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The Sacramento-based Latino Water Coalition drew several thousand people for a mid-April 2009 march from Mendota to Firebaugh and on to the San Luis Reservoir to highlight the lack of jobs due to cutbacks of irrigation water. Marchers carried signs saying "No Water, No Jobs, No Food." Another rally in downtown Fresno July 1, 2009 also drew thousands; some carried signs saying "Farm + Water = Jobs."

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger asked the Obama administration to declare Fresno County a disaster area in June 2009 because of the drought. Central Valley leaders often say that the area's economy is being ravaged by a "man-made" or "regulatory" drought that gives higher priority to protecting fish than jobs.

After a town-hall meeting June 28, 2009 in Fresno, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar promised $220 million in federal stimulus funds for water and environmental infrastructure projects in California, but did not endorse calls for new dams and a "God Squad" to overrule "fish over people" biological protections. He called on Californians to work together to redesign a water system designed for less than 20 million people in the 1960s; California today has almost 40 million residents.

Much of the farm land on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley, including the 600,000-acre Westlands Water District that was formed in 1952, depends on water from northern California dams that is pumped south via the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. Because of drought, the federal Central Valley Project provided only 10 percent of normal water deliveries to the Westlands in 2009, generating estimates that up to 30,000 farm-related jobs could be lost as land was fallowed rather than farmed.

Court rulings to protect fish have limited pumping from the delta. The marchers want the state to build new dams and canals and to divert less water for fish, making exceptions to the Endangered Species Act to allow more water for crops.

The city of Mendota in western Fresno county had an unemployment rate of 39 percent in May 2009; the state's unemployment rate was 11.5 percent. The unemployment rate in Mendota averaged 26 percent in both 2005 and 2008, when the state's unemployment rate averaged 5.4 and 7.2 percent, respectively, that is, the ratio of Mendota's unemployment rate to the state's rate fell from 5-1 to 3.4 to 1. A federal prison with 1,152 beds and employing 350 guards at $44,000 a year is expected to open near Mendota in 2010.

Mendota, which eliminated its police force in 1991 and contracted with the Fresno county sheriff for law enforcement for $500,000 a year, plans to launch an eight-officer police force. Mendota, with a $1.7 million general fund budget, would have to spend $1 million a year on a police force, based on the experience of nearby Firebaugh and Huron. The Fresno county cities of San Joaquin, Orange Cove and Mendota do not have police departments.

Storms in May 2009 increased the amount of water available to farmers. The State Water Project made a final allocation of 40 percent of the maximum 4.2 million-acre feet requested by water contractors, up from 35 percent in 2008. Lake Oroville, the major dam in the SWP, was at two-thirds of capacity in May 2009.

The 82-mile All-American Canal, built in 1942 to bring water from the Colorado river to the Imperial Valley, is being lined with concrete to reduce seepage— 23 miles were lined as of May 2009. The state and San Diego water users paid to line the canal, and will receive the 68,000 acre feet of water a year that used to seep into the ground and be used by Mexican farmers.

Housing. A federal judge on April 30, 2009 allowed the Desert Mobile Home Park (Duroville) in Thermal to remain open for at least two more years. The Bureau of Indian Affairs has been seeking to close Duroville, which houses a peak 3,000 to 5,000 farm workers in April and May in 300 mobile homes on 40 acres.

Duroville opened in the late 1990s, when Riverside county cracked down on substandard housing. Since it is on an Indian reservation, Duroville is exempt from state and local health and safety codes. Duroville is one of three mobile home parks on the Torres-Martinez Desert Cahuilla Indian Reservation.

The farm worker president of Duroville's Purepecha Council testified he earned $14,000 in 2008 and had no other place to park his mobile home for less than $500 a month. His US-born children do not want to return to Michoacán. Riverside county officials agreed there are no other local, low-income housing options for the families at Duroville.

The judge echoed this lack-of-alternatives in his decision: "To close the park under current conditions would create one of the largest forced human migrations in the history of this state." The judge ordered the court-appointed receiver to make repairs over the next two years and encourage residents to move to safer affordable housing.

The judge, who visited Duroville twice, wrote: "Duroville is not a business, it is a village that thousands of human beings call home. They are poor, undereducated, disenfranchised and, in many respects, exploited.... These very same people, based on the evidence at trial, are an honest, hardworking, proud, colorful and family-oriented community of people committed to educating their children and raising them to be productive and successful members of our society."

The Los Angeles Times June 18, 2009 reported on workers living in Mecca, an unincorporated place near Duroville that is home to many farm workers who pick 9,000 acres of table grapes in May and June for $8 to $9 an hour plus $0.32 per 18-pound box. The reporter talked to several workers in their 50s and 60s; most farm workers, especially those who climb ladders to pick fruit from trees, are in their 20s and 30s.

Grower Drake Larson noted that the recession produced far more workers seeking jobs: "My window faces the parking lot, and every day 6 to 12 people come in looking for work."

Budget. In February 2009, agreement was reached on a combination of spending cuts and tax increases expected to yield a balanced budget in fiscal years 2008-09 and 2009-10. The agreement included a special election to enact reforms aimed at reducing the state's "structural deficit," meaning that expenditures rise faster than revenue except during extraordinary stock-market booms.

However, the worsening economy meant that by May 2009, another $24 billion deficit appeared in the $96 billion general-fund portion of the 2009-10 state budget. Voters on May 19, 2009 rejected the February 2009 package of ballot measures that would have raised taxes and limited state spending in the future. Legislators and the governor failed to agree on a new budget for 2009-10, and worked in July 2009 to deal with a budget deficit that rose to over $26 billion.

In response to the budget deadlock, most state workers were ordered to take a third day a month off without pay, meaning that many state offices would be closed the first three Fridays of each month.

Immigrants did not play a significant role in the election. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, campaigning for the measures, said: "Anyone who says you have a budget crisis because of undocumented immigrants, I would say this is a prejudiced comment rather than reality." Schwarzenegger, who in June 2009 estimated that state services to unauthorized foreigners cost $4 to $5 billion a year, said he was "happy" that they receive state services and that unauthorized foreigners were not responsible for California's budget deficit.

Population. California had 38.3 million residents January 1, 2009, according to the state Department of Finance, up about 409,000 from the year before (ww.dof.ca.gov/research/demographic). The city of Los Angeles, with four million residents, included about 10 percent of the state's population, and the county of Los Angeles, with 10.4 million, had a quarter of the state's residents.

San Diego with 1.4 million residents was the second-largest city, followed by San Jose, 1 million; San Francisco, 845,000; and Fresno, 500,000.

The census estimated California's population at 36.8 million in July 2008. Federal and state estimates differ because the state relies mostly on driver's license addresses, while the census looks at tax returns.

Alana Semuels, "Despair flows as fields go dry and unemployment rises," Los Angeles Times, July 6, 2009. Robert Rodriguez, "A Cry for Water," Fresno Bee, July 2, 2009. Tim Sheehan and Michael Doyle, "Water draws Interior chief to Fresno for hearing," Fresno Bee, June 24, 2009. Mike Anton, "In the Coachella Valley, hope withers on the vine," Los Angeles Times, June 18, 2009. David Kelly, "Duroville mobile home park will not close," Los Angeles Times, May 1, 2009.