This project investigates federal, state and local agencies and organizations that are key sources of information about Peninsular bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis cremnobates) to determine the extent of the agencies' environmental education and awareness programs related to the sheep. The agencies and organizations investigated include: Bureau of Land Management, Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, Living Desert Wildlife and Botanical Park, Bighorn Institute, Natural Science Collaborative of the Desert Region and California Desert Managers Group. Recommendations about future educational and interpretive programs are included.

The emergence of the sharing economy has disrupted several industries. Controversies about multi-sided sharing platforms have arisen as incumbent firms assert that the platforms benefit from unfair competition by sidestepping regulations. This paper attempts to quantify the impact of Airbnb, one prominent example of a sharing platform, on the hotel industry in the Coachella Valley. I find that from 2011 to 2016, the increase in Airbnb supply in the Coachella Valley has a negative impact on city-level hotel revenue. For different hotel segments in the Coachella Valley, I do not observe significant differences in the magnitude of impact across the three categories.

Describes the business plan for an entrepreneurial venture called Nutrition on Wheels, which will be the first locally owned and operated gourmet diet food delivery service in the Coachella Valley of California. The service will provide customized meals to fit the specific dietary needs of its customers. Covers the essential components of the business plan for Nutrition on Wheels including industry analysis, market potential, marketing plans, organization and operational plans, strategic management and a financial plan.

Rural poverty has been characterized as invisible. This has been true since Michael Steinbeck published The Grapes of Wrath in 1939. Building upon this characterization this thesis explores six pathways out of rural poverty in relation to the particular quality of invisibility. This study reviews scholarly literature and federal policy, as well as adds new interviews focused on a case study of Mecca and Thermal, two small, unincorporated communities in California’s Eastern Coachella Valley (ECV). Through these techniques I found that rural poverty is characterized by a unique invisibility and that although there are certain pathways out of this poverty, these pathways are unlikely, temporary, and too insubstantial to make significant change.

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Three-dimensional mechanical simulations of the San Andreas fault (SAF) within the Coachella Valley in California produce deformation that match geologic observations and demonstrate the impact of fault geometry on uplift patterns. Most models that include the Coachella Valley segment of the SAF have assumed a vertical orientation, but recent studies suggest that this segment dips 60-70° northeast. We compare models with varied fault geometry and evaluate how well they reproduce observed uplift patterns. Our model with a dipping SAF matches geologic observations, while models containing a vertical fault do not. This suggests that the active Coachella Valley segment of the SAF dips 60-70° northeast. Since ~1.5 Ma, the SAF in this region has undergone a major reorganization that entailed initiation of the San Jacinto fault and termination of slip on the West Salton detachment fault. The trace of the SAF itself has also evolved, with several shifts in activity through the San Gorgonio Pass. Despite a rich geologic record of these changes, the mechanisms that controlled abandonment of faults, initiation of new strands, and shifting loci of uplift are poorly understood. We model snapshots in time through the evolution of the fault system, and assess the mechanical viability of our snapshots by comparison with uplift patterns inferred from the stratigraphic record. Model results are compared with vertical axis rotation. We examine incipient faulting using maps of strain energy density, and explore changes to the mechanical efficiency of the system to better understand the evolution of this fault system.

This thesis surveyed a group of second generation Mexican-American Spanish-English bilingual speakers in the Coachella Valley, California to determine common motives for code-switching in speech. In previous studies, motives or triggers to code-switching have been identified and recorded in major urban cities such as Los Angeles and New York, and this thesis seeks to identify this phenomenon in the rural and agricultural cities of the Coachella Valley, with focus on Indio and Coachella, CA. Furthermore, another goal of this study was to analyze research on code-switching in a sample of older adults ages 45-75 as compared to much of the research that tends to focus on young adults or children. This study also took into consideration the code-switching patterns between males and females.This thesis analyzed 10 audio-recorded interviews of second generation Mexican-American Spanish-English bilingual speakers. The interviews were recorded in Indio, CA in 2015. The data collected were analyzed for naturally occurring code-switching pattern frequencies, code-switching differences found between genders, and code-switching differences found in age groupings.The results showed similar findings to those found in previous studies on code-switching patterns, the greater code-switching frequency in women, and the stronger disapproval of code-switching in adults.

Finding revenue is a challenge that faces many municipalities in the United States. As the tax base continues to decline and demand for government services increases, local governments are forced to make hard choices. Low on the list of priorities for local governments is the maintenance, and construction of infrastructure. Traditionally there have been several ways for local governments to fund long-term infrastructure projects including, federal-aid through the process of earmarking. The practice of earmarking has been around since the first congress, but hit its peak between 2003 and 2007. The earmarking process is controversial for several reasons; earmarking bypasses traditional merit procedures for distribution of federal-aid, earmarking is said to add costs to the agency awarded the funding, and earmarking has been linked to Congressional scandals and wasteful spending. In this paper I explore how an earmark, designated to local governments to fund long-term infrastructure projects, contributes to the costs of the project.

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