Born from opportunity and a promotional scheme hatched by founding father Charles B. Eddy, Carlsbad started life as a tent city on a desolate landscape. As the investment money started to flow, the Pecos River was harnessed through the creation of irrigation, which turned the region into a rich, fertile valley. As tuberculosis swept the nation, hundreds of new settlers arrived in Carlsbad for the arid climate. Legendary Locals of Carlsbad celebrates their descendants who forged the community of today. Learn about socialite Cesarine Graves, daredevil and "Mr. Welcome" Frank Kindel, actors Dan Blocker and Bruce Cabot, drag racer Dick Harrell, newscaster Linda Wertheimer, astronaut F. Drew Gaffney, and baseball star Cody Ross, to name but a few. Included also are the tales of the trials and heroism shown and faced by all the veterans of wars that Carlsbad provided, especially the World War II veterans of the Bataan Death March, the Vietnam War, and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

A collision of cultures in a seaside resort community, Carlsbad sits on a seven-mile stretch of white-sands beach idyllically located on the Pacific coast of north county San Diego. The idea of Carlsbad began in the late 1880s when two small groups of entrepreneurs ascended, simultaneously, from both the north and the south. The first group discovered natural mineral springs, which they promoted to tourists as having healing powers. As a result, the town became a very popular resting point for the rich and famous when traveling by train from Los Angeles to the famed Del Mar horse races. Subsequently, the Mexican Revolution began to the south and drove a second group of visionaries to Carlsbad. Thus, the quaint downtown area, known as the Village, was created along with a vibrant Barrio. Incorporated in 1952, Carlsbad remains, today, a tight-knit community of multigenerational and uniquely talented locals.

By the time Alamogordo's founders platted the town in the late 1800s, bestowing it with the Spanish name for Fat Cottonwood, the region's lush grasses were luring cowboys such as Oliver Lee. Then, in 1941, an event more than 3,000 miles away changed the quiet community. When the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, chamber president Mose Cauthen quickly spearheaded bringing the Army's mission to train bomber pilots to the Tularosa Basin. During the Space Race, Dr. John Stapp oversaw the programs at Holloman Air Force Base that sent Joe Kittinger, Dave Simons, and "Demi" McClure floating heavenward underneath balloons. Soon after, Ed Dittmer was training chimpanzees to rocket out of Earth's atmosphere and prove man could survive in that hostile environment. Alamogordo is where the Old West melds with ever-evolving technology, along with a rich artistic and literary legacy championed by such women as Linnie Townsend, Maude Rathgeber, and Margaret Flickinger.

Drawn by extravagant promises of "a beautiful village of 500 inhabitants, studded with orange trees and grapevines," the Hammond family arrived in Encinitas in 1883 only to find that advertisements had rather overstated the case. Undeterred, these 11 English settlers remained and, in doing so, doubled the town's population overnight. Subsequent pioneers brought wide-ranging talents to this fledgling California coastal town--none more so than the Ecke dynasty, whose flower fields established Encinitas as the poinsettia capital of the world. Today, the city encompasses five distinct communities, and while it boasts many famous celebrities, it is the ordinary folk whose passion and daring have made Encinitas the place their forebears long ago envisaged.

When Las Cruces was founded 164 years ago near a group of crosses marking the graves of travelers and soldiers, a rawhide rope separated acreage for a church, a cemetery, and family lots. That rawhide rope brought to Las Cruces a new era filled with the exhilaration of the Wild West and the people who molded "the City of the Crosses." Over the decades, the number of local men, women, and children who deserve recognition as heroes of history or champions of the present is infinite, including Dr. Nathan E. Boyd, entrepreneurial creator of the Boyd Sanitarium; Gov. Susana Martinez, the first female governor of New Mexico and the first female Hispanic governor in the United States; and Letticia Martinez, a legally blind swimmer who competed with the 2012 London Paralympics Swimming Team. Like thousands of others, theirs is a story of persistent hope, courage, and desire to make a difference.

Spanish settlers founded Albuquerque in 1706, making it the third of only four villas (towns) in colonial New Mexico. Located in the Rio Abajo along a wide turn on the Rio Grande, the settlement developed from a small farming community into New Mexico's largest, most modern city. Many notable men and women participated in this remarkable growth, lending their talents and sacrificing their time, energy, and sometimes their very lives. Dozens of these legendary figures are portrayed in this unique book, with chapters devoted to those who played important roles in politics and diplomacy; the military; law and order; religion and education; art and literature; culture and entertainment; business and tourism; health, science, technology, and space; and sports. A final chapter describes several of Albuquerque's sung and unsung heroes. The result is a collage of a Western city filled with diversity, tradition, and cultural pride.

Coppell has produced a wealth of personalities that could have leapt from the pages of a novel. The town's early days brought John and Sarah Stringfellow, who helped found the town's oldest church, and Josiah and John Record, a father-and-son duo who were victims of lynching. The coming of the Cottonbelt Railroad created the mystery of town namesake George Coppell. The town was home to farmers like domino-loving Buren Ledbetter and sharecropper W.A. Ottinger. It had its own "Floyd the Barber" (Floyd Harwell), as well as Jo Jackson, the librarian known to most as the "Bird Lady of Coppell." The town has produced a wealth of heroes like Carroll Kirkland, who was killed in World War II, and Jacob Schick, a decorated veteran of the Iraq War. It is also a town that has turned tragedy into triumph through stories like Todd and Tara Storch, who transformed the pain of their daughter Taylor's death into the life-giving charity Taylor's Gift. Together their stories tell the story of Coppell, a place that at its heart will always be a small town.

Rediscover the simple pleasures of a day trip with Day Trips from Orange County. This guide is packed with hundreds of exciting things for locals and vacationers to do, see, and discover all within a 2-hour drive. .

"You pimp! You trafficker! You should be skinned alive and burned at the stake! How could you possibly exploit another sexually for your own sick financial gain? They were prostituting minors! How could they be so sick? Prison, yes prison should be where we hide you forever for the destruction of human life that you caused. Stopping you means stopping the human sex trafficking epidemic! If we incarcerate you we can stop modern day slavery!"I heard these words as I watched a group of my mentees go through their case in federal court. With RICO conspiracy charges hanging over their heads, they were presented as gang members that trafficked girls for the benefit of the gang. I knew these allegations were false. I knew these young men personally. They were not pimps and definitely not "traffickers," a new word to me that I had never heard before until now. A word that I had to learn the meaning of fast. How did I know that they weren't "traffickers"? I quickly found out that for many years of my life I myself was a trafficker.I sat in the courtroom silent, not able to speak my first-hand knowledge of "the game." Regardless of whether I knew my mentees were innocent or not, these were charges they could never shake. I listened as law enforcement experts testified from their expertise. Ha! What did they know? These were people who had never spent a single day in the subculture of pimping and prostitution. They had no clue what that life was really like and if they did they were lying on purpose to continue the mass incarceration of young black and brown lives. Yeah, that had to be it.Entering the anti human sex trafficking movement as a former pimp and trafficker, I knew I would be alone. My past will not be taken well by many, but what other option do I have, stay quiet? Should I not educate people about domestic human sex trafficking and the pimping culture I was raised to believe was my only way of success? I can't stay quiet! I can't go off and live a normal life, glad to have survived the game. Out of 8 of my closest friends I am one of 4 still alive. The only way to help end this cycle of death and incarceration is to teach the truth from my perspective. All sides of this problem must be at the table because so far only a portion of the story is being told. This portion of the story still doesn't truly reflect the lived realities of the many women survivors that I know and love. Staying quiet is not an option for me - I'm willing to die to save future generations from this trap. This was no "game" we were playing. It was an illusion. An illusion that was pressed upon me and my entire peer group as we grew up in San Diego, California. Pimp City.To all who want to truly want to help fight human sex trafficking and sexual exploitation this book is needed in your arsenal.This is not a "how to" book on pimping. This is also not a book about human sex trafficking in general. This book presents a deeper understanding of the mind-frame and make-up of those involved in human sex trafficking. This book specifically deals with the pimping and prostitution subculture that has risen from impoverished communities across the United States, communities in cities like mine. This subculture can affect your family no matter what social or economic class you come from. Do you want to learn the truth so that we can really deal with the problem? Here's your opportunity.