Central California

Water built the semi-arid San Joaquin Valley into an agricultural powerhouse. Drought and irrigation battles now threaten to turn huge swaths of it into a dust bowl. Farmers have idled half a million acres of once-productive ground and are laying off legions of farmhands. That's sending joblessness soaring in a region already plagued by chronic poverty. Water scarcity looms as a major challenge to California's $37-billion agricultural industry, which has long relied on imported water to bloom.

At least eight people were presumed dead Tuesday after a septic truck collided with a sport utility vehicle carrying farmworkers and both vehicles plunged into an irrigation canal in a rural area of Central California near Modesto. Divers helped recover the truck and the body of its driver at 6 p.m. after working for three hours in choppy, fast-moving waters, authorities said. The cause of the crash remains under investigation, according to California Highway Patrol Officer Mayolo Banuelos.

A wildfire burning near one of the main entrances to Yosemite National Park destroyed at least 12 homes and 27 outbuildings in and near the town of Midpines, and burned more than 26,000 acres of brush and woodlands, authorities said Sunday. With smoke and ashes blanketing much of the area, residents have been evacuated from nearly 500 homes, and authorities have cut power to the park. Three firefighters had sustained minor injuries in the fire, which was 10% contained as of 8 p.m.

Thousands of firefighters continued to battle a growing blaze in the Yosemite area Monday, hampered by steep terrain and high temperatures. About 4,000 homes were threatened -- double the number in danger over the weekend. The Telegraph fire, which began Friday when four residents went target shooting in the remote woods, has claimed 12 homes so far.

. -- Residents to the world: What about us? As the Telegraph fire raged through the wilderness for the fifth day Tuesday, amused locals wondered why Yosemite National Park was getting all the ink. Sure, the park's famous vistas are obscured by smoke. And many hotel rooms there remained without power, but "it's Mariposa's fire," said Darci Bazinet, 35, who evacuated with her three children and four pets Saturday. "It's burning our houses. It's not in the national park."

It's not uncommon in farm country to come across old-timers with a passion for preserving the implements of their trade. These are the folks who convert wooden wagon wheels into patio furniture and vintage tractors into mailbox stands or geranium planters. Frank Craig had that impulse, and authorities contend it cost him his life.

On a recent day, Maria Velasquez led 25 women in outdoor aerobics at a park in this city's rough southeast district, home to a large farmworker community. Nearby, young children played noisily on well-clipped grass. Wiping sweat from her brow, Velasquez announced she'd lost 80 pounds and, with it, a high risk of diabetes. Elena Marin, who picks grapes and lemons, said she came to Stiern Park three times a week and had lost 20 pounds, with 80 to go.

\o7A\f7BDEL Salem is hunched over a small aerial map in his office, divining the future. "This is going to be new," he says, gesturing toward a blank spot that's slated to be the site of 1,700 residences, a park and a school. His finger glides across the paper. "This is going to be new too," he adds, pointing to another vacant part of the map that's poised for a burst of commercial construction. He stabs at the paper again. "And this is going to be new over here."

A tiger at the Charles Paddock Zoo was killed by his longtime exhibit mate, zoo officials said. Hoshi, an Indochinese tiger who joined the zoo in fall 2000, was found dead in his den Sunday. Zoo Director Alan Baker said the tiger died from asphyxiation caused by exhibit mate Sala. Laboratory tests are incomplete.

Ever since the twin towers came crashing down and the cloud of jihad fogged the land, the crop dusters swooping low over the San Joaquin Valley had taken on a new menace. Even here, tucked away in the farm fields of middle California, fear had settled into the ground. Harvest to harvest, one year to the next, we watched tens of thousands of illegal migrants stream into our vineyards. Not a single suicide bomber was among them.