Pumps

A gas station that also offers E85 ethanol and biodiesel fuels has opened in Fullerton, becoming the first of more than 200 so-called clean mobility centers slated for the state. The Propel Clean Mobility Center at 1124 E. Chapman Ave., which opened Wednesday, was partially funded by grants from the California Energy Commission and the U.S. Energy Department. "People are looking for alternatives. They're looking for transportation options that aren't dependent on petroleum," said Matt Horton, chief executive of Propel Fuels in Redwood City, Calif., which at its new Fullerton station also offers a self-service bicycle repair station, recycling containers, free air and water, and maps of rail stations, bike paths and busways.

Their internationally recognized names sell music and movie tickets. They promote perfumes and presidents. But when it comes to selling their own houses, celebrities often find that their cachet doesn't pull in the cash. Actors Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell haven't found a buyer for their Malibu beach house, which comes with a raft of celeb-friendly amenities including a covered outdoor living room, a spa-like bath retreat and a meditation room. So the couple have nipped $3.5 million from last year's price, listing the Balinese-influenced oceanfront spread at $11.2 million.

Satechi 's BT wireless bluetooth speaker looks like a tiny little hovercraft with a pop-up midsection. It won't actually go airborne, but the sound will. It pairs easily with Bluetooth smartphones and other audio devices for wireless amplified music or phone conversations, thanks to an integrated mike, up to a distance of 33 feet. It also has a built-in 3.5mm audio jack for connecting non-Bluetooth electronics and built-in rechargeable batteries. It comes with a USB cable for charging and powering.

A gas station that also offers E85 ethanol and biodiesel fuels has opened in Fullerton, becoming the first of more than 200 so-called clean mobility centers slated for the state. The Propel Clean Mobility Center at 1124 E. Chapman Ave., which opened Wednesday, was partially funded by grants from the California Energy Commission and the U.S. Energy Department. "People are looking for alternatives. They're looking for transportation options that aren't dependent on petroleum," said Matt Horton, chief executive of Propel Fuels in Redwood City, Calif., which at its new Fullerton station also offers a self-service bicycle repair station, recycling containers, free air and water, and maps of rail stations, bike paths and busways.

Nearly 89,000 Mini brand cars, including the Mini Cooper line of vehicles, are being recalled in the U.S. because of faulty water pumps that can malfunction and potentially cause engine compartment fires. The recall comes about three months after the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened a defects investigation, citing 12 reports of fires in the vehicles manufactured by BMW. Five of the fires reportedly destroyed the cars, according to a NHTSA document. BMW said it is unaware of any injuries or accidents caused by pump malfunctions.

The big federal pumps that were cranked up over the weekend to send more Northern California water south will be turned down Thursday in the ongoing tug of war between water exports and fish protections. U.S. District Judge Oliver Wanger, who last week temporarily lifted pumping limits designed to protect migrating salmon in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, Wednesday declined to block similar curbs federal biologists say are necessary to save the imperiled delta smelt. That means the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation will turn off one of the five pumps it uses to draw water from the delta east of San Francisco.

Army Corps of Engineers officials did not violate any rules when they allowed defective pumps to be installed after Hurricane Katrina, according to a report by the Defense Department's inspector general. The findings in the report will be reviewed by the Office of Special Counsel, an independent federal agency that handles complaints by whistle-blowers, including a corps engineer who warned in early 2006 that the pumps would not work properly. James Mitchell, a spokesman for the Office of Special Counsel, said the inspector general's report was a "truncated investigation" that did not analyze all the technical issues surrounding the pumps.

The Department of Defense will hire an independent engineering company to review allegations that pumps installed in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina weren't adequately tested and could fail during a storm. Acting Inspector General Gordon Heddell said he has ordered his staff to begin work immediately on a contract to look at tests done before the Army Corps of Engineers installed the pumps, and at the pumps themselves. It was not clear how long that would take. "Based upon my review, and the need for public confidence in New Orleans' flood protection system, I have concluded that an outside opinion is warranted," Heddell wrote in a letter to the U.S. Office of Special Counsel.

Cardinal Health Inc. recalled 201,000 pumps used in its Alaris drug-infusion systems after reports of two deaths and an injury related to manufacturing defects. Pumps shipped before Sept. 27 may contain improperly assembled springs that could cause overdoses at hospitals, leading to "serious adverse health consequences" including death, the Dublin, Ohio-based company said in a statement dated Dec. 20 disclosing the voluntary recall. Customers were told of the action Nov. 5, Cardinal said on its website.

Federal officials plan to pump from the water table near a blocked mine drainage tunnel to ease pressure from more than a billion gallons of trapped water that locals fear could cascade through the historic mining town of Leadville. Pumps will be installed at an abandoned mine shaft next week, Lake County Commissioner Carl Schaefer said. The move will give federal officials time to work on a plan to drill into the damaged tunnel, then pump backed-up contaminated water to a treatment plant.

The company introduced last year as a financially powerful production partner for KCET-TV has been reduced to a tiny operation that has been late on some of its bills, according to several people familiar with the company. In addition, the company relied on mass-market DVDs, and not just its own archive, for some segments of a nostalgia program it makes for the public television station, according to these people. Four people who have worked for Eyetronics Media & Studios said in interviews that they and others had gone without pay for as long as six weeks during the last year.

Gas prices have soared about 15% in the last six months, hitting $3.94 a gallon on average nationwide, and $4.29 in California. The mood of motorists? Meh. Partisan finger-pointing aside, polls suggest that most people aren't as worked up over gas prices as they were four years ago, when a gallon of regular hit a national average of $4.11 a gallon. Nor has there been as much clamor for drastic measures, such as tapping the Strategic Petroleum Reserve in Texas and Louisiana.

SACRAMENTO - The bullet train boondoggle is looking more like a bullet bull's-eye. But one big question lingers: Where are the bucks? And even if the state can find the bucks, should it spend them on building a high-speed rail line, a cool choo-choo? Especially when higher education in California is such a train wreck? Education - kindergarten through college - should be our No. 1 priority, for both moral and economic reasons. Producing an educated, skilled workforce for the increasingly competitive global economy is even more important than creating temporary track-laying jobs.

SACRAMENTO - An elected state tax collector wants to save strapped California motorists money by freezing the sales tax on gasoline whenever the pump price jumps above $4 a gallon. The idea, said George Runner, a Republican member of the State Board of Equalization, is to put a few bucks back in consumers' pockets rather than provide a small windfall to local governments. Gasoline prices in California averaged $4.33 on Wednesday, according to AAA's Daily Fuel Gauge Report.

Beyond tensions over Iran and refinery problems, the recent jump in gasoline prices stems partly from an encouraging sign: The economy is improving. The demand for crude oil has risen as the recovery from the severe global recession has picked up steam in the U.S. and abroad. That, in turn, has helped fuel higher prices at the pump, economists and industry analysts said. "A lot of what drives prices is projection of future demand," said Carl A. Larry, president of Oil Outlooks and Opinions, a research and consulting firm.

Billionaire political patrons filled the coffers of the presidential "super PACs" last month, spotlighting once again the enormous influence a tiny cadre of wealthy donors is having on the 2012 race. The biggest donations came from casino magnate Sheldon Adelson and his family, who pumped an additional $5.5 million into the pro-Newt Gingrich super PAC Winning Our Future in February — 95% of the money the group raised, according to documents filed Tuesday with the Federal Election Commission.

The recent article (Jan. 15) regarding the purchase of new pumps and valves to speed the collection of storm water runoff missed the mark. To imply that the Orange County Water District bought equipment based on an error-filled report misleads the public into thinking that a poor public policy decision was made by the district's staff and board. Nothing could be further from the truth. The district made a decision to select this equipment from one manufacturer in keeping with sound public policy based on saving the public money.

Some residents continue to oppose construction of a water pumping station at Hisamatsu Tamura Elementary School, despite a decision to move the proposed well away from nearby homes. The wells would provide water to Newport Beach. At a public hearing before the Fountain Valley School District Board of Trustees last week, some residents said the pump station should not be built on school grounds.

Sen. Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.), a soft-spoken accountant with a low profile on Capitol Hill, is championing a high-octane cause: increasing the federal gasoline tax at a time of high fuel prices. Conceding it's "not a very popular" idea, he says the 18.4-cent-per-gallon tax -- last raised in 1993 -- should be indexed to inflation to ensure funding for road improvements without putting Uncle Sam further in the red. "This isn't something easy to do," he told colleagues. "It's something that we have to consider.

California motorists bludgeoned by the nation's second highest average retail gasoline prices may finally see some relief in the coming days. That's because the price for the nation's most expensive raw or unfinished gasoline, known as Carbob, has plummeted from its February highs, according to Tom Kloza, chief oil analyst for the Oil Price Information Service. Carbob is an acronym for a tongue-twisting mouthful: California Reformulated Gasoline Blendstock for Oxygenate Blending.