In beautiful sunny Palm Springs, California, during one of the year’s most exciting live events, a star-studded panel of judges chose Miss North Los Angeles USA, Tamiko Nash as MISS CALIFORNIA USA 2006 and Jessica Powell, Miss Barstow USA as MISS CALIFORNIA TEEN USA 2006.

Ms. Nash is a 26 year-old from Los Angeles, California who is Executive Assistant to the Vice President of Member Services at the Recording Company/GRAMMY’s. She is only the third African-American woman to hold the title in the fifty-three year history of the MISS CALIFORNIA USA event. Jessica Powell is a pageant veteran and high-school senior from Barstow, California.

Co-hosts Keylee Sanders and Sam Sarpong, hosted the live event from the Riviera Resort in Palm Springs, California. Celebrity Judges for the event included: Celebrity talent booker for VHI Stella Stolper, NBC talent executive for The Tonight Show with Jay Leno Bob Read, supermodel management guru Valerie Trott, casting director Gayle A. Means, Chief of Staff to Assemblyman Mark Leno Bob Hartnagel, and Head Fashion Designer for Playboy and the Nascar Division of JH Design Group Vered Nisim.

Throughout the two-hour event, the contestants competed in three categories: swimsuit, evening gown and interview. During these competitions the “Top Five” finalists were selected before the crowning. Brittany Hogan, MISS CALIFORNIA USA 2005, and Stephanie Brink, MISS CALIFORNIA TEEN USA 2005, crowned their successors at the conclusion of the two-hour event, before an estimated Sold-Out viewing audience of more than 1000 guests.