California
The state of California is located in the western United States with
Sacramento as its capital. The state's official nickname is "The Golden
State" and its U.S. Postal abbreviation is CA.
USS California was named in honor of this state.
State nickname: The Golden State
Capital Sacramento
Largest City Los Angeles
Ranked 3rd
Area 410,000 km2
History Ê- Total 404,298 km2
Ê- Land 20,047 km2
Ê- Water 4.72%
Ê- % water
California was the name
given to the northwestern Population Ranked 1st
part of the Spanish Empire Ê- Total (2000) 33,871,648
in North America. Following Ê- Density 83/km2
the Mexican-American War of Admittance into Union
1847, the region was divided Ê- Order 31st
between Mexico and the Ê- Date September 9, 1850
United States. The Mexican
portion, Baja (lower) Time zone Pacific: UTC-8/-7
California was later divided Latitude 32¡30'N to 42¡N
into the states of Baja Longitude 114¡8'W to 124¡24'W
California and Baja
California Sur. The American Width 402.5 km
portion, Alta (upper) Length 1,240 km
California became the U.S. Elevation Ê
state of California in 1850. Ê-Highest 4,418 meters
Ê-Mean 884 meters
Law and Government Ê-Lowest 86 meters below sea
level
ISO 3166-2: US-CA
California's Governor serves a four-year term. The state legislature
consists of a 40 member Senate and 80 member Assembly. Senators serve four
year terms, and Assemblypersons two. The terms of the Senators are staggered
so that half the membership is elected every two years. The Senators
representing the odd-numbered districts are elected in years evenly
divisible by four; i.e., presidential election years. The Senators from the
even-numbered districts are elected in the intervening even-numbered years,
in the gubernatorial election cycle. The state's capital is Sacramento.
At the national level, California is represented by two senators and 53
representatives. It has 55 electoral votes.
Geography
California borders the Pacific Ocean, Oregon, Nevada, Arizona, and the
Mexican State of Baja California. The state has striking natural features,
including a huge fertile central valley, high mountains, and hot dry
deserts. With an area of 410,000 km² it is the third largest state in
the U.S. Most major cities cling to the cool, pleasant seacoast along the
Pacific, notably San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego. The capital,
however, is Sacramento in the Central Valley. California has many types of
geography. Down the center of the state lies the Central Valley, a huge,
fertile valley bounded by the coastal mountain ranges in the west, the
Sierra Nevada to the east, the Cascade Range in the north and the the
Tehachapi Mountains in the south. Mountain-fed rivers naturally irrigate the
Central Valley. With dredging, several of these rivers have become
sufficiently large and deep that several inland cities, notably Stockton,
California, are seaports.
In the center and east of the state are the Sierra Nevada, containing the
highest peak in the continental U.S., Mt. Whitney, at 4,418 meters (14,495
ft). Also in the Sierra is the world famous Yosemite National Park and a
deep freshwater lake, Lake Tahoe. To the east of the Sierra is the Owens
Valley and Mono Lake, an essential seabird habitat.
In the south lie the San Bernardino Mountains and a large salt lake, the
Salton Sea. The south-central desert is called the Mojave. Just to the north
east of the Mojave, lies Death Valley, which contains the lowest, hottest
point in North America.
California is famous for its earthquakes due partly to the presence of the
San Andreas Fault. While more powerful earthquakes in the United States have
occurred in Alaska and along the Mississippi River, California earthquakes
are notable due to their frequency and location in highly populated areas.
Popular legend has it that, eventually, an earthquake known as "The Big One"
will result in the splitting of coastal California from the continent,
either to sink into the ocean or form a new landmass. The fact that this
scenario is completely implausible from a geologic standpoint does not
lessen its acceptance in public conventional wisdom.
Climate
The southern part of the state has a desert climate, with temperature
extremes and 10 inches/year of rain. The coastal regions have a
Mediterranean climate, with wet winters and dry summers. There is a
temperate climate with 15-40 inches/year rainfall in the north. The Central
Valley has a continental climate, with chilly winters and very hot summers.
The high mountains, including the Sierra Nevada, have a mountain climate
with snow in winter and moderate heat in summer.
Biotopes: desert, savanna with scattered oaks, second-growth taiga
(coniferous forest), especially in the north and at high altitudes.
Mountain-tops contain tundra, fellfields (stoney ground with patches of
meadow), and krumwald (dwarf forests).
Economy
The predominant industry, more than twice as large as the next largest, is
agriculture, (including fruit, vegetables, dairy, and wine). This is
followed by aerospace; entertainment, primarily television by dollar volume,
although many movies are still made in California; and light manufacturing
including computer hardware and software, and the mining of borax.
Per capita income varies widely by geographic region and profession. The
Central Valley has the most extreme contrasts of income, with migrant farm
workers making less than minimum wage, contrasted with farmers who
frequently manage multimillion-dollar farms. Most farm managers are highly
educated, most with at least master's degrees. While cities include some of
the wealthiest per-capita areas in the U.S., notably Irvine in Orange
County, the non-agricultural central counties have some of the highest
poverty rates in the U.S. The high-technology sectors in Orange County and
Silicon Valley, in Santa Clara County are currently in a recession because
of the dot.com bust, but medical systems, video games and animation are
taking up the slack.
A particular problem with California's economy is that it does not attract
manufacturing. The 7.25% sales tax (total statewide base sales/use tax)
makes it uneconomic to locate major factories in the state, because that tax
must be paid on capital equipment. California also has unusually high
unemployment and worker's compensation (for on-the-job injury) taxes. Major
manufacturers, especially aerospace, are also leaving the state or shifting
production. For this reason, no major new factories have been built in
California for many years, and the state suffers a severe lack of
good-paying manufacturing jobs. This means that the middle class in
California consists almost entirely of small businesspeople and construction
and transportation workers, with a small leavening of knowledge workers -- a
nearly pure service economy. Manufacturing costs are made even higher by
high land and housing prices, which cause workers to need very high pay.
In 2001 the Small Business Survival Committee ranked California among the
worst states in the U.S. in which to run a small business. It was in 44th
place.
CALIFORNIA UNEMPLOYMENT RATE
1967-2002
1967 5.00% 1986 6.70%
1968 4.50% 1987 5.80%
1969 4.40% 1988 5.30%
1970 7.30% 1989 5.10%
1971 8.80% 1990 5.80%
1972 7.60% 1991 7.70%
1973 7.00% 1992 9.30%
1974 7.30% 1993 9.40%
1975 9.90% 1994 8.60%
1976 9.20% 1995 7.80%
1977 8.20% 1996 7.20%
1978 7.10% 1997 6.30%
1979 6.20% 1998 5.90%
1980 6.80% 1999 5.20%
1981 7.40% 2000 4.90%
1982 9.90% 2001 5.40%
1983 9.70% 2002 6.70%
1984 7.80%
1985 7.20%
Demographics
With a population of 33,871,648 as of 2000, California is the most populous
state in the U.S., and contributes 12% to the total U.S. population.
According to the that census, California lacks a majority ethnic group.
Hispanics are the largest group, followed by whites, African Americans,
Asian Americans, and Native Americans. Reflecting in part the high birth
rate of the Spanish-speaking Catholic population, Hispanics are predicted to
become a majority around 2040.
Important Cities and Towns
* Anaheim * Palo Alto
* Berkeley * Redding
* Eureka * Sacramento
* Fresno * San Diego
* Long Beach * San Francisco
* Los Angeles * San Jose
* Monterey * Santa Ana
* Oakland
Education
California's educational system is supported by a unique constitutional
amendment that requires 40% of state revenues to be spent on education.
The preeminent state university is the University of California, which
employs more Nobel Prize winners than any other institution in the world. It
has several campuses, notably in Berkeley, Los Angeles, San Francisco (no
undergraduate programs), San Diego (includes Scripps Institution of
Oceanography), Irvine, Riverside and Santa Barbara. It is intended to accept
students from the upper 20% of college-bound students, and provide most
graduate studies and research. The University of California also administers
federal laboratories for the Federal Department of Energy: Lawrence
Livermore National Laboratory,Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, and Los Alamos
National Laboratory.
The California State Universities educate for teachers, the trades,
agriculture and industry. They are intended to accept most college-bound
high-school students, and give excellent value in education, while carrying
out some research, especially in applied sciences. Lower-division course
credits are frequently transferable to the University of California.
The community college system educates students in the trades, providing
certificates, and associate-arts degrees. It also provides lower division
general-education courses transferable to the State University and the
University of California.
Preeminent private institutions include Stanford University, the University
of Southern California (USC), and the California Institute of Technology
(Cal Tech) (which administers the Jet Propulsion Laboratory for NASA).
California has hundreds of excellent private colleges and universities,
including many religious and special-purpose institutions. This leads to
many unique entertainment and educational opportunities for residents. For
example, Southern California, with one of the highest densities of
post-secondary institutions in the world, has a very large base of
classically trained vocalists that compete in large choir festivals. Near
Los Angeles, there are numerous art and film institutes, including the
prestigious Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the Art
Institute.
Secondary education consists of high schools that teach elective courses in
trades, languages and liberal arts with tracks for gifted, college-bound and
industrial arts students. They accept students from roughly age 14 to 18,
with mandatory education ceasing at age 16. In many districts, junior high
schools teach electives with a strong skills-based curriculum, for ages from
11 to 13. Elementary schools teach pure skills, history and social studies,
with optional half-day kindergartens beginning at age 5. Mandatory full-time
instruction begins at age 6.
The primary schools are of varying effectiveness. The quality of the local
schools depends strongly on the local tax base, and the size of the local
administration. In some regions, administrative costs divert a significant
amount of educational monies from instructional purposes. In poor regions,
literacy rates may fall below 70%.
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