A Native American tribe that wants to build a casino near Madera paid for a city council member's trip to Washington, D.C., last year so he could testify in favor of the project, interviews and recently filed court records show.

Every summer, thousands of 40-ton trucks hauling tomatoes and other crops swarm the Central Valley in a mad dash to bring home the harvest. They keep the region's agricultural economy humming -- but also pose a deadly threat.

In an effort to spur the construction industry and put people to work, the city of Fresno is giving some homebuilders a multimillion-dollar break on fees for parks and firehouses.

Until recently, Fresno County's relationship with Genesis Family Center was defined by contradiction.

A handful of San Joaquin Valley cities and public agencies have used millions of dollars meant for filtering contaminated water for entirely unrelated purposes, records and interviews show.

Parents and Clovis Unified School District officials are butting heads over how to teach special-needs children -- and their disagreements are resulting in drawn-out, costly legal hearings.

Fresno County officials said for years that Genesis Family Center efficiently provided excellent taxpayer-funded service to vulnerable children.

ORANGE COVE -- The longtime mayor of this impoverished farming town, legendary in California for his political clout, scored another coup in 2004 by winning a $500,000 government grant for a state-of-the-art BMX bike park.

The city of Fresno may soon have to borrow more than $20 million to bail out two local nonprofits -- at a time when the political and financial risks of taking on debt have never been more clear.