The gap you are describing is real, national coverage of that area tends to pick one angle and stay there. For the local layer, county board agendas are the most direct source for what is actually approved versus announced, and there is often a large gap between the two. For ongoing coverage I follow the Imperial page on CA Today https://catoday.news/imperial-county , which keeps county items together. If you visit, go outside the summer months, the heat is not a detail you can work around. Honest note: workforce questions there are contested locally, and you will get very different answers depending on who you ask, which is worth reflecting in whatever you produce.
