San Francisco Chronicle: Anticipating another bone-dry winter, California is preparing to act as a water go-between next year, buying from water-rich districts in the north and selling to cities and farmers hit hard by drought. The initiative, known as the 2009 Drought Water Bank, harkens back to measures taken during the long dry spell of the late 1980s and early 1990s and underscores the state’s efforts to squeeze every drop out of a system strained by climate change, a booming population and environmental …