the night before. we were lucky to talk to him. >> escort! >> during our shoot at kern valleymate george johns, serving eight years for being involved in a high-speed chase while on parole, started a fight in the cafeteria and was hit in the head by a wooden block. we met him the following morning. >> tell me the story. tell me what happened. >> well, i had a personal problem, and i ran over to handle it, but i didn't make it. i was in the chow hall eating, and i got irritated and decided i didn't like this guy, so i'd fight him. that's it. >> next thing you remember? >> they were dragging me out, telling me i got hit in the head with a block. >> can we see your head? >> the shooting left johns with seven staples in his head and a wound still caked with dry blood. he says the scar running toward the back of his head was the result of getting run over when he was younger. >> so you knew the other guy that you got into the fight with? >> yeah, kind of, sort of. apparently i didn't like him. >> i was eating my dinner, baked potato and gravy at the table right at the corner of the

. >> we met officer epperson at the kern valley state prison in california. armed only with pepper spray and a baton, he's the lone officer responsible for supervising the inmate kitchen staff. >> i have six, seven inmates back here now. i've got one sitting on the line. granted, i got four, five cops outside that door. that door's locked. there's only one dude out there with the key. you have to trust them to a certain extent. they have no reason to assault me. unless they're totally pissed off or i disrespect them. >> among the inmates epperson places his trust in is the number two cook, carter hill. >> tell me what your sentence is. >> murder. >> you're here for murder? what's your sentence? >> 51 to life. >> you know, it's interesting. sometimes there's this dynamic in prison when you're interviewing somebody, if there's a corrections officer and an inmate together, they'll pretty much watch their ps and qs. they'll tell you into the camera what the other guy wants to hear. but when we met carter hill, we got some real brutal honesty that day in the kitche

the next day. >> at kern valley state prison in california, we met inmate aaron yost who participates in another yet very common practice behind bars. tattooing. >> mine's art work. you know what i mean? i did this myself. >> where? >> in a cell like this. >> how? >> how? see this cassette player? i ripped the motor out of it, and i attach a tube to it with the needle, spin the needle back and forth. and i make the ink. burn plastic or baby oil, and the soot will go up. i collect the soot and mix it with shampoo to make a thick black ink. >> tattooing in prison is illegal and poses a variety of health risks, but we've met countless inmates who have gotten their ink both on the outside and inside. many tattoos represent gang affiliation and are documented by prison officials. most of the rest have a meaning all their own. >> what my trip is is physics. my tattoos represent it. on the back of my legs it says quantum physics. i've got an atom on my hand. i study what the ultimate nature of reality is. it sooths me. it soothes me to try and figure out what i am, what all this is, what it's all about

. >>> on the first day of production at california's kern valley state prison our producers set out toeing locked in their cells 23 hours a day. they pass reading materials and other items to each other through a process called fishing. >> go ahead. take off. >> though fishing is against prison rules, inmate tracy washington was willing to demonstrate how to make a fishing line. >> this is just a string made out of the waist band of our boxers. we take the string apart and then we put soap and a piece of plastic as a weight and we slide it across the floor like this. they might come in here and take my line now that they know i've got it. but i'll make another one. >> go ahead and shoot it out. >> but our producer was about to find out that there was a far more dramatic story surrounding inmate, washington. >> yeah i went to crisis bed on suicide watch last week. and i just came back last week. >> why? what happened? >> they was trying to send me somewhere i didn't want to be. >> so what did you do? >> i cut my wrist with a razor blade. >> washington went on to explain that he cut his

the night before. we're lucky to talk to him. >> during our shoot at kern valley, inmate george johns is serving eight eing involved in a high speed chase while on parole started a fight and we met him the following morning. >> what happened. >> i had a personal problem, i was in the chow hall eating and got irritated and decided i don't like this guy, i'm going to fight him, that's it. >> next thing you remember? >> they were dragging me out telling me i got hit in the head with a block hit. >> the shooting left john's with seven staples and a wound still caked with dry blood, he says the scar running towards the back of his head was a result of getting run over when he was younger. >> you knew the other guy you fought with. >> yeah kind of sort. i didn't like him. >> i was eating my dinner at a table way down at the corner of the chow hall and the guy was running and he blind sided me and smacked me down to the ground. >> he is the inmate of the attack. >> he tries to intimidate other people and trying to manipulate or whatever. >> though asked why he started the fight he was never specific. >> if yo

the same joaquin valley is meeting the food needs of the nation in the world. thus it appears this tri top portion of the kern river is symbolic of the drought crisis california is clearly facing state and federal officials have promised to step in and help so without mother nature's cooperation. several communities here in the golden state. it's either stick to run dry. in perry county california. from old lino artsy. the federal appeals court tuesday declined to hold the military's practice of force feeding guantanamo bay detainee is on a hunger strike. but at the same time the court said the door would be left open to legal efforts seeking to end the practice this is all determined by a three judge panel of the u s court of appeals in washington dc. the judge's refusal to enforce it all together. they said warning that the injunction is not enough for us to say that force feeding me cause physical pain and a bodily integrity or even implicate petitioners fundamental individual rights. the judges also said that they could not bar the doctors from falling military orders in guantanamo merely because they mig

valley it was all that dry dust kicked up by marine one. >> it's good to have the mask on. >> reporter: that grabbed this professor's attention. she studies microbes found in the soil around kern county and is finding hot spots packed with tiny spores. >> yeah. it's scary. >> reporter: these spores contain an extremely dangerous fungus. when airborne and inhaled, they can lodge in the lungs and cause valley fever a potentially fatal disease. and while this fungus called cocci is native to the valley, california drought is favoring the growth of the fungus. >> this is a quick screening method. >> reporter: she and students at cal state bakersfield are mapping where it thrives. unlike other microbes, valley fever's spores can survive in dirt without water for decades. >> when you have a long drought and then a short rainy season, you always get the ones that are more adapted to those environments to succeed. >> reporter: if you think it's just a central valley problem, think again. >> large dust cloud -- >> reporter: in december 1977, california was in the middle of a major drought. strong winds near bakersfield scoured the topsoil creating a huge dust storm. it shut down highwa

the san joaquin valley idol. >> irrigation canals will remain dry. there is no federal water to deliver to valley farmers. dismal snow pack, 34% today led to the first 0 water aloe indication from fresno to kernnty this, is historic and affecting everybody not just west side, anymore. >> on the west side, reservoirs at 33% capacity nochlt water delivered to fafrmers in the westman's water district. that could drive up food prices. >> we have melons used to having watermelon and cantaloupe z that won't be made available to the consumer. >> the loss means a loss of work in communities which relie on agriculture. >> it's a proven fact if there is nobody working, buying power just dies. >> farmers who have wells will pump ground water but that will put pressure on the underground aqua fer. >> state senator ron calderon will be suspended from the legislature unless he resigns from an indictment. calderon is facing 24 counts including taking bribes, wire fraud and money laundering and faces 400 years if convicted on all counts. >> bribery indictment alleges that ron calderon accepted payments from several people he thought were involved with an independent film studio but who where under cover fbi

valley, it was all that dry dust kicked up by marine one. >> we have the mask on. >> reporter: that grabbed this professor's attention. she studies microbes found in the soil around kernnty and she is finding hot spots packed with tiny spores. >> yeah. it's scary. >> reporter: these spores contain an extremely dangerous fungus. when airborne and inhaled, they can lodge in the lungs and cause valley fever a potentially fatal disease. "cocci" is native to the valley valley. >> drought favors the growth of valley fever fungus. this is a quick screening method. >> reporter: she and her students at cal state bakersfield are mapping where "cocci" thrives. unlike other microbes, valley fever spores can survive in dirt without water for decades. but add a burst of rain like we are seeing tonight and the spores gain in power. >> so when you have a long drought and then a short rainy season, you always get the ones that are more adapted to those environments to succeed. >> reporter: if you think it's just a central valley problem, think again. >> large dust cloud. >> reporter: in december 1977 california was in the middle of a major drought. strong winds near bakersfield scoure

the california's three strikes and you're out law. i ended up getting a sentence of 35 years to life. >> aaron yost was 11 years into his latest sentence when we met him at kern valley state prison in california. he says his problems stem from a near life-long abuse of drugs. >> i grew up with drugs. my parents were quote/unquote hippies. both my parents dropped acid. my mom's dead now from a drug overdose. when i was 9 years old, i was rolling joints for mom and dad. >> yost's life is now largely confined to this cell, which he shares with another inmate. >> i'm not comfortable with this. i don't like men, i like women, you know? and this, to me, it's disgusting. i'm still irritated. if i wake up in the morning, i'm agitated because i have to live with another man. >> now, the closest yost comes to female companionship is through his tattoos. some of which are too graphic to show on television. >> that's what i dream about, that's all i got. you know? >> i remember when we met aaron, the man was tattooed, incredibly inked. if one word describes him, it's intense, just full of energy. and i remember when my producer asked him, what's the daily routine? he just start