BUSINESS
August 2, 2012 | By Ronald D. White
Retail gasoline prices have risen for a third straight week, according to the Automobile Club of Southern California's Weekend Gas Watch. But motorists might find some solace in the fact that it could be worse. They could be living in New York City or Chicago or Detroit, to name a few other big cities. “Oil prices are still in the $85-$90 a barrel range and providing some upward pressure to gas prices,” said Auto Club spokesman Jeffrey Spring. “However, other states have seen much larger price increases over the past month.
CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
June 19, 2012 | By Ari Bloomekatz, Los Angeles Times
The $930-million light rail Expo Line will finally reach into Culver City on Wednesday, marking the first time rail service will serve the traffic-choked Westside since the last days of the Red Car trolleys in the mid-1900s. Transportation officials will open the Culver City station - near Washington and National boulevards - beginning about noon after a celebration with elected leaders. Officials opened most of the first phase of the line in late April, allowing commuters to travel 7.9 miles between downtown Los Angeles and the eastern edge of Culver City in about half an hour.
BUSINESS
April 19, 2012 | By Ronald D. White, Times Staff Writer
The fifth straight week of gas price declines in Southern California has finally brought motorists back in range of what they were paying at the pump last year, according to the Automobile Club of Southern California's Weekend Gas Watch. The average cost of a gallon of regular gasoline in the Los Angeles-Long Beach area, for example, fell another four cents since last week to $4.228, the Automobile Club said. That was 15.7 cents a gallon lower than last month's price and just a penny a gallon higher than what motorists were paying last year.
CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
December 17, 2011 | By Paul Pringle, Los Angeles Times
A federal inquiry has concluded that the U.S. Forest Service failed to use all the aircraft that might have been available during the critical early hours of the 2009 Station fire, but the findings left unanswered key questions of why the planes and helicopters were not deployed. The report Friday by the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, also said the Forest Service should clarify its policies on using aircraft and ground crews from local and state agencies.
CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
April 29, 2011 | By Paul Pringle, Los Angeles Times
Foothill residents and Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Burbank) criticized the U.S. Forest Service on Thursday for moving too slowly to commission a new fleet of night-flying aircraft to fight fires like the devastating Station blaze. At a packed meeting in the Altadena Library, residents who lost their homes in the 2009 conflagration also pleaded with federal investigators to determine how and why the Forest Service let the fire become the biggest in Los Angeles County history. A U.S. Government Accountability Office representative said it had assigned two full-time investigators to its Station fire inquiry, which began several months ago and is expected to continue until the end of the year.
CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
March 31, 2011 | By Shan Li, Los Angeles Times
Bernard B. Roth, founder of South Gate-based World Oil Corp. and an early promoter of self-service gas stations at a time when pumping your own gas was considered novel and possibly dangerous, has died. He was 95. He died Sunday night at his Beverly Hills home from complications of old age, his sons Steve and Bob said. Like many of Southern California's older entrepreneurs, Roth came to California from elsewhere. Born June 27, 1915, in St. Louis, Roth was 15 when he moved with his family to California and only 22 when he bought his first gas station at Florence and Normandie avenues in South Los Angeles.