Fresno

Water restrictions on farms in the state have atrophied jobs in the fertile Central Valley, giving communities some of the highest rates of unemployment in the state. As jobs dry up, the need for aid is surpassing what's there to give.

High Country News reports on Fresno's infamous Taco Flat in this 4-pager. Seattle's Nickelsville and Portland's Dignity Village are held up as better examples of squatter settlements. Architecture and 'informal urbanism' of tent cities is examined.

Five years ago, the Central Valley became the first area of California to ban indoor wood burning when an 'alert' was called by the air district; other air districts followed in 2008. This study, released in Nov. shows that "no burn" days save lives.

The New York Times reports that skateboarders are coming from as far away as Germany to skate empty swimming pools throughout foreclosed neighborhoods in cities like Fresno, where boarders have set up shop.

Despite a 2002 General Plan update aimed at curbing sprawl in the Central California city of Fresno, repeated zoning amendments have allowed hundreds of developments to push the city's edge farther out into the fringe.

This segment from NPR looks at the economy of the central California city of Fresno, which has been named the least economically developed part of the country by a recent report.