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With gas prices continuing a steady upward climb, you may be headed to the dealer in search of something less thirsty at the pump. But which cars' sticker price gives you the most bang for your buck? We asked Edmunds.com to look at the vehicles with the lowest sticker price per fuel-economy rating. The math was simple: divide the car's base price by its EPA rating for combined fuel economy. The result gives a look at how much each mile per gallon will cost you. Photos: Top 10 cars with lowest cost per mpg Topping the list is Ford's C-Max Energi.

Spending in the hotly contested two-year race for Los Angeles mayor exceeded $33 million on Saturday, breaking previous records as unlimited outside money continued to play a dominant role in Tuesday's contest. Candidate super PACs and so-called "independent expenditure" donors, which do not have to abide by the city's campaign contribution limits, provided 41% of the $25.6-million total raised just for candidates Wendy Greuel and Eric Garcetti since the contest began in March 2011, according to campaign reports.

The sharp cracks echoing from the East Bakersfield street were loud enough to jolt Ruben Ceballos from a midnight slumber. Then he heard screams. The 19-year-old jumped from his living room sofa and hurried to the kitchen door, which offered a view of the violent scene outside - Kern County sheriff's deputies repeatedly striking a man in the head with batons as he lay on the pavement. "I saw two sheriff's deputies on top of this guy, just beating him," Ceballos said in an interview Monday.

A shallow magnitude 3.3 earthquake was reported Saturday morning 12 miles from Rancho Palos Verdes, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The temblor occurred at 2:41 a.m. PDT. According to the USGS, the epicenter was 13 miles from San Pedro, 16 miles from Lomita and 16 miles from Palos Verdes Estates. In the past 10 days, there have been two earthquakes magnitude 3.0 and greater centered nearby. Read more about Southern California earthquakes . ALSO: Court will decide how many UC workers can strike Private security patrols pull out of downtown Arts District Huntington displays artwork from East Los Angeles high school  

We're at the point where any San Diego Chargers victory can be summarized in two words. This goes back to Nov. 19, when between updates I saw a 24-7 San Diego deficit against Denver turn into a 35-27 Chargers victory and I text-messaged a friend to ask what happened. My buddy's reply: "LT happened." Flash-forward to Sunday, when the Chargers had to deal with a strong Oakland Raiders defensive effort, a shaky performance by quarterback Philip Rivers and a 14-7 Raiders lead in the fourth quarter.

Seaweed can shrink your waistline. Grow your hair. Bring down your blood pressure along with your blood sugar. Build up the strength of your bones and your brain. Make your joints stop aching and your bowels get moving. Give cancer short shrift, and give cellulite and wrinkles the old heave-ho. That is, if you believe the hype - only some of which is backed up by reliable evidence. The data are strongest that seaweed can reduce inflammation, premenstrual syndrome symptoms and even the growth of tumors (in animals)

Some athletes are turning to a lip-puckering remedy for post-workout pain and weakness: tart cherry juice. The juice can be hard to swallow, but the claim is that it diminishes muscle pain and soreness as well as, or better than, many over-the-counter medications. So far, those claims are mostly anecdotal. The Web is peppered with testimonials of the juice's analgesic powers and rumors of entire football teams guzzling the stuff.

BALTIMORE - Horse racing's Preakness is a place of history and a bubble of hope. If you come here with a Kentucky Derby victory under your belt, as trainer Shug McGaughey and Orb have, you have little time to appreciate that history. You are lost in the Triple Crown bubble. Every question goes in the same direction: Can you win? How will you (a) feel, (b) react, (c) enjoy? Orb's morning-line odds are even money. If you want to make money on him Saturday, you'll need to bet lots of it. This year, only Orb can hope for immortality.

Americans are increasingly saying “I do” to living together before marriage, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In fact, cohabitation is now more common among younger women than living with a spouse or living alone. The report, released Thursday, is based on data from the CDC's National Survey of Family Growth . More than 12,000 women between the ages of 15 and 44 took part in the survey between 2006 and 2010. (So did more than 10,000 men, but the new study focuses on the women.)

It's a question faced by countless travelers headed overseas: What's the best source for travel immunizations? Private physicians are one option. Private clinics specializing in travel medicine are another. But both can be expensive. For travelers flexible enough to make an appointment during somewhat limited business hours, a visit to one of the handful of county and city health clinics that offer immunizations could be the answer.

A shallow, magnitude 3.3 earthquake was reported Wednesday morning near Lake Tahoe, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The temblor occurred at 6:58 a.m. Pacific time at a depth of 0.6 miles. According to the USGS, the epicenter was 11 miles from Gardnerville Ranchos, Nev., 21 miles from South Lake Tahoe, Calif., 29 miles from Carson City, Nev., 48 miles from Truckee, Calif., and 55 miles from Reno, Nev. In the past 10 days, there have been no earthquakes magnitude 3.0 and greater centered nearby.

The 33rd annual Los Angeles Times Book Prizes will be presented in a public ceremony Friday night at USC's Bovard Auditorium. The awards are given in 10 categories, including biography, current interest, first fiction and adult literature. In addition, the winners of two prizes, announced in February, will be honored: the Canadian novelist and essayist Margaret Atwood, who will receive the 2012 Innovator's Award for her efforts to push narrative form; and the California historian Kevin Starr, who will receive the 2012 Kirsch Award for lifetime achievement.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. reported a 33% jump in profit in the first quarter as the nation's largest bank by assets saw the economy and housing market strengthen. The New York-based bank said it earned a record $6.5 billion, or $1.59 a share, for the three-month period ended March 31, up from $4.9 billion, or $1.19 a share, for the same period a year ago. Continued improvement in the housing market led to a 37% jump in mortgage originations, while the bank also saw strong growth in investment banking and asset management.

SAN DIEGO -- The Coast Guard recovered 3.3 tons of marijuana off Southern California when smugglers tossed 245 bales overboard after their boat was spotted, the Coast Guard said Tuesday. The 210-foot cutter Alert recovered the bales early Sunday about 90 miles west of San Nicolas Island. The smugglers' boat made a U-turn and sped back to Mexican waters, as the Coast Guard notified the Mexican navy, officials said. The Alert, from its homeport in Astoria, Ore., was on anti-smuggling duty off Southern California when the smugglers' boat was spotted about 1:30 a.m.  The smugglers had been located by a Sacramento-based Coast Guard C-130 Hercules aircraft.

A man who allegedly crashed his car through a Wal-Mart and began attacking people inside, injuring four, was being held without bail Monday in San Jose. Authorities said Haamid Ade Zaid, 33, was arrested on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon, hit and run, and drug use. Authorities told the Associated Press they believe he was under the influence of drugs. "People were running out of the store, people were crying," San Jose police Officer Albert Morales told the San Jose Mercury News about the Sunday incident.

The Miami Heat lost to the Chicago Bulls on Wednesday, marking the end of their 27-game win streak. That means the Lakers still hold the record for the most consecutive wins for a major U.S. professional team after winning 33 games in a row over more than two months during the 1971-72 season. Laker great Jerry West, who was a guard on that team, told ESPN on Wednesday that he thought the Heat were going to surpass the Lakers' record. "I really thought they were going to do it," West told the website.

The powerful narcotic popped up on the cultural grid around the turn of the millennium. A Texas producer-remixer named DJ Screw paid homage to its woozy, heavy-lidded high by dramatically slowing down beats and vocals to replicate the drug's sleepwalker euphoria. Among Southern rappers, the chemical mixture - called "sizzurp" on the street - soon became as ubiquitous as gold jewelry. This wasn't some exotic new hallucinogen. In fact, it was usually mixed with fruit soda and sipped from oversized plastic foam cups.

More than 1 million low-income California children who receive free or reduced-price school lunches don't get breakfast at school even though they would qualify, and about a fifth of the schools in the state don't even offer breakfast, according to two reports from the Food Research and Action Center. California ranked 33rd in low-income student participation in the School Breakfast Program for 2008-09, the same ranking it received a year earlier. In terms of the number of schools that offer breakfast, California's ranking fell from 35th to 40th, the Washington, D.C.-based group said.

About 33 houses, many summer or weekend getaways, are in danger after a major landslide hit Whidbey Island in the state of Washington. No injuries have been reported by the slide of mud and debris that rolled through the area near Alderwood Street and South Fircrest Avenue just after 4 a.m. Wednesday, officials told local news media outlets. Officials were not immediately available for further comment because they were at the scene, spokesmen said by telephone. The slide took out a road, Driftwood Way, which is closest to the water, isolating 16 homes, Island County Sheriff Mark C. Brown told KOMO television.