California State Assembly
The California State Assembly is the lower house of the California State Legislature, the upper house being the California State Senate. The Assembly convenes, along with the State Senate, at the California State Capitol in Sacramento; the Assembly consists with each member representing at least 465,000 people. Due to a combination of the state's large population and small legislature, the Assembly has the largest population-per-representative ratio of any state lower house and second largest of any legislative lower house in the United States after the federal House of Representatives. Members of the California State Assembly are referred to using the titles Assemblyman, Assemblywoman, or Assemblymember. In the current legislative session, Democrats enjoy a three-fourths supermajority of 61 seats, while Republicans controls 19 seats; the Speaker presides over the State Assembly in the chief leadership position, controlling the flow of legislation and committee assignments. The Speaker is elected by the full Assembly.
Other leaders, such as the majority and minority leaders, are elected by their respective party caucuses according to each party's strength in the chamber. The current Speaker is Democrat Anthony Rendon; the majority leader is Democrat Ian Calderon. As a result of Proposition 140 in 1990 and Proposition 28 in 2012, members elected to the Legislature prior to 2012 are restricted by term limits to three two-year terms, while those elected in or after 2012 are allowed to serve 12 years in the legislature in any combination of four-year State Senate or two-year State Assembly terms; every two years, all 80 seats in the Assembly are subject to election. This is in contrast to the State Senate, in which only half of its 40 seats are subject to election every two years; the chamber's green tones are based on the House of Commons of the United Kingdom. The dais rests along a wall shaped like an "E", with its central projection housing the rostrum. Along the cornice appears a portrait of Abraham Lincoln and a Latin quotation: legislatorum est justas leges condere.
Every decorating element is identical to the Senate Chamber. To run for the Assembly, a candidate must be a United States citizen and a registered voter in the district at the time nomination papers are issued, may not have served three terms in the State Assembly since November 6, 1990. According to Article 4, Section 2 of the California Constitution, the candidate must have one year of residency in the legislative district and California residency for three years; the chief clerk of the Assembly, a position that has existed since the Assembly's creation, is responsible for many administrative duties. The chief clerk is the custodian of all Assembly bills and records and publishes the Assembly Daily Journal, the minutes of floor sessions, as well as the Assembly Daily File; the chief clerk is the Assembly's parliamentarian, in this capacity gives advice to the presiding officer on matters of parliamentary procedure. The chief clerk is responsible for engrossing and enrolling of measures, the transmitting passed legislation to the governor.
Since 2016, the chaplain of the Assembly has been a Buddhist cleric. The chaplain from 2003 to 2016 was a Greek Orthodox priest; the position of sergeant-at-arms of the Assembly has existed since 1849. The sergeant-at-arms is tasked with law enforcement duties, but customarily has a ceremonial and protocol role. Today, some fifty employees are part of the Assembly Sergeant-at-Arms Office; the Chief Clerk, the acting Chief Sergeant-at-Arms, the Chaplains are not members of the Legislature. Elected in a special election Current committees include: Assembly Committee on Accountability and Administrative review Assembly Committee on Aging And Long-Term Care Assembly Committee on Agriculture Assembly Committee on Appropriations Assembly Committee on Arts, Sports and Internet Media Assembly Committee on Banking and Finance Assembly Committee on Budget Assembly Budget Subcommittee No. 1 on Health and Human Services Assembly Budget Subcommittee No. 2 on Education Finance Assembly Budget Subcommittee No. 3 on Resources and Transportation Assembly Budget Subcommittee No. 4 on State Administration Assembly Budget Subcommittee No. 5 on Public Safety Assembly Budget Subcommittee No. 6 on Budget Process Oversight and Program Evaluation Assembly Committee on Business and Consumer Protection Assembly Committee on Communications and Conveyance Assembly Committee on Education Assembly Committee on Elections and Redistricting Assembly Committee on Environmental Safety and Toxic Materials Assembly Committee on Governmental Organization Assembly Committee on Health Assembly Committee on Higher Education Assembly Committee on Housing and Community Development Assembly Committee on Human Services Assembly Committee on Insurance Assembly Committee on Jobs, Economic Development, the Economy Assembly Committee on Judiciary Assembly Committee on Labor and Employment Assembly Committee on Local Government Assembly Committee on Natural Resources Assembly Committee on Privacy and Consumer Protection Assembly Committee on Public Employees and Social Security Assembly Committee on Public Safety Assembly Committee on Revenue and Taxation Assembly Committee on Rules Assembly Committee on Transportation Assembly Committee on Utilities and Commerce Assembly Committee on Veterans Affairs Assembly Committ
Bakersfield, California
Bakersfield is a city in and the county seat of Kern County, United States. It covers about 151 sq mi near the southern end of the San Joaquin Valley and the Central Valley region. Bakersfield's population is around 380,000, making it the 9th-most populous city in California and the 52nd-most populous city in the nation; the Bakersfield–Delano Metropolitan Statistical Area, which includes all of Kern County, had a 2010 census population of 839,631, making it the 62nd-largest metropolitan area in the United States. The more built-up urban area that includes Bakersfield and areas around the city, such as East Bakersfield and Rosedale, has a population of over 520,000. Bakersfield is a charter city; the city is a significant hub for both oil production. Kern County is the most productive oil-producing county and the fourth-most productive agricultural county in the United States. Industries include natural gas and other energy extraction, mining, petroleum refining, distribution, food processing, corporate regional offices.
The city is the birthplace of the country music genre known as the Bakersfield sound. Archaeological evidence indicates the presence of Native American settlements dating back thousands of years; the Yokuts lived in lodges along the branches of the Kern River delta and hunted antelope, tule elk, bear and game birds. In 1776, Spanish missionary Father Francisco Garcés became the first European to explore the area. Owing to the remoteness and inaccessibility of the region, the Yokuts remained isolated until after the Mexican War of Independence, when Mexican settlers began to migrate to the area. Following the discovery of gold in California in 1848, settlers flooded into the San Joaquin Valley. In 1851, gold was discovered along the Kern River in the southern Sierra Nevada, in 1865, oil was discovered in the valley; the Bakersfield area, once a tule reed-covered marshland, was first known as Kern Island to the handful of pioneers, who built log cabins there in 1860. The area was subject to periodic flooding from the Kern River, which occupied what is now the downtown area, experienced outbreaks of malaria.
In 1862, disastrous floods swept away the original settlement founded in 1860 by the German-born Christian Bohna. Among those attracted to the area by the California gold rush was Thomas Baker, a lawyer and former colonel in the militia of Ohio, his home state. Baker moved to the banks of the Kern River in 1863, at what became known as Baker's Field, which became a stopover for travelers. By 1870, with a population of 600, what is now known as Bakersfield was becoming the principal town in Kern County. In 1873, Bakersfield was incorporated as a city, by 1874, it replaced the dying town of Havilah as the county seat. Alexander Mills was hired as the city marshal, a man one historian would describe as "... an old man by the time he became Marshal of Bakersfield, he walked with a cane. But he was a Kentuckian, a handy man with a gun, not lacking in initiative and resource when the mood moved him." Businessmen and others began to resent Mills, cantankerous and high-handed in his treatment of them.
Wanting to fire him but fearing reprisals, they came up with a scheme to disincorporate leaving him without an employer. According to local historian Gilbert Gia the city was failing to collect the taxes it needed for services. In 1876, the city voted to disincorporate. For the next 22 years, a citizen's council managed the community. By 1880, the town had a population of 801, by 1890, it had a population of 2,626. Migration from Texas, Louisiana and Southern California brought new residents, who were employed by the oil industry; the city reincorporated on January 11, 1898. On July 21, 1952, an earthquake struck at 4:52 am Pacific Daylight Time; the earthquake, which measured 7.5 on the moment magnitude scale and was felt from San Francisco to the Mexican border, destroyed the nearby communities of Tehachapi and Arvin. The earthquake's destructive force bent cotton fields into U shapes, slid a shoulder of the Tehachapi Mountains across all four lanes of the Ridge Route, collapsed a water tower creating a flash flood, destroyed the railroad tunnels in the mountain chain.
Bakersfield was spared. A large aftershock occurred on July 29, did minor architectural damage, but raised fears that the flow of the Friant-Kern Canal could be dangerously altered flooding the city and surrounding areas. Aftershocks, for the next month, had become normal to Bakersfield residents until, on August 22 at 3:42 pm, a 5.8 earthquake struck directly under the town's center in the most densely populated area of the southern San Joaquin Valley. Four people died in the aftershock, some of the town's historic structures sustained heavy damage. Between 1970 and 2010, Bakersfield grew 400%, making it one of the fastest-growing cities in California. Bakersfield's close proximity to mountain passes the Tejon Pass on Interstate 5 between the Los Angeles metropolis and the central San Joaquin Valley, has made the city a regional transportation hub. In 1990, Bakersfield was one of 10 U. S. communities to receive the All-America City Award from the National Civic League. In 2010, the Bakersfield MSA had a gross metropolitan product of $29.466 billion, making it the 73rd-largest metropolitan economy in the United States.
Bakersfield lies near the southern "horseshoe" end of the San Joaquin Valley, with the southern tip of the Sierra Nevada just to the east. The city limits extend to the Sequoia National Forest, at the foot of the Greenhorn Mountain Range and at the en
Dust Bowl
The Dust Bowl was a period of severe dust storms that damaged the ecology and agriculture of the American and Canadian prairies during the 1930s. The drought came in three waves, 1934, 1936, 1939–1940, but some regions of the high plains experienced drought conditions for as many as eight years. With insufficient understanding of the ecology of the plains, farmers had conducted extensive deep plowing of the virgin topsoil of the Great Plains during the previous decade; the rapid mechanization of farm equipment small gasoline tractors, widespread use of the combine harvester contributed to farmers' decisions to convert arid grassland to cultivated cropland. During the drought of the 1930s, the unanchored soil turned to dust, which the prevailing winds blew away in huge clouds that sometimes blackened the sky; these choking billows of dust – named "black blizzards" or "black rollers" – traveled cross country, reaching as far as the East Coast and striking such cities as New York City and Washington, D.
C. On the plains, they reduced visibility to 3 feet or less. Associated Press reporter Robert E. Geiger happened to be in Boise City, Oklahoma, to witness the "Black Sunday" black blizzards of April 14, 1935. While the term "the Dust Bowl" was a reference to the geographical area affected by the dust, today it refers to the event itself; the drought and erosion of the Dust Bowl affected 100,000,000 acres that centered on the panhandles of Texas and Oklahoma and touched adjacent sections of New Mexico and Kansas. The Dust Bowl forced tens of thousands of poverty-stricken families to abandon their farms, unable to pay mortgages or grow crops, losses reached $25 million per day by 1936. Many of these families, who were known as "Okies" because so many of them came from Oklahoma, migrated to California and other states to find that the Great Depression had rendered economic conditions there little better than those they had left; the Dust Bowl has been the subject of many cultural works, notably the novel The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, the folk music of Woody Guthrie, photographs depicting the conditions of migrants by Dorothea Lange.
The Dust Bowl area lies principally west of the 100th meridian on the High Plains, characterized by plains which vary from rolling in the north to flat in the Llano Estacado. Elevation ranges from 2,500 feet in the east to 6,000 feet at the base of the Rocky Mountains; the area is semiarid. The region is prone to extended drought, alternating with unusual wetness of equivalent duration. During wet years, the rich soil provides bountiful agricultural output, but crops fail during dry years; the region is subject to high winds. During early European and American exploration of the Great Plains, this region was thought unsuitable for European-style agriculture; the lack of surface water and timber made the region less attractive than other areas for pioneer settlement and agriculture. The federal government encouraged settlement and development of the Plains for agriculture via the Homestead Act of 1862, offering settlers 160-acre plots. With the end of the Civil War in 1865 and the completion of the First Transcontinental Railroad in 1869, waves of new migrants and immigrants reached the Great Plains, they increased the acreage under cultivation.
An unusually wet period in the Great Plains mistakenly led settlers and the federal government to believe that "rain follows the plow" and that the climate of the region had changed permanently. While initial agricultural endeavors were cattle ranching, the adverse effect of harsh winters on the cattle, beginning in 1886, a short drought in 1890, general overgrazing, led many landowners to increase the amount of land under cultivation. Recognizing the challenge of cultivating marginal arid land, the United States government expanded on the 160 acres offered under the Homestead Act – granting 640 acres to homesteaders in western Nebraska under the Kinkaid Act and 320 acres elsewhere in the Great Plains under the Enlarged Homestead Act. Waves of European settlers arrived in the plains at the beginning of the 20th century. A return of unusually wet weather confirmed a held opinion that the "formerly" semiarid area could support large-scale agriculture. At the same time, technological improvements such as mechanized plowing and mechanized harvesting made it possible to operate larger properties without increasing labor costs.
The combined effects of the disruption of the Russian Revolution, which decreased the supply of wheat and other commodity crops, World War I increased agricultural prices. For example, in the Llano Estacado of eastern New Mexico and northwestern Texas, the area of farmland was doubled between 1900 and 1920 tripled again between 1925 and 1930; the agricultural methods favored by farmers during this per
California State Senate
The California State Senate is the upper house of the California State Legislature, the lower house being the California State Assembly. The State Senate convenes, along with the State Assembly, at the California State Capitol in Sacramento. Due to a combination of the state's large population and small legislature, the State Senate has the largest population per state senator ratio of any state legislative house. In the United States House of Representatives, California is apportioned 53 U. S. Representatives, each representing 704,566 people, while in the California State Senate, each of the 40 State Senators represents 931,349 people; this means that California State Senators each represent more people than California's members of the House of Representatives. In the current legislative session, Democrats hold a two-thirds supermajority of 28 seats, while Republicans hold 10 seats. There are two vacancies. Prior to 1967, state legislative districts were drawn according to the "Little Federal Model" by which Assembly seats were drawn to according to population and Senate seats were drawn according to county lines.
The guidelines were that no Senate district would include more than three counties and none would include less than one complete county. This led to the situation of a populous county such as Los Angeles County being accorded the same number of state senators as less populous counties such as Alpine County. In Reynolds v. Sims, the United States Supreme Court compelled all states to draw up districts with equal population; as such, boundaries were changed to comply with the ruling. The Lieutenant Governor is the ex officio President of the Senate, may only cast a vote to break a tie; the President pro tempore is elected by the majority party caucus, followed by confirmation of the full Senate. Other leaders, such as the majority and minority leaders, are elected by their respective party caucuses according to each party's strength in the chamber; the current President pro tem is Democrat Toni Atkins of San Diego. The Minority Leader is Republican Shannon Grove of Bakersfield; each state senator represents a population equivalent to the State of Delaware.
As a result of Proposition 140 in 1990 and Proposition 28 in 2012, members elected to the legislature prior to 2012 are restricted by term limits to two four-year terms, while those elected in or after 2012 are allowed to serve 12 years in the legislature in any combination of four-year State Senate or two-year State Assembly terms. Members of the State Senate serve four-year terms; every two years, half of the Senate's 40 seats are subject to election. This is in contrast to the State Assembly, in which all 80 seats in the Assembly are subject to election every two years; the red tones of the California State Senate Chamber are based on the British House of Lords, outfitted in a similar color. The dais rests along a wall shaped like an "E", with its central projection housing the rostrum; the Lower tier dais runs across the entire chamber, there are several chairs and computers used by the senate officers, the most prominent seat is reserved for the secretary who calls the roll. The higher tier is smaller, with three chairs, the two largest and most ornate chairs are used by the President Pro Tempore and the Lieutenant Governor.
The third and smallest chair, placed in the center, is used by the presiding officer and is sat in as the president is expected to stand. There are four other chairs flanking the dais used by the highest non-member officials attending the senate, a foreign dignitary or state officer for example; each of the 40 senators is provided a desk and two chairs, one for the senator, another for guests or legislative aides. Every decorating element is identical to the Assembly Chamber. Along the cornice appears a portrait of George Washington and the Latin quotation: senatoris est civitatis libertatem tueri; the Secretary, the Sergeant-at-Arms, the Chaplain are not members of the Legislature.: elected in a special election: elected in a recall election Current committees include: Senate Committee on Agriculture Senate Committee on Appropriations Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Fiscal Oversight and Bonded Indebtedness Senate Committee on Banking and Financial Institutions Senate Committee on Budget and Fiscal Review Senate Budget Subcommittee No. 1 on Education Senate Budget Subcommittee No. 2 on Resources Senate Budget Subcommittee No. 3 on Health and Human Services Senate Budget Subcommittee No. 4 on State Administration and General Government Senate Budget Subcommittee No. 5 on Corrections Senate Committee on Business and Economic Development Senate Committee on Education Senate Education Subcommittee on Sustainable School Facilities Senate Committee on Elections and Constitutional Amendments Senate Committee on Energy and Communications Senate Committee on Environmental Quality Senate Committee on Governmental Organizations Senate Committee on Governance and Finance Senate Committee on Health Senate Committee on Human Services Senate Committee on Insurance Senate Committee on Judiciary Senate Committee on Labor and Industrial Relations Senate Committee on Legislative Ethics Senate Committee on Natural Resources and Water Senate Natural Resources and Water Subcommittee on Urban Rivers Senate Committee on Public Employment and Retirement Senate Committee on Public Safety Senate Committee on Rules Senate Committee on Transportation and Housing Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs Joint Committee on Arts Joint Committee on Fairs and Classification Joint Committee on Fisher
United States Census Bureau
The United States Census Bureau is a principal agency of the U. S. Federal Statistical System, responsible for producing data about the American people and economy; the Census Bureau is part of the U. S. Department of Commerce and its director is appointed by the President of the United States; the Census Bureau's primary mission is conducting the U. S. Census every ten years, which allocates the seats of the U. S. House of Representatives to the states based on their population; the Bureau's various censuses and surveys help allocate over $400 billion in federal funds every year and it helps states, local communities, businesses make informed decisions. The information provided by the census informs decisions on where to build and maintain schools, transportation infrastructure, police and fire departments. In addition to the decennial census, the Census Bureau continually conducts dozens of other censuses and surveys, including the American Community Survey, the U. S. Economic Census, the Current Population Survey.
Furthermore and foreign trade indicators released by the federal government contain data produced by the Census Bureau. Article One of the United States Constitution directs the population be enumerated at least once every ten years and the resulting counts used to set the number of members from each state in the House of Representatives and, by extension, in the Electoral College; the Census Bureau now conducts a full population count every 10 years in years ending with a zero and uses the term "decennial" to describe the operation. Between censuses, the Census Bureau makes population projections. In addition, Census data directly affects how more than $400 billion per year in federal and state funding is allocated to communities for neighborhood improvements, public health, education and more; the Census Bureau is mandated with fulfilling these obligations: the collecting of statistics about the nation, its people, economy. The Census Bureau's legal authority is codified in Title 13 of the United States Code.
The Census Bureau conducts surveys on behalf of various federal government and local government agencies on topics such as employment, health, consumer expenditures, housing. Within the bureau, these are known as "demographic surveys" and are conducted perpetually between and during decennial population counts; the Census Bureau conducts economic surveys of manufacturing, retail and other establishments and of domestic governments. Between 1790 and 1840, the census was taken by marshals of the judicial districts; the Census Act of 1840 established a central office. Several acts followed that revised and authorized new censuses at the 10-year intervals. In 1902, the temporary Census Office was moved under the Department of Interior, in 1903 it was renamed the Census Bureau under the new Department of Commerce and Labor; the department was intended to consolidate overlapping statistical agencies, but Census Bureau officials were hindered by their subordinate role in the department. An act in 1920 changed the date and authorized manufacturing censuses every two years and agriculture censuses every 10 years.
In 1929, a bill was passed mandating the House of Representatives be reapportioned based on the results of the 1930 Census. In 1954, various acts were codified into Title 13 of the US Code. By law, the Census Bureau must count everyone and submit state population totals to the U. S. President by December 31 of any year ending in a zero. States within the Union receive the results in the spring of the following year; the United States Census Bureau defines four statistical regions, with nine divisions. The Census Bureau regions are "widely used...for data collection and analysis". The Census Bureau definition is pervasive. Regional divisions used by the United States Census Bureau: Region 1: Northeast Division 1: New England Division 2: Mid-Atlantic Region 2: Midwest Division 3: East North Central Division 4: West North Central Region 3: South Division 5: South Atlantic Division 6: East South Central Division 7: West South Central Region 4: West Division 8: Mountain Division 9: Pacific Many federal, state and tribal governments use census data to: Decide the location of new housing and public facilities, Examine the demographic characteristics of communities and the US, Plan transportation systems and roadways, Determine quotas and creation of police and fire precincts, Create localized areas for elections, utilities, etc.
Gathers population information every 10 years The United States Census Bureau is committed to confidentiality, guarantees non-disclosure of any addresses or personal information related to individuals or establishments. Title 13 of the U. S. Code establishes penalties for the disclosure of this information. All Census employees must sign an affidavit of non-disclosure prior to employment; the Bureau cannot share responses, addresses or personal information with anyone including United States or foreign government
ZIP Code
A ZIP Code is a postal code used by the United States Postal Service in a system it introduced in 1963. The term ZIP is an acronym for Zone Improvement Plan; the basic format consists of five digits. An extended ZIP+4 code was introduced in 1983 which includes the five digits of the ZIP Code, followed by a hyphen and four additional digits that reference a more specific location; the term ZIP Code was registered as a servicemark by the U. S. Postal Service, but its registration has since expired; the early history and context of postal codes began with postal district/zone numbers. The United States Post Office Department implemented postal zones for numerous large cities in 1943. For example: The "16" was the number of the postal zone in the specific city. By the early 1960s, a more organized system was needed, non-mandatory five-digit ZIP Codes were introduced nationwide on July 1, 1963; the USPOD issued its Publication 59: Abbreviations for Use with ZIP Code on October 1, 1963, with the list of two-letter state abbreviations which are written with both letters capitalized.
An earlier list in June had proposed capitalized abbreviations ranging from two to five letters. According to Publication 59, the two-letter standard was "based on a maximum 23-position line, because this has been found to be the most universally acceptable line capacity basis for major addressing systems", which would be exceeded by a long city name combined with a multi-letter state abbreviation, such as "Sacramento, Calif." along with the ZIP Code. The abbreviations have remained unchanged, with the exception of Nebraska, changed from NB to NE in 1969 at the request of the Canadian postal administration, to avoid confusion with the Canadian province of New Brunswick. Robert Moon is considered the father of the ZIP Code; the post office only credits Moon with the first three digits of the ZIP Code, which describe the sectional center facility or "sec center." An SCF is a central mail processing facility with those three digits. The fourth and fifth digits, which give a more precise locale within the SCF, were proposed by Henry Bentley Hahn Sr.
The SCF sorts mail to all post offices with those first three digits in their ZIP Codes. The mail is sorted according to the final two digits of the ZIP Code and sent to the corresponding post offices in the early morning. Sectional centers do not deliver mail and are not open to the public, most of their employees work the night shift. Mail picked up at post offices is sent to their own SCF in the afternoon, where the mail is sorted overnight. In the case of large cities, the last two digits coincide with the older postal zone number thus: In 1967, these became mandatory for second- and third-class bulk mailers, the system was soon adopted generally; the United States Post Office used a cartoon character, which it called Mr. ZIP, to promote the use of the ZIP Code, he was depicted with a legend such as "USE ZIP CODE" in the selvage of panes of postage stamps or on the covers of booklet panes of stamps. In 1971 Elmira Star-Gazette reporter Dick Baumbach found out the White House was not using a ZIP Code on its envelopes.
Herb Klein, special assistant to President Nixon, responded by saying the next printing of envelopes would include the ZIP Code. In 1983, the U. S. Postal Service introduced an expanded ZIP Code system that it called ZIP+4 called "plus-four codes", "add-on codes", or "add-ons". A ZIP+4 Code uses the basic five-digit code plus four additional digits to identify a geographic segment within the five-digit delivery area, such as a city block, a group of apartments, an individual high-volume receiver of mail, a post office box, or any other unit that could use an extra identifier to aid in efficient mail sorting and delivery. However, initial attempts to promote universal use of the new format met with public resistance and today the plus-four code is not required. In general, mail is read by a multiline optical character reader that instantly determines the correct ZIP+4 Code from the address—along with the more specific delivery point—and sprays an Intelligent Mail barcode on the face of the mail piece that corresponds to 11 digits—nine for the ZIP+4 Code and two for the delivery point.
For Post Office Boxes, the general rule is. The add-on code is one of the following: the last four digits of the box number, zero plus the last three digits of the box number, or, if the box number consists of fewer than four digits, enough zeros are attached to the front of the box number to produce a four-digit number. However, there is no uniform rule, so the ZIP+4 Code must be looked up individually for each box; the ZIP Code is translated into an Intelligent Mail barcode, printed on the mailpiece to make it easier for automated machines to sort. A barcode can be printed by the sender, it is better to let the post office put one on. In general, the post office uses OCR technology, though in some cases a human might have to read and enter the address. Customers who send bulk mail can get a discount on postage if they have printed the barcode themselves and have presorted the mai
Kern County, California
Kern County is a county in the U. S. state of California. As of the 2010 census, the population was 839,631, its county seat is Bakersfield. Kern County comprises California Metropolitan statistical area; the county spans the southern end of the Central Valley. Covering 8,161.42 square miles, it ranges west to the southern slope of the Coast Ranges, east beyond the southern slope of the eastern Sierra Nevada into the Mojave Desert, at the city of Ridgecrest. Its northernmost city is Delano and its southern reach expands just beyond Lebec to Grapevine and the northern tip of the parallel Antelope Valley; the county's economy is linked to agriculture and to petroleum extraction. There is a strong aviation and military presence, such as Edwards Air Force Base, the China Lake Naval Air Weapons Station, the Mojave Air and Space Port, it is one of the fastest-growing areas in the United States in terms of population growth, but suffers from significant water supply issues and poor air quality. The area was claimed by the Spanish in 1769.
In 1772 Commander Don Pedro Fages became the first European to enter it, from the south by way of the Grapevine Canyon. Kern County was the site of the Battle of San Emigdio, in March 1824, between the Chumash Indians of Mission Santa Barbara who rebelled against the Mexican government's taking over mission property and ejecting the natives; this battle with Mexican forces from Monterey under the command of Carlos Carrillo took place at the canyon where San Emigdio Creek flows down San Emigdio Mountain and the Blue Ridge south of Bakersfield near today's Highway 166. It was a low-casualty encounter, with only four Indians killed, no Mexicans. In the beginning, the area that became Kern County was dominated by mining in the mountains and in the desert. In 1855 an attempt to form a county in the area was made when the California legislature took the southeastern territory of Tulare County on the west of the Sierra Nevada Mountains for Buena Vista County, but it was never organized prior to 1859, when the enabling legislation expired.
The south of Tulare County was organized as Kern County in 1866, with additions from Los Angeles and San Bernardino Counties. Its first county seat was in the mining town of Havilah, in the mountains between Bakersfield and Tehachapi; the flatlands were considered inhospitable and impassable at the time due to swamps, tule reeds and diseases such as malaria. This changed when settlers started draining lands for farming and constructing canals, most dug by hand by hired Chinese laborers. Within 10 years the valley surpassed the mining areas as the economic center of the county, the county seat was moved as a result from Havilah to Bakersfield in 1874; the discovery well of the Kern River Oil Field was dug by hand in 1899. Soon the towns of Oil City, Oil Center and Oildale came into existence; the county derives its name from the Kern River, named for Edward Kern, cartographer for General John C. Frémont's 1845 expedition; the Kern River was named Rio Bravo de San Felipe by Father Francisco Garcés when he explored the area in 1776.
Severe earthquakes have struck Kern County within historical times, including the 1857 Fort Tejon earthquake. On July 21, 1952, an earthquake occurred with the epicenter about 23 miles south of Bakersfield, it killed 12 people. In addition to the deaths, it was responsible for hundreds of injuries and more than $60 million in property damage; the main shock was felt over much of California and as far away as Phoenix and Reno, Nevada. The earthquake occurred on the White Wolf Fault and was the strongest to occur in California since the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. Tehachapi suffered the greatest damage and loss of life from the earthquake, though its effects were felt throughout central and southern California; the event had a significant aftershock sequence that persisted into July and August with the strongest coming on August 22, an M5.8 event with a maximum perceived intensity of VIII and resulted in two additional deaths and an additional $10 million in property damage. Repercussions of the sequence of earthquakes were still being felt in the damaged downtown area of Bakersfield well into the 1990s as city leaders attempted to improve safety of the surviving non-reinforced masonry buildings.
Following the event, a field survey was conducted along the fault zone with the goal of estimating the peak ground acceleration of the shock based on visually evaluating precarious rock formations and other indicators. Ground disturbances that were created by the earthquakes were surveyed, both in the valley and in the foothills, with both vertical and horizontal displacements present in the epicenter area; the strong motion records that were acquired from the event were significant, a reconnaissance report was recognized for its coverage of the event, how it set a standard for those types of engineering or scientific papers. Between 1983 and 1986, several ritual sex ring child abuse cases occurred in Kern County, resulting in numerous long prison sentences, all of which were overturned—some of them decades because the prosecutors had coerced false testimonies from the purported child victims; the details of these false accusations are covered extensively in the 2008 documentary Witch Hunt, narrated by Sean Penn.
Kern county is considered to be a hotbed of country music the Bakersfield sound. The Buck Owens Crystal Palace is located in Bakersfield; the 2015 Disn
