California drought

More than 21,000 are out of work this year from California's drought, a study says. The majority are farmworkers, and those lucky enough to have a job are often working longer hours for less money.

After a scientist on a hike in Sequoia National Park saw trees with thin and browning needles, it got scientists thinking: Did the drought cause this? So they're climbing up them to study the damage.

In the state's agricultural Central Valley, planning is under way to transform peach and plum fields into Kings River Village, a solar-powered community that will send wastewater back into an aquifer.

Water scarcity is leading farmers away from planting staples and towards planting higher-value, lower-water specialty crops. Think wine grapes and pomegranates instead of citrus and avocados.

Progress is being made toward bringing water to thousands of Central Valley residents in underserved communities where wells have run dry. The question is how long this solution will last.

Near Las Vegas, levels in the nation's largest reservoir have dropped 140 feet since 2000. Water deliveries to Nevada, Arizona and California may soon be rationed — and farmers would feel it first.

Lawmakers in hard-hit Western states are pushing for suspensions to the Endangered Species Act to free up stored water. But an entrenched partisan divide over the law continues to be a hang-up.