What's going on in Vernon, California?

Thanks to my student John Donovan for pointing to this NPR story on Vernon, California.  Its moto is "exclusively industrial since 1905."  I think that's close to right (at least the exclusively industrial part): about 44,000 people work in Vernon, but it has a population of about 100.  Seems there are some mighty strange things going on there, including decades of uncontested elections and all sorts of efforts to keep challengers off the ballot.  It's worth a listen if you have four and a half minutes this weekend, if only because I think there are some unusal exam ideas in there.  I think you'll be hearing a lot more about this and related issues in the near future.  Here's a satellite photo of Vernon.  Looks mighty industrial to me.

Alfred Brophy
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