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Santa Monica, Californiasanta monica california heritage museum, santa monica california
Santa Monica is a beachfront city in western Los Angeles County, California, United States The city is named after the Christian saint, Monica Situated on Santa Monica Bay, it is bordered on three sides by the city of Los Angeles – Pacific Palisades to the north, Brentwood on the northeast, Sawtelle on the east, Mar Vista on the southeast, and Venice on the south The Census Bureau population for Santa Monica in 2010 was 89,736
Partly because of its agreeable climate, Santa Monica had become a famed resort town by the early 20th century The city has experienced a boom since the late 1980s through the revitalization of its downtown core, significant job growth and increased tourism The Santa Monica Pier remains a popular and iconic destination
- 1 History
- 2 Attractions and cultural resources
- 3 Geography
- 31 Climate
- 32 Environment
- 33 Cityscape
- 4 Demographics
- 41 2010
- 42 2000
- 43 Crime
- 431 Gang activity
- 5 Education
- 51 Elementary and secondary schools
- 511 Elementary schools
- 512 Middle schools
- 513 High schools
- 514 Private schools
- 515 Miscellaneous education
- 52 Post-secondary
- 53 Public library system
- 51 Elementary and secondary schools
- 6 Transportation
- 61 Bicycles
- 62 Motorized vehicles
- 63 Bus
- 64 Light rail
- 65 Subway
- 66 Airport and ports
- 7 Emergency services
- 8 Government
- 9 Economy
- 91 Top employers
- 10 Sport
- 11 In popular culture
- 111 Film and television
- 112 Literature
- 113 Music
- 114 Video games
- 12 See also
- 13 References
- 14 External links
HistoryMain article:History of Santa Monica, California
Santa Monica was long inhabited by the Tongva people Santa Monica was called Kecheek in the Tongva language The first non-indigenous group to set foot in the area was the party of explorer Gaspar de Portolà, who camped near the present day intersection of Barrington and Ohio Avenues on August 3, 1769 There are two different versions of the naming of the city One says that it was named in honor of the feast day of Saint Monica mother of Saint Augustine, but her feast day is actually May 4 Another version says that it was named by Juan Crespí on account of a pair of springs, the Kuruvungna Springs Serra Springs, that were reminiscent of the tears that Saint Monica shed over her son's early impietyAn 1840 Santa Monica adobe home photographed in 1890
In Los Angeles, several battles were fought by the Californios Following the Mexican–American War, Mexico signed the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which gave Mexicans and Californios living in state certain unalienable rights US government sovereignty in California began on February 2, 1848A busy day on the beach, 1880
In the 1870s the Los Angeles and Independence Railroad, connected Santa Monica with Los Angeles, and a wharf out into the bay The first town hall was a modest 1873 brick building, later a beer hall, and now part of the Santa Monica Hostel It is Santa Monica's oldest extant structure By 1885, the town's first hotel, was the Santa Monica Hotel
Amusement piers became enormously popular in the first decades of the 20th century and the extensive Pacific Electric Railroad brought people to the city's beaches from across the Greater Los Angeles AreaExterior view of the Bank Building at the corner of Third Street and Broadway, Santa Monica, ca1900
Around the start of the 20th century, a growing population of Asian Americans lived in or near Santa Monica and Venice A Japanese fishing village was located near the Long Wharf while small numbers of Chinese lived or worked in both Santa Monica and Venice The two ethnic minorities were often viewed differently by White Americans who were often well-disposed towards the Japanese but condescending towards the Chinese The Japanese village fishermen were an integral economic part of the Santa Monica Bay communityOcean Park Bathhouse
Donald Wills Douglas, Sr built a plant in 1922 at Clover Field Santa Monica Airport for the Douglas Aircraft Company In 1924, four Douglas-built planes took off from Clover Field to attempt the first aerial circumnavigation of the world Two planes made it back, after having covered 27,553 miles 44,342 km in 175 days, and were greeted on their return September 23, 1924, by a crowd of 200,000 generously estimated The Douglas Company later McDonnell Douglas kept facilities in the city until the 1960s
The Great Depression hit Santa Monica deeply One report gives citywide employment in 1933 of just 1,000 Hotels and office building owners went bankrupt In the 1930s, corruption infected Santa Monica along with neighboring Los AngelesThe federal Works Project Administration helped build several buildings in the city, most notably City Hall The main Post Office and Barnum Hall Santa Monica High School auditorium were also among several other WPA projects
Douglas's business grew astronomically with the onset of World War II, employing as many as 44,000 people in 1943 To defend against air attack set designers from the Warner Brothers Studios prepared elaborate camouflage that disguised the factory and airfield The RAND Corporation began as a project of the Douglas Company in 1945, and spun off into an independent think tank on May 14, 1948 RAND eventually acquired a 15-acre 61,000 m² campus centrally located between the Civic Center and the pier entrance
The completion of the Santa Monica Freeway in 1966 brought the promise of new prosperity, though at the cost of decimating the Pico neighborhood that had been a leading African American enclave on the Westside
Beach volleyball is believed to have been developed by Duke Kahanamoku in Santa Monica during the 1920s
Attractions and cultural resourcesSanta Monica Pier entranceA busy day on Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica, California; the south end is the entrance to Frank Gehry's Santa Monica Place
The Santa Monica Looff Hippodrome carousel is a National Historic Landmark It sits on the Santa Monica Pier, which was built in 1909 The La Monica Ballroom on the pier was once the largest ballroom in the US and the source for many New Year's Eve national network broadcasts The Santa Monica Civic Auditorium was an important music venue for several decades and hosted the Academy Awards in the 1960s McCabe's Guitar Shop is still a leading acoustic performance space as well as retail outlet Bergamot Station is a city-owned art gallery compound that includes the Santa Monica Museum of Art The city is also home to the California Heritage Museum and the Angels Attic dollhouse and toy museum
Santa Monica has three main shopping districts, Montana Avenue on the north side of the city, the Downtown District in the city's core, and Main Street on the south end of the city Each of these districts has its own unique feel and personality Montana Avenue is a stretch of luxury boutique stores, restaurants, and small offices that generally features more upscale shopping The Main Street district offers an eclectic mix of clothing, restaurants, and other specialty retailA common bird called the California gull found on the beach
The Downtown District is the home of the Third Street Promenade, a major outdoor pedestrian-only shopping district that stretches for three blocks between Wilshire Blvd and Broadway not the same Broadway in downtown and south Los Angeles Third Street is closed to vehicles for those three blocks to allow people to stroll, congregate, shop and enjoy street performers Santa Monica Place, featuring Bloomingdale's and Nordstrom in a three-level outdoor environment, is located at the south end of the Promenade After a period of redevelopment, the mall reopened in the fall of 2010 as a modern shopping, entertainment and dining complex with more outdoor space
Santa Monica hosts the annual Santa Monica Film Festival
The oldest movie theater in the city is the Majestic Also known as the Mayfair Theatre, the theater which opened in 1912 has been closed since the 1994 Northridge earthquake The Aero Theater now operated by the American Cinematheque and Criterion Theater were built in the 1930s and still show movies The Santa Monica Promenade alone supports more than a dozen movie screens
Palisades Park stretches out along the crumbling bluffs overlooking the Pacific and is a favorite walking area to view the ocean It includes a totem pole, camera obscura, artwork, benches, picnic areas, pétanque courts, and restrooms
Tongva Park occupies 6 acres between Ocean Avenue and Main Street, just south of Colorado Avenue The park includes an overlook, amphitheater, playground, garden, fountains, picnic areas, and restrooms
The Santa Monica Stairs, a long, steep staircase that leads from north of San Vicente down into Santa Monica Canyon, is a popular spot for all-natural outdoor workouts Some area residents have complained that the stairs have become too popular, and attract too many exercisers to the wealthy neighborhood of multimillion-dollar propertiesSanta Monica
Natives and tourists alike have enjoyed the Santa Monica Rugby Club since 1972 The club has been very successful since its conception, most recently winning back-to-back national championships in 2005 and 2006 Santa Monica defeated the Boston Irish Wolfhounds 57-19 in the Division 1 final, convincingly claiming its second consecutive American title on June 4, 2006, in San Diego They offer Men's, Women's and a thriving children's programs The club recently joined the Rugby Super League
Every fall the Santa Monica Chamber of Commerce hosts The Taste of Santa Monica on the Santa Monica Pier Visitors can sample food and drinks from Santa Monica restaurants Other annual events include the Business and Consumer Expo, Sustainable Quality Awards, Santa Monica Cares Health and Wellness Festival, and the State of the City The swanky Shutters on the Beach Hotel offers a trip to the famous Santa Monica Farmers Market to select and influence the materials that will become that evening's special "Market Dinner"
Santa Monica has two hospitals:Saint John's Health Center and Santa Monica-UCLA Medical Center Its cemetery is Woodlawn Memorial
Santa Monica has several newspapers and magazines, including the Santa Monica Star, Santa Monica Daily Press, the Santa Monica Mirror, the Santa Monica Observer, Santa Monica Magazine, and the Santa Monica Sun
The city of Santa Monica rests on a mostly flat slope that angles down towards Ocean Avenue and towards the south High bluffs separate the north side of the city from the beaches Santa Monica borders the LA neighborhoods of Pacific Palisades to the north and Venice to the south To the west, Santa Monica has the 3-mile coastline fronting the Santa Monica Bay, and to the east of the city borders are the Los Angeles communities of West Los Angeles and Brentwood
ClimateWilshire Boulevard in downtown Santa Monica at twilight
Classified as a coastal Mediterranean climate Köppen Csb, Santa Monica enjoys an average of 310 days of sunshine a year It is located in USDA plant hardiness zone 11a Because of its location, nestled on the vast and open Santa Monica Bay, morning fog is a common phenomenon in May, June and early July caused by ocean temperature variations and currents Like other inhabitants of the greater Los Angeles area, residents have a particular terminology for this phenomenon:the "May Gray" and the "June Gloom" Overcast skies are common during June mornings, but usually the strong sun burns the fog off by noon In the late winter/early summer, daily fog is a phenomenon too It happens suddenly and it may last some hours or past sunset time Nonetheless, it will sometimes stay cloudy and cool all day during June, even as other parts of the Los Angeles area enjoy sunny skies and warmer temperatures At times, the sun can be shining east of 20th Street, while the beach area is overcast As a general rule, the beach temperature is from 5 to 10 degrees Fahrenheit 3 to 6 degrees Celsius cooler than it is inland during summer days, and 5–10 degrees warmer during winter nights
It is also in September that highest temperatures tend to be reached It is winter, however, when the hot, dry winds of the Santa Anas are most common In contrast, temperatures exceeding 10 degrees below average are rare
The rainy season is from late October through late March Winter storms usually approach from the northwest and pass quickly through the Southland There is very little rain during the rest of the year Yearly rainfall totals are unpredictable as rainy years are occasionally followed by droughts There has never been any snow or frost, but there has been hail
Santa Monica usually enjoys cool breezes blowing in from the ocean, which tend to keep the air fresh and clean Therefore, smog is less of a problem for Santa Monica than elsewhere around Los Angeles However, in the autumn months of September through November, the Santa Ana winds will sometimes blow from the east, bringing smoggy and hot inland air to the beaches
|Climate data for Santa Monica Pier, California
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Santa Monica is one of the most environmentally activist municipalities in the nation The city first proposed its Sustainable City Plan in 1992 and in 1994, was one of the first cities in the nation to formally adopt a comprehensive sustainability plan, setting waste reduction and water conservation policies for both public and private sector through its Office of Sustainability and the Environment Eighty-two percent of the city's public works vehicles now run on alternative fuels, including nearly 100% of the municipal bus system, making it among the largest such fleets in the country Santa Monica fleet vehicles and Buses now source their natural gas from Redeem, a Southern California-based supplier of renewable and sustainable natural gas obtained from non-fracked methane biogas generated from organic landfill waste
Santa Monica has adopted a Community Energy Independence Initiative, with a goal of achieving complete energy independence by 2020 vs California's already ambitious 33% renewables goal In the last 15 years, greenhouse gas emissions have been cut citywide by nearly 10% relative to 1990 levels, with further reductions being planned by the Office of Sustainability
An urban runoff facility SMURFF, the first of its kind in the US, catches and treats 35 million US gallons 13,000 m3 of water each week that would otherwise flow into the bay via storm-drains and sells it back to end-users within the city for reuse as gray-water, while bio-swales throughout the city allow rainwater to percolate into and replenish the groundwater supply The groundwater supply in turn plays an important role in the city's Sustainable Water Master Plan, whereby Santa Monica has set a goal of attaining 100% water independence by 2020 The city has numerous programs designed to promote water conservation among residents, including a rebate of $150 per square foot for those who convert water intensive lawns to more local drought-tolerant gardens that require less water
Santa Monica has also instituted a green building-code whereby merely constructing to code automatically renders a building equivalent to the US Green Building Council's LEED Silver standards The city's Main Library, for example, is one of many LEED certified or LEED equivalent buildings in the city It is built over a 200,000 gallon cistern that collects filtered storm water from the roof The water is used for landscape irrigation
Since 2009, Santa Monica has been developing the Zero Waste Strategic Operations Plan by which the city will set a goal of diverting at least 95% of all waste away from landfills, and toward recycling and composting, by 2030 The plan includes a food waste composting program, which diverts 3 million pounds of restaurant food waste away from landfills annually Currently, 77% of all solid waste produced citywide is diverted from landfills
The city is also in the process of implementing a 5-year and 20 year Bike Action Plan with a goal of attaining 14 to 35% bicycle transportation mode share by 2030 through the installation of enhanced bicycle infrastructure throughout the city Other environmentally focused initiatives include curbside recycling, curbside composting bins in addition to trash, yard-waste, and recycle bins, farmers' markets, community gardens, garden-share, an urban forest initiative, a hazardous materials home-collection service, green business certification, and a municipal bus system which is currently being revamped to integrate with the soon-to-open Expo Line
CityscapeSanta Monica beach and pier viewed from the end of Santa Monica Pier Note that the bluff is highest at the north end, to the left of the image
|Historical population
|Est 2015
|US Decennial Census
Santa Monica's population has grown from 417 in 1880 to 89,736 in 2010
The 2010 United States Census reported that Santa Monica had a population of 89,736 The population density was 10,6626 people per square mile 4,1169/km² The racial makeup of Santa Monica was 69,663 776% White 701% Non-Hispanic White, 3,526 39% African American, 338 04% Native American, 8,053 90% Asian, 124 01% Pacific Islander, 4,047 45% from other races, and 3,985 44% from two or more races Hispanic or Latino of any race were 11,716 persons 131%
The Census reported that 87,610 people 976% of the population lived in households, 1,299 14% lived in non-institutionalized group quarters, and 827 09% were institutionalized
There were 46,917 households, out of which 7,835 167% had children under the age of 18 living in them, 13,092 279% were opposite-sex married couples living together, 3,510 75% had a female householder with no husband present, 1,327 28% had a male householder with no wife present There were 2,867 61% unmarried opposite-sex partnerships, and 416 09% same-sex married couples or partnerships 22,716 households 484% were made up of individuals and 5,551 118% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older The average household size was 187 There were 17,929 families 382% of all households; the average family size was 279
The population was spread out with 12,580 people 140% under the age of 18, 6,442 people 72% aged 18 to 24, 32,552 people 363% aged 25 to 44, 24,746 people 276% aged 45 to 64, and 13,416 people 150% who were 65 years of age or older The median age was 404 years For every 100 females there were 932 males For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 912 males
There were 50,912 housing units at an average density of 6,0495 per square mile 2,3357/km², of which 13,315 284% were owner-occupied, and 33,602 716% were occupied by renters The homeowner vacancy rate was 11%; the rental vacancy rate was 51% 30,067 people 335% of the population lived in owner-occupied housing units and 57,543 people 641% lived in rental housing units
According to the 2010 United States Census, Santa Monica had a median household income of $73,649, with 112% of the population living below the federal poverty line
As of the census of 2000, there are 84,084 people, 44,497 households, and 16,775 families in the city The population density is 10,1787 inhabitants per square mile 3,9304/km² There are 47,863 housing units at an average density of 5,7940 per square mile 2,2373/km² The racial makeup of the city is 7829% White, 725% Asian, 378% African American, 047% Native American, 010% Pacific Islander, 597% from other races, and 413% from two or more races 1344% of the population are Hispanic or Latino of any race There are 44,497 households, out of which 158% have children under the age of 18, 275% are married couples living together, 75% have a female householder with no husband present, and 623% are non-families 512% of all households are made up of individuals and 106% have someone living alone who is 65 years of age or older The average household size is 183 and the average family size is 280
The city of Santa Monica is consistently among the most educated cities in the United States, with 238 percent of all residents holding graduate degrees
The population is diverse in age, with 146% under 18, 61% from 18 to 24, 401% from 25 to 44, 248% from 45 to 64, and 144% 65 years or older The median age is 39 years For every 100 females, there are 930 males For every 100 females age 18 and over, there are 913 males
According to a 2009 estimate, the median income for a household in the city is $71,095, and the median income for a family is $109,410 Males have a median income of $55,689 versus $42,948 for females The per capita income for the city is $42,874 104% of the population and 54% of families are below the poverty line Out of the total population, 99% of those under the age of 18 and 102% of those 65 and older are living below the poverty line
In 2006, crime in Santa Monica affected 441% of the population, slightly lower than the national average crime rate that year of 448% The majority of this was property crime, which affected 374% of Santa Monica's population in 2006; this was higher than the rates for Los Angeles County 276% and California 317%, but lower than the national average 391% These per-capita crime rates are computed based on Santa Monica's full-time population of about 85,000 However, the Santa Monica Police Department has suggested the actual per-capita crime rate is much lower, as tourists, workers, and beachgoers can increase the city's daytime population to between 250,000 and 450,000 people
Violent crimes affected 067% of the population in Santa Monica in 2006, in line with Los Angeles County 065%, but higher than the averages for California 053% and the nation 055%
Hate crime has typically been minimal in Santa Monica, with only one reported incident in 2007 However, the city experienced a spike of anti-Islamic hate crime in 2001, following the attacks of September 11 Hate crime levels returned to their minimal 2000 levels by 2002
In 2006, Santa Monica voters passed "Measure Y" with a 65% majority, which moved the issuance of citations for marijuana smoking to the bottom of the police priority list A 2009 study by the Santa Monica Daily Press showed that since the law took effect in 2007, the Santa Monica Police had "not issued any citations for offenses involving the adult, personal use of marijuana inside private residences"
In June 2011, the infamous Boston gangster Whitey Bulger was arrested in Santa Monica after being a fugitive for 16 years He had been living in the area for 15 years
A shooting in Santa Monica in 2013 left six including the perpetrator dead and five more injured
Gang activity
The Pico neighborhood of Santa Monica south of the Santa Monica Freeway experiences some gang activity The city estimates that there are about 50 gang members based in Santa Monica, although some community organizers dispute this claim Gang activity has been prevalent for decades in the Pico neighborhood
In October 1998, alleged Culver City 13 gang member Omar Sevilla, 21, of Culver City was killed A couple of hours after the shooting of Sevilla, German tourist Horst Fietze was killed Several days later Juan Martin Campos, age 23, a Santa Monica city employee, was shot and killed Police believe this was a retaliatory killing in response to the death of Omar Sevilla Less than twenty-four hours later, Javier Cruz was wounded in a drive-by shooting outside his home on 17th and Michigan
In 1999, there was a double homicide in the Westside Clothing store on Lincoln Boulevard During the incident, Culver City gang members David "Puppet" Robles and Jesse "Psycho" Garcia entered the store masked and began opening fire, killing Anthony and Michael Juarez They then ran outside to a getaway vehicle driven by a third Culver City gang member, who is now also in custody The clothing store was believed to be a local hang out for Santa Monica gang members The dead included two men from Northern California who had merely been visiting the store's owner, their cousin, to see if they could open a similar store in their area Police say the incident was in retaliation for a shooting committed by the Santa Monica 13 gang days before the Juarez brothers were gunned down
Aside from the rivalry with the Culver City gang, gang members also feud with the Venice and West Los Angeles gangs The main rivals in these regions include Venice 13, Graveyard Gangster Crips, and Venice Shoreline Crips gangs located in the Oakwood area of Venice, California
Elementary and secondary schools
The Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District provides public education at the elementary and secondary levels In addition to the traditional model of early education school houses, SMASH Santa Monica Alternative School House is "a K-8 public school of choice with team teachers and multi-aged classrooms"
Elementary schools
The district maintains eight public elementary schools in Santa Monica:
- Edison Language Academy
- Franklin Elementary School
- Grant Elementary School
- John Muir Elementary School
- McKinley Elementary School
- Santa Monica Alternative School House
- Roosevelt Elementary School
- Will Rogers Learning Community
Middle schools
The district maintains three public middle schools in Santa Monica:John Adams Middle School, Lincoln Middle School and SMASH
High schools
The district maintains two high schools in Santa Monica:Olympic High School and Santa Monica High School
Private schools
Private schools in the city include:
- Carlthorp School
- Santa Monica Montessori School
- Crossroads School
- Saint Monica Catholic Elementary School
- Concord High School
- Pacifica Christian High School
- St Anne Catholic School
- Saint Monica Catholic High School
- New Roads School
- PS1 Pluralistic School
Miscellaneous education
Asahi Gakuen, a weekend Japanese supplementary school system, operates its Santa Monica campus サンタモニカ校・高等部 Santamonika-kō kōtōbu at Webster Middle in the Sawtelle neighborhood of Los Angeles All high school classes in the Asahi Gakuen system are held at the Santa Monica campus As of 1986 students take buses from as far away as Orange County to go to the high school classes of the Santa Monica campus
Santa Monica College is a junior college originally founded in 1929 Many SMC graduates transfer to the University of California system It occupies 35 acres 14 hectares and enrolls 30,000 students annually The Frederick S Pardee RAND Graduate School, associated with the RAND Corporation, is the US's largest producer of public policy PhDs The Art Institute of California – Los Angeles is also located in Santa Monica near the Santa Monica Airport Universities and colleges within a 22-mile 35 km radius from Santa Monica include Santa Monica College, Antioch University Los Angeles, Loyola Marymount University, Mount St Mary's College, Pepperdine University, California State University, Northridge, California State University, Los Angeles, UCLA, USC, West Los Angeles College, California Institute of Technology Caltech, Occidental College Oxy, Los Angeles City College, Los Angeles Southwest College, Los Angeles Valley College, and Emperor's College of Traditional Oriental Medicine
Public library system
The Santa Monica Public Library consists of a Main Library in the downtown area, plus four neighborhood branches:Fairview, Montana Avenue, Ocean Park, and Pico Boulevard
Santa Monica has a bike action plan and recently launched a bicycle sharing system in November 2015 The city is traversed by the Marvin Braude Bike Trail Santa Monica has received the Bicycle Friendly Community Award Bronze in 2009, Silver in 2013 by the League of American Bicyclists Local bicycle advocacy organizations include Santa Monica Spoke, a local chapter of the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition Santa Monica is thought to be one of the leaders for bicycle infrastructure and programming in Los Angeles County
In terms of number of bicycle accidents, Santa Monica ranks as one of the worst #2 out of 102 California cities with population 50,000–100,000, a ranking that is consistent with the composite ranking for the city In 2007 and 2008, local police cracked down on Santa Monica Critical Mass rides that had become controversial, putting a damper on the traditionPacific Coast Highway running through Santa Monica
Motorized vehicles
The Santa Monica Freeway Interstate 10 begins in Santa Monica near the Pacific Ocean and heads east The Santa Monica Freeway between Santa Monica and downtown Los Angeles has the distinction of being one of the busiest highways in all of North America After traversing Los Angeles County, I-10 crosses seven more states, terminating at Jacksonville, Florida In Santa Monica, there is a road sign designating this route as the Christopher Columbus Transcontinental Highway State Route 2 Santa Monica Boulevard begins in Santa Monica, barely grazing State Route 1 at Lincoln Boulevard, and continues northeast across Los Angeles County, through the Angeles National Forest, crossing the San Gabriel Mountains as the Angeles Crest Highway, ending in Wrightwood Santa Monica is also the western Pacific terminus of historic US Route 66 Close to the eastern boundary of Santa Monica, Sepulveda Boulevard reaches from Long Beach at the south, to the northern end of the San Fernando Valley Just east of Santa Monica is Interstate 405, the "San Diego Freeway", a major north-south route in Los Angeles County and Orange County, California
The City of Santa Monica has purchased the first ZeroTruck all-electric medium-duty truck The vehicle will be equipped with a Scelzi utility body, it is based on the Isuzu N series chassis, a UQM PowerPhase 100 advanced electric motor and is the only US built electric truck offered for sale in the United States in 2009
The city of Santa Monica runs its own bus service, the Big Blue Bus, which also serves much of West Los Angeles and the University of California, Los Angeles UCLA A Big Blue Bus was featured prominently in the action movie Speed
The city of Santa Monica is also served by the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority's Metro bus lines Metro also complements Big Blue service, as when Big Blue routes are not operational overnight, Metro buses make many Big Blue Bus stops, in addition to MTA stops
Light rail
Design and construction on the 66-mile extension 106 km of the Expo Line from Culver City to Santa Monica started in September 2011, with service beginning on May 20, 2016 Santa Monica Metro stations include 26th Street/Bergamot, 17th Street/Santa Monica College, and Downtown Santa Monica Travel time between the downtown Santa Monica and the downtown Los Angeles termini is approximately 47 minutes
Historical aspects of the Expo line route are noteworthy It uses the right-of-way for the Santa Monica Air Line that provided electric-powered freight and passenger service between Los Angeles and Santa Monica beginning in the 1920s Service was discontinued in 1953 but diesel-powered freight deliveries to warehouses along the route continued until March 11, 1988 The abandonment of the line spurred concerns within the community and the entire right-of-way was purchased from Southern Pacific by Los Angeles Metropolitan Transportation Authority The line was built in 1875 as the steam-powered Los Angeles and Independence Railroad to bring mining ore to ships in Santa Monica harbor and as a passenger excursion train to the beach
Since the mid-1980s, various proposals have been made to extend the Purple Line subway to Santa Monica under Wilshire Boulevard There are no current plans to complete the "subway to the sea," an estimated $5 billion project
Airport and ports
The city owns and operates a general aviation airport, Santa Monica Airport, which has been the site of several important aviation achievements Commercial flights are available for residents at Los Angeles International Airport, a few miles south of Santa Monica
Like other cities in Los Angeles County, Santa Monica is dependent upon the Port of Long Beach and the Port of Los Angeles for international ship cargo In the 1890s, Santa Monica was once in competition with Wilmington, California, and San Pedro for recognition as the "Port of Los Angeles" see History of Santa Monica, California
Emergency services
Two major hospitals are within the Santa Monica city limits, UCLA Santa Monica Hospital and St John's Hospital There are four fire stations providing medical and fire response within the city staffed with 6 Paramedic Engines, 1 Truck company, 1 Hazardous Materials team and 1 Urban Search & Rescue team Santa Monica Fire Department has its own Dispatch Center Ambulance transportation is provided by AmeriCare Ambulance Services
The Los Angeles County Department of Health Services operates the Simms/Mann Health and Wellness Center in Santa Monica The Department's West Area Health Office is in the Simms/Mann Center
Santa Monica is governed by the Santa Monica City Council, a Council-Manager governing body with seven members elected at-large The current mayor is Tony Vazquez
In the California State Legislature, Santa Monica is in the 26th Senate District, represented by Democrat Ben Allen, and in the 50th Assembly District, represented by Democrat Richard Bloom
In the United States House of Representatives, Santa Monica is in California's 33rd congressional district, represented by Democrat Ted Lieu
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Santa Monica is home to the headquarters of many notable businesses, including Hulu, Universal Music Group, Lionsgate Films, the RAND Corporation, Beachbody, and Macerich Supermarine now Atlantic Aviation is at the Santa Monica Airport National Public Radio member station KCRW is located at the Santa Monica College campus
A number of game development studios are based in Santa Monica, making it a major location for the industry These include:
- Activision Blizzard
- Treyarch
- Cloud Imperium Games Creators of Star Citizen
- Naughty Dog Creators of Crash Bandicoot 1996–1999, Jak & Daxter and Uncharted franchises
- SCE Studios Santa Monica
- Studio Santa Monica An in-house studio of SCE and creators of God of War
- Riot Games, the creators of League of Legends is located just outside the eastern city limit
Fatburger's headquarters are in Santa Monica TOMS Shoes has its headquarters in Santa Monica
Former Santa Monica businesses include Douglas Aircraft now merged with Boeing, MySpace now headquartered in Beverly Hills, and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer In December 1996, GeoCities was headquartered on the third floor of 1918 Main Street in Santa Monica
Santa Monica has a strong small business community; Fundera ranked the city the 6th best city for small business in a 2016 study
Recently, Santa Monica has emerged as the center of the Los Angeles region called Silicon Beach, and serves as the home of hundreds of venture-capital funded startup companies
Top employers
According to the City's 2012–2013 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, the top employers in the city are:
|# of Employees
|City of Santa Monica
|Santa Monica - UCLA Medical Center
|Santa Monica College
|Saint John's Health Center
|Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District
|RAND Corporation
|Universal Music Group
|Activision Blizzard
|ET Whitehall Shutters and Casa del Mar
|Lionsgate Entertainment
SportSee also:Sports in Los Angeles
The men's and women's marathon ran through parts of Santa Monica during the 1984 Summer Olympics The Santa Monica Track Club has many prominent track athletes, including many Olympic gold medalists Santa Monica is also home to the Santa Monica Rugby Club, a semi-professional team that competes in the Pacific Rugby Premiership, the highest-level rugby union club competition in the United States
In popular culture
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Film and televisionEnd of Route 66
Hundreds of movies have been shot or set in part within the city of Santa Monica One of the oldest exterior shots in Santa Monica is Buster Keaton's Spite Marriage 1929 which shows much of 2nd Street The comedy It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World 1963 included several scenes shot in Santa Monica, including those along the California Incline, which led to the movie's treasure spot, "The Big W" The Sylvester Stallone film Rocky III 1982 shows Rocky Balboa and Apollo Creed training to fight Clubber Lang by running on the Santa Monica Beach, and Stallone's Demolition Man 1993 includes Santa Monica settings Henry Jaglom's indie Someone to Love 1987, the last film in which Orson Welles appeared, takes place in Santa Monica's venerable Mayfair Theatre Heathers 1989 used Santa Monica's John Adams Middle School for many exterior shots The Truth About Cats & Dogs 1996 is set entirely in Santa Monica, particularly the Palisades Park area, and features a radio station that resembles KCRW at Santa Monica College 17 Again 2009 was shot at Samohi Other films that show significant exterior shots of Santa Monica include Fletch 1985, Species 1995, Get Shorty 1995, and Ocean's Eleven 2001 Richard Rossi's biopic Aimee Semple McPherson opens and closes at the beach in Santa Monica Iron Man features the Santa Monica pier and surrounding communities as Tony Stark tests his experimental flight suit
The documentary Dogtown and Z-Boys 2001 and the related dramatic film Lords of Dogtown 2005 are both about the influential skateboarding culture of Santa Monica's Ocean Park neighborhood in the 1970s
The Santa Monica Pier is shown in many films, including They Shoot Horses, Don't They 1969, The Sting 1973, Ruthless People 1986, Beverly Hills Cop III 1994, Clean Slate 1994, Forrest Gump 1994, The Net 1995, Love Stinks 1999, Cellular 2004, The Cutting Edge:Going for the Gold 2006, Iron Man 2008 and Hannah Montana:The Movie 2009
A number of television series have been set in Santa Monica, including Baywatch, Three's Company, Pacific Blue, and Private Practice The Santa Monica pier is shown in the main theme of CBS series NCIS:Los Angeles In Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the main exterior set of the town of Sunnydale, including the infamous "sun sign", was located in Santa Monica in a lot on Olympic Boulevard
The films The Doors 1991 and Speed 1994 featured vehicles from Santa Monica's Big Blue Bus line, relative to the eras depicted in the films
The city of Santa Monica and in particular the Santa Monica Airport was featured in Roland Emmerich's disaster film 2012 2009 A magnitude 109 earthquake destroys the airport and the surrounding area as a group of survivors escape in a personal plane The Santa Monica Pier and the whole city sinks into the Pacific Ocean after the earthquake
Raymond Chandler's most famous character, private detective Philip Marlowe, frequently has a portion of his adventures in a place called "Bay City", which is modeled on depression-era Santa Monica In Marlowe's world, Bay City is "a wide-open town", where gambling and other crimes thrive due to a massively corrupt and ineffective police force
The setting on a certain portion of Mitch Albom's book, The Five People You Meet in Heaven, has similarities to the Pacific Pier located along the Santa Monica beach In the book, it is named Ruby Pier Mitch Albom even acknowledged the Pacific Pier for its cooperation
The main character from Edgar Rice Burroughs' The Land That Time Forgot novel was a shipbuilder from Santa Monica
In Al Capone Does My Shirts, the Flanagans move to Alcatraz from Santa Monica
Tennessee Williams lived while working at MGM Studios in a hotel on Ocean Avenue in the 1940s At that location he wrote The Glass Menagerie His short story titled The mattress by the Tomato Patch was set near Santa Monica Beach, and mentions the clock visible in much of the city, high up on The Broadway Building, on Broadway near 2nd Street
Also featured in Rick Riordains "Percy Jackson" Novels, specifically the Santa Monica pier
- Universal Music Group is based in Santa Monica Several of its labels such as Aftermath Entertainment started by Dr Dre, Interscope started by Jimmy Iovine, A&M Records, Geffen Records, Shady Records,and G-Unit Records created by 50 Cent & Sha Money XL are based in Santa Monica, CA
- The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences is based in Santa Monica on Olympic Boulevard
- The modern rock band Theory of a Deadman's song titled "Santa Monica", is a first-person account about a girl leaving her significant other to start a new life in Santa Monica
- The band Everclear released a song titled "Santa Monica" in 1995, which became their first mainstream hit
- The band Savage Garden also released a song titled "Santa Monica" off their #3 US album Savage Garden 1997
- John Mayer's song In Your Atmosphere mentions Wilshire Boulevard
- The folk Australian duo, Angus and Julia Stone, released a single titled "Santa Monica Dream" in the album "Down the Way"
- The ska/reggae band, Bedouin Soundclash has a song entitled "Santa Monica"
- One of the few songs that musical satirist Tom Lehrer has recorded since the 1970s is a tribute to the holidays of the Jewish calendar entitled "I'm Spending Hanukkah in Santa Monica"
- Santa Monica is referenced throughout Jack's Mannequin's debut album Everything In Transit
- In 1968, British singer-songwriter Noel Harrison released a song and album titled Santa Monica Pier
- In 1948, bandleader Kay Kyser released a 78 record of the novelty song "When Veronica Plays the Harmonica Down at the Pier in Santa Monica"
- Kim Kibum, a member of the popular Korean boy band Super Junior attended Santa Monica High School
- The System Of A Down song "Lost in Hollywood" mentions the city
- The band Linkin Park is named in homage to Santa Monica's Lincoln Park
- Richard Rossi released a song entitled "Santa Monica," celebrating the Santa Monica Pier, on his album "Seasons of My Heart"
- Sheryl Crow's song All I Wanna Do mentions Santa Monica Boulevard
Video games
Santa Monica is featured in the video games True Crime:Streets of LA 2003, Vampire:The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2004, Grand Theft Auto San Andreas 2004 as a fictional district - Santa Maria Beach, Destroy All Humans! 2004, Tony Hawk's American Wasteland 2005, LA Rush 2005, Midnight Club:Los Angeles 2008, Cars Race-O-Rama 2009, Grand Theft Auto V 2013 as a fictional district – Del Perro, Call of Duty:Ghosts 2013 as a fictional US military base – Fort Santa Monica, The Crew 2014, Need for Speed 2015
See also
- Greater Los Angeles portal
- 2013 Santa Monica shooting
- Aragon Ballroom Ocean Park, Santa Monica, California
- List of cities and towns in California
- List of City of Santa Monica Designated Historic Landmarks
- List of people from Santa Monica, California
- Muscle Beach
- Santa Monica neighborhoods
- ^ "City of Santa Monica" Given Place Media Retrieved February 10, 2015
- ^ Archibald, Ashley April 26, 2013 "Report:SaMo air quality some of the best in SoCal" Daily Press Santa Monica, California Retrieved January 5, 2015
- ^ Simpson, David Mark June 3, 2015 "The mystery of Santa Monica's city motto" Santa Monica Daily Press
- ^ "California Cities by Incorporation Date" Word California Association of Local Agency Formation Commissions Retrieved August 25, 2014
- ^ "Charter of the City of Santa Monica" Quality Code Publishing Retrieved November 4, 2014
- ^ a b "Santa Monica City Council" City of Santa Monica Retrieved January 11, 2016
- ^ "US Gazetteer files:2010, 2000, and 1990" United States Census Bureau February 12, 2011 Retrieved April 23, 2011
- ^ "Santa Monica" Geographic Names Information System United States Geological Survey Retrieved October 20, 2014
- ^ a b "Santa Monica city QuickFacts" United States Census Bureau Retrieved March 15, 2015
- ^ a b "American FactFinder" United States Census Bureau Retrieved January 31, 2008
- ^ "US Board on Geographic Names" United States Geological Survey October 25, 2007 Retrieved January 31, 2008
- ^ Begley, Sarah December 10, 2015 "The Most Popular Places to Check In on Facebook in 2015" TIMEcom Retrieved 27 January 2016
- ^ Munro, Pamela, et al Yaara' Shiraaw'ax 'Eyooshiraaw'a Now You're Speaking Our Language:Gabrielino/Tongva/Fernandeño Lulucom:2008
- ^ Paula A Scott, Santa Monica:a history on the edge Making of America series Arcadia Publishing, 2004, 17–18
- ^ Fogelson, Robert M 1993 The fragmented metropolis:Los Angeles, 1850–1930 Berkeley:University of California Press p 200 ISBN 0-520-08230-3
- ^ Mark McIntire, Minorities and Racism, Free Venice Beachhead #126, June 1980
- ^ Parker, Dana T Building Victory:Aircraft Manufacturing in the Los Angeles Area in World War II, pp 13–24, Cypress, CA, 2013 ISBN 978-0-9897906-0-4
- ^ Herman, Arthur Freedom's Forge:How American Business Produced Victory in World War II, pp 202–3, Random House, New York, NY, 2012 ISBN 978-1-4000-6964-4
- ^ Parker, Dana T Building Victory:Aircraft Manufacturing in the Los Angeles Area in World War II, pp 7–48, Cypress, CA, 2013 ISBN 978-0-9897906-0-4
- ^ Ben Tracy February 18, 2009 "Santa Monica's Disputed Steps" CBS News TV report Retrieved February 24, 2010
- ^ "Weatherbase:Historical Weather for Los Angeles, California, United States of America" Weatherbasecom Retrieved August 13, 2009
- ^ "Interactive USDA Gardening and Plant Hardiness Zone Map for California" Plantmapscom Retrieved October 31, 2016
- ^ "Santa Barbaracom:June Gloom" SantaBarbaracom Retrieved August 13, 2009
- ^ "NCDC:US Climate Normals" PDF National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
- ^ "Sustainable Santa Monica" Retrieved May 24, 2016
- ^ "Big Blue Bus, Fueling a Renewable Future One Bus at a Time - Clean Energy Fuels" Clean Energy Fuels Retrieved May 24, 2016
- ^ http://wwwsmgovnet/uploadedFiles/Departments/OSE/Categories/Sustainability/Sustainable-City-Planpdf
- ^ "Santa Monica Office of Sustainability and the Environment:Solar Santa Monica" Retrieved May 24, 2016
- ^ a b c "Santa Monica CA - Visitor Information, Hotels, Dining" PDF Santa Monica Retrieved May 24, 2016
- ^ "Santa Monica OSE - Rules & Regulations" Retrieved May 24, 2016
- ^ "Taking the green out of green building certification" Santa Monica Daily Press Retrieved May 24, 2016
- ^ "Zero Waste Strategic Operations Plan - City of Santa Monica" Retrieved May 24, 2016
- ^ http://nelsonnygaardcom/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Santa-Monica-Bicycle-Action-Planpdf
- ^ "The greenest US cities" City Mayors April 27, 2006 Retrieved June 13, 2012
- ^ "Environmental Programs Division EPD – City of Santa Monica" Smgovnet Retrieved June 13, 2012
- ^ "Annual Estimates of the Resident Population for Incorporated Places:April 1, 2010 to July 1, 2015" Retrieved July 2, 2016
- ^ "Census of Population and Housing" Censusgov Retrieved June 4, 2015
- ^ "Santa Monica, California" City-Datacom Retrieved June 13, 2012
- ^ "2010 Census Interactive Population Search:CA – Santa Monica city" US Census Bureau Retrieved July 12, 2014
- ^ a b "Santa Monica city QuickFacts" United States Census Bureau Retrieved September 27, 2014
- ^ "CNN Money – 25 Most Educated Cities" Moneycnncom Retrieved June 13, 2012
- ^ "Santa Monica city, California – Fact Sheet – American FactFinder" Factfindercensusgov Retrieved June 13, 2012
- ^ a b "Santa Monica CA Crime Statistics 2006 Crime Data" Retrieved August 25, 2009
- ^ a b "Crime Statistics for Santa Monica" Retrieved August 25, 2009
- ^ Schley, Reeve T September 25, 2002 "Santa Monica Crime Rate Is Highest in Los Angeles County" Santa Monica Mirror Archived from the original on August 22, 2009 Retrieved August 25, 2009
- ^ "Sustainable City Progress Report" Retrieved August 25, 2009
- ^ "Measure Y:Lowest Enforcement Priority for Adult, Personal Use of Marijuana City of Santa Monica" Retrieved August 25, 2009
- ^ Emma Trotter July 31, 2009 "Two years of toking it up" Santa Monica Daily Press Retrieved August 25, 2009
- ^ "Police Chief Calls for Regional Approach to Gang Violence" Surfsantamonicacom Retrieved June 13, 2012
- ^ Don Terry October 20, 1998 "Death of gangster Omar Sevilla" New York Times Retrieved June 13, 2012
- ^ "NBC Los Angeles report on the capture of Fietze's killer" Nbclosangelescom Retrieved June 13, 2012
- ^ "Gang Bullets Pierce Santa Monica's Image" Los Angeles Times October 29, 1998 Retrieved June 13, 2012
- ^ "Violence in Pico" Surfsantamonicacom Retrieved June 13, 2012
- ^ "Police Chief to Address Public Safety Concerns" Los Angeles Times October 21, 1998 Retrieved September 22, 2011
- ^ Suspects Charged in Westside Clothing Store Shooting Archived September 5, 2009, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "'Gangster's Paradise Lost'" Streetgangscom October 27, 1998 Retrieved June 13, 2012
- ^ Santa Monica Alternative School House Curriculum, SMASH Vision Statement" Retrieved May 11, 2011
- ^ a b c http://wwwsmmusdorg/ SMMUSD Retrieved May 11, 2011
- ^ "Saint Anne School" Saint Anne School Retrieved June 13, 2012
- ^ "サンタモニカ校・高等部" Asahi Gakuen Retrieved on March 30, 2014 "DANIEL WEBSTER MIDDLE SCHOOL 11330 W Graham Place, Los Angeles, CA 90064 "
- ^ "Mapping LA:Sawtelle" Los Angeles Times Retrieved on May 9, 2014
- ^ Puig, Claudia "'School of the Rising Sun' :Surroundings Are American but Classes, Traditions Are Strictly Japanese" Los Angeles Times November 13, 1986 p 1 Retrieved on March 30, 2014
- ^ "Santa Monica Bike Action Plan" City of Santa Monica
- ^ "Bikeshare is coming to Santa Monica!" City of Santa Monica
- ^ "Santa Monica" The League of American Bicyclists
- ^ "Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition" Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition
- ^ "OTS Collision Rankings" California Office of Traffic Safety
- ^ "Critical Mass bike ride may be at braking point" Los Angeles Times December 7, 2007 Retrieved March 7, 2015
- ^ "Santa Monica Introduces Electric Zero Truck Into City Fleet:#evworld" Evworldcom June 21, 2009 Retrieved June 13, 2012
- ^ "Santa Monica Air Line" Electric Railway Historical Association of Southern California
- ^ Morgenthaler, Anne March 14, 1988 "END OF THE LINE—The last train out of SM blows a final whistle" Santa Monica Outlook
- ^ "Ambulance Transportation" Santa Monica Fire Department Santa Monica Fire Department Retrieved June 13, 2012
- ^ "Simms/Mann Health and Wellness Center" Los Angeles County Department of Health Services Retrieved on March 17, 2010 Archived December 14, 2010, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "SPA5 – West Area Health Office" Los Angeles County Department of Health Services Retrieved on March 18, 2010 Archived March 27, 2012, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Statewide Database" UC Regents Retrieved November 21, 2014
- ^ "California's 33rd Congressional District - Representatives & District Map" Civic Impulse, LLC Retrieved September 29, 2014
- ^ "INVESTOR RELATIONS CONTACT" Lions Gate Films Retrieved on February 9, 2016
- ^ Ericksen, Olin "Airport Commission Gives New Operator Thumbs Up, Despite Fears Jet Traffic Will Rise" The Lookout Retrieved June 13, 2012
- ^ Makuch, Eddie April 23, 2013 "Star Citizen dev opens new office" GameSpot CBS Interactive Archived from the original on November 3, 2014 Retrieved November 22, 2014
- ^ "Time Line" at the Wayback Machine archived June 4, 2004 Naughty Dog June 4, 2004 Retrieved on May 5, 2010
- ^ "Contact" Fatburger Retrieved on March 5, 2010
- ^ "Legal Information & Privacy Policy" TOMS Shoes Retrieved on July 30, 2010
- ^ "Corporate Information" at the Wayback Machine archived October 6, 2000 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer October 6, 2000 Retrieved on February 6, 2012 "Corporate Headquarters Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc 2500 Broadway Street Santa Monica, CA 90404-3061"
- ^ "Advertising and Sponsorship Information" at the Wayback Machine archived December 19, 1996 GeoCities December 19, 1996 Retrieved on April 30, 2009
- ^ "The 8 Best Cities for Small Business in California As Shown By Data" 2016-09-29 Retrieved 2016-10-05
- ^ Ungerleider, Neal October 31, 2014 "Why A Subway-Building Binge Could Transform LA's Tech Culture" Fast Company Retrieved 28 December 2015
- ^ "City of Santa Monica CAFR" PDF 1smgovnet Retrieved July 19, 2014
- ^ 1984 Summer Olympics official report Volume 1 Part 1 pp 97–98
- ^ "IMDb:Most Popular Titles With Location Matching "Santa Monica, California, USA"" IMDb Retrieved May 24, 2016
- ^ Various authors, "Sets and Locations", The Ultimate Buffy and Angel Trivia Guide updated 2007
- ^ Hiney, Tom 1999 Raymond Chandler Grove Press p 92 ISBN 978-0-8021-3637-4
- ^ Steve Harvey, "Only in LA", Los Angeles Times, February 9, 1990
- ^ YouTube video of recording, "When Veronica Plays the Harmonica" on YouTube, Kay Kyser
- ^ "System Of A Down – Lost In Hollywood Lyrics" Metrolyricscom Retrieved June 13, 2012
External links
|Wikimedia Commons has media related to Santa Monica, California
|Wikisource has the text of the 1921 Collier's Encyclopedia article Santa Monica
- Official website
- Santa Monica Convention and Visitors Bureau
- Santa Monica Chamber of Commerce
- Santa Monica Little League
- Santa Monica Public Library
- Santa Monica travel guide from Wikivoyage
- Santa Monica, California at DMOZ
- A Weekend in Santa Monica – slideshow by The New York Times
- City of Santa Monica at the Wayback Machine archived February 18, 1999
|Pacific Palisades
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|Pacific Ocean – Santa Monica Bay
|Pacific Ocean – Santa Monica Bay
|Mar Vista
|Primary and secondary schools
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|This list is incomplete
|County seat:Los Angeles
|Ghost towns
|Central city
|Satellite cities
|Cities and towns
|Area regions
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One of two F-35 fighter jets headed to a Nevada air base made an unscheduled landing in Lubbock, Texas on Monday after a caution light came on in the cockpit, according to a Pentagon spokesman and the plane's manufacturer, Lockheed Martin Corp.
The F-35, a next-generation stealth fighter, was flying from the Lockheed plant in Fort Worth, Texas to Nellis Air Force Base near Las Vegas on Monday afternoon, when a caution warning light came on, requiring the pilot to land at the nearest airport, said Lockheed spokesman Michael Rein.
He said the pilot landed safely. The second F-35 aircraft landed as planned at the Nevada air base, joining two other F-35 aircraft that arrived there last week, where they will be used for operational testing and evaluation of the new warplane.
A team of Lockheed maintenance experts was en route to examine the single-engine plane at the Lubbock airport, which is about 300 miles from Fort Worth, Rein said. It was not yet clear what caused the caution light to come on, he said.
The incident is the latest in a string of negative news about the new single-seat, single-engine warplane that Lockheed is developing for the U.S. Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps, and eight international partners: Britain, Canada, Australia, Italy, Turkey, Norway, Denmark, and the Netherlands.
The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, the Pentagon's most expensive weapons program, has been grounded twice this year already for engine-related issues.
Joe DellaVedova, spokesman for the Pentagon's $396 billion F-35 program, confirmed the plane had landed in Lubbock after a warning light came on, but said he had no further details about the incident.
Rein said it was not immediately known if the warning light was triggered by a problem with the engine, which is built by Pratt & Whitney, a unit of United Technologies Corp.
He said local police were securing the state-of-the-art warplane at Lubbock Preston Smith International Airport, which handles operations by three airlines and several cargo carriers.
Rein said the plane would continue its journey to Nellis Air Force Base, or return to the Lockheed plant, depending on what the mechanics discovered when they examined the plane.
Gary Loftus, airport operations manager at the Lubbock airport, told Reuters the F-35 fighter was parked on an airport ramp and was protected within a fence. "Nobody can get to the airplane," he said.
He said he believed it was the first time an F-35 fighter had landed at the commercial airport.
The congressional Government Accountability Office on Monday released its annual report on the weapons program, saying it was showing progress in development, production and technical issues but still faced tremendous challenges.
On Feb. 28, the Pentagon cleared the aircraft to resume flights following a week-long precautionary grounding imposed after a crack was found on an engine blade on a test plane in California.
"F-35 flight operations have been cleared to resume," Pentagon spokeswoman Kyra Hawn said in a statement. No additional cracks were found during inspections of engines on the remaining 50 planes in the Pentagon's fleet, or any spare engines, Hawn said.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Vedad Ibisevic admits he is not much of a baseball fan, even though the team from his adopted hometown, St. Louis, was again in the World Series.
"I'm not a huge fan," Ibisevic, the Stuttgart and Bosnia-Herzegovina striker, said in a telephone interview from Germany. "Of course, I became a bit of a Cardinals fan and I do follow the news, even from Germany."
The World Series will be long over when Ibisevic and his Bosnia teammates step onto the field at Busch Stadium on Nov. 18 for an international friendly against Lionel Messi and Argentina. Ibisevic will be a kind of returning hero to the 50,000 Bosnians who settled in the St. Louis area after fleeing the war in the Balkans in the 1990s.
Earlier in October, Ibisevic, 29, scored the only goal in a game at Lithuania, a tap-in that sent Bosnia to next year's World Cup finals in Brazil. It will be the country's first trip to the tournament since the dissolution of Yugoslavia.
"I really can't believe that we made it," Ibisevic said. "Definitely a dream coming true for me and the whole team. It took a little time to sink in. When we arrived back in Sarajevo, the people were in the streets and all so happy. The people didn't really have many occasions over the last 20 years to celebrate anything. They kind of forgot what it was like. It was a great atmosphere and just a big party."
Ibisevic and his family left Bosnia in 2000, settling first in Switzerland, and he signed with F.C. Baden. But visa issues forced them to move again, this time to St. Louis. Anna Crosslin, the president and chief executive of the International Institute of St. Louis, told the website The Atlantic Cities that the United States State Department contracts with local agencies around the country in an effort to resettle refugees. There now are more Bosnians per capita in the St. Louis area than anywhere else outside Bosnia. (Similar efforts have led to Akron, Ohio, becoming home to people from Myanmar and the Minneapolis-St. Paul area becoming home to Hmong from Cambodia and refugees from the war in Somalia.)
Arriving in St. Louis at age 16, Ibisevic played soccer at Roosevelt High School and later at St. Louis University, where he scored 18 goals, had 4 assists and was named the N.C.A.A.'s freshman of the year in 2003, his only year playing for the Billikens. He spent time training with the Premier Development League amateur teams in St. Louis and Chicago.
"I still have a lot of friends there," Ibisevic said. "They all have jobs and we are a happy family. In the beginning, soccer was difficult to find, but once I started playing club and high school, it was always fun. It was difficult in the beginning, yes. I'm still proud of what I achieved. It was fun for me, and I met some great people. It was an interesting and good experience."
Spotted by Paris Saint-Germain's Bosnian manager at the time, Ibisevic saw little playing time and was sent on loan to Dijon. In 2006, he was transferred to Alemannia Aachen of the 2. Bundesliga, then moved to Hoffenheim of the Bundesliga, where he was a teammate of the current United States internationals Fabian Johnson and Danny Williams. He left Hoffenheim in January 2012 and signed with Stuttgart.
Before his first match with Bosnia, in March 2007, a maelstrom of Internet rumor, opinion and chatter reached a fever pitch as fans wondered why Ibisevic had been allowed to get away from the United States national team, as had another striker, Giuseppe Rossi, who grew up in New Jersey but decided to play for his father's native Italy.
The problem was that Ibisevic was (and is) not a United States citizen and only recently obtained a green card. And unlike earlier years, when U.S. Soccer officials were able to get players on a fast track to citizenship (see David Regis), the rules now require people to wait five years after obtaining a green card before they can become citizens. That would have precluded Ibisevic from playing internationally for the United States until recently, which would have meant wasting the prime years of his soccer career. (Andy Najar, a native of Honduras who grew up in the United States, faced similar hurdles. There was similar chatter about his choice to play internationally for Honduras, a moot point because he is not a citizen. If he had chosen to wait, he would have had to decline each invitation from Honduras, and even then, there would be no guarantee of a spot on the United States roster.)
"At the time, playing for Bosnia was my only possibility to show my talent because I really didn't have any other way," Ibisevic said. "My target all my life was to be a professional. I had a chance to play for a Bosnia youth team and knew that for every game, different scouts from Europe would be watching. In the end, I think it was right for me."
After Stuttgart's Nov. 11 game at Freiburg, Ibisevic will join the Bosnia team in St. Louis, where, he said, he will need about 50 tickets for family and friends.
"I usually go back only in the summer or on the Bundesliga's winter break, and I just enjoy the people and my family," he said. "I get not to think about soccer and just try to have a normal life, being with friends. No one recognizes me or cares what I'm doing. This part I enjoy.
"Now I am going back to St. Louis, and it's crazy how it came about. I'm going to play against one of the best teams in the world. I am looking forward to this game in St. Louis, where I spent a couple of great years of my life."


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Nangarhar olive factory resumes work after 3 years of halt
Nangarhar olive factory resumes work after 3 years of halt
JALALABAD (Pajhwok): After suspending operations three years ago, the Nangarhar Olive Processing Factory on Saturday resumed work, officials said, hoping the plant would produce olive oil and pickle from 1,200 tons of olive collected this year.
The Olive Processing factory in the eastern province of Nangarhar was established about 33 years back by Russians. The factory's equipment needed repairs after their long time use.
The factory's operations came to a halt about three years back due to lack of olive production in the province.
However, bumper olive production in Nangarhar this year prompted re-activation of the factory. According to officials, with the help of local engineers and technical workers, the factory could manage to process this year's olive produce.
Nangarhar Governor, provincial council members and the Nangarhar Canalisation department head visited the plant and listened to issues of workers.
The factory chief, Eng. Mohammad Musa Isazai, said about 1,200 tons of olive had been brought to the factory for making olive oil and about 35 tons more for producing pickle this year.
He said the factory once used to have 2,500 workers, including 250 females. However, their number dropped to 60 employees, six of them women, now.
Isazai said the factory needed attention to be rehabilitated and the number of technical workers should be increased for more production.
The Nangarhar canalization department head, Ghulam Hazrat Abdul Rahimzai, acknowledged the dearth of workers, but said the factory was set to process olive harvest from all Nangarhar farms.
He admitted the shortage of personnel resulted in loss of a part of the olive harvest. However, he said new ways were being considered for next year's harvest campaign.
A member of the Nangarhar provincial council, Ajmal Omar, asked the government to ensure security of the factory and increase its workers in order to improve domestic production.
Governor Mohammad Gulab Mangal, who monitored various section of the factory, told media that temporary workers were hired this year for resolving the issue of collecting olive harvest and efforts were being made to employ permanent workers next year.
He called olive product as a good source of income, asking people to help promote domestic products and improve economic situation of the country through purchasing the factory's products.
The Nangarhar Olive Processing Factory stopped production after the decades-long war badly affected olive farms in the provinces. Once its products would export to foreign countries but recently its activity has been pale.
Related Article
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Between Censorship and a Smash Hit
Do women directors in Iran face greater difficulties than their male colleagues?
Tahmineh Milani: As a woman in Iran, it is not important if you are a film director, a doctor, a nurse, or a teacher. If you are a woman, you face the same problems in every profession – and the same problems as every other woman as well. It is altogether unimportant what professional career you have chosen. I had the same problems as an architect as I now have as a filmmaker. Our women directors film just as many scenes as their male colleagues. We work under the same censorship with the same ensuing problems. Our scripts are read and we require permission to shoot. These are really the same problems.
But isn't this a dangerous combination, being a woman and a critical director?
Milani: No, it isn't. Let me tell you a little story. Upon finishing my studies, I became an architect. I went to my building sites and had problems with the workers. This was perhaps 20 years ago and they didn't accept me as an architect. The same thing happened when I began to shoot my first film, "Children of Divorce." I was 26 or 27 years old and the team with which I worked ridiculed me the whole time. They made jokes and laughed.
But by the time I made my second film, everything was fine. This was probably because other women filmmakers had since appeared. Things went better for me than for those first women filmmakers, and it will be even easier for those who come after me. We want to show our films and we find a way. At present, I do not have any more problems, as people now accept me in my profession.
Why do your films touch a sensitive nerve?
Milani: There was a dark period in our history that remains a taboo topic to this day. The Iranian Revolution began some 27 years ago, and after one year, the government shut down all of the universities for four years. They wanted to bring the universities under control. At the time, they arrested some students – other students moved away.
These four years in our history are a taboo topic. No one speaks about them, except perhaps outside of Iran. In my film "The Hidden Half," I attempted to portray one incident. Yet, a number of scenes were restricted so that we couldn't show, for example, that the government had numerous students killed. The government was afraid. I had expected that the conservative newspapers would criticize me and my film. What I didn't count on was getting thrown in jail. I think, however, that they didn't put me in jail on account of my film, but, first and foremost, wanted to send a message to other directors – "Be careful!"
How did your situation change afterwards?
Milani: It was truly horrible when I was imprisoned. They give you a number and take a picture of you for the prison. I was no longer Tahmineh Milani, but a number. This all had repercussions. Later, I was prevented from becoming a professor or lecturer at the university, as it would have been illegal for them to offer me a job. At the moment, I find myself in a difficult position. For instance, when I wanted to make my eighth film, "The Unwanted Woman," and needed to shoot scenes in three police stations, I was told, "No, we are not allowing you in these stations, because you once sat in prison."
In Iran, it is always important who is the boss, who is at the top, who is the president. Everything is based on this principle. I recall a situation when I went to the Ministry of Culture to ask for permission to shoot a film. The minister responsible said to his assistant, "Women have something to say. Let her make films." That was what he said.
What do you see as being the task of women filmmakers?
Milani: Personally, I don't see cinema itself as truly important. I am not crazy for film. I chose film as a medium, as an instrument with which I can explain my ideas and to describe what is going on in my head and heart. And I think that I have been pretty successful at it. I have made nine feature films and a short for UNICEF.
Eight films deal with Iranian women, the middle class, and social, economic, and other problems. I try to show our society what is going on in women's heads, what are their hopes, what they want and love. I attempt to describe my ideas to our society. And I am not like other directors. For example, I don't concern myself with foreign film festivals. I love my people and I love it when Iranians come and see my films. I am truly happy that I am so successful outside of Iran, but my main goal is to satisfy the Iranian public.
What kind of importance does cinema enjoy in your country?
Milani: Over the last twenty years, the importance of cinema has grown enormously in Iran. The younger generation, especially, attaches an unbelievable importance to film. They understand our style very well and demand from directors a high level of responsibility. Our films should convey a message. This gives us the courage to carry on. In Iran, people do not read books or newspapers much. Yet, they are crazy for films. This is why I thought that film would be the best way to speak to people and express my ideas.
The interview was conducted by Claudia Auer
Translated from the German by John Bergeron
Tahmineh Milani is one of the most successful Iranian directors internationally. The trained architect, born in 1960 in Tabriz, Iran, discovered her passion for film in 1979 at a screenwriting workshop. Ten years later, she presented her first film – "Children of Divorce." She made her international breakthrough with "The Legend of Ah" (1990) and "Two Women" (1999). Her films have won awards in many countries, yet in Iran they are frequently censored. She was arrested for her political representation of events in the "The Hidden Half" (2001). A petition of internationally renowned directors such as Sean Penn and the intervention of then President Khatami helped in her release. In 2006, she introduced her latest film "Atash Bas" (Cease Fire). It broke all Iranian box office records for the last five years and ran for more than 80 days in Tehran's cinemas.
Tahmineh Milani
The Cheeky Girl
Tahmineh Milani was sent to prison for her latest film, The Hidden Half. Georg Scholl interviewed the Iranian filmmaker about censorship, American cinema, and rebellious women in Iran.
Iranian Cinema
Iran's film culture has been transformed since the Islamic revolution: from the state propaganda films to today's socially critical productions. We take a look at the various facets and examine its resonance in the West.


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Source: The Huffington Post
Michael B. Jordan knows not everyone is thrilled with Fox's decision to cast a black actor to play The Human Torch in the forthcoming "Fantastic Four" reboot, but he's not worried.
"They're still going to go see it anyway," he said lightheartedly when TMZ caught the actor entering a restaurant in West Hollywood, Calif., on Thursday (Feb. 20).
Apparently, purists are criticizing the studio's failure to cast an actor with the blond hair and blue eyes for which Johnny Storm (aka The Human Torch) is known. (Really, people?)
Jordan's nonchalance echoes comments he made to HuffPost Entertainment last summer, when his casting was nothing more than a young rumor. "I mean, if it were to happen, would I shy away from the moment? Of course not," he said. "I don't care if I was Asian or blue or brown or green or red. It doesn't matter."
To read this article in its entirety visit The Huffington Post.


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He is definitely moving in the right direction after the layoffUPI Thoroughbred Racing Roundup May 17, 2010
He's not made a mistake and his two races so far have been excitingUPI Thoroughbred Racing Roundup Jul 05, 2010
We've had a lot of success with Valid Expectations' filliesUPI Thoroughbred Racing Roundup Jul 12, 2010
Off that performance, we'll consider a stake for his next start, most likely here in SaratogaUPI Thoroughbred Racing Roundup Jul 26, 2010
She ran a really tough race. Very proud of herUPI Thoroughbred Racing Roundup Aug 15, 2011
Sport Page Handicap (1996) Mother Goose Stakes (1999, 2009) Saratoga Special Stakes (2003) Belmont Futurity Stakes (2003, 2005) Test Stakes (2003) Lafayette Stakes (2003, 2004) Lexington Stakes (2004) Ballerina Handicap (2004) Cowdin Stakes (2005) Kentucky Oaks (2005) Rebel Stakes (2007) Cowdin Stakes (2005) Arkansas Derby (2002,2007) Jockey Club Gold Cup(2007,2008) Pimlico Special(2008) Spinaway Stakes(2009) Haskell Invitational Handicap (2009) Woodward Stakes(2009) Vosburgh Stakes(2009) Cigar Mile Handicap(2009)
Steven Mark Asmussen (born November 18, 1965 in Gettysburg, South Dakota) is an American Thoroughbred racehorse trainer. Born into a horse racing family, his parents, Keith and Marilyn "Sis" Asmussen, are both trainers who operate El Primero Training Center off the Mines Road in Laredo, the seat of Webb County in south Texas. His older brother, Cash Asmussen, currently a trainer himself, is a retired Eclipse Award-winning jockey and a champion in Europe.
Asmussen began racing at age sixteen as a jockey, competing at racetracks in New Mexico, California, and New York for three years until his height and weight ended his riding career. In 1986 he began training Thoroughbreds and American Quarter Horses in New Mexico. In 2002, he led all trainers in Thoroughbred flat racing with 407 wins then in 2004 set a new record for wins by a trainer with 555, surpassing the previous standard of 496 held since 1976 by Jack Van Berg.


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- Dry Humour
- >
MS-008 Boobs Not Bombs (x 6 Cards)
per item
One Pack Of Six Greeting Cards. (only $2 per card).
- Card Dimensions: 5" x 7" (120mm x 170mm)
- Each Card is supplied with a color matched envelope.
- Sealed in a 100% compostable cellophane bag.
- All six cards are then packed in a Cellophane Transit bag ensuring that they all arrive with you in pristine condition.
- High Quality Jpegs for use on your online store are available upon request.


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Rada Tilly to host historic stop on Argentine National Beach Volleyball Tour
Buenos Aires, Argentina, February 4, 2014 - A new stop will be added to the Argentine National Beach Volleyball Tour this year in Rada Tilly, in the south province of Chubut - the first to take place in Patagonia in the history of the tour.
The registration for the third stop in Patagonia will end on Tuesday at 20:00. The first two stops of the tour took place earlier this year in Santa Fe and Cerrito, Entre Rios.
The Rada Tilly organisers will put on offer the best beach volleyball facilities for Argentine players. In preparation for the stop on the national tour, Rada Tilly organised a regional beach volleyball competition during the first weekend in January.
This year's stop in Rada Tilly will be the first of three to take place in the southern part of the country, with two more scheduled to be held in the province of Rio Negro and Neuquen.
Contact information
Competition Director - Miguel Mendez


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N Kings Chapel DR 2 TROY OH
Lot #2. For Sale or Build to Suit. Shovel ready industrial lot located within a popular commercial/industrial development. Convenient access to I-75. Adjacent parcel also available for sale, together they could total up to approximately 20 acres. Some incentives and loan packages available through the City of Troy.
Directions to N Kings Chapel DR 2 TROY OH 45373: I-75 Exit 74 to West on State Route 41 to Kings Chapel Drive North.
More info about this property
Send me information
No spam. Ever.
Bruns Realty Group, LLC
Benjamin Redick
Benjamin Redick
Office: 937-339-2300
Phone: 937-339-2300
Phone: 937-339-2300
The data relating to the real estate for sale on this web site comes in part from the Broker Reciprocity program of the Dayton Area Board of Realtors®. Real estate listings held by brokerage firms other than Comey & Shepherd Realtors are marked with the Broker Reciprocity logo or Broker Reciprocity house icon. The properties displayed may not be all the properties available through Broker Reciprocity.


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Remember when I shared my homemade pizza recipe HERE? Well I have a yummy variation to share today. It is Chicken Alfredo Pizza. This is my Sisinlaws recipe. She made it for my family a few years ago and it has become a favorite of ours. Here is how to make simple, Chicken Alfredo Pizza.
Here is What You Need:
3 Chicken Breasts
about 2 cups Alfredo Sauce
1 bag of Mozerella Cheese (2 cups)
1 tomato
1/4 of a purple onion
In the morning cook about 3 chicken breasts in chicken broth and cook on low for 4-5 hours in a slow cooker. Make a pizza crust according to these directions. Roll out your pizza dough into a pizza pan
Spread with Alfredo sauce.
Add sliced tomatoes and purple onions
add your cheese and cooked chicken (now shredded)
Bake for 25-30 minutes at 375 degrees.
Let sit for a few minutes.
Cut and enjoy!
Print Recipe HERE
Find more Blissful and Domestic recipes HERE.
Have a great night!
XO Danielle


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Yesterday I cooked without water. Well, not completely without water, but with trickles from the faucet. When the trickles eventually stopped, I used purified stuff from the water cooler in our living room. To rinse food, boil noodles, wash dishes, everything. Trickles.
See, Jacob and I live in a brand new apartment, so new that construction hasn't even stopped. Anyone who has visited Beijing (or China) in the past 10 years will know that the entire city (and country) is over-dosing on construction. In order to clean up the air for the Olympics, the government had mandated that all construction projects stop by June 1. Well, that deadlines has now been pushed back to July 1. And I'm annoyed not only because the air is still dusty, but also because we get periodic electricity and water outages, both announced an unannounced.
According to a notice in the "lobby", the water outage was supposed to occur between 10pm and 6am. Fine, I thought. We go out to a bar at night, come back late, and try not to use the bathroom 'til morning. Then the water stops in the middle of the afternoon. Not very convenient when you're making curry laksa. Laksa paste, bird's eye chilli seeds, and raw shrimp juice are not things you want to leave unwashed from your hands.
Thank goodness for the purified water, though I did feel a small amount of guilt.
There are many kinds of laksas, a noodle dish of Chinese-Malay origin, though the two most commonly known are curry laksa and assam laksa. Today I was in the mood for a curry laksa, mostly because I had coconut milk on hand and not tamarind juice. (My dish was made with shrimp, but prawns are more common.) I was so happy slurping the noodles that I barely noticed the water coming back on, sputtering spurts, but who am I to complain? It meant that my laksa-infused dishes wouldn't be sitting in the sink until morning.
Curry Laksa
Serves 2
1 small bunch bean sprouts
2 tablespoons peanut oil
5 or 6 tofu puffs, sliced into thirds
1/4 lb of shrimp, cleaned (peeling optional)
1/2 pack rice vermicelli noodles
3/4 cup curry laksa paste
1 1/2 cups coconut milk
Salt to taste
2 bird's eye chillis, thinly sliced
2 lime wedges
In a small pot, blanch bean spouts and set aside. (Save water for cooking vermicelli.)
In a hot wok or large skillet, stir-fry tofu puffs in oil for 1 to 2 minutes. Add shrimp and lightly sauté until cooked, about 5 minutes. Remove tofu puffs and shrimp and set aside.
Add laksa paste and stir-fry for 2 minutes. Add coconut milk, stir to combine, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 7 to 8 minutes.
Meanwhile, bring the pot of water to boil again. Cook rice vermicelli according to package instructions.
Salt laksa curry to taste. Return tofu and shrimp to the wok/pan, cook for another 1 to 2 minutes. Divide vermicelli into individual bowls and top with laksa mixture. Garnish with bean sprouts and sliced chillis on top and lime wedge on the side.


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Entertainment group AEG did not properly check Dr. Conrad Murray's background before bringing him on board for Michael Jackson's ill-fated "This Is It" tour, a human-resources consultant testified Monday.
Jean Seawright, head of the Florida-based Seawright & Associates consulting group, said that based on her review of the case, AEG Live "did indeed fail to follow adequate hiring practices" in the selection of Murray, regardless if he was considered a company employee or independent contractor.
Seawright, an expert witness retained by the attorneys representing Jackson's mother and three children in their wrongful death lawsuit, said her testimony came under the assumption that AEG hired Murray, who gave the singer a fatal dose of the anesthetic propofol in 2009. The jury will ultimately determine which party retained the doctor. Jackson's family alleges AEG hired and controlled Murray, while AEG maintains he worked for Jackson.
Murray is serving time in prison for involuntary manslaughter.
Seawright called the role of Jackson's personal physician a "very high-risk position" given the responsibilities of the job – such as accessing the singer's medical history and personal life, working remotely and providing medical care.
Companies following appropriate hiring practices assess the risks of a position before hiring, she said. When asked by Jackson family attorney Brian Panish if she thought AEG had done so in this case, Seawright said she "saw no evidence of that."
Seawright then testified about an email from AEG Chief Executive Randy Phillips to tour director Kenny Ortega, in which Phillips said Murray was "extremely successful" – noting "we check everyone out" – and "does not need this gig, so he is totally unbiased and ethical."
Seawright said that email indicated Phillips understood the criteria for the job and that AEG had a process in place for examining its workers. When asked if she saw evidence indicating the company in fact "checked out" Murray's background, she replied: "I did not."
Ultimately, she said, the email indicated AEG was in a "sort of trap … where if you don't check out a worker adequately, then you are in a situation like this."
"It was Mr. Phillips saying what he hoped was the case but we later found out was not the case," she said.
Same-sex couples rush to get marriage licenses
Record heat in Death Valley brings out the crowds
Transit official on BART strike: 'It could have been much worse'


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Over the weekend an article titled "Afghan Women Fear Loss of Modest Gains" appeared in the New York Times. The writer, Alissa J. Rubin, repeated a theme that has been popping up all over the media these days: That while we have made progress, albeit tentative, if the U.S. pulls out of Afghanistan, we will condemn the Afghan women to a dark and terrifying fate.
The Times' article, like others, highlighted that there is no doubt that the Taliban threat is real and constant. While it is true that they have hindered progress, and created an environment of fear, instability and violence, that is not the entire picture.
In the aftermath of 9/11 there were numerous articles about the daily horrors of how life was for Afghan women and how they lived in constant terror. But we also learned that even during the darkest days of the Taliban, women operated salons in back rooms, which provided them with an income and a place where they could gather, let their hair down and just be girls.
So I was shocked to read theTimes' article and learn that its symbol of the "progress" that has been made is a beauty salon/school that isn't much different than what was there nine years ago. Back then, the beauty salons were equipped with very few tools of the trade and provided limited training. As any hairdresser worth her salt will tell you, giving someone a few products and showing them how to cut split ends against a dingy and depressing backdrop does not a hairdresser make...
Their greatest fear then was, as is now, as the recent Times' article recognizes, "No one seems to be listening to them."
Almost nine years ago we set out to change that -- and for a brief moment we did.
Inspired by the plight of Afghan women, I, along with a friend, Terri Grauel, decided to create "The Beauty School of Kabul."
Once the idea was in motion, we decided that we wanted to develop a school that was on par with anything in the West. A school where the women could benefit from all our years of learning, a "modern" place where they could obtain a real professional education -- not some backroom, hole-in-the-wall with a few tools and products. What we built amid the rubble of Kabul was an oasis in the middle of hell.
At first the women were closed off, suffering from low self-esteem, and probably depression. Laughter was rare, and in the early days we worried that we had set the bar too high. Slowly but surely many of the students began to grasp the concepts we were teaching, and they would help teach the other students. With each breakthrough you could taste the joy in the air, and the invisible barriers that made the women seem like strangers to us began to fade.
One day a student asked me how long women in the West had been free and independent. I told her a 100 years or so, but real changes had only happened in the last fifty years. She was shocked. As she revealed this to her classmates, the room became alive with excited chatter. Knowing that Western women had achieved this in such little time, and not over 500+ years as they had thought, gave them hope that they too could be free and independent.
During that time, Kabul was chock-a-block with white jeeps ferrying key personal around town from USAID, UNDP, UNIFEM and other government-funded organizations as they set about to implement programs to give Afghan -- and especially Afghan women -- a shot at a better future.
Our program ran on fumes and a vision. But we challenge anyone who was in Kabul at that time to name any NGO or UN-funded offshoot that came close in terms of delivering a first-world professional education in a modern environment.
The night the women graduated we threw them a party. Some would say it was reckless, as we were completely broke. But anyone who witnessed their excitement and joy in the days leading up to the party, as they discussed what they were going to wear and who was coming, would lack humanity to deny these brave women the chance to show of their accomplishments.
That evening we watched as men and women from different families laughed and talked together -- a mingling of the sexes, something I was told could never happen in Afghanistan. As the graduation came to a close the men -- husbands, fathers and grandfathers -- thanked us for helping their families. Because of us their wives, daughters or granddaughters were earning money, putting food on the table and helping them survive.
So what has really changed since then? Sadly, it seems not much. Here we are nine years later, countless lives lost, a trillion dollars spent and what do we have to show for it?
The Times' article quotes an Afghan woman named Habiba Shamim, one of the beauty school instructors.
"Please," she pleaded. "Carry our words to people."
So, Secretary Clinton, are you really listening?
If you really want to improve the plight of Afghan women, perhaps you should start with taking a long hard look at the decision makers and purse-string holders at the UN, its offshoot organizations, USAID, and various US government oversight committees who have received billions of taxpayer dollars.
While there are numerous front-line people at these organizations who are dedicated and committed to solving a multitude of problems around the world, it seems that for our investment, particularly in regard to Afghan women, we have barely moved the needle.
For a brief and fleeting post-9/11 moment, all of us living in the West thought that we could make it right. Unfortunately, for Afghan women, it didn't happen. But heck, you already knew that.


text: ICAST Draws Flies Steve Wright, OutdoorChannel.com ICAST Draws Flies Two big fishing trade shows have merged into one LAS VEGAS, Nev. — A new attraction has been added to ICAST this year, and the reviews are unanimously "two thumbs up.""I think this should have come a long time ago," internationally-known fly fisherman Carter Andrews said.The new act in the 56th annual ICAST trade show is fly fishing, specifically the American Fly Fishing Trade Association show. This first-time arrangement has been termed a "co-location." The two fishing trade organizations worked together on location, date and registration. Click image for Day 1 From the Floor photos AFFTA maintains a separate "new product showcase," and fly fishing booths are located together in one section of the Las Vegas Convention Center floor, rather than sprinkled in amongst everyone else. But what was previously two trade shows at different dates and locations has now been blended seamlessly into one. "It has been great for both of us," said Mary Jane Williamson, communications director for the American Sportfishing Association, which hosts ICAST. "The energy level has been pretty high. A lot of folks have told us this is awesome." Andrews is a fly fisherman with a worldwide reputation. He has a new fishing show titled "The Obession" that will premiere in January on Outdoor Channel. Andrews has won the Jackson Hole One Fly competition three times, and he is even better known for his saltwater fly fishing accomplishments. But Andrews is more than that. He is a self-described "complete angler," just as comfortable trolling saltwater with massive baitcasting reels for blue marlin as he is with spinning tackle in freshwater for smallmouth bass.Karl Schmuecker (left), general manager of Wapsi Fly in Mountain Home, Ark., visits with Tight Lines Ltd. representative Peter Toynbee of Napier, New Zealand. (Steve Wright photo) Seeing the complete fishing picture of new products under one roof at ICAST makes all the sense in the world to Andrews."I've been going to the International Fly Tackle Dealer show and ICAST every year," Andrews said. "I love them both. "I think it's really nice for the fly guys to see the other side of the world, and at the same time introduce those anglers to the fly side of things. It makes perfect sense to me that we all join together. "The bottom line is: we all fish. That is what we do. So why separate them?"Most importantly, fly fishing tackle wholesalers are happy to be at ICAST for the first time. Karl Schmuecker has been the general manager of Wapsi Fly in Mountain Home, Ark., since 1995. Some part of almost every fly tied in the U.S. (and most of the world) first came through Wapsi in one form or anthers, whether it's marabou, bucktail or Australian possum fur. It was Karl's father, Tom, who discovered this niche in the fly fishing world and took it to unprecedented heights. But Tom, Karl and Wapsi Fly, in general, had become increasingly frustrated with the AFFTA show."We are darned glad they did this," Karl Schmuecker said. "They had to do something. We wouldn't have gone to another AFFTA show. I've already seen one of our Australian dealers who I hadn't seen in three or four years. He comes to ICAST every year."Peter Toynbee of Tight Lines Ltd. in New Zealand came by to visit the Wapsi booth shortly after Schmuecker made those comments. He was another in a long list of those happy with the new arrangement."It's a good idea to combine the shows," said Toynbee, who lives in Napier, New Zealand, and represents one of the top sporting goods distributers in that country as well as Australia. "I was coming to the AFFTA show every second or third year."It's easy to spot the floor location of the fly fishing products dealers. All you have to do is look for the giant casting pond. Casting a fly line requires as much space for a backcast as it does for the final presentation. No one was in danger of getting snapped with a (hook-less) fly line on either side of this layout. "We've had a casting pond before, but nothing of this magnitude," said Williamson.That might serve as a metaphor for the 2013 version of ICAST. It has hosted fishing shows before, but nothing of this magnitude – a show that finally encompasses all aspects of the fishing world.ICAST 2013 Home Page