who is left from the original four tops

Fakir, McNeir, Roquel Payton, and Harold "Spike" Bonhart, who replaced Peoples in 2011, are still performing together as the Four Tops. Fakir is the only surviving founding member of the group.

Four Tops

The Four Tops are an American vocal quartet from Detroit, Michigan who helped to define the city's Motown sound of the 1960s. The group's repertoire has included soul music, R&B, disco, adult contemporary, doo-wop, jazz, and show tunes.

Founded as the Four Aims, lead singer Levi Stubbs, Abdul "Duke" Fakir, Renaldo "Obie" Benson and Lawrence Payton remained together for over four decades, performing from 1953 until 1997 without a change in personnel.

The Four Tops were among a number of groups, including the Miracles, the Marvelettes, Martha and the Vandellas, the Temptations, and the Supremes, who established the Motown Sound heard around the world during the 1960s. They were notable for having Stubbs, a baritone, as their lead singer, whereas most male and mixed vocal groups of the time were fronted by a tenor.

The group was the main male vocal group for the highly successful songwriting and production team of Holland–Dozier–Holland, who crafted a stream of hit singles for Motown. These included two Billboard Hot 100 number-one hits for the Tops: "I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch)" in 1965 and "Reach Out I'll Be There" in 1966. After Holland-Dozier-Holland left Motown in 1967, the Four Tops were assigned to a number of producers, primarily Frank Wilson, but generally with less success.

When Motown left Detroit in 1972 to move to Los Angeles, California, the Tops stayed in Detroit but signed a new recording deal with ABC Records' Dunhill imprint. Recording mainly in Los Angeles, they continued to have chart singles into the late 1970s, including the million-seller "Ain't No Woman", their second release on Dunhill, produced by Steve Barri and the composers Dennis Lambert and Brian Potter.

In the 1980s, the Four Tops recorded for Casablanca Records, Arista Records and Motown, returning to that label on two occasions for brief stays. Apart from their album Indestructible (owned by Sony Music Entertainment), Universal Music Group controls the rights to their entire post-1963 catalog (through various mergers and acquisitions) and also their 1956 single, "Could It Be You".

A change of lineup was forced on the group when Lawrence Payton died on June 20, 1997. The group initially continued as a three-piece under the name the Tops,[1] before Theo Peoples (formerly of the Temptations) was recruited as the new fourth member. Peoples eventually took over the role of lead singer when Stubbs suffered a stroke in 2000, with Ronnie McNeir then joining the group. On July 1, 2005, Benson died of lung cancer. Payton's son Roquel Payton replaced him. Levi Stubbs died on October 17, 2008.

All four members of the group began their careers together while they were high-school students in Detroit. At the insistence of their friends, Pershing High students Levi Stubbs and Abdul "Duke" Fakir performed with Renaldo "Obie" Benson and Lawrence Payton from Northern High at a local birthday party. The quartet decided to remain together and named the group the Four Aims. With the help of Payton's songwriter cousin Roquel Davis, the Aims signed to Chess Records in 1956, changing their name to the Four Tops to avoid confusion with the Ames Brothers. Over the next seven years, the Tops had unsuccessful tenures at Chess, Red Top, Riverside Records and Columbia Records. Without any hit records to their name, they toured frequently, developing a polished stage presence and an experienced supper club act, as well as supporting Billy Eckstine. In 1963, Berry Gordy, Jr., who had worked with Roquel Davis as a songwriter in the late 1950s, convinced the Tops to join the roster of his growing Motown record company.

During their early Motown years, the Four Tops recorded jazz standards for the company's Workshop label. In addition, they sang backup on Motown singles[2] by the Supremes ("Run, Run, Run"), Martha and the Vandellas (on the 1966 hit "My Baby Loves Me") and others.

In 1964, Motown's main songwriting and production team, Holland–Dozier–Holland, created a complete instrumental track without any idea of what to do with it. They decided to craft the song as a more mainstream pop song for the Four Tops and proceeded to create "Baby I Need Your Loving" from the instrumental track. On its release in mid-1964, "Baby I Need Your Loving" made it to number 11 on the Billboard pop chart. However, the song proved to be much more popular on trend-setting radio stations in key U.S. markets and has since grown in popularity over the years to be one of the group's classic tracks. After the single's success, the Tops were pulled away from their jazz material and began recording more material in the vein of "Baby I Need Your Loving".

The first follow-up single, "Without the One You Love (Life's Not Worth While)", just missed both the pop and R&B Top 40 charts, but "Ask the Lonely", written and produced by Motown A&R head Mickey Stevenson with Ivy Hunter, was a Top 30 pop hit and a Top 10 R&B hit in early 1965. From there, the group really began to make its mark.

After their first number 1 hit, "I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch)" in June 1965, the Four Tops released a long series of successful hit singles. Among the first wave of these hits were the Top 10 "It's the Same Old Song", "Something About You", "Shake Me, Wake Me (When It's Over)", and "Loving You Is Sweeter Than Ever". Four Tops records often represented the epitome of the Motown Sound: simple, distinctive melodies and rhymes, call-and-response lyrics, and the musical contributions of studio band, the Funk Brothers.

Holland-Dozier-Holland wrote most of Levi Stubbs's vocals in a tenor range, near the top of his range, in order to get a sense of strained urgency in his gospel preacher-inspired leads. They also wrote additional background vocals for a female group, the Andantes, on many of the songs, to add a high end to the low-voiced harmony of the Tops. Ivy Hunter's "Loving You Is Sweeter Than Ever" was one of a few exceptions.

August 1966 brought the release of the Four Tops' all-time biggest hit and one of the most popular Motown songs ever. "Reach Out I'll Be There" reached number 1 on the U.S. pop and R&B charts[2] and the UK chart and soon became the Tops' signature song. It was almost immediately followed by the similar-sounding "Standing in the Shadows of Love"; its depiction of heartbreak reflecting the opposite of the optimism in "Reach Out". It was another Top 10 hit for the Tops.

The Top 10 U.S. hit "Bernadette" centered around a man's all-consuming obsession with his lover,[2] continued the Four Tops' successful run into April 1967, followed by the Top 20 hits "7-Rooms of Gloom", and "You Keep Running Away". By now, the Tops were the most successful male Motown act in the United Kingdom (in the United States, they were second to the Temptations), and began experimenting with more mainstream pop hits. They scored hits with their versions of Tim Hardin's "If I Were a Carpenter" in late 1967 (mid-1968 in the U.S.) and the Left Banke's "Walk Away Renée" in early 1968. These singles and the original "I'm in a Different World" were their last hits produced by Holland-Dozier-Holland, who left Motown in 1967 after disputes with Berry Gordy over royalties and ownership of company shares.

Without Holland-Dozier-Holland, the hits became less frequent. The group worked with a wide array of Motown producers during the late 1960s, including Ivy Hunter, Nickolas Ashford & Valerie Simpson, Norman Whitfield and Johnny Bristol, without significant chart success.

Their first major hit in a long time came in the form of 1970's "It's All in the Game", a pop Top 30/R&B Top Ten hit produced by Frank Wilson. Wilson and the Tops began working on a number of innovative tracks and albums together, echoing Whitfield's psychedelic soul work with The Temptations. Their 1970 album Still Waters Run Deep was a forerunner of the concept album. It also served as an inspiration for Marvin Gaye's 1971 classic album What's Going On, the title track of which was co-written by the Tops' Obie Benson.

In addition to their own albums, the Tops were paired with The Supremes, who had just replaced lead singer Diana Ross with Jean Terrell, for a series of albums billed under the joint title The Magnificent Seven: The Magnificent Seven in 1970, and The Return of the Magnificent Seven and Dynamite! in 1971. Whilst the albums themselves did not perform really well on the charts, The Magnificent Seven featured a Top 20 version of Ike & Tina Turner's "River Deep - Mountain High", produced by Ashford & Simpson.

The 1971 single "A Simple Game" featured backing vocals from members of The Moody Blues. The song did not fare well on the U.S. charts, but reached number three on the UK charts.

Motown as a company began to change during the early 1970s. Older acts such as Martha and the Vandellas and The Marvelettes were slowly moved aside or dropped to focus on newer acts, such as Michael Jackson and The Jackson 5, Rare Earth, and the now-solo Diana Ross. In addition, the company moved its operations from Detroit to Los Angeles, California, where Berry Gordy planned to break into the motion picture and television industries. In 1972, it was announced that the entire company would move west and that all its artists had to move as well. Many of the older Motown acts, already neglected by the label, opted to stay in Detroit, including The Funk Brothers studio backing band, Martha Reeves, and the Four Tops.

The Tops departed Motown for ABC-Dunhill, where they were assigned to writer-producers Dennis Lambert and Brian Potter and the label's head of A&R, Steve Barri as producer, with The Tops' own Lawrence Payton later also serving as a producer and writer. He also took over lead vocal duties on several tracks.

The group's first release on the label, "Keeper of the Castle" was their first pop Top 10 hit since "Bernadette" in 1967. Follow-ups included the million-selling "Ain't No Woman (Like the One I've Got)", also a top 10 pop hit and their third R&B number 1, and the Top 20 hit, "Are You Man Enough", (from the movie "Shaft in Africa"). "Sweet Understanding Love"; "Midnight Flower"; and "One Chain Don't Make No Prison" all reached the R&B Top 10 between 1972 and 1974. Two ABC/Dunhill singles, 1974's "I Just Can't Get You Out of My Mind" and 1975's "Seven Lonely Nights" have become popular tunes in the southeast Beach/Shag Club Dance circuit.

After the release of "Catfish" (a top 10 R&B hit) in 1976, the major hits started to dry up and the Tops left ABC after an album recorded in Philadelphia with the MFSB musicians resulted in only minor chart success in 1978. The group disappeared from the recording scene until the early 1980s. Signing a deal with Casablanca Records, the Tops made a comeback in 1981 with the #1 R&B hit "When She Was My Girl". Produced by David Wolfert, it just missed the Billboard pop Top 10, peaking at #11. The group also scored a UK Top 10 hit with the song and had another hit there with the follow-up, "Don't Walk Away".

By 1983, The Tops had rejoined Motown, where their former ABC-Dunhill producer, Steve Barri was vice-president of A&R. They were featured on the company's television special Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever, taking part in one of the highlights of the show - a battle-of-the-bands between The Tops and The Temptations, patterned after similar competitions Berry Gordy had staged during the 1960s. Levi Stubbs and Temptation Otis Williams decided the Temptations/Tops battle would be a good one to take on the road and both groups began semi-regular joint tours.

The first of The Tops' albums under their new Motown contract was Back Where I Belong. A whole side of the album was produced by the Holland-Dozier-Holland, including the R&B Top 40 single, "I Just Can't Walk Away". Only one more Tops album would be released by Motown, Magic in 1985. The lead single from that album, "Sexy Ways", was almost a Top 20 R&B hit, peaking at #21 on the Soul Charts in mid-1985. In July of that year, the group performed at the Live Aid concert, singing three of their hit songs. The album Hot Nights was completed in 1986, but was then cancelled, as the group and the Motown label began to disagree over marketing and musical direction. The following year, the Four Tops decided to leave for Arista Records, buying back several masters they had recorded for Hot Nights. It's not clear how many songs from Hot Nights were used on Indestructible, but the 2001 box set, Fourever includes the title track (previously released as a single), Red Hot Love and The Four of Us (previously released outside the U.S. on a CD single of "Loco in Acapulco"), as well as Indestructible.

The title track of 1988's Indestructible was the group's final Top 40 hit, reaching No. 35. It was also featured in the 1988 science-fiction cop film, Alien Nation. Another track, "Loco in Acapulco", written and produced by British pop musician Phil Collins and former Motown composer-producer Lamont Dozier, climbed into the UK Top 10 and made #7 in early 1989. The Arista contract provided an opportunity to pair Levi Stubbs with fellow Arista artist, another legendary R&B vocalist from Detroit, Aretha Franklin, who was at the height of her own 1980s hit streak. This pairing resulted in the song "If Ever A Love There Was", which became a popular R&B and Adult Contemporary hit, as well as being featured on the soundtrack of the motion picture I'm Gonna Git You Sucka.

In December 1988, Pan Am Flight 103 became the group's scheduled return flight to the U.S. for Christmas after completing their European tour. A prolonged recording session and a performance at the television show Top of the Pops caused them to oversleep, thus, missing the ill-fated flight which crashed in Lockerbie, Scotland, after a terrorist bomb was detonated on board.[3][4] They left London however using a later British Airways flight.

In addition to their own recordings, the Four Tops also worked in the fields of television and motion pictures. The group as a whole performed a song for the 1982 film Grease 2, and Levi Stubbs provided the vocals for the man-eating plant Audrey II in the 1986 musical film, Little Shop of Horrors; and the voice of the evil Mother Brain on the Nintendo-based NBC Saturday morning cartoon Captain N: The Game Master from 1989 to 1991.

From the late 1980s, the Four Tops focused on touring and live performances. They recorded only one album, returning again to Motown for 1995's Christmas Here with You. On June 20, 1997, 59-year-old Lawrence Payton died as a result of liver cancer, after singing for 44 years with the Four Tops who, unlike many Motown groups, never had a single lineup change until then. At first, Levi Stubbs, Obie Benson, and Duke Fakir toured as a trio called The Tops. In 1998, they recruited former Temptation Theo Peoples to restore the group to a quartet. By the turn of the century, Stubbs had become ill from cancer; Ronnie McNeir was recruited to fill the Lawrence Payton position and Peoples stepped into Stubbs' shoes as lead singer. Stubbs later died on October 17, 2008 at his home in Detroit.

The group was featured in several television specials during this time, including Motown 45, and several by PBS, including a 50th anniversary concert dedicated to the group (available on DVD). The concert turned out to be bittersweet; it featured a brief appearance of the wheelchair-bound Levi Stubbs, and a memorial to Lawrence Payton, announced by Obie Benson. Benson appeared on one more PBS special and died on July 1, 2005, from lung cancer. The final PBS special, titled Motown: The Early Years, featured a message of Benson's passing following the credits. Lawrence Payton's son Roquel (real name Lawrence Payton, Jr.) replaced Benson as the new bass (Roquel could be seen in the pledge break interviews of Motown: The Early Years). Theo Peoples also left the Tops to form his own group and was replaced by Harold 'Spike' Bonhart as lead singer.

The group was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990, and into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 1999. In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked them #79 on their list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.[5]

The Four Tops have won many awards during their long and distinguished career, including the following:

After similar releases in the Motown "Definitive DVD" series on The Miracles, The Temptations, The Supremes, and Marvin Gaye, the Four Tops' Motown Definitive DVD, Reach Out, was finally released on November 11, 2008.

The Four Tops received The Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award as part of the 51st Annual Grammy Awards.[16][17]

Speaking in January 2010 to noted UK soul writer Pete Lewis of the award-winning Blues & Soul, Fakir confirmed plans for the "new" Four Tops to release a new album, while revealing his personal feelings about the current line-up: "To me the new group is like an extension of the family, because we've all been very close for so many years... Which makes it easier for ME, because I truly miss Lawrence, "Obie" AND Levi - I'd be lying if I said I didn't - and not one of them could EVER be replaced. But, you know, these new guys do perform well enough for the people to still enjoy the shows and still enjoy the music. So for me, it kinda makes it bittersweet. Because, at the end of the day, the legacy is still going on and I'm very pleased that it IS!"[18]

The Four Tops sang the National Anthem before the start of game 5 for the 2011 ALCS between the Texas Rangers & Detroit Tigers on October 13, 2011 in Detroit, MI. When singing the last line of "The Star Spangled Banner", "...and the home of the brave", they quickly sang the words "Ain't No country Like the One I Got", before singing the last word, "brave". The Four Tops were honored with an induction into the R&B Music Hall of Fame at the Inaugural ceremony held at Cleveland State University's Waetejen Auditorium on Saturday August 17, 2013.

The following singles reached the top 30 of the singles charts.

Prism Leisure releases


who wrote the poem do not stand at my grave and weep

"Do Not Stand at My Grave and Weep" is a poem written in 1932 by Mary Elizabeth Frye. Although the origin of the poem was disputed until later in her life, Mary Frye's authorship was confirmed in 1998 after research by Abigail Van Buren, a newspaper columnist.[1]

Do Not Stand at My Grave and Weep

There have been many claimants to the poem's authorship, including attributions to traditional and Native American origins. Dear Abby author Abigail Van Buren researched the poem's history and concluded in 1998 that Mary Elizabeth Frye, who was living in Baltimore at the time, had written the poem in 1932. According to Van Buren's research, Frye had never written any poetry, but the plight of a German Jewish woman, Margaret Schwarzkopf, who was staying with her and her husband, had inspired the poem. Margaret Schwarzkopf was concerned about her mother, who was ill in Germany, but she had been warned not to return home because of increasing unrest. When her mother died, the heartbroken young woman told Frye that she never had the chance to "stand by my mother's grave and shed a tear". Frye, according to Van Buren's research, found herself composing a piece of verse on a brown paper shopping bag. Later she said that the words "just came to her" and expressed what she felt about life and death.[1]

Frye circulated the poem privately, never publishing or copyrighting it. She wrote other poems, but this, her first, endured. Her obituary in The Times stated that she was the author of the famous poem, which has been recited at funerals and on other appropriate occasions around the world for 60 years.[2]

The poem was introduced to many in the United Kingdom when it was read by the father of a soldier killed by a bomb in Northern Ireland. The soldier's father read the poem on BBC radio in 1995 in remembrance of his son, who had left the poem among his personal effects in an envelope addressed 'To all my loved ones'.

The poem is common reading for funerals.

To coincide with National Poetry Day 1995, the British television programme The Bookworm conducted a poll to discover the nation's favourite poems, and subsequently published the winning poems in book form.[3] The book's preface stated that "Do Not Stand at My Grave and Weep" was "the unexpected poetry success of the year from Bookworm's point of view"; the poem had "provoked an extraordinary response... the requests started coming in almost immediately and over the following weeks the demand rose to a total of some thirty thousand. In some respects it became the nation's favourite poem by proxy... despite it being outside the competition."[4] This was all the more remarkable, since the name and nationality of the American poet did not become known until several years later. In 2004 The Times wrote: "The verse demonstrated a remarkable power to soothe loss. It became popular, crossing national boundaries for use on bereavement cards and at funerals regardless of race, religion or social status".[1]

The poem has been translated into Danish, Dutch, French, German, Hebrew, Ilocano, Japanese, Korean, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Tagalog, and other languages. Several Swedish versions exist. One version starts: "GrÃ¥t ej vid min grav..." Translated, it reads: "Do not weep at my grave - I am not there / I am in the sun's reflection in the sea / I am in the wind's play above the grain fields / I am in the autumn's gentle rain / I am in the Milky Way's string of stars / And when on an early morning you are awaked by bird's song / It is my voice that you are hearing / So do not weep at my grave - we shall meet again." (Instead of these last four words there is also this version: "I am not dead. I only left".)

Every so often the poem and similar variations appear in death and funeral announcements in Swedish morning papers (such as Svenska Dagbladet August 14, 2010). On August 29, 2010, the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter carried the following short English version: "I am thousand winds that blow / I am the diamond glints on snow / I am the sunlight, I am the rain / Do not stand on my grave and cry / I am not there / I did not die".

Several notable choral compositions, pop songs, and other creative works have been based on "Do Not Stand at My Grave and Weep", adapting lines from Frye's poem as lyrics.


why do they call it the inland empire

The term "Inland Empire" is documented to have been used by the Riverside Enterprise newspaper (now The Press-Enterprise) as early as April 1914.[4] Developers in the area likely introduced the term to promote the region and to highlight the area's unique features. The "Inland" part of the name is derived from the region's location, about 60 miles (97Â km) inland from Los Angeles and the Pacific Ocean. Originally, this area was called the Orange Empire due to the acres of citrus groves that once extended from Pasadena to Redlands during the first half of the twentieth century.[2][5] The Inland Empire is a nebulous region, but is defined as the cities of western Riverside County and the cities of southwestern San Bernardino County; adjacent to the Los Angeles metropolitan area. A generally broader definition will include the desert community of Palm Springs and its surrounding area, and a much larger definition will include all of San Bernardino and Riverside counties.[2]

Inland Empire

The Inland Empire (I.E.) is a metropolitan area and region in Southern California. The term may be used to refer to the cities of western Riverside County and southwestern San Bernardino County. A broader definition will include eastern Los Angeles County cities in the Pomona Valley, and sometimes the desert communities of Palm Springs and the rest of the Coachella Valley; a much larger definition includes all of San Bernardino and Riverside counties.[2]

The U.S. Census Bureau-defined Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario metropolitan area, which comprises Riverside County and San Bernardino County, California, covers more than 27,000 square miles (70,000Â km2) and has a population of approximately 4 million.[3] Most of the area's population is located in southwestern San Bernardino County and northwestern Riverside County. At the end of the nineteenth century, the Inland Empire was a major center of agriculture, including citrus, dairy, and winemaking. However, agriculture declined through the twentieth century, and since the 1970s a rapidly growing population, fed by families migrating in search of affordable housing, has led to more residential, industrial, and commercial development.

What is now known as the Inland Empire was inhabited for thousands of years, prior to the late eighteenth century, by the Tongva, Serrano, and Cahuilla Native Americans. With Spanish colonization and the subsequent Mexican era the area was sparsely populated at the land grant Ranchos, considering it unsuitable for missions.[citation needed] The first American settlers, a group of Mormon pioneers, arrived over the Cajon Pass in 1851. Although the Mormons left a scant six years later, recalled to Salt Lake City by Brigham Young during the church's Utah War with the US government, other settlers soon followed.

The entire landmass of Southern California was subdivided according to the San Bernardino Meridian, which was first plotted as part of the Public Land Survey System in November 1852, by Col. Henry Washington. Base Line road, a major thoroughfare, today runs from Highland to San Dimas, intermittently along the absolute baseline coordinates plotted by Col. Washington.[6] San Bernardino County was first formed out of parts of Los Angeles County on April 26, 1853. While the partition once included what is today most of Riverside County, the region is not as monolithic as it may sound. Rivalries between Colton, Redlands, Riverside and San Bernardino over the location of the county seat in the 1890s caused each of them to form their own civic communities, each with their own newspapers. On August 14, 1893, the state Senate allowed Riverside County to form out of land previously in San Bernardino and San Diego counties, after rejecting a bill for Pomona to split from L.A. County and become the seat of what would have been called San Antonio County.[7]

The arrival of rail and the importation of navel and Valencia orange trees in the 1870s touched off explosive growth, with the area quickly becoming a major center for citrus production.[8][9][10] This agricultural boom continued with the arrival of water from the Colorado River and the rapid growth of Los Angeles in the early twentieth century, with dairy farming becoming another staple industry. In 1926, Route 66 (now known as Foothill Boulevard and Interstate 215) came through the northern parts of the area, bringing a stream of tourists and migrants to the region. Still, the region endured as the key part of the Southern California "citrus belt" until the end of World War II, when a new generation of real-estate developers bulldozed acres of agricultural land to build suburbs.[8] The precursor to the San Bernardino Freeway, the Ramona Expressway, was built in 1944, and further development of the freeway system in the area facilitated the expansion of suburbs and human migration throughout the Inland Empire and Southern California.

The region experienced significant economic and population growth through most of the latter half of the twentieth century. In the early 1990s, the loss of the region's military bases and reduction of nearby defense industries due to the end of the Cold War lead to a local economic downturn.[11][12] The region as a whole had partially recovered from this downturn by the start of the twenty-first century through the development of warehousing, shipping, logistics and retail industries, primarily centered around Ontario.[13] However, these industries have been heavily affected by the Great Recession.[14]

Physical boundaries between Los Angeles and the Inland Empire from west to east are the San Jose Hills splitting the San Gabriel Valley from the Pomona Valley, leading to the urban populations centered in the San Bernardino Valley.[15] From the south to north, the Santa Ana Mountains physically divide Orange County from San Bernardino and Riverside Counties. The Santa Rosa Mountains, as well as the Southern California portion of the Sonoran Desert, physically divide Riverside County from San Diego County.[16] Some definitions for the I.E. consist of the Chino Valley, Coachella Valley, Cucamonga Valley, Menifee Valley, Murrieta Valley, Perris Valley, San Jacinto Valley, Temecula Valley, Pomona Valley, and Victor Valley.[citation needed]

Elevations range from 11,499 ft (3,505 m) at the top of the San Gorgonio Mountain to −220 ft (−67 m) at the Salton Sea. The San Bernardino mountains are home to the San Bernardino National Forest and the resort communities of Big Bear Lake, Lake Arrowhead, and Running Springs. The Santa Ana River extends from Mt. San Gorgonio for nearly 100 miles (160 km) through San Bernardino, Riverside, and Orange counties before it eventually spills into the Pacific Ocean at Newport Beach and Huntington Beach. While temperatures are generally cool to cold in the mountains, it can get hot in the valleys. In the desert resort of Palm Springs, near Joshua Tree National Park, summer temperatures can reach well over 110 °F (43 °C).

Unlike most metropolitan areas that have grown up around a central city, the Inland Empire has no one main focus city. Major cities in the region include Riverside, San Bernardino, Rancho Cucamonga, and Ontario. Suburban sprawl spreads out to form a unified/built up connection with the Los Angeles metropolitan area. Further development is steadily, if not heavily, encroaching past the mountains into the outlying desert areas. The Inland Empire borders both Los Angeles and Orange counties. Freeways in Southern California are heavily used, but this comprehensive freeway system has made travel between the Inland Empire and these two counties generally easy; especially to and from Los Angeles County.

The Inland Empire has also been referred to as the 909, after one of the region's most used area codes.[2][17] In 2004, because of growing demand for telephone numbers, most of Western Riverside County was granted a new area code, 951.[17]

The Coachella Valley region of Palm Springs, Palm Desert, and Indio are located much further east in Riverside County (the distance between the city of San Bernardino and Palm Springs is approximately 45 miles) and holds its own area code, 760. This area is sometimes considered a sub-region of the Inland Empire or its own separate region. This is to help differentiate them from the urbanized area of San Bernardino-Riverside.

There is no universally accepted definition for the boundaries of the Inland Empire region. Some sources such as the Los Angeles Times[18][19][20][21][22] have referred to Riverside County and San Bernardino County as the Inland Empire, mirroring the Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario metropolitan area.

Some residents of certain areas within the three counties, such as Twentynine Palms, the Coachella and Temecula valleys, consider themselves separate from the IE.[2] The California Travel and Tourism Commission (CTTC), a not-for-profit, nongovernmental[23] entity that promotes tourism in California,[24] divides the state into several regions for its own purposes. The CTTC defines the Inland Empire as being bounded by Los Angeles County and Orange County on the west, San Diego County on the south, as far north as the Victor Valley area, and as far east as Idyllwild in the San Jacinto Mountains.[25] The state of California's official website links to the CTTC's map with the description "Map of the Inland Empire region".[26]

Other sources, including Kevin Starr, former state librarian of California, include eastern Los Angeles County cities in the Pomona Valley which are Claremont, Pomona, La Verne, San Dimas, and Diamond Bar within the definition of the Inland Empire.[27] Other sources also include cities in Los Angeles County within the boundaries.[28][29][verification needed][30]

Inexpensive land prices (compared to Los Angeles and Orange Counties), a large supply of vacant land, and a transport network where many highways and railroads intersect have made the Inland Empire a major shipping hub.[31] Some of the nation's largest manufacturing companies have chosen the Inland Empire for their distribution facilities including Toyota Motor Corporation's North American Parts and Logistics Distribution (NAPLD) center in Ontario and APL Logistics in Rancho Cucamonga. Whirlpool Corporation recently leased a 1,700,000-square-foot (160,000Â m2) distribution center in Perris that is larger than 31 football fields and one of the biggest warehouses in the country.[32] These centers operate as part of the system that transports finished goods and materials from the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach to destinations to the north and east such as Las Vegas, Phoenix, and Denver. More than 80 percent of the state's imported cargo is shipped through the Los Angeles/Inland Empire Corridor.[33] However, with the global economic downturn, industrial vacancies have doubled from 6.2 percent in 2007 to 12.4 percent to 2008. In San Bernardino and Redlands, vacancies are as high as 22 percent.[34]

Although the region's large industries have been affected by the Great Recession, the Inland Empire is projected to remain California's fastest-growing region for some time to come.[35] The area is also projected to remain one of the least educated areas of the state with the lowest average in annual wages in the country.[35] A 2006 study of salaries in 51 metropolitan areas of the country ranked the Inland Empire second to last, with an average annual wage of $36,924.[35] However, inexpensive land prices and innovative institutional support networks have attracted some small businesses and technology startups into the area.[14]

While urbanization continues to cut into agricultural lands, the Inland Empire still produces substantial crops. Although 10,000 acres (40Â km2) of irrigated land was lost between 2002 and 2004, agriculture still brought in more than $1.6 billion in revenues to the two-county region in 2006.[9]

Being a MSA, aggregate GDP figures are reported by the Bureau of Economic Analysis annually. The Inland Empire ranks 25th in the nation with a 2011 GDP of $109.8 billion, roughly a third of San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA MSA despite their close population numbers. Per capita GDP was $25,993.34 in 2011, nearly half among the nation's top 50 Gross Metropolitan Product.[36] Due to housing crisis, the GDP fell from $114.8 billion in 2007, despite a heavy influx of residents.

The unemployment rate in the Inland Empire has been consistently over the national average since 2007. 10.4 percent of Inland residents were unemployed as of August 2013, compared to the national rate of 7.3 percent. Due to the high unemployment and housing foreclosure rates, a higher percentage of Inland residents rely on public assistance. According to the Press-Enterprise, "twelve percent of Riverside County and 17 percent of San Bernardino County residents used food stamps in January 2012," as compared to "11 percent of those living in Los Angeles County, 8 percent of San Diego County residents and 7 percent of Orange County residents."[37]

Since the 1950s, the area has changed from a rural to a suburban environment. The region now comprises numerous cities known as bedroom communities that are suburban cities to Los Angeles. Affordable home ownership is the primary motivation behind the growth in these Inland Empire cities as homes in the region are generally less expensive than comparable homes in Los Angeles and Orange counties. The steady rise in population and the demand for housing has led to a dramatic increase in the building of single-family homes on parcels of 0.25 acres (1,000Â m2) or more, as opposed to the construction of high-density development such as multi-story apartment or condominium buildings. This low-density development has caused sprawl in the Inland Empire; a commute between Beaumont and Ontario is approximately 43 miles. Much of the vacant land is being developed. Land that was used for agriculture is now being sold by owners for conversion to shopping centers, industrial warehouses, etc. Due to the lack of the Inland Empire having just one central city, and the smaller geographical footprint that suburban cities tend to have, this continuous development has become seemingly unplanned suburban sprawl as local interest and zoning laws may quickly change from one city to the next city.[38] The Inland Empire was declared the nation's worst example of sprawl according to a study by Smart Growth America in 2002.[39][40]

During the housing bubble collapse of the late 2000s, foreclosures rose by 3,500 percent.[41] In 2010, the area ranked fourth in the nation in the number of foreclosures, with one filing for every 133 households.[42] The problem of abandoned homes became so great that the city of Perris initiated a program to paint the brown lawns of abandoned homes green as a way to cut down on the appearance of blight.[43]

Retailing in the area has increased to try to keep abreast with the growing suburban population. The region is home to several large shopping malls, including the Promenade Shops at Dos Lagos and the Crossings in Corona, Ontario Mills in Ontario, Promenade Mall in Temecula, Galleria At Tyler in Riverside, Riverside Plaza, Canyon Crossings in Riverside, The Shoppes at Chino Hills in Chino Hills, Moreno Valley Mall in Moreno Valley, Victoria Gardens in Rancho Cucamonga and the Inland Center mall in San Bernardino. In fiscal year 2006, retail sales in San Bernardino County grew by 11.9 percent to $31.2 billion, while sales in Riverside County were up 11.3 percent to $29.6 billion.[44]

The result of this ongoing development has resulted in greater homeownership for the region. Although the region saw an uptick in jobs over the past decade, it is not a heavy employment center, and many residents commute to Los Angeles and Orange counties for their work. With a lack of substantial public transportation in the Greater Los Angeles Area, this has led to traffic congestion and degradation in air quality for the Inland Empire.[45] The solution to these problems is not simple. The presence of so many city governments within the Inland Empire, which often have different 'visions' for their own municipalities, means that two cities in the region rarely agree on a solution; just as common, they may have unequal means for implementing one even if they were to agree. Having no regional-wide governmental planning organization may undermine any solution that could be proposed. Lastly, the pace at which development occurs (fast) versus the ability of government to respond to changes (slow) means that it could easily take years, if not decades, for a viable solution (such as new roads, pollution controls, etc.) to go into effect.[46]

Air pollution, or suspended particulate matter locally generated from the increased number of automobiles in the area, from point sources such as factories, dust carried into the air by construction activity, and the contribution of similar pollutants from the Los Angeles area has regularly caused the Inland Empire to be at, or near, the bottom of many air quality ratings. In 2004, the EPA rated the San Bernardino-Riverside area as having the worst particulate air pollution in the United States,[47] (although the San Joaquin Valley in central California had the worst overall air pollution).[citation needed] Air pollution in the Los Angeles region is still an issue, although improvements have been made over the years. But the problem is exacerbated in the Inland Empire, which is surrounded by mountains on the north and the east. Prevailing winds move bad air eastward from Los Angeles, but once the pollution reaches the Inland Empire it cannot be carried further east as it becomes trapped by the mountains surrounding the region.

Water pollution has also been found in the Santa Ana River and Cajon wash, and pollutants from the March Air Reserve Base and Stringfellow Acid Pits have contaminated groundwater in parts of Riverside County.[16] In 1997, perchlorate, a chemical used to produce explosives, was discovered to be seeping into the groundwater under Rialto in a plume that continues to grow. In 2007, the Rialto City council petitioned the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for Superfund status to clean up the origin site. The sites comprising March Air Reserve Base, Norton Air Force Base and the Stringfellow Acid Pits have already been classified as EPA Superfund toxic waste sites.[48]

Traffic congestion problems on the roadways, as with elsewhere in Southern California, is the result of the demand for driving exceeding the available capacity, especially on area freeways.[citation needed] Many of the existing freeways were completed in the late 1970s, with the exception of the segment of the Foothill Freeway, State Route 210 (SR 210) between San Dimas and San Bernardino completed in July 2007. New freeways or highways "fix-ups" are being planned, such as the expansion of the length of the 215 freeway around Inland Center Mall. However, other problems exist, one being the jobs vs. housing imbalance. The Inland Empire population grew as a result of affordable housing, at least relative to the rest of Southern California. But most of the higher paying jobs are located in Los Angeles, San Diego and Orange counties. Thus, many workers must drive daily from the Inland Empire to their jobs in these counties -sometimes up to two hours each direction, and even longer if by public transportation. As the population increases, the problem is most certainly going to get worse. Forbes magazine recently ranked the area first in its list of most unhealthy commutes in the United States, beating out every other metropolitan area in the country, as Inland area drivers breathe the unhealthiest air and have the highest rate of fatal auto accidents per capita.[49]

According to a 1999 report by the Surface Transportation Policy Project, the Inland Empire leads in fatal crashes caused by road rage.[50][51] The theft of copper, brass and other metals from highway and road fixtures has also led to decreased public safety on IE roads and freeways.[52] Gas siphoning has also been noted as a problem for vehicles left unattended in the region.[53]

Unlike many major metropolitan areas, the Inland Empire has minimal public transportation. When combined with the large physical size of the region, more people use automobiles for convenient travel. Less than five percent of the IE's 1,249,224 working-age residents use public transportation to get to work.[54]

Omnitrans is the largest bus agency in San Bernardino County, while the Riverside Transit Agency is the largest in Riverside County. Currently, some of Omnitrans' bus routes run 1â€“2 hours apart, and some routes stop service in the early evening or may not run on weekends. The metropolitan area's first rapid transit line, a new bus rapid transit system, launched in April 2014. The new line, dubbed San Bernardino Express (sbX), offers rapid transit service that functions just like light-rail with center running stations, designated sbX lanes and passengers purchasing tickets prior to boarding. Stations are approximately one mile apart with its northern terminus in Verdemont and southern terminus in Loma Linda's VA hospital, passing through downtown San Bernardino and the city's Hospitality Lane Business District.[55]

Metrolink is a commuter rail system serving Southern California; it consists of seven lines and 55 stations operating on 388.2 miles (624.7 km) of rail network. It travels up to 79 miles per hour (127 km/h) and up to 90 mph on sections of the Orange County line.

The Metrolink commuter rail system provides train daily service from San Bernardino to Downtown Los Angeles (Busiest route of the system)

91/Perris Valley Line From Perris to Los Angeles

Riverside Line providing weekday commuter service to Los Angeles.

Inland Empire-Orange County Line from San Bernardino to Oceanside in San Diego County

Several airports are located in the Inland Empire. Ontario International Airport and Palm Springs International Airport are commercial airports in their respective cities. A local joint powers agency is attempting to redevelop the decommissioned Norton Air Force Base into San Bernardino International Airport. The airport currently serves as a general aviation airport. Over 20 years after decommissioning, discount airline Volaris announced in April 2017 that it would begin commercial service at San Bernardino in June 2017.[56] There are also several general aviation airports in the region.

The region is making some progress in developing dedicated bicycle commuter and recreation trails. The largest of these, the Santa Ana River bicycle path, currently connects Corona to Huntington Beach, and is eventually projected to stretch for 84 miles all the way to Redlands when completed in 20 years.[57] A shorter trail exists along the former path of the Pacific Electric Railway from Claremont to Fontana.[58]

The population of the Greater Los Angeles area (which includes the Inland Empire) is about 18 million people according to the 2010 United States Census, and is the second largest metropolitan region in the country. The Metropolitan Statistical Area population of the Inland Empire (Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA Metropolitan Statistical Area) onto itself is over 4.2 million people and is the 13th largest metropolitan area in the United States. According to the 2000 U.S. Census, it is the fastest growing area in the state. Between 1990 and 2000, Riverside and San Bernardino counties added 700,000 to their population totals, an increase of 26 percent.[54] Between 2000 and 2010 Inland Empire's population expanded by 970,000 or 30 percent. According to census bureau's 2005â€“2007 estimates 61.8 percent of the population was White (40.4 percent White Non-Hispanic), 7.5 percent Black, 5.7 percent Asian and 25.0 percent of other or mixed race. 43.9 percent were Hispanic of any race. 21.9 percent of the population was foreign born.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that in 2006, 33.1 percent of people in the Greater San Bernardino Area were overweight, and 30.8 percent were obese. Forbes magazine ranks the area as the fourth fattest in the country.

A substantial majority of residents (76.6 percent), last comparatively surveyed in 2001, rated their respective counties as good places to live. Over 81 percent of Riverside County residents indicated that their county is a very good or fairly good place to live, while about 72 percent of residents in San Bernardino County felt the same way. Survey respondents cited "nice living area," "good climate," and "affordable housing" as the top positive factors in assessing their respective communities. Smog was by far the most important negative factor affecting respondentsâ€™ ratings in both counties, while traffic was the second highest concern in Riverside County and crime the second highest concern among San Bernardino County residents.[59]

Since the 1970s and onwards, large numbers of African-American, Latino and some Asian-American residents from the Los Angeles-Orange County and San Diego metro areas moved to the Inland Empire region. Large Black communities can be found around San Bernardino (Fontana and Rialto) and Riverside (Moreno Valley and Perris), where Blacks and Latinos became majorities in and around those cities. This is also true in the Mojave Desert and Coachella Valley portions.[citation needed]

While the region as a whole had traditionally leaned more Republican than the rest of California, newer[when?] residents are less likely to identify with the Republican party than longer-term residents (36 percent to 42 percent), and the total number of residents identifying with the Democrats (34 percent) slightly edged over the number identifying with the Republican party (33 percent). In the 2008 presidential election, Democratic candidate Barack Obama carried both Riverside and San Bernardino counties, becoming only the second Democrat to carry both counties since Lyndon Johnson in 1964. In 2012, Obama repeated this feat and again carried both counties, and in 2016, Hillary Clinton did the same.

Non-Hispanic Whites and non-Hispanic Blacks have the highest participation rates for nearly every type of political activity, while Latinos and Asian Americans lag significantly behind those groups in terms of volunteerism and organizational membership. However, the 2006 immigration protests have significantly boosted political participation among Latinos.[60]

78 percent of Inland residents view themselves as Christians. 39 percent identify as Roman Catholic, 14 percent as Protestant, and 25 percent as some other type of Christian. (36 percent of total Inland Christians view themselves as "born again".) 1 percent of the population are Jewish, 6 percent belong to some other religion, and 14 percent profess no religion. 27 percent of Inland residents attend some form of religious service once a week, 14 percent attend more than once a week, 15 percent once a month, and 14 percent only attend services on major religious holidays.[60][61]

Many faiths and denominations are found and represented in the area. The Roman Catholic parishes in the region belong to the church's Diocese of San Bernardino.[62]

Mormons and Seventh-day Adventists have communities in the towns of Loma Linda and Redlands near San Bernardino. Mormons also have congregations in the High Desert region.[citation needed] Seventh-day Adventists operate Loma Linda University.[63]

The Inland Empire has a Jewish community, and additionally a Jewish American community is in and around Sun City which was later incorporated as the City of Menifee. According to the United Jewish Citizens of the Desert, the Coachella Valley has an estimated 20,000 American Jews, one of California's largest Jewish communities, as a result of being a major retirement destination.[64]

While the crime index in Riverside and Ontario tends slightly over the state average, San Bernardino has a crime index consistently near or over twice that of the national average.[65][66][67][68] Reflecting nationwide trends, violent crime in the region overall declined or remained consistent in 2009, despite the recession. In the city of Riverside, 10 homicides occurred in 2005, down from 24 in 2003, its highest total since 2003. All but three cases resulted in arrests. In San Bernardino, by contrast, 58 killings occurred in 2005, but only a third of cases in San Bernardino led to arrests, due to a lack of witness cooperation in that city.[69]

Latino gangs have been active in the region since the area's citrus days while a continual migration of numerous African American gangs from the inner city of South LA have flowed into the region since the Watts Riots and 1992 Los Angeles Riots.[7][70] The increased diversity in the region between 1990 and 2000 is also associated with a 20 percent increase in hate crime in the same period, mostly ascribed to increased gang activity.[71][72] According to data from the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program, taken together, Riverside and San Bernardino counties showed a total of 51,237 crimes reported to county police/sheriffs (but not to city or other agencies) in 2006; this combined total exceeded the totals for all other California counties – considered individually – except for Sacramento.[73]

The region has also been noted as a center of methamphetamine drug production.[74] The Riverside and San Bernardino county sheriffs' departments busted 635 meth labs in 2000; law enforcement has driven most of the meth production industry to Mexico since 2007, but many of the homes discovered to have been used as meth labs before 2006 have since been sold on the market before California law required rigorous decontamination, leading to a legacy of health hazards for unsuspecting renters and home-buyers in the area.[75]

In 2016 federal crime statistics stated that San Bernardino was ranked the most dangerous city in California.[76]

There is a trend of lower educational attainment in the IE, which starts early. Only 37 percent of 3- and 4-year-olds in the region are enrolled in pre-school, with only one school in the region for every 343 children, as compared to 48 percent enrollment in San Diego County. Thirty-five percent of the IE's ninth graders do not graduate from high school, and only 37 percent of its college age residents enroll in a post-secondary education program of some sort. Only 24 percent of the IE's adult residents have attained a college degree or better. Twenty-five percent do not possess a high school diploma.[54] According to past CSUSB President Al Karnig, "We have a very low college attendance rate that is scantly above half of what the average is in other states. We have only have about 20 percent college graduates in the Inland Empire while the average in other states is 38 percent."[77][78] 21 inland area high schools rank in the top 100 in California for producing dropouts.[79]

Of Inland Empire residents 25 years and over in 2004, 44.4 percent of Asians had bachelor's or higher degrees, and nearly 70 percent had at least attended college. 21.3 percent of Blacks had a bachelor's degree or higher, and 65.2 percent had either a community degree or had attended college. 22.8 percent of Whites had a bachelor's degree or higher, and 60.8 percent had attended college. Of Hispanics, 6.9 percent had a bachelor's or higher degree, and 30.2 percent attended college.[80]

Among students transferring from Inland community colleges to private schools in 2004â€“05, the most frequent choice was the University of Phoenix.[81]

While the Inland Empire led the state in job-growth with 275,000 new jobs between 1990 and 2000, most are in comparatively low-tech fields. San Bernardino and Riverside counties are primarily host to service and manufacturing- or warehousing-oriented industries. Food and administrative services employ the most people in the Inland Empire, while for the state of California, the top industries are in administrative services and professional, scientific and hi-tech-oriented fields. 79.8% of the IE's job growth from 1990 to 2003 was in service-sector jobs.[82] Low-wage industries are abundant in the IE, and the area's high-tech and professional industries pay less than in other regions of California. As many as one-third of working adults commute out of the 27,000-square-mile (70,000Â km2) region to find work, the highest proportion of any area in the country. Adding to gridlock, fewer than 5% of the IE's 1,249,224 working-age residents use public transportation to get to work each day. 14.5% carpool, while 79.7% typically drive alone to work in their cars.[54]

In 2007, the region had an unemployment rate of 6.1%, while overall jobless claims in California were at 5.4% and 4.4% nationally.[83] In 2008, unemployment in the area increased to 9.5%, at a time when the state average was 8.2% and the national average approximately 6.5%.[84] Unemployment reached an all-time high of 15% in 2010, second in the nation only to Detroit among metropolitan areas with populations over 1 million.[85]

The Inland Empire sits adjacent to the San Bernardino Mountains. The mountains are popular for hiking or just having a relaxing drive.[citation needed] Lake Arrowhead and Big Bear are just some of the lakes located in the mountains. Lake Arrowhead becomes very popular in the summertime, while Big Bear becomes popular in the winter for skiing and snowboarding activities. Various locations in the Inland Empire provide venues for cultural performances and entertainment.[86] The Victoria Gardens Cultural Center, which is owned and operated by the City of Rancho Cucamonga, opened in the Fall of 2006 providing theatre, concerts and family entertainment to the region. The San Manuel Amphitheater in San Bernardino's Devore neighborhood is the nation's largest outdoor amphitheater.[citation needed] San Bernardino's "Route 66 Rendezvous (the largest classical carshow in the US)," an annual street fair and classic car show, draws a half-million people from around the world.[87] The Palm Springs Aerial Tramway in Palm Springs is a popular attraction, rising to more than 8500 feet.

Established bands from the IE include Alien Ant Farm, The Bellrays, and the Voodoo Glow Skulls, from Riverside, and Cracker from Redlands, and The Mountain Goats From Chino. House music artist DJ Lynnwood got his start at the age of ten spinning records at KUOR-FM in Redlands. Local hip-hop artists such as Miah Lanski, Suga Free, Saint Dog, 40 Glocc, Young Noble from the Outlawz, J.J. Fad, Raje, Noa James, Xydewayz8, The Faze, and A Lighter Shade of Brown have brought about attention to the growing Hip hop community in and around the region. A number of artists associated with the Palm Desert Scene have forged a new genre, "Desert rock". A Danish record label, Musikministeriet, recently opened up an office in Redlands in hopes of further cultivating the IE music scene.[88]

Frank Zappa performed in Upland on Foothill Boulevard during the early 1960s where he played shows on a makeshift stage for college crowds. Zappa also purchased Pal Recording Studio on Archibald Avenue in Rancho Cucamonga where the Surfaris had recorded the surf music classic "Wipe Out." He dubbed it Studio Z and began making recordings which eventually led to the founding of Zappa's group, The Mothers of Invention. Up until his death in December 2012, singer Ray Collins of the Mothers of Invention lived in the area. Zappa mentions the Inland Empire in the song "Billy the Mountain."

From the late 80s until the late 90s, many up-and-coming musical acts, such as Rage Against the Machine, Blink-182 and No Doubt cut their teeth playing venues in Riverside.[89] However, these historic venues (Spanky's Cafe, and the De Anza Theatre) have since been closed and converted to other purposes. The Barn at UCR was closed as a music venue for 10 years but beginning in October 2008 KUCR Radio 88.3 FM, ASPB The Associated Student Program Board with funding from UCR Housing began having a free concert series once a week during the school quarter. Emerging music venues in the IE include the Showcase Theatre in Corona (recently closed), Red Planet Records in Riverside, the Vault in Redlands, the Buffalo Inn and The Wire in Upland, the Twins Club in Rancho Cucamonga, the Press Restaurant in Claremont, the Glass House in Pomona, Back To The Grind Coffee Shop in Riverside, Liam's Irish Pub in Colton, and CommonGround Soundstage in Riverside.[90]

Orchestras in the IE include the Redlands Symphony, which performs at the University of Redlands, the Riverside County Philharmonic, which performs at the Riverside Municipal Auditorium, the San Bernardino Symphony, which performs at the California Theatre, and the Victor Valley Symphony, which performs at Victor Valley College. Theatrical Arts International is housed at the California Theatre as well. With the largest subscriber base in the Inland Empire, Theatrical Arts International presents the largest caliber tours available including such blockbusters as Cats, Hairspray, Mamma Mia, and Miss Saigon. There are many other large theater programs in the community. The Riverside Fox Theater, also known as the Fox Performing Arts Center, was built in 1929, and is a Spanish Colonial Revival style building in the heart of downtown Riverside, California. The theater is the centerpiece of Riverside's Arts & Culture initiative and underwent a major renovation and restoration to become a regional performing arts facility. Renovation was completed in the Fall 2009, with a grand-reopening in January 2010. At Chaffey High School in Ontario, they have a very large theater program that puts on shows in the fall and in the spring on one of the largest High School stages in the Inland Empire. The Inland Empire Harmony Carousel Chorus provides music in Barbershop Quartet productions.[91]

The Inland Empire is home to numerous minor league baseball, basketball, and ice hockey teams. The Inland Empire team with the most championships is the Inland Empire 66ers of San Bernardino, who won their most recent championship in 2013.[92][93]

The Auto Club Speedway, located in Fontana, opened in 1997. It contains an oval, a road course, and a dragstrip for auto racing. The Speedway is located approximately 2 miles (3.2 km) from the former Ontario Motor Speedway site. The Riverside International Raceway, another defunct motorsport venue, was located about 7 miles (11 km) east of Riverside.

The Inland Empire is served by four major local newspapers:

There is also an Inland Empire edition of the Los Angeles Times. For the segments of the Inland Empire surrounding San Bernardino and Riverside cities, regional newspapers include:

The Inland Empire is ranked 26th (June 2008) in the national radio market as a stand-alone market. When combined with the Greater Los Angeles Area, it is part of the second largest radio market.[94]

Due to the various mountain ranges including San Bernardino, San Gabriel, and Idyllwild, it may be difficult to receive a single station throughout the entire Inland Empire area without interference.

While the Inland Empire has television channels licensed to their cities, only PBS member station KVCR-TV broadcasts directly to the Inland Empire. The other channels broadcast to the greater Southern California market. The Inland Empire's source for most of its television is Los Angeles. The southern section of the Inland Empire may have San Diego television as their main source. In some areas just east of Yucaipa, primary television coverage is from the Palm Springs market.

While there are no large film production companies or studios based in the Inland Empire, on-location shoots accounted for a total economic impact of $65.2 million in the two-county region in 2006.[95] From 1994 to 2005, filming accounted for over a billion dollars ($1,228,977,456) in total revenues spent in the area. Some famous films shot in the Inland Empire include Executive Decision, U Turn, Erin Brockovich, and The Fast and the Furious.[96]

While the David Lynch film Inland Empire is named after the region, no scenes were actually shot in the Inland Empire.[2]

Internet media and blogs are quickly gaining traction in the Inland Empire as newspaper readership has been falling. Some entertainment blogs include Things To Do Inland Empire,[97] DiscoverIE.com,[98] JooseBoxx.com,[99] InlandDaily.com,[100] and InlandEmpire.com.[101] Politics has also received coverage on the web, with iepolitics.com providing an outlet for political bloggers.[102]

Ann Lerner, Albuquerque's film liaison, told the L.A. Times about the AMC cable TV series Breaking Bad producers wanted to film the series in California's Inland Empire but switched to New Mexico because of New Mexico's tax incentives.[103]


how to get a diplomatic passport in kenya

Application for all passport services is done online.[3] For a new applicant, the process starts with creation of an account on the online portal. An applicant cannot use someone else's account because the account creation details are the official first name and national ID number. Additionally, an applicant must print the online application, and copies of the payment invoice, then present these and other documents in person.[4] Issuance of new passports usually takes place at least 10 working days after the application is received.[5] In order to apply for a passport, one would need:

Kenyan passport

The Kenyan passport is issued by the Department of Immigration to citizens of Kenya for international travel. The department is under the Ministry of Interior and Coordination of National Government.[1]

There are three types of passports:

Kenyan passports have the Kenyan coat of arms emblazoned in gold in the centre of the front cover. "REPUBLIC OF KENYA" is inscribed in gold text above the coat of arms, while "PASSPORT" is inscribed in gold text below it. The back cover is left blank.

The passport note occupies the first page of the passport, and the particulars page occupies the last. The identity information page is printed on the inside of the passport's back cover, while the person's particulars and signature are on the next-to-last page. The pages of Kenyan passports are watermarked with the Kenyan coat of arms. The pages feature designs with the 'big five game' animals commonly found in Kenyan national parks and reserves: the lion, elephant, leopard, rhino and buffalo.

The inside front cover of the passport reads first in Swahili:

Hati hii ni ya kuwaomba na kuwasihi kwa jina la Rais wa Jamhuri ya Kenya, wote wanaohusika, kwa kusudi wamruhusu mwenye hati hii kuendelea bila shida ama kizuizi, tena kumsaidia na kumhifadhi kwa kadiri anavyohitaji.

And in English:

These are to request and require in the Name of the President of Kenya all those whom it may concern to allow the bearer to pass freely without let or hindrance, and to afford him or her every assistance and protection of which he or she may stand in need.

As of 1 January 2017, Kenyan citizens had visa-free or visa on arrival access to 69 countries and territories, ranking the Kenyan passport 68th in terms of travel freedom (tied with Georgian and Omani passports) according to the Henley visa restrictions index.[6]


who wrote the song by michael jackson entitled thriller

After being recruited by producer Quincy Jones, he wrote several internationally known songs performed by Michael Jackson, including "Thriller", "Off the Wall" and "Rock with You". He also wrote George Benson's hits "Give Me the Night" and "Love X Love", and Patti Austin and James Ingram's US number one duet "Baby, Come to Me", among many others.

Rod Temperton

Rodney Lynn "Rod" Temperton (9 October 1949 â€“ September/October 2016) was an English songwriter, record producer and musician. He initially made his mark as the keyboardist and main songwriter for the 1970s R&B, funk and disco band Heatwave, whose hit songs included "Boogie Nights" and "Always and Forever".

Temperton wrote the soundtrack for Running Scared (1986 film).

Temperton won a Grammy Award in 1991 for his work on "Birdland", from Quincy Jones's album Back on the Block.[1]

Temperton was born in Cleethorpes, Lincolnshire, on 9 October 1949.[2] Interviewed for the BBC Radio 2 documentary "The Invisible Man: the Rod Temperton Story", Temperton said that he was a musician from an early age: "My father wasn't the kind of person who'd read you a story before you went off to sleep – he used to put a transistor radio in the crib, right on the pillow, and I'd go to sleep listening to Radio Luxembourg and I think that had an influence".[3] Temperton attended De Aston Grammar School, Market Rasen[4] and he formed a group for the school's music competitions. He was a drummer at this time. "I'd get in the living room with my snare drum and my cymbal and play along to the BBC test card, which was all kinds of music they'd be playing continuously."[5] On leaving school he started working for Ross Frozen Foods in Grimsby, Lincolnshire.[2]

He soon became a full-time musician as a keyboard player, and played in several dance bands. This took him to Worms in Germany. In 1974 he answered an advert in Melody Maker placed by Johnnie Wilder Jr. and as a result became a member of the funk and disco band, Heatwave, which Wilder was putting together at the time. "He was the first British guy that I had ever met personally. He spoke kind of funny but he had a good sense of humour and he was a very friendly guy. After meeting him and then seeing him play I kind of determined he was a good enough player and entertainer and I just knew he would fit in the group", said Wilder.[3] Temperton played Wilder tunes he had been composing: "I was very interested because we were doing a lot of cover tunes – we weren't doing a lot of original material – I was really interested."  The songs provided material for 1976's Too Hot to Handle  including "Boogie Nights", which broke the band in Britain and the United States, and the ballad, "Always and Forever" – both tracks were million-sellers in the US.[6][7]

Despite the slick American sound, Temperton's working surroundings were still far from glamorous. Alan Kirk, a Yorkshire musician with Jimmy James and the Vagabonds who toured with Heatwave in the mid 1970s remembered: "The Always and Forever track was written on a Wurlitzer piano at the side of a pile of pungent washing – sorry to disappoint all the romantics." And producer Barry Blue recalled: "He had a very small flat, so everything had to be done within one room and he had piles of washing, and had the T.V. on top of the organ. It was a nightmare (...) he had trams running outside (...) but he made it, he just absorbed himself in the music and Rod seemed to come up with these amazing songs".[3] In 1977 Heatwave followed up the success of their first album with their second, Central Heating, Barry Blue again producing, and Temperton behind the majority of the songs. It included "The Groove Line", another international hit single. In 1978 Temperton decided to concentrate on writing and left Heatwave, though he continued to write for the band.[8]

Temperton's work attracted the attention of Quincy Jones, and he asked his engineer Bruce Swedien to check out the Heatwave album. "Holy cow! I simply loved Rod's musical feeling – everything about it – Rod's arrangements, his tunes, his songs – was exceedingly hip," recalled Swedien, also calling Temperton: "the most disciplined pop music composer I've ever met. When he comes to the studio, every musical detail is written down or accounted for in Rod's mind. He never stops until he feels confident that the music we're working on is able to stand on its own".[9]  In 1979, Temperton was recruited by Quincy Jones to write for what became Michael Jackson's first solo album in four years, and his first full-fledged solo release for Epic Records, entitled Off the Wall. Temperton wrote three songs for the album, including "Rock with You" which became the second US No. 1 single from the album.[2]

In the early 1980s Temperton left Germany and moved to Beverly Hills, California.[10] In 1982 Temperton wrote three songs, including the title track, for Jackson's next LP, Thriller, which became the biggest-selling album of all time. Temperton also wrote the spoken word section of the song for the actor Vincent Price.[11]  On coming up with the title Thriller, Temperton once said:

I went back to the hotel, wrote two or three hundred titles and came up with Midnight Man. The next morning I woke up and I just said this word. Something in my head just said, 'This is the title'. You could visualise it at the top of the Billboard charts. You could see the merchandising for this one word, how it jumped off the page as 'Thriller'.[12]

Temperton wrote successfully for other musicians, his hits including "Stomp!" for The Brothers Johnson, George Benson's "Give Me the Night", "Baby, Come to Me" for Patti Austin and James Ingram, "Love Is in Control (Finger on the Trigger)" for Donna Summer, and "Yah Mo B There" for Ingram and Michael McDonald.  He also wrote for Herbie Hancock, The Manhattan Transfer, Mica Paris, and many others.[11]

In 1986 Temperton was nominated for the Best Original Song Oscar for "Miss Celie's Blues (Sister)," which he wrote with Quincy Jones and Lionel Richie for The Color Purple (1985). (Richie won the award for "Say You, Say Me", from White Nights.) He was also nominated for Best Original Score along with the 11 other composers, including Jones, who worked on The Color Purple's score.

Later in 1986 the buddy-cop action-comedy Running Scared was released, featuring five new songs written by Temperton, including "Sweet Freedom", performed by Michael McDonald, and "Man Size Love", performed by Klymaxx.[13] Temperton also composed the film's score.

On 5 October 2016, Temperton's death was announced after what was described by his music publisher as "a brief aggressive battle with cancer". Temperton had died at the age of 66 in London the previous week and his funeral had already taken place.  The exact date of his death was not announced.[14]

Temperton is survived by his wife Kathy. They had homes in Los Angeles, the south of France, Fiji, Switzerland and Kent in south east England.[11][15]


what is red hot chili peppers snow about

Vocalist Anthony Kiedis states that the track is "about surviving, starting fresh. I've made a mess of everything, but I have a blank slate—a canvas of snow—and I get to start over."[1]

Snow (Hey Oh)

"Snow ((Hey Oh))" is a song by American band Red Hot Chili Peppers from their 2006 double album, Stadium Arcadium. The song was released as the follow-up single to "Tell Me Baby" on November 20, 2006 and became the band's third straight number one hit on the Billboard Modern Rock chart, a spot it held for five straight weeks. The single was their 11th to top that chart, giving the band the all-time record for any artist on that chart, a record they still hold to date and extended in 2016 to 13.

On June 28, 2012, at the band's concert at Goffertpark in Nijmegen, Netherlands during the I'm with You Tour, the band performed the song for the first time since the end of the Stadium Arcadium Tour nearly five years earlier.

"Snow ((Hey Oh))" is a characteristically soft, melodic song, much like those from the band's prior album By the Way. The song is driven by a rapid guitar riff by John Frusciante, and makes use of double stops on the bass by Flea. The song is written in the key of B major.

Frusciante.net revealed that this was going to be the third of seven songs released as a single from Stadium Arcadium. Before even being released as a single, it climbed to #53 in the UK iTunes top 100 on May 13. Like its predecessor "Tell Me Baby", it peaked at #16 in the UK Singles Chart.

On January 17, 2007, "Snow (Hey Oh)" became the band's record-breaking 11th number-one Modern Rock single in the United States and is the third consecutive chart-topping Modern Rock single from Stadium Arcadium.

In Germany, it was the band's most successful song, reaching #5, making it the band's only Top-10-song there.[2]

In 2008 "Snow (Hey Oh)" was used as one of the official themes of WWE WrestleMania XXIV. It was also used in Scrubs in the two-part episode "My Finale" and during the end credits in Death Note: The Last Name.

The song can heard in a flashback scene in the Cold Case episode "Sabotage"

In an interview, Tony Kaye, who also directed the video for "Dani California", told MTV he would be directing the video for the song. However, his footage wasn't used. Instead, Warner commissioned director Nick Wickham to shoot a new video showing the band at October 17 and show of 18 October 2006s at the Continental Airlines Arena in East Rutherford, New Jersey, along with black and white film of fans at the parking lot and lines at the live show.

"Snow ((Hey Oh))" has been the second most performed song from Stadium Arcadium and has been performed over 250 times since 2006. As of 2017, the song is still featured regularly in the band's setlists.

Maxi single 9362 42983-2

International CD single 5439 15624-2

7" picture disc 5439 15623-7

iTunes version single

Red Hot Chili Peppers

^shipments figures based on certification alone
sales+streaming figures based on certification alone