This story was originally published by ProPublica, a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power, and was co-published with?The Desert Sun. Craig Elmore’s family history is the stuff of Westerns. His grandfather, John Elmore, a poor son of a Missouri preacher, arrived in California’s Imperial Valley in 1908 and dug ditches to deliver water to homesteaders. Thanks to his marriage to a citrus magnate’s daughter, reputed good fortune as a gambler, and business acumen, he amassed...