LeakBird

(Feb. 21, 2009, Jesse McKinley, The New York Times)
The country’s biggest agricultural engine, California’s sprawling Central Valley, is being battered by the recession like farmland most everywhere. But in an unlucky strike of nature, the downturn is being deepened by a severe drought that threatens to drive up joblessness, increase food prices and cripple farms [...]

(Feb. 21, 2009, John Laumer, Treehugger)
Last minute negotiations may have solved California’s budget crisis; but, a far more protracted problem shadows the future of civilization-as-they-know-it: water reservoirs are drying up; and climate change is likely to worsen the problem. Food prices throughout the nation will be affected in the short-term. Long-term prospects point to an [...]

(Jan. 6, 2009, USA Today)
Skiers are enjoying the early winter snows on California’s mountains, but down closer to sea level are big worries that the snowfall and its spring runoff won’t be enough to relieve two years of drought.
Unless the next few months prove to be wet ones, tougher conservation steps and even water rationing [...]

(Dec. 12, 2008, The Associated Press)
Idled farm workers are searching for food in the nation’s most prolific agricultural region, where a double blow of drought and a court-ordered cutback of water supplies has caused hundreds of millions of dollars in losses.
This bedraggled town is struggling with an unemployment rate that city officials say is 40 [...]