Fuel

What is wrong with the New York Post? Thursday morning, the tabloid newspaper's front page featured a huge photo of two young men with backpacks, with the giant headline: “Bag Men: Feds seek these two pictured at Boston Marathon.” In the online story, the pair's faces had big red circles around them. Yes, sort of like targets. Turns out, the young men had nothing to do with the blasts. Thursday afternoon, the Post backpedaled:  “Investigators have now cleared the two men whose pictures were circulated last night in an email among law enforcement officials, sources told The Post today.

If the Los Angeles Lakers flop in the NBA playoffs after avoiding the embarrassment of failing to qualify for the postseason for the first time since the 2004-05 season, many fans know exactly where they will place a load of the blame and how to fix the problem. “I think our coach needs to get it together,” said Liz Meres, 29, a longtime Lakers fan. “We don't rebound, get back on defense or hustle. Phil needs to get back with the Lakers so we can get another ring.” On the last day of the NBA's regular season, ESPN's Marc Stein and Ramona Shelburne report that sources say former Lakers coach Phil Jackson is 'itching' for a return to the NBA. Now, it seems to fans, the Lakers are fighting for their coach's job. “If the Lakers lose tonight, I hope [Mike D'Antoni]

A Market Intelligence report from Kelley Blue Book said that more than 80% of new car shoppers are not considering diesel-powered cars. In almost half of those cases, diesel fuel's higher price was the reason. But about 45% appeared to be laboring under old -- and inaccurate -- beliefs, including the notions that diesel engines are too loud and bad for the environment. Diesel sales were up nearly 10% in the first quarter, to 88,582 vehicles from 80,185, according to Autodata Corp.

One of the most fearsome statistics in the war against the federal deficit has always been the country's ratio of debt to gross domestic product. When this ratio reaches 90%, the argument goes, watch out -- lower economic growth is on the horizon. And that's scary, because that's where the U.S. has been heading. This idea comes from Harvard economists Ken Rogoff and Carmen Reinhart, who featured it in a 2010 paper and popularized it in a book entitled " This Time is Different : Eight Centuries of Financial Folly.

Two of the biggest rivals in American industry - General Motors Co. and Ford Motor Co. - are again joining together to develop transmissions for their next generation of cars. The automakers said Sunday they will team to create nine-speed and 10-speed transmissions that will be smoother and more fuel efficient than the gearboxes currently in their cars and trucks. "Americans want smooth-shifting transmissions," said Dave Sullivan, manager of product analysis for AutoPacific Inc., an industry consulting firm.

Book sales rose 6.2% last year in the U.S., thanks to the continued growth of electronic publishing, according to newly released StatShot data from the Assn. of American Publishers. Electronic books, which a decade ago represented a tiny fraction of the industry's revenue, now are the fastest-growing segment of the publishing business. Indeed, sales of digital versions of books for children and young adults more than doubled in 2012 from a year earlier. The digital transition has been gathering momentum since the 2007 introduction of e-readers such as Amazon's Kindle, and accelerated with the soaring popularity of tablet computers that followed the 2010 launch of Apple Inc.'s iPad.

Michelle O'Malley knows good horse poop when she sees it. While at MIT, the chemical engineer scooped up some manure from Finn, a grass-fed horse at a sustainable farm in Concord, Mass. That offal has led to a potential breakthrough in turning grasses and nonfood crops into an alternative fuel in attempts to wean motorists from fossil fuels and stem man-made climate change. O'Malley, a chemical engineer at UC Santa Barbara, has isolated a fungus that could more easily unlock the sugars used to ferment ethanol.

Only two lanes of the southbound 605 Freeway were open Monday morning in Santa Fe Springs after a big rig crashed and spilled fuel on the road, the California Highway Patrol said. A Sigalert was issued about 4:08 a.m. after the big rig and several other vehicles were involved in an injury crash near the Telegraph Road exit, officials said. The freeway was shut down for about an hour before the carpool lane and fast lane were opened to vehicles, said CHP Officer Ed Jacobs. The fuel spill slowed cleanup efforts, and only two lanes would be open until as late as 8 a.m., he said.

The night began like many at Boorda Hall, a five-story barracks at Naval Station Great Lakes, the Navy's premier training base on the shore of Lake Michigan in Illinois. Somebody announced a party, and the hard drinking and beer pong began. A 21-year-old Marine lance corporal, so drunk on rum and Mountain Dew she was slurring her words, went to look for Kyle Antonacci, a Navy seaman she'd been dating off and on. Antonacci soon texted his friend Mike Pineda to help him deal with her. Both men had sex with her that night.

In March, the State Department gave the president cover to open a big spigot that will hitch our country to one of the dirtiest fuels on Earth for 40 years or more. The draft environmental review of the Keystone XL pipeline acknowledges tar sands are nasty stuff for the environment, but concludes that the project is OK because this oil will get to market anyway - with or without a pipeline. A public comment period is underway through April 22, after which the department will prepare a final statement to help the administration decide whether the pipeline is in the "national interest.