Mail Routes and the Costs of Expansion, 1866–83

Paper Trails ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 75-93
Author(s):  
Cameron Blevins
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Western United States ◽  
Post Office ◽  
Public Infrastructure ◽  
The West ◽  
Agency Model ◽  
Administrative Capacity ◽  
The Us

Chapter 4 examines the transportation of mail in the western United States. During the 1860s and 1870s the Post Office Department contracted with private stagecoach companies to carry the mail on its behalf, allowing it to extend mail routes across the region without establishing its own costly public infrastructure. Government mail contracts effectively subsidized the western stagecoach industry and facilitated the region’s breakneck growth during these decades. But staging companies began to lobby, collude, and bribe their way into exorbitant contracts worth millions of dollars, and by the end of the 1870s the situation had devolved into a full-fledged institutional crisis. This chapter is a story about mismanagement, fraud, and corruption, but it also speaks to the federal government’s lack of centralized administrative capacity. The decentralized agency model may have allowed the US Post to rapidly spread across the West, but this frenetic regional expansion project came with considerable costs.

scholarly journals A Climatology of 500-hPa Closed Lows in the Northeastern Pacific Ocean, 1948–2011

2014 ◽  
Vol 53 (6) ◽  
pp. 1578-1592 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nina S. Oakley ◽  
Kelly T. Redmond
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Pacific Ocean ◽  
Interannual Variability ◽  
West Coast ◽  
The United States ◽  
Western United States ◽  
The West ◽  
Reanalysis Dataset ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Northeastern Pacific

AbstractThe northeastern Pacific Ocean is a preferential location for the formation of closed low pressure systems. These slow-moving, quasi-barotropic systems influence vertical stability and sustain a moist environment, giving them the potential to produce or affect sustained precipitation episodes along the west coast of the United States. They can remain motionless or change direction and speed more than once and thus often pose difficult forecast challenges. This study creates an objective climatological description of 500-hPa closed lows to assess their impacts on precipitation in the western United States and to explore interannual variability and preferred tracks. Geopotential height at 500 hPa from the NCEP–NCAR global reanalysis dataset was used at 6-h and 2.5° × 2.5° resolution for the period 1948–2011. Closed lows displayed seasonality and preferential durations. Time series for seasonal and annual event counts were found to exhibit strong interannual variability. Composites of the tracks of landfalling closed lows revealed preferential tracks as the features move inland over the western United States. Correlations of seasonal event totals for closed lows with ENSO indices, the Pacific decadal oscillation (PDO), and the Pacific–North American (PNA) pattern suggested an above-average number of events during the warm phase of ENSO and positive PDO and PNA phases. Precipitation at 30 U.S. Cooperative Observer stations was attributed to closed-low events, suggesting 20%–60% of annual precipitation along the West Coast may be associated with closed lows.

How the West Was Won: Woman Suffrage in the Western United States, 1868-1914

2005 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
pp. 131
Author(s):  
Melanie Gustafson ◽  
Rebecca J. Mead
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Woman Suffrage ◽  
Western United States ◽  
The West

A comparison of earthquake damage areas as a function of magnitude across the United States

1993 ◽  
Vol 83 (4) ◽  
pp. 1064-1080 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. A. Bollinger ◽  
M. C. Chapman ◽  
M. S. Sibol
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
North America ◽  
Ground Motion ◽  
Epicentral Distance ◽  
The United States ◽  
Western United States ◽  
Eastern North America ◽  
Similar Response ◽  
Eastern United States ◽  
The West

Abstract This study investigates the relationship between earthquake magnitude and the size of damage areas in the eastern and western United States. To quantify damage area as a function of moment magnitude (M), 149 MMI VI and VII areas for 109 earthquakes (88 in the western United States, 21 in the eastern United States and Canada) were measured. Regression of isoseismal areas versus M indicated that areas in the East were larger than those in the West, at both intensity levels, by an average 5 × in the M 4.5 to 7.5 range. In terms of radii for circles of equivalent area, these results indicate that damaging ground motion from shocks of the same magnitude extend 2 × the epicentral distance in eastern North America compared to the West. To determine source and site parameters consistent with the above results, response spectral levels for eastern North America were stochastically simulated and compared with response spectral ordinates derived from recorded strong ground motion data in the western United States. Stress-drop values of 200 bars, combined with a surficial 2-km-thick low velocity “sedimentary” layer over rock basement, produced results that are compatible with the intensity observations, i.e., similar response spectral levels in the east at approximately twice their epicentral distance in the western U.S. distance. These results suggest that ground motion modeling in eastern North America may need to incorporate source and site parameters different from those presently in general use. The results are also of importance to eastern U.S. hazard assessments as they require allowance for the larger damage areas in preparedness and mitigation programs.

Geography and State Power

Paper Trails ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 16-35
Author(s):  
Cameron Blevins
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
19Th Century ◽  
State Power ◽  
Western United States ◽  
Coercive Power ◽  
The Us ◽  
Part Time ◽  
Settler Colonization ◽  
The 19Th Century

Chapter 1 situates the US Post within the larger landscape of the 19th-century American state. Analyzing the geography of the US Post challenges traditional assumptions about how states are organized and the ways in which they exercise power. First, rather than functioning as a centralized bureaucracy, the US Post operated through the agency model: a decentralized organization in which small tasks are delegated to a scattered workforce of part-time local agents. Second, rather than exercising coercive power, the US Post operated through structural power, or the ability to shape the conditions under which people make decisions. Rather than weaknesses, these features were key to how the US Post was able to rapidly expand over recently conquered territory and, in doing so, tie together the machinery of governance and settler colonization in the western United States.

Postal Maps, 1860–83

Paper Trails ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 53-74
Author(s):  
Cameron Blevins
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Federal Government ◽  
American West ◽  
Spatial Information ◽  
Western United States ◽  
Washington Dc ◽  
Government Officials ◽  
Short Supply ◽  
The Us ◽  
Postal Network

During the 1860s and 1870s the US Post underwent a period of breakneck, unstable expansion in the western United States. Chapter 3 details the efforts of postal administrators to track all of these changes through a new mapmaking initiative under a cartographer named Walter Nicholson. The Topographer’s Office offers a window into the efforts of government officials in Washington, DC, to administer the nation’s western periphery. Nicholson’s postal maps were highly sought after across the federal government, offering valuable spatial information about the region that was often in short supply. Yet the struggles of Nicholson and his employees to keep pace with the never-ending flurry of changes to the region’s postal network is a testament to the ongoing barriers to centralized oversight imposed by the geography of the American West.

scholarly journals Go West: surgical fellowships in the US

2008 ◽  
Vol 90 (8) ◽  
pp. 272-274
Author(s):  
Matt Freudmann ◽  
Lucy Wales
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Vascular Surgery ◽  
Surgical Training ◽  
The United States ◽  
University Of Minnesota ◽  
The West ◽  
Transplant Centre ◽  
Transplant Center ◽  
The Us ◽  
The University

As a final-year trainee in vascular surgery, I was working at the West London Renal and Transplant Centre for Professor Nadey Hakim and Vassilios Papalois. I am very grateful to both of them for encouraging me to apply for a visiting fellowship to the United States, enabling me to experience some of the benefits of surgical training abroad and to broaden my perspectives in transplantation. I was awarded a visiting fellowship to the University of Minnesota Transplant Center by Professor David Sutherland, head of the division of transplant surgery.

scholarly journals A multivariate spatial analysis of vowel formants in American English

2013 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-51 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jack Grieve ◽  
Dirk Speelman ◽  
Dirk Geeraerts
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Spatial Analysis ◽  
American English ◽  
Western United States ◽  
The West ◽  
Acoustic Data ◽  
Vowel Formant ◽  
Multivariate Spatial Analysis ◽  
Vowel Formants ◽  
Vowel Shift

This paper presents the results of a multivariate spatial analysis of thirty-eight vowel formant variables measured in 236 cities from across the contiguous United States, based on the acoustic data from the Atlas of North American English. The results of the analysis both confirm and challenge the results of the Atlas. Most notably, while the analysis identifies similar patterns as the Atlas in the West and the Southeast, the analysis finds that the Midwest and the Northeast are distinct dialect regions that are considerably stronger than the traditional Midland dialect region identified in the Atlas. The analysis also finds evidence that a vowel shift is actively shaping the language of the Western United States.

scholarly journals The contribution of marine organics to the air quality of the western United States

2010 ◽  
Vol 10 (15) ◽  
pp. 7415-7423 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. Gantt ◽  
N. Meskhidze ◽  
A. G. Carlton
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Air Quality ◽  
San Francisco ◽  
Atmospheric Chemistry ◽  
Environmental Protection Agency ◽  
Regional Scale ◽  
The United States ◽  
Coastal Areas ◽  
Western United States ◽  
The Us

Abstract. The contribution of marine organic emissions to the air quality in coastal areas of the western United States is studied using the latest version of the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regional-scale Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQv4.7) modeling system. Emissions of marine isoprene, monoterpenes, and primary organic matter (POM) from the ocean are implemented into the model to provide a comprehensive view of the connection between ocean biology and atmospheric chemistry and air pollution. Model simulations show that marine organics can increase the concentration of PM2.5 by 0.1–0.3 μg m−3 (up to 5%) in some coastal cities such as San Francisco, CA. This increase in the PM2.5 concentration is primarily attributed to the POM emissions, with small contributions from the marine isoprene and monoterpenes. When marine organic emissions are included, organic carbon (OC) concentrations over the remote ocean are increased by up to 50% (25% in coastal areas), values consistent with recent observational findings. This study is the first to quantify the air quality impacts from marine POM and monoterpenes for the United States, and it highlights the need for inclusion of marine organic emissions in air quality models.

Much could upset deal on Bosnian state government

2019 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
State Government ◽  
The United States ◽  
The West ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Balkans ◽  
The Us

Significance Under pressure from the US and EU ambassadors, Bosnia's leaders have reached agreement to form a state government. The breakthrough has provided a badly needed respite from political paralysis; it required difficult concessions from all sides. Impacts By emphasising each side's concessions, politically affiliated media could jeopardise a shaky settlement. The United States and EU are too preoccupied with mainly internal problems to re-engage in Bosnia or the Balkans more concretely. Tensions between Russia and the West are being reflected in Bosnian politics.

US pressure weakens Syria-based Khorasan Group

2015 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Terrorist Attacks ◽  
Islamic State ◽  
The West ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Us ◽  
Group A ◽  
Imminent Threat ◽  
State Group

Subject Assessment of the 'Khorasan Group' Significance The US-led coalition's airstrikes in Syria since 2014 have focused on the Islamic State group (ISG). However, they have also struck the 'Khorasan Group' -- a collection of veteran al-Qaida operatives that allegedly plots terrorist attacks abroad, and that operates on the edges of Syria's al-Qaida affiliate, Jabhat al-Nusra (JaN). Beginning in late 2014, Washington warned repeatedly that the Khorasan Group was plotting attacks in Europe and the United States, and that it was recruiting holders of Western passports who would be able to enter and transit Western countries more easily. Impacts Al-Qaida outside Syria will likely pursue terrorist attacks that punish the West for its policies in the Muslim world. ISG will also carry out terrorist attacks in an effort to assert its leadership over the global jihadist movement. Without an imminent threat from the Khorasan Group, the West will have difficulty making a case for targeting JaN. JaN will retain a base of Syrian opposition support so long as it does not invite international retaliation by supporting an attack abroad.

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