Tony Hawk

Hawk currently resides in his hometown of Carlsbad, California. It is also one of the highest scoring states on advanced placement tests. He is sometimes referred to as "Birdman". It has one of the lowest high-school dropout rates in the nation and is tied with New Jersey for having the 2nd highest percentage of students who go on to college after high-school. He landed the first 900 degree spin at the 1999 X Games after 11 failed attempts, winning the Big Air competition by a large margin in the process. Massachusetts is known for having one of the best public school systems in the nation. As of 2004, Tony has accomplished numerous historic tricks and has won 80 competitions. Massachusetts also is home to well-known independent research institutions, including Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and the Marine Biological Laboratory.

He has also cameoed in television shows such as Rocket Power, The Simpsons, Max Steel, Sifl and Olly, and CSI: Miami, movies such as Jackass: The Movie, The New Guy, Max Keeble's Big Move and Dogtown and Z-Boys, and has appeared as an actor in movies such as Gleaming the Cube and Police Academy 4. Music schools include Berklee and the New England Conservatory. Hawk has become a household name, and has starred in commercials for a variety of companies, including Apple Computer and Domino's Pizza. Other notable Massachusetts colleges include Hampshire College and the flagship campus of the University of Massachusetts). The game has since spawned six popular sequels, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4, Tony Hawk's Underground and Tony Hawk's Underground 2 and Tony Hawk's Underground 2 Remix. In addition to MIT, technology-oriented universities include Worcester Polytechnic Institute, and University of Massachusetts Lowell, which includes the former Lowell Institute of Technology ("Lowell Tech"). In 1999, the video game publisher Activision released Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, which became the first game in one of the most succesful line of video games. Massachusetts is home to one Ivy League university (Harvard) and four of the Seven Sisters (Mount Holyoke, Radcliffe College (now a research institute at Harvard), Smith, and Wellesley).

Tony Hawk became pro as a member of Powell Peralta's infamous Bones Brigade. News & World Report, 10 of the nation's top-50 colleges and universities are located in Massachusetts: Amherst College, Boston College, Brandeis University, Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Mount Holyoke College, Smith College, Tufts University, Wellesley College and Williams College. His house was considered a complete playland. According to U.S. The original name for his son was Hudson Riley Hawk, but since this coincided with the release of the movie Hudson Hawk, they decided to start calling him Riley. Massachusetts hosts more prominent colleges and universities than any other state in the U.S. He owned his own halfpipe made by his dad when he lived in his first house with his first wife, Cindy, and his first son, Riley. The population of metropolitan Boston surges noticeably during the school year due to the concentration of colleges and universities in the area (see list of colleges and universities in metropolitan Boston).

Among the areas he dominates in the sport is the vert ramp. Eight Boston-area institutions (Boston College, Boston University, Brandeis, Harvard, MIT, Northeastern, Tufts, and UMass/Boston) call themselves "research universities;" they became, according to them, "engines of economic growth" following World War II, and currently contribute $7 billion annually to the local economy [3] (http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/nr/2003/econimpact.html). He is sometimes compared with Michael Jordan and Wayne Gretzky for his dominance of the sport. population, but is home to many of its most renowned preparatory schools, colleges, and universities[2] (http://www.utexas.edu/world/univ/state/) (see full list of colleges and universities in Massachusetts). Tony Hawk (born May 12, 1968 in Carlsbad, California) is often regarded as the most skilled and best-known skateboarder today. Massachusetts contains only 2.5% of the U.S. Massachusetts cities and towns of historical or cultural importance include.

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts has a total of 50 cities and 301 towns, grouped into 14 counties. See also: List of Massachusetts counties; List of cities in Massachusetts. Barnstable and Dukes Counties have adopted modern county charters, enabling them to act as efficient regional governments. The governments of Bristol, Plymouth, and Norfolk Counties remain substantially unchanged.

This law was later amended to abolish Hampshire County on January 1, 1999; Essex County on July 1 of that same year; and Berkshire County on July 1, 2000. Chapter 34B of the Massachusetts General Laws (http://www.state.ma.us/legis/laws/mgl/gl-34B-toc.htm) provides that other counties may also vote to abolish themselves, or to reorganize as a "regional council of governments", as Hampshire and Franklin Counties have done. The law abolishing Middlesex County also provided for the elimination of Hampden County and Worcester County on July 1, 1998. Later that year, the Franklin County Commission voted itself out of existence. The government of Middlesex County was officially abolished on July 11, 1997.

Mismanagement of Middlesex County's public hospital in the mid 1990s left that county on the brink of insolvency, and in 1997 the legislature stepped in by assuming all assets and obligations of the county. The government of Nantucket County, which is geographically coterminous with the Town of Nantucket, is operated along similar lines- the town selectmen (executive branch) act as the county commissioners. Thus, residents of the other three Suffolk County communities do not have a voice on the county commission, but all the county expenses are paid by the city of Boston. The government of Suffolk County was substantially integrated with the city government of Boston more than one hundred years ago, to the extent that the members of the Boston city council are ex officio the Suffolk County Commissioners, and Boston's treasurer and auditor fulfill the same offices for the county.

By the 1990s, most functions of county governments (including operation of courts and road maintenance) had been taken over by the state, and most county governments were seen as inefficient and outmoded. However, many residents also identify with neighborhoods, villages, or other districts of their towns. Census Bureau, which in most data products considers towns to be minor civil divisions, equivalent to townships in other states (usually with much weaker forms of government). This complicates comparisons with other states, as most residents identify strongly with the town or city in which they reside, and not with the "populated places" as defined and used in the U.S.

In contrast, the cities and towns of Massachusetts divide up all of the land between them and there are no "unincorporated" areas or population centers. County governments have significant importance, particularly to those living outside towns, and often perform major functions such as operating airports. In contrast, the state is completely apportioned into counties. Between the towns are unincorporated areas, usually quite large, which do not belong to any town.

In many states, a town is a compact incorporated area. Massachusetts municipalities are subject to a budgetary law known as "Proposition 2½", by which they may not increase expenditures by more than 2½% per annum without the approval of the voters in a plebiscite. Massachusetts has a very limited home rule mechanism; in order to exercise jurisdiction outside of these bounds, a municipality must petition the General Court for special legislation giving it that authority. These cities are legally styled "the City Known as the Town of X".

There are now a number of municipalities which are legally cities and thus have city councils, but retained the word "town" in their names, including Agawam, Methuen, Watertown, Weymouth, and Westfield. This distinction dates to the 1820s; prior to that, all municipalities were governed by Town Meeting. Politically, the only difference between a town and a city is that a town is governed under the Town Meeting or Representative Town Meeting form of government, whereas a city has a city council (and may or may not have a mayor, a city manager, or both). Massachusetts law maintains a distinction between "cities" and "towns"; the largest town in population is Framingham.

Massachusetts shares with the six New England states, plus New York and New Jersey, a governmental structure known as the "New England town.". The three largest Protestant denominations in Massachusetts are: Baptist (4% of total state population), Episcopalian (3%), Methodist & Congregationalist (tied 2%). The religious affiliations of the people of Massachusetts are:. The five largest ancestries in Massachusetts are Irish (22.5%), Italian (13.5%), English (11.4%), French (8%), German (5.9%).

Historically, the coast has been much more urban than Western Massachusetts, which is very rural, save for the cities of Springfield and Worcester. The bulk of this population surrounds Greater Boston, with approximately 5,800,000 people, and the North and South Shores. The population of Massachusetts is 6,433,422 (US Census, 2003). See the list of Massachusetts places by per capita income.

Other sectors vital to the Massachusetts economy include higher education, health care, financial services and tourism. Thanks largely to the Ocean Spray cooperative, Massachusetts is the second largest cranberry producing state in the union (after Wisconsin). Its industrial outputs are machinery, electric equipment, scientific instruments, printing, and publishing. Its agricultural outputs are seafood, nursery stock, dairy products, cranberries, and vegetables.

Per capita personal income in 2003 was $39,504, 4^th in the nation. The Bureau of Economic Analysis (http://www.bea.gov/) estimates that Massachusetts's total state product in 2003 was $297 billion. See the articles on same-sex marriage in the United States and same-sex marriage in Massachusetts. Following a November 2003 decision of the state's Supreme Court, Massachusetts became the first state to issue same-sex marriage licenses on May 17, 2004.

When informed that the Democratic National Convention would be in Boston, House Majority Leader Dick Armey remarked, "If I were a Democrat, I suspect I'd feel a heck of a lot more comfortable in Boston than, say, America." While campaigning in the western part of the country, President Bush would often jab, "My opponent says he's in touch with the West, but sometimes I think he means Western Massachusetts." The stump speech that he used at many of his campaign stops included many such disparaging remarks directed at Massachusetts and New England in general. During the 2004 Presidential Election, Massachusetts was the target of many GOP regionalist attacks along the campaign trail. During the Colonial period, Massachusetts was one of the leading states in the fight for independence. The liberal tendencies of Massachusetts extend throughout American history: in the 19th century, Massachusetts was a center of abolitionism, having been the first state to abolish slavery by law.

Two of these governors, Paul Cellucci and Jane Swift took office when their predecessors resigned to take other positions. Although Republicans have held the governor's office continuously from 1991 to the present, many of these (especially William Weld, the first of the recent lineage of Republican governors) are considered among the most moderate or progressive Republicans in the nation. Congress. state represented by one party in the U.S.

It is the home of the Kennedy family of political fame, and routinely votes for the Democratic Party in federal elections. As of 2004, it is by far the largest U.S. Massachusetts has a reputation as being a politically liberal state, and is often used as an archetype of liberalism in the U.S. The most populated part of western Massachusetts is the "Pioneer Valley", alongside the Connecticut River, which flows across Western Massachusetts from north to south. Western Massachusetts is more rural and sparsely populated, especially in the Berkshires, the branch of the Appalachian Mountains which forms the western border of the state.

Most of the population of the Boston metropolitan area (approximately 5,800,000) does not live in the city; eastern Massachusetts on the whole is fairly densely populated and largely suburban. Boston is the largest city, located at the inmost point of Massachusetts Bay, at the mouth of the Charles River, the longest river entirely within Massachusetts. A few cities and towns on the Massachusetts–Rhode Island border are also adjacent to Narragansett Bay. Massachusetts is known as the Bay State because of the several large bays that give its coastline its distinctive shape: Massachusetts Bay and Cape Cod Bay on the state's east coast, and Buzzards Bay to the south.

The islands of Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket lie to the south of Cape Cod. At the southeastern corner of the state is a large, sandy, arm-shaped peninsula called Cape Cod. Massachusetts is bordered on the north by New Hampshire and Vermont, on the west by New York, on the south by Connecticut and Rhode Island, and on the east by the Atlantic Ocean. Massachusetts is commonly referred to by residents both as "the state" and as "the Commonwealth." For example, on March 22, 2005, one Boston Globe story said that opponents of a proposal saw it as "burdening the state with more law schools than it needs," while another published the same day noted that "the Commonwealth faces difficult spending choices.".

In his "Life and Works", Adams wrote: "There is, however, a peculiar sense in which the words republic, commonwealth, popular state, are used by English and French writers, who mean by them a democracy, a government in one centre, and that centre a single assembly, chosen at stated periods by the people and invested with the whole sovereignty, the whole legislative, executive and judicial power to be included in a body or by committees as they shall think proper." Source: [1] (http://www.sec.state.ma.us/cis/cismaf/mf1a.htm). In this draft, Part Two of the Constitution, under the heading "Frame of Government", states, "that the people...form themselves into a free, sovereign, and independent body politic, or state by the name of The Commonwealth of Massachusetts." The first draft of the Constitution, and all acts and resolves up to 1780, had used the name "State of Massachusetts Bay"; but since the adoption of the second draft of the Constitution the state has always been referred to as The Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The name "Commonwealth" for Massachusetts can be traced to the second draft of the state Constitution, written by John Adams and accepted by the people in 1780. There may have been some anti-monarchic sentiment informing the use of the word Commonwealth, which was also used to mean 'republic'.

In the era leading up to 1780, when the state Constitution was ratified, the word Commonwealth was the preferred term among political writers for a whole body of people constituting a nation or state. federal government's use of the term "commonwealth" to refer to the status of certain insular areas such as Puerto Rico. states that use the name "Commonwealth"; the others are Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Kentucky; this is distinct from the U.S. It is one of four U.S.

Massachusetts is officially termed "the Commonwealth of Massachusetts" (rather than "State") by its constitution. Retrieved March 24, 2005)
* Celebrated only in Suffolk County (Boston, Chelsea, Revere, Winthrop). Secretary of the Commonwealth Massachusetts web page (http://www.sec.state.ma.us/cis/cismaf/mf1a.htm). (Galvin, William F., (2005).

Whenever a holiday falls on a Sunday it is observed on the following Monday. Constitution, Amendments, Article CXX (November, 1990). Mass. 1.