irrigation District]
- [http://www.maintour.com/socal/elchome.htm Desert Dunes Vacation] - Imperial Valley Offroad Recreation
Category:California valleys Category:Colorado River Category:Southwest

Southern California

:See also: Bajalta California Bajalta California Bajalta California Southern California, sometimes abbreviated SoCal or the Southland, is an informal name for the megalopolis and nearby desert that occupies the southern-most quarter of the state of California. However, in recent years, even cities outside of the State of California such as Phoenix, AZ, Las Vegas, NV and, to some degree, even Tijuana in Mexico, have begun to be included in the SoCal mega-metro. It is home to an estimated 30 million people, over 10 percent of the population of the United States. There are no clear, exact boundaries for this area; instead, residents rely on physical features to establish the boundary. On the west is the Pacific Ocean; to the south is the international border between the United States and Mexico; to the east is the Mojave Desert and the state border between California and Arizona; and to the north is the Tehachapi Mountain range, located about 70 miles north of Los Angeles, which separates the region from rest of the state.

Significance

Los Angeles Within its boundaries are two world cities (Los Angeles, the "capital" of SoCal, and San Diego, to the south) and three of the world's one hundred largest metropolitan areas. The region is also home to LAX, the nation's 3rd busiest airport and Van Nuys Airport, the world's busiest general aviation airport, as well as the Port of Los Angeles, the nation's busiest commercial port. Also of note in the region is the infamous Los Angeles Freeway System, the world's busiest. Six of the seven lines of the commuter rail system, Metrolink, run out of Downtown Los Angeles, connecting Los Angeles County, Ventura County, San Bernardino County, Riverside County, Orange County, and San Diego County, with the other line connecting San Bernardino, Riverside, and Orange counties directly: the nation's first suburb-to-suburb commuter rail line. Southern California is also home to some of the world's most prestigious universites and research facilities, such as UCLA, USC, Loyola Marymount, Claremont Consortium of Colleges, Pepperdine University, Cal Tech, five University of California campuses (San Diego, Irvine, Riverside, Santa Barbara, the aforemenitoned Los Angeles campus), and eleven California State University campuses. The Tech Coast is a moniker that has gained popular use as a descriptor for the region's diversified technology and industrial base as well as its multitude of research universities and other public and private R&D institutions. Southern California is the entertainment (motion picture, television, and record music) capital of the world and is home to Hollywood, the motion picture industry epicenter. Headquartered in Southern California are The Walt Disney Company (which also owns ABC), Sony Pictures (parent company of Paramount Pictures), Twentieth Century Fox, Warner Brothers, Dreamworks, and Pixar, as well as Univision, Activision, and THQ. More controversially, Southern California is also home to the world's largest adult entertainment industry, located primarily in the San Fernando Valley. More than eighty-five percent of all adult film and video production in the U.S. and Canada takes place in Southern California. Southern California is also the sports and fitness capital of the world, and is home to Fox Sports Net. From high school sports to professional, SoCal numbers some of the most storied and successful sports franchises. Teams located within the region include the Los Angeles Lakers, Los Angeles Clippers, Los Angeles Dodgers, Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, San Diego Padres, Los Angeles Kings, Anaheim Mighty Ducks, Los Angeles Galaxy, Chivas USA, and San Diego Chargers. Southern California also boasts one of the most successful college football programs, the USC Trojans, and, as measured by national championships won, the best college basketball program in the UCLA Bruins.

Northern boundary

UCLA Bruins The region's northern boundary is subject to a broader degree of interpretation than those of the West, East, and South. The most commonly used "physical" boundary between Southern California and the rest of the state is the Tehachapi Mountain range, located about 70 miles north of Los Angeles . A less inclusive boundary is the San Gabriel Mountain range, located 10 to 30 miles north of downtown Los Angeles, but this boundary is generally not accepted due to the fact that land north of the San Gabriel Mountain Range but south of the Tehachipi Mountain Range is still inside Los Angeles County. Depending on which of the two mountain ranges is used for the northern boundary of the region, different communities/cities and counties are included in, or excluded from, the area called "Southern California".
- Using the San Gabriel Mountain range as the boundary, the following six counties (in descending order of population) are included: Los Angeles, Orange, San Diego, San Bernardino, Riverside, Ventura, and Imperial.
- Using the Tehachapi Mountain range as the key to a northern boundary, the southern parts of Santa Barbara and Kern Counties should be included. The city of Santa Barbara is widely held to be in Southern California, due to the mild climate and the westerward alignment of the coastline, but Bakersfield and most of Kern County is usually regarded as a part of Central California.

Urban landscape

Southern California is a heavily developed urban environment. It is the second largest urbanized region in the United States, second only to the Washington, D.C./New York/Boston megalopolis (BosWash). Much of SoCal is famous for its large, spread-out, suburban communities. The dominant areas are Los Angeles, San Diego, and Orange County, each of which is the center of its respective metropolitan area, which all comprise numerous other cities and communities.

Regions

Major cities

All population information is from the 2005 estimate of the State of California. State of California
- Anaheim - 345,317
- Burbank - 106,739 (Airport: Bob Hope Airport)
- Chula Vista - 217,543
- Glendale - 207,007
- Irvine - 180,803
- Long Beach - 491,564 (Airport: Long Beach Municipal Airport)
- Los Angeles - 3,957,875 (Major airport: Los Angeles International Airport)
- Oceanside - 175,085 (Airport: Palomar Regional Airport)
- Ontario - 170,373 (Major airport: Ontario International Airport)
- Oxnard - 188,849 (Airport: Oxnard Regional Airport)
- Palmdale - 136,734 (Airport: Palmdale Regional Airport)
- Riverside - 285,537 (Airport: Riverside Municipal Airport)
- San Bernardino - 199,803 (Major Airport: San Bernardino International Airport)
- San Diego - 1,305,736 (Major Airport: San Diego International Airport))
- Santa Ana - 351,697 (Major Airport: John Wayne-Orange County Airport)

Principal cities (over 100,000 inhabitants)

John Wayne-Orange County Airport John Wayne-Orange County Airport
- Corona - 144,070
- Costa Mesa - 113,440
- Downey - 113,607
- East Los Angeles - 124,283
- El Monte - 125,832
- Escondido - 141,350
- Fontana - 160,015
- Fullerton - 135,672
- Garden Grove - 172,042
- Huntington Beach - 200,763
- Inglewood - 118,164
- Lancaster - 133,703
- Moreno Valley - 165,328
- Norwalk - 110,178
- Orange - 137,751
- Pasadena- 146,166
- Pomona - 160,815
- Rancho Cucamonga - 161,830
- Santa Clarita - 167,954
- Simi Valley - 121,427
- South Gate - 102,165
- Thousand Oaks - 127,112
- Torrance - 147,405
- Ventura - 106,096
- West Covina - 112,417

Counties

;South of the San Gabriel mountains
- Imperial
- San Diego
- Riverside
- Orange
- Los Angeles
- San Bernardino
- Ventura ;North of the San Gabriel mountains
- Parts of Los Angeles
- Santa Barbara
- San Luis Obispo
- Kern Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, and Ventura are also counties in the Central Coast.

Geographical regions

Southern California is also divided into the Coastal Region (Orange County, Los Angeles County, San Diego County, Santa Barbara County, and Ventura County) and the larger, more sparsly populated, desert Inland Empire (San Bernardino County, Riverside County, and Imperial County). The division between the Coastal Regions and the Inland Empire winds along the backs of the coastal mountain ranges such as the Santa Ana Mountains. A related geographical term is cismontane Southern California, which refers to the portion of California on the coastal side of the Transverse and Peninsular mountain ranges. The term "Southern California" often refers to this region specifically, as opposed to largely desert areas comprising the rest of the southern portion of the state, which are referred to as transmontane Southern California.

Geographic features

Peninsular Peninsular, San Bernardino County]] Peninsular
- Antelope Valley (Los Angeles, Kern Counties)
- Ballona Wetlands (Los Angeles County)
- Coachella Valley (Riverside County)
- Conejo Valley (Ventura County)
- Channel Islands (Ventura County)
- San Fernando Valley (Los Angeles County)
- San Gabriel Valley (Los Angeles County)
- Pomona Valley (Los Angeles and San Bernardino Counties)
- Cucamonga Valley (San Bernardino County)
- High Desert (Los Angeles, Kern, and San Bernardino Counties)
- Imperial Valley (Imperial County)
- Inland Empire (Los Angeles, Riverside, and San Bernardino Counties)
- La Jolla Cove (San Diego County)
- Lake Casitas (Ventura County)
- Lake Castaic (Los Angeles County)
- Lake Piru (Ventura County)
- Los Angeles Basin (Los Angeles County)
- Los Angeles River (Los Angeles County)
- Low Desert (Imperial, Riverside & San Bernardino Counties)
- Mojave Desert (Los Angeles, Kern & San Bernardino Counties)
- Mugu Lagoon (Ventura County)
- Orange Coast (Orange County)
- Oxnard Plain (Ventura County)
- Palos Verdes Peninsula (Los Angeles County)
- Palomar Mountain (San Diego County)
- Pyramid Lake(Los Angeles County)
- Saddleback Valley (Orange County)
- Salton Sea (Imperial and Riverside Counties)
- San Bernardino Mountains (San Bernardino County)
- San Fernando Valley (Los Angeles County)
- San Gabriel Mountains (Los Angeles County)
- San Gabriel Valley (Los Angeles County)
- San Gabriel River (Los Angeles County)
- San Jacinto Mountains (Riverside County)
- San Pedro Bay (Los Angeles County)
- Santa Ana Valley (Orange County)
- Catalina Island (Los Angeles County)
- Santa Clara River (Ventura County)
- Santa Clara River Valley (Ventura County)
- Santa Monica Mountains (Los Angeles and Ventura Counties)
- Santa Monica Bay (Los Angeles County)
- Santa Susana Mountains (Ventura County)
- Ventura River (Ventura County)
- Victor Valley (San Bernardino County)

Transportation

Southern California freeway system

Metrolink commuter lines

25px
- 91 Line (Union Station - Riverside-Downtown)
- Antelope Valley Line (Union Station - Lancaster)
- Inland Empire-Orange County (IEOC) Line (San Bernardino - San Juan Capistrano)
- Orange County Line (Union Station - Oceanside)
- Riverside Line (Union Station - Riverside-Downtown)
- San Bernardino Line (Union Station - San Bernardino/Riverside-Downtown)
- Ventura County Line (Union Station - Downtown Oxnard)

Communication

Telephone area codes

Ventura County Line
- 213 - Downtown L.A. - originally covered all of Southern California.
- 323 - Doughnut-shaped area surrounding downtown, including Hollywood, Mid-Wilshire, East L.A., northern South L.A.
- 310 - West L.A., Santa Monica, and the South Bay
- 424 - West L.A., Santa Monica, and the South Bay
- 562 - South-West L.A. County, Whittier, Long Beach area, and Northern Orange County.
- 619 - San Diego including downtown, East County and The South Bay
- 626 - Pasadena, San Gabriel Valley
- 661 - Antelope Valley including Palmdale, Lancaster; Santa Clarita
- 714 - Central Orange County (Anaheim, Santa Ana & Huntington Beach
- 760 - North County San Diego Eastern portion (Escondido & San Marcos); Palm Springs
- 805 - Oxnard and all of Ventura County as well as Santa Barbara County
- 818 - The San Fernando Valley, Glendale
- 858 - North County San Diego Western portion (Carlsbad & Oceanside)
- 909 - Inland Empire North (Pomona & San Bernardino)
- 949 - Southern Orange County (Irvine, Laguna Niguel & San Clemente)
- 951 - Inland Empire South (Riverside, Temecula, & Murrieta)

External links

- [http://www.socalhistory.org/ Historical Society of Southern California]
- [http://www.metrolinktrains.com/ Metrolink] Category:Geography of California

United States

:For alternative meanings, see the disambiguation page for US, USA, United States, or American. The United States of America is a federal democratic republic situated primarily in central North America. It comprises 50 states and one federal district, and has several territories. It is also referred to, with varying formality, as the United States, the U.S., the U.S.A., the States, or simply and most commonly, America. The official founding date of the United States is July 4, 1776, when the Second Continental Congress—representing thirteen British colonies—adopted the Declaration of Independence. However, the structure of the government was profoundly changed in 1788, when the states replaced the Articles of Confederation with the United States Constitution. The date on which each of the fifty states adopted the Constitution is typically regarded as the date that state "entered the Union" (became part of the United States). Since the mid-20th century, following World War II, the United States has emerged as a dominant global influence in economic, political, military, scientific, technological, and cultural affairs.

Geography and climate

The United States shares land borders with Canada (to the north) and Mexico (to the south), and territorial water boundaries with Canada, Russia, the Bahamas, and numerous smaller nations. It is otherwise bounded by the Pacific Ocean and the Bering Sea, in the west; the Arctic Ocean, in the northernmost areas; and the Atlantic Ocean, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Caribbean Sea, in the eastern and southeastern areas. Forty-eight of the states are in the single region between Canada and Mexico; this group is referred to, with varying precision and formality, as the continental or contiguous United States, sometimes abbreviated CONUS, and as the Lower 48. Alaska, which is not included in the term contiguous United States, is at the northwestern end of North America, separated from the Lower 48 by Canada. The archipelago of Hawaii is in the Pacific Ocean. The capital city, Washington, District of Columbia is a federal district located on land donated by the state of Maryland. (Virginia also donated land, but it was returned in 1847.) The United States also has overseas territories with varying levels of independence and organization. When inland water is included in the total area, only Russia and Canada are larger than the United States; if inland water is excluded, China ranks third and the U.S. ranks fourth. The United States' total area is 3,718,711 square miles (9,631,418 km²), of which land makes up 3,537,438 square miles (9,161,923 km²) and water makes up 181,273 square miles (469,495 km²). The United States' landscape is one of the most varied among those of the world's nations: among its many features are temperate forestland and rolling hills, on the east coast; mangrove, in Florida; the Great Plains, in the center of the country; the Mississippi–Missouri river system; the Great Lakes, four of the five of which are shared with Canada; the Rocky Mountains, west of the Great Plains; deserts and temperate coastal zones, west of the Rocky Mountains; and temperate rain forests, in the Pacific northwest. Alaska's tundra, and the volcanic, tropical islands of Hawaii add to the geographic diversity. Hawaii The climate varies along with the landscape, from tropical in Hawaii and southern Florida to tundra in Alaska and atop some of the highest mountains. Most of the North and East experience a temperate continental climate, with warm summers and cold winters. Most of the South experiences a subtropical humid climate with mild winters and long, hot, humid summers. Rainfall decreases markedly from the humid forests of the Eastern Great Plains to the semi-arid shortgrass prairies on the high plains abutting the Rocky Mountains. Arid deserts, including the Mojave, extend through the lowlands and valleys of the southwest, from westernmost Texas to California and northward throughout much of Nevada. Some parts of California have a Mediterranean climate. Rainforests line the windward mountains of the Pacific Northwest from Oregon to Alaska.

History

American history started with the migration of people from Asia across the Bering land bridge approximately 12,000 years ago following large animals that they hunted into the Americas. These Native Americans left evidence of their presence in petroglyphs, burial mounds, and other artifacts. It is estimated that 2-9 million people lived in the territory now occupied by the U.S. before European contact, and the subsequent introduction of foreign diseases such as small pox that greatly diminished the native populations. Some advanced societies were the Anasazi of the southwest, who inhabited Chaco Canyon, and the Woodland Indians, who built Cahokia, located near present-day St Louis, a city with a population of 40,000 at its peak in AD 1200. Vikings first visited North America around 1000, but did not settle permanently. Following the discovery voyages of Christopher Columbus around 1492, other Europeans began to explore and settle there. During the 1500s and 1600s, the Spanish settled parts of the present-day Southwest and Florida, founding St. Augustine, Florida in 1565 and Santa Fe (in what is now New Mexico) in 1607. The first successful English settlement was at Jamestown, Virginia, also in 1607. Within the next two decades, several Dutch settlements, including New Amsterdam (the predecessor to New York City), were established in what are now the states of New York and New Jersey. In 1637, Sweden established a colony at Fort Christina (in what is now Delaware), but lost the settlement to the Dutch in 1655. This was followed by extensive British settlement of the east coast. The British colonists remained relatively undisturbed by their home country until after the French and Indian War, when France ceded Canada and the Great Lakes region to Britain. Britain then imposed taxes on the 13 colonies, widely regarded by the colonists as unfair because they were denied representation in the British Parliament. Tensions between Britain and the colonists increased, and the thirteen colonies eventually rebelled against British rule. British Parliament, George Washington (1789-1797).]] In 1776, the 13 colonies split from Great Britain and formed the United States, the world's first constitutional and democratic federal republic, after their Declaration of Independence of that year, and the Revolutionary War (1775 to 1783). The original political structure was a confederation in 1777, ratified in 1781 as the Articles of Confederation. After long debate, this was supplanted by the Constitution in 1789, forming a more centralized federal government. Prior to all these was the Albany Congress in 1754, in which a union was first seriously proposed. From early colonial times, there was a shortage of labor, which encouraged unfree labor, particularly indentured servitude and slavery. In the mid-19th century, a major division occurred in the United States over the issue of states' rights and the expansion of slavery. The northern states had become opposed to slavery, while the southern states saw it as necessary for the continued success of southern agriculture and wanted it expanded to the territories. Several federal laws were passed in an attempt to settle the dispute, including the Missouri Compromise and the Compromise of 1850. The dispute reached a crisis in 1861, when seven southern states seceded¹ from the Union and formed the Confederate States of America, leading to the Civil War. Soon after the war began, four more southern states seceded. During the war, Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, mandating the freedom of all slaves in states in rebellion, though full emancipation did not take place until after the end of the war in 1865, the dissolution of the Confederacy, and the Thirteenth Amendment took effect. The Civil War effectively ended the question of a state's right to secede, and is widely accepted as a major turning point after which the federal government became more powerful than state governments. Thirteenth Amendment). The title of the painting, from a 1726 poem by Bishop Berkeley, was a phrase often quoted in the era of Manifest Destiny, expressing a widely held belief that civilization had steadily moved westward throughout history. [http://americanart.si.edu/t2go/1lw/1931.6.1.html (more)] ]] During the 19th century, many new states were added to the original 13 as the nation expanded across the continent. Manifest Destiny was a philosophy that encouraged westward expansion in the United States. As the population of the Eastern states grew and as a steady increase of immigrants entered the country, settlers moved steadily westward across North America. In the process, the U.S. displaced most American Indian nations. This displacement of American Indians continues to be a matter of contention in the U.S. with many tribes attempting to assert their original claims to various lands. In some areas American Indian populations were reduced by foreign diseases contracted through contact with European settlers, and US settlers acquired those emptied lands. In other instances American Indians were removed from their traditional lands by force. Though some would say the U.S. was not a colonial power until the Spanish-American War when it acquired Puerto Rico, Guam and the Philippines, the dominion exercised over land in North America the United States claimed is essentially colonial. The Philippines became independent in 1946. During this period, the nation also became an industrial power. This continued into the 20th century, which has been termed "the American Century" because of the nation's overriding influence on the world. The US became a center for innovation and technological development; major technologies that America either developed or was greatly involved in improving include the telephone, television, computer, the Internet, nuclear weapons, nuclear power, aviation, and aeronautics. In addition to the Civil War, another major traumatic experience for the nation was the Great Depression (1929 to 1939). The nation has also taken part in several major foreign wars, including World War I and World War II (in both of which the US later joined the Allies). During the Cold War, the US was a major player in the Korean War and Vietnam War, and, along with the Soviet Union, was considered one of the world's two "superpowers". With the collapse of the Soviet Union, the US emerged as the world's leading economic and military power. Beginning in the 1990s, the United States became very involved in police actions and peacekeeping, including actions in Kosovo, Haiti, Somalia and Liberia, and the first Persian Gulf War driving Iraq out of Kuwait. After attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001, the United States and other allied nations found themselves involved in what has come to be called the "War on Terrorism," which has primarily encompassed military actions in both Afghanistan and Iraq.

Government

Iraq of the United States.]]

Republic and suffrage

The United States is an example of a constitutional republic, with a government composed of and operating through a set of limited powers imposed by its design and enumerated in the United States Constitution. Specifically, the nation operates as a presidential democracy. There are three levels of government: federal, state, and local. Officials of each of these levels are either elected by eligible voters via secret ballot or appointed by other elected officials. Americans enjoy almost universal suffrage from the age of 18 regardless of race, sex, or wealth. There are some limits, however: felons are disenfranchised and in some states former felons are likewise. Furthermore, the national representation of territories and the federal district of Washington, DC in Congress is limited: residents of the District of Columbia are subject to federal laws and federal taxes but their only Congressional representative is a non-voting delegate.

Federal government

The federal government is the national government, comprising the Legislative Branch (led by Congress), the Executive Branch (led by the President), and the Judicial Branch (led by the Supreme Court). These three branches were designed to apply checks and balances on each other. The Constitution limits the powers of the federal government to defense, foreign affairs, the issuing and management of currency, the management of trade and relations between the states, and the protection of human rights. In addition to these explicitly stated powers, the federal government—with the assistance of the Supreme Court—has gradually extended these powers into such areas as welfare and education, on the basis of the "necessary and proper" clause of the Constitution.

The Congress

necessary and proper The Congress of the United States is the legislative branch of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, comprising the House of Representatives and the Senate. The House of Representatives consists of 435 members, each of whom represents a congressional district and serves for a two-year term. House seats are apportioned among the states by population; in contrast, each state has two Senators, regardless of population. There are a total of 100 senators, who serve six-year terms. The powers of Congress are limited to those enumerated in the Constitution; all other powers are reserved to the states and the people. The Constitution also includes the necessary-and-proper clause, which grants Congress the power to "make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers."

The President

necessary-and-proper clause At the top level of the executive branch is the President of the United States. The President and Vice-President are elected as 'running mates' for four-year terms by the Electoral College, for which each state, as well as the District of Columbia, is allocated a number of seats based on its representation (or ostensible representation, in the case of D. C.) in both houses of Congress (see U.S. Electoral College). The relationship between the President and the Congress reflects that between the English monarchy and parliament at the time of the framing of the United States Constitution. Congress can legislate to constrain the President's executive power, even with respect to his or her command of the armed forces; however, this power is used only very rarely—a notable example was the constraint placed on President Richard Nixon's strategy of bombing Cambodia during the Vietnam War. The President cannot directly propose legislation, and must rely on supporters in Congress to promote his or her legislative agenda. The President's signature is required to turn congressional bills into law; in this respect, the President has the power—only occasionally used—to veto congressional legislation. Congress can override a presidential veto with a two-thirds majority vote in both houses. The ultimate power of Congress over the President is that of impeachment or removal of the elected President through a House vote, a Senate trial, and a Senate vote. The threat of using this power has had major political ramifications in the cases of Presidents Andrew Johnson, Richard Nixon, and Bill Clinton. The President makes around 2,000 executive appointments, including members of the Cabinet and ambassadors, which must be approved by the Senate; the President can also issue executive orders and pardons, and has other Constitutional duties, among them the requirement to give a State of the Union address to Congress once a year. Although the President's constitutional role may appear to be constrained, in practice, the office carries enormous prestige that typically eclipses the power of Congress: the Presidency has justifiably been referred to as 'the most powerful office in the world'. The Vice President is first in the line of succession, and is the President of the Senate ex officio, with the ability to cast a tie-breaking vote. The members of the President's Cabinet are responsible for administering the various departments of state, including the Department of Defense, the Justice Department, and the State Department. These departments and department heads have considerable regulatory and political power, and it is they who are responsible for executing federal laws and regulations. George W. Bush is the 43rd President, currently serving his second term.

The Courts

George W. Bush The highest court is the Supreme Court, which consists of nine justices. The court deals with federal and constitutional matters, and can declare legislation made at any level of the government as unconstitutional, nullifying the law and creating precedent for future law and decisions. Below the Supreme Court are the courts of appeals, and below them in turn are the district courts, which are the general trial courts for federal law. Separate from, but not entirely independent of, this federal court system are the individual court systems of each state, each dealing with its own laws and having its own judicial rules and procedures. A case may be appealed from a state court to a federal court only if there is a federal question; the supreme court of each state is the final authority on the interpretation of that state's laws and constitution.

State and local governments

supreme court of each state. Note that Alaska and Hawaii are shown at different scales, and that the Aleutian Islands and the uninhabited Northwestern Hawaiian Islands are omitted from this map.]] The state governments have the greatest influence over people's daily lives. Each state has its own written constitution and has different laws. There are sometimes great differences in law and procedure between the different states, concerning issues such as property, crime, health, and education. The highest elected official of each state is the Governor. Each state also has an elected legislature (bicameral in every state except Nebraska), whose members represent the different parts of the state. Of note is the New Hampshire legislature, which is the third-largest legislative body in the English-speaking world, and has one representative for every 3,000 people. Each state maintains its own judiciary, with the lowest level typically being county courts, and culminating in each state supreme court, though sometimes named differently. In some states, supreme and lower court justices are elected by the people; in others, they are appointed, as they are in the federal system. The institutions that are responsible for local government are typically town, city, or county boards, making laws that affect their particular area. These laws concern issues such as traffic, the sale of alcohol, and keeping animals. The highest elected official of a town or city is usually the mayor. In New England, towns operate directly democratically, and in some states, such as Rhode Island and Connecticut, counties have little or no power, existing only as geographic distinctions. In other areas, county governments have more power, such as to collect taxes and maintain law enforcement agencies.

Political divisions

With the Declaration of Independence, the thirteen colonies proclaimed themselves to be nation states modeled after the European states of the time. Although considered as sovereigns initially, under the Articles of Confederation of 1781 they entered into a "Perpetual Union" and created a fully sovereign federal state, delegating certain powers to the national Congress, including the right to engage in diplomatic relations and to levy war, while each retaining their individual sovereignty, freedom and independence. But the national government proved too ineffective, so the administrative structure of the government was vastly reorganized with the United States Constitution of 1789. Under this new union, the continued status of the individual states as sovereign nation states fell into dispute in 1861, as several states attempted to secede from the union; in response, then-President Abraham Lincoln claimed that such secession was illegal, and the result was the American Civil War. Since the Union victory in 1865, the independent status of the individual states has not been broached again by any state, and the status of each state within the union has been deemed by mainstream officials and academics to be settled as being subordinate to the union as a whole. In subsequent years, the number of states grew steadily due to western expansion, the purchase of lands by the national government from other nation states, and the subdivision of existing states, resulting in the current total of 50. The states are generally divided into smaller administrative regions, including counties, cities and townships. The United States–Canadian border is the longest undefended political boundary in the world. The U.S. is divided into three distinct sections:
- the "continental United States," also known as "the Lower 48" and more accurately termed the conterminous, coterminous or contiguous United States
- Alaska, which is physically connected only to Canada
- the archipelago of Hawaii, in the central Pacific Ocean. The United States also holds several other territories, districts, and possessions, notably the federal district of the District of Columbia, which is the nation's capital, and several overseas insular areas, the most significant of which are American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and the United States Virgin Islands. The Palmyra Atoll is the United States' only incorporated territory; it is unorganized and uninhabited. The United States Navy has held a base at a portion of Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, since 1898. The United States government possesses a lease to this land, which only mutual agreement or United States abandonment of the area can terminate. The present Cuban government of Fidel Castro disputes this arrangement, claiming Cuba was not truly sovereign at the time of the signing. The United States argues this point moot because Cuba apparently ratified the lease post-revolution, and with full sovereignty, when it cashed one rent check in accordance with the disputed treaty.

Foreign relations and military

sovereign] The immense military and economic dominance of the United States has made foreign relations an especially important topic in its politics, with considerable concern about the image of the United States throughout the world. Reactions towards the United States by other nationalities are often strong, ranging from uninhibited admiration and mimicking of all things American to anti-Americanism. US foreign policy has swung about several times over the course of its history between the poles of strict isolationism and imperialism and everywhere in between. Three of the nation's four military branches are administered by the Department of Defense: the Army, the Navy (including the Marine Corps), and the Air Force. The Coast Guard falls under the jurisdiction of the Department of Homeland Security in peacetime, but is placed under the Department of the Navy in time of war. The combined United States armed forces consist of 1.4 million active duty personnel, along with several hundred thousand each in the Reserves and the National Guard. Military conscription ended in 1973. The United States Armed forces are considered to be the most powerful military (of any sort) on Earth and their force projection capabilities are unrivaled by any other nation. The 2005 defense budget amounted to $401.7 billion, which is an increase of 4% over 2004 and of 35% since 2001. Over 50% of that number is spent in research & development. (For comparison, in 2004 the European Union (considered as the second-largest military force) had a combined total of 1.6 million troops, and a defense budget of €160 billion, with less than 10% of that being spent on R&D.)

Largest cities

The United States has dozens of major cities, including 11 of the 55 global cities of all types — with three "alpha" global cities: New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago. The figures expressed below are for populations within city limits. A different ranking is evident when considering U.S. metro area populations, although the top three would be unchanged. Note that some cities not listed (such as Atlanta, Boston, Las Vegas, Miami, Nashville, New Orleans, Seattle, and Washington, D.C.) are still considered important on the basis of other factors and issues, including culture, economics, heritage, and politics. The twenty largest cities, based on the United States Census Bureau's 2004 estimates, are as follows:

Economy

The United States has the largest single-country economy in the world, with a per-capita gross domestic product of $40,100. In this market-oriented economy, private individuals and business firms make most of the decisions, and the federal and state governments buy needed goods and services predominantly in the private marketplace. gross domestic product The largest industry of the U.S. is now service, which employs roughly three quarters of the U.S. work force. The United States has many natural resources, including oil and gas, metals, and such minerals as gold, soda ash, and zinc. In agriculture, the U.S. is a top producer of, among other crops, corn, soy beans, and wheat; the United States is a net exporter of food. The U.S. manufacturing sector produces goods such as, cars, airplanes, steel, and electronics, among many others. Economic activity varies greatly from one part of the country to another, with many industries being largely dependent on a certain city or region; New York City is the center of the American financial, publishing, broadcasting, and advertising industries; Silicon Valley is the country’s primary location for high-technology companies, while Los Angeles is the most important center for film production. The Midwest is known for its reliance on manufacturing and heavy industry, with Detroit, Michigan, serving as the center of the American automotive industry; the Great Plains are known as the "breadbasket" of America for their tremendous agricultural output; the intermountain region serves as a mining hub and natural gas resource; the Pacific Northwest for fish and timber, while Texas is largely associated with the oil industry; the Southeast is a major hub for both medical research and the textiles industry. Several countries continue to link their currency to the dollar or even use it as a currency (such as Ecuador), although this practice has subsided since the collapse of the Bretton Woods system. Many markets are also quoted in dollars, such as those of oil and gold. The dollar is also the predominant reserve currency in the world, and more than half of global reserves are in dollars. The largest trading partner of the United States is Canada (19%), followed by China (12%), Mexico (11%), and Japan (8%). More than 50% of total trade is with these four countries. In 2003, the United States was ranked as the third most visited tourist destination in the world; its 40,400,000 visitors ranked behind France's 75,000,000 and Spain's 52,500,000. Labor unions have existed since the 19th century, and grew large and powerful from the 1930s to the 1950s. See Labor history of the United States. Since 1970 they have shrunk in the private sector and now cover fewer than 8% of the workers. However union membership has grown rapidly in the public sector, especially among teachers, nurses, police, postal workers, and municipal clerks. There have been few strikes in recent years. The United States' imports exceed exports by 80%, leading to an annual trade deficit of $700,000,000,000, or 6% of gross domestic product. It is the largest debtor nation in the world, with total gross foreign debt of over $13,000,000,000,000 (2005 estimate); and it absorbs more than 50% of global savings annually. Since the 1980s, the U.S. has increased the use of neoliberal economic policies that reduce government intervention and reduce the size of the welfare state, backing away from the more interventionist Keynsian economic policies that had been in favor since the Great Depression. As a result, the United States provides fewer government-delivered social welfare services than most industrialized nations, choosing instead to keep its tax burden lower and relying more heavily on the free market and private charities. Sixteen states and the District of Columbia have minimum wages higher than the national level ($5.15 per-hour), including the highest, Washington State at $7.35. Twenty-six states are the same as the federal level; two--Ohio and Kansas--are below; and six do not have state laws. America's wealth is relatively highly concentrated. The average C.E.O. earns 500 times the typical amount a worker grosses, this is up from 25 times in the late 1970s. In terms of wealth the top 1% of Americans own 40% of all assets and 50.1% of the country's income goes to the top twenty percent of households. Average wages for the majority of employees have been largely stagnating since the 1970s. America's poverty line defined as a family of four earning less than $19,157 is at 12.7% of the general population. Approximately one out of every five children in the United States grows up below the official poverty line. Among racial groups; African Americans have the lowest median income while Asians had the highest. Regionally, the southern states had the lowest median incomes while the West Coast and New England had the highest. The current Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan remarked that the U.S.’s growing income inequality since the 1970s is, "not the type of thing which a democratic society - a capitalist democratic society - can really accept without addressing."[http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0614/p01s03-usec.html?s=itm] However, Greenspan also noted, "...you can look at the system and say it's got a lot of problems to it, and sure it does. It always has. But you can't get around the fact that this is the most extraordinarily successful economy in history."

Transportation

Alan Greenspan ]] Because the United States is a relatively young nation, most of the development of U.S. cities has taken place since the invention of the automobile. To link its vast territory, the United States built a network of high-capacity, high-speed highways, of which the most important element is the Interstate Highway system, commissioned in the 1950s by President Dwight D. Eisenhower and modeled after the German Autobahn. The United States also has a transcontinental rail system, which is used for moving freight across the lower forty-eight states. Passenger rail service is provided by Amtrak, which serves forty-six of the lower forty-eight states. Many cities in the United States have extensive mass-transit systems. New York City operates one of the world's largest and most heavily used subway systems. The regional rail and bus networks that extend into Long Island, New Jersey, Upstate New York, and Connecticut are among the most heavily used in the world. Air travel is often preferred for destinations over 300 miles (500 kilometers) away. In terms of passengers, seventeen of the world's thirty busiest airports in 2004 were in the U.S., including the world's busiest, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport; in terms of cargo, in the same year, twelve of the world's thirty busiest airports were in the U.S., including the world's busiest, Memphis International Airport. There are several major seaports in the United States; the three busiest are the Port of Los Angeles, California; the Port of Long Beach, California; and the Port of New York and New Jersey. Others include Houston, Texas; Charleston, South Carolina; Savannah, Georgia; Miami, Florida; Portland, Oregon; San Francisco, California; Boston, Massachusetts; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and Seattle, Washington; plus, outside the contiguous forty-eight states, Anchorage, Alaska, and Honolulu, Hawaii.

Society

Demographics

Hawaii The mean center of the U.S. population continues to drift farther west and south. The fastest growing region is the western United States followed by the southern portion. According to Census 2000, the states that saw the greatest increases from 1990 were: Nevada (66.3%), Arizona (40%), Colorado (30.6%), Utah (29.6%), Idaho (28.5%), Georgia (26.4%), Florida (23.5%), Texas (22.8%), North Carolina (21.4%), and Washington (21.1%). [http://www.census.gov/population/cen2000/phc-t2/tab03.pdf]

Ethnicity and race

:Main article: Racial demographics of the United States The United States is a very racially diverse country. According to the 2000 census, it has 31 ethnic groups with at least one million members each, and numerous others represented in smaller amounts. The majority of Americans descend from white European immigrants who arrived at the establishment of the first colonies (most after Reconstruction). This majority--69.1% in 2000--decreases each year, and is expected to become a plurality within a few decades. The most frequently stated European ancestries are German (15.2%), Irish (10.8%), English (8.7%), Italian (5.6%) and Scandinavian (3.7%). Many immigrants also hail from Slavic countries such as Poland and Russia. Other significant immigrant populations came from eastern and southern Europe and French Canada. Russia Hispanics from Mexico and South and Central America are the largest minority group in the country, comprising 12.5% of the population (2000 census). People of Mexican descent made up 7.3% of the population in the 2000 census, and this proportion is expected to increase significantly in the coming decades. About 12.3% (2000 census) of the American people are African Americans (Blacks). African Americans are spread throughout the country, but their presence is largest in the South. Asian Americans--including Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders--are a third significant minority (3.7% of the population in 2000). Most Asian Americans are concentrated on the West Coast and Hawaii. The largest groups are immigrants or descendants of emigrants from the Philippines, China, India, Vietnam, South Korea, and Japan. Indigenous peoples in the United States, such as American Indians and Inuit, make up 0.9% of the population (2000 census). About 35% live on Indian reservations.

Religion

Polls estimate that just under 80 percent of Americans are Christians of various denominations. The other 20 percent comprises other religions such as Hinduism, Judaism, Islam, and Buddhism, other various faiths, and those without a specific religion. The United States is noteworthy among developed nations for its relatively high level of religiosity. According to a 2004 Gallup poll, about 44% of Americans attend a religious service at least once a week. However, this rate is not uniform across the country; attendance is more common in the Bible Belt—composed largely of Southern and Midwestern states—than in the Northeast and West Coast. In the Southern states, Baptists are the largest group, followed by Methodists; Roman Catholics are dominant in the Northeast and in large parts of the Midwest due to their being settled by descendants of Catholic immigrants from Europe (such as Germany, Ireland, Italy, and Poland) or other parts of North America (mainly Quebec and Puerto Rico). The rest of the country for the most part has a complex mixture of various Christian groups.

Education

West Coast's home at Monticello and the University of Virginia (library building shown above, and designed by Jefferson), the only collegiate campus on the list. Both sites are located in Charlottesville, Virginia.]] In the United States, education is a state, not federal, responsibility, and the laws and standards vary considerably. However, the federal government, through the Department of Education, is involved with funding of some programs and exerts some influence through its ability to control funding. In most states, all students must attend mandatory schooling starting with kindergarten, which children normally enter at age 5, and following through 12th grade, which is normally completed at age 18

Colorado River (U. S.)

:For other uses, see Colorado River (disambiguation). Colorado River (disambiguation) The Colorado River is a river in the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico, approximately 1,450 mi (2,333 km) long, draining a part of the arid regions on the western slope of the Rocky Mountains. The natural course of the river flows into the Gulf of California, but the heavy use of the river as a fresh water source has desiccated the lower course of the river in Mexico such that it no longer reaches the sea. There are other rivers with the name Colorado River, but this one is the longest. The Colorado River drains 242,900 sq mi (629,000 sq km). Spanish explorer Melchior Diaz was one of the first Europeans to explore the river in 1540.
Course
1540 The Colorado River's headwaters are located in Rocky Mountain National Park, just west of the Continental Divide. The river's course then follows the Kewuneeche Valley to Shadow Mountain Reservoir, near the town of Granby, then flows into Lake Granby. The river then roughly parallels US 40 to the town of Kremling, then enters Gore Canyon. Shortly thereafter, the river roughly parallels I-70 through Glenwood Canyon and the city of Glenwood Springs. Below Glenwood, the Colorado runs through the Grand Valley to Grand Junction, where it is joined by the Gunnison River; from there it flows on to the Utah border. Once inside Utah, the river turns south, and goes through Arches National Park, then Dead Horse Point State Park and Canyonlands National Park, where it is met by one of its primary tributaries, the Green River. The river then flows into Lake Powell, formed by the Glen Canyon Dam. Below the dam, water released from the bottom of Lake Powell makes the river clear, clean, and cold. Just south of the town of Page, Arizona, the river forms the dramatic Horseshoe Bend, then at Lees Ferry is joined by another tributary, the warm, shallow, muddy Paria River, and begins its course through Marble Canyon. At the southern end of Marble Canyon, the river is joined by another tributary, the Little Colorado, and the river then turns abruptly west directly athwart the folds and fault line of the plateau, through the Grand Canyon, which is 217 miles long and from 4 to 20 miles wide between the upper cliffs. The walls, 4000 to 6000 feet high, drop in successive escarpments of 500 to 1600 feet, banded in splendid colours, toward the gloomy narrow gorge of the present river. Below the confluence of the Virgin River of Nevada the Colorado abruptly turns southward, and forms part of the boundary between Arizona and Nevada, and the border between Arizona and California. Along the California-Arizona reach of the river, two additional dams are operated to divert water for agricultural irrigation supplies: Palo Verde Diversion Dam and Imperial Dam. Below the Black Canyon the river lessens in gradient, and in its lower course flows in a broad sedimentary valley's distinct estuarine plain upriver from Yuma, where it joined by the Gila River. The channel through much of this region is bedded in a dyke-like embankment lying above the floodplain over which the escaping water spills in time of flood. This dyke cuts off the flow of the river to the remarkable low area in southern California known as the Salton Sink, Coahuila Valley, or Imperial Valley. The Salton Sink is located below sea level; therefore, the descent from the river near Yuma is very much greater than the descent from Yuma to the gulf. The lower course of the river, which forms the border between Baja California and Sonora, is essentially a dry stream today due to use of the river as a water source. Prior to the mid 20th century, the Colorado River Delta provided a rich estuarine marshland that is now essentially desiccated, but nonetheless is an important ecological resource.
Engineering
Colorado River Delta In the autumn of 1904, the river's waters escaped into a diversion canal a few miles below Yuma. The river, taking the canal as a new channel, re-created in California a great inland sea in a area that it had frequently inundated before, for example, in 1884 and 1891, when it had for a time practically abandoned its former course through Mexican territory to the Sea of Cortez. But it was effectively dammed in the early part of 1907 and returned to its normal course, from which, however, there was still much leakage to the Salton Sea. In July 1907, the permanent dam was completed. From the Black Canyon towards the sea the Colorado normally flows through a desert-like basin. The Colorado River is a major and in some cases life-sustaining source of water for irrigation, drinking, and other uses by people living in the arid American southwest. Allocation of the river's water is governed by the Colorado River Compact. Several dams have been built along the Colorado River, beginning with Glen Canyon Dam near the Utah-Arizona border. Other dams include Hoover Dam, Parker Dam, Davis Dam, Palo Verde Diversion Dam, and Imperial Dam. Since the completion of the dams, the majority of the river in normal hydrologic years is diverted for agricultural and municipal water supply. The Colorado's last drops evaporate in the Sonoran Desert, miles before the river reaches the Gulf of California. Hoover Dam (originally Boulder Dam, and the first dam of its type) was completed in 1936. Its impoundment of the river in the Mojave Desert creates Lake Mead, which provides water for irrigation and the generation of hydroelectric power. Several cities such as Los Angeles, San Diego, Phoenix and Tucson have aqueducts leading all the way back to the Colorado River. One such aqueduct is the Central Arizona Project ("CAP") canal, which was begun in the 1970s and finished in the 1990s. The canal begins at Parker Dam and runs all the way to Phoenix and then Tucson to supplement those cities' water needs.
See also

- List of Colorado River rapids and features
External links

- [http://www.livingrivers.org/campaigns/drought/map.cfm Drought Watch Campaign] - map of the Colorado River system showing the fill levels of major reservoirs
- [http://www.citlink.net/~davegun/ Dams on the Lower Colorado River] - A look at all the Dams on the Colorado River from Las Vegas Nevada to Mexico Category:Rivers of Arizona Category:Rivers of California Category:Rivers of Colorado Category:Rivers of Mexico Category:Rivers of Nevada Category:Rivers of Utah ja:コロラド川

El Centro, California

El Centro is the county seat of Imperial County, California, United States. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 37,835. It is one of the largest cities in the Imperial Valley and is home to agriculture, transpo