State Gas Prices Expected to Rise 10 to 20 Cents
The oil pipeline shutdown in Alaska could boost gasoline prices 10 to 20 cents a gallon in California, although prices would level out in about a month, an expert said Monday, the Sacramento Bee reports. The price spike demonstrates California’s dependence on Alaskan crude. Prices around the rest of the nation are expected to increase a more modest 5 to 10 cents a gallon, experts say. The latest jump at the pump would bring prices back, or nearly back, to the record levels Californians experienced in May.
Home Building Slams on the Brakes
The home-building sector received a pounding in the second quarter. And the hammering is going to continue in this quarter, too, the Los Angeles Daily News reports. “If bad news came in torrents in the first quarter, the second quarter was a tidal wave,” analyst Steven East of Susquehanna Financial Group LLLP said in an assessment that arrived in my in-box on Friday. “We believe participants in this sector will look back and say this was the quarter that reality set in for both investors and management teams.” The badness that came forth in earnings reports included widespread land option write-offs, plummeting order rates and gross margins, and skyrocketing cancellation rates, according to East. Some of this visited Calabasas-based The Ryland Group, which sells homes in 16 states coast to coast.
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THQ Gets SEC Stock-Option Request
Video game publisher THQ Inc. said Monday that the Securities and Exchange Commission requested documents and information related to its stock option grant practices from Jan. 1, 1996, to the present, the Los Angeles times reports, citing a Reuters story. The SEC has more than 80 investigations underway into possible manipulation of companies’ grant dates of stock options to boost their value to executives.
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Loss of In-N-Out Founder Won’t Change Menu Plan
The new head of In-N-Out Burgers said Monday that the venerable restaurant chain would remain in family hands and stay true to its time-tested strategy , a simple menu and slow but steady growth , after the death of company matriarch Esther L. Snyder, the Los Angeles times reports. “The family is absolutely committed to keeping the company private and family operated,” said Mark Taylor, who took over as president after co-founder Snyder died Friday at the age of 86. Taylor, a 22-year company veteran, was vice president of operations before Snyder’s death and has run In-N-Out on a day-to-day basis for several years.
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Clippers Owner Sued for Discrimination
The U.S. Department of Justice on Monday sued Los Angeles Clippers owner and real estate mogul Donald Sterling for housing discrimination, claiming he refused to rent apartments to blacks and families with children, the Associated Press reports. Federal prosecutors contend that Sterling, his wife, Rochelle, and their family trust refused to rent to many prospective tenants, treated them poorly and misrepresented the availability of apartments to them in the city’s Koreatown section.
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MySpace’s New Friend: Google
Two of the biggest names on the Internet struck a nearly billion-dollar deal Monday to combine the search and advertising technology of Google Inc. with the massive online audience of News Corp.’s MySpace, the Los Angeles times reports. The agreement, worth at least $900 million to News Corp. over the next four years, capitalizes on the popularity of so-called social networking sites and may be a key step toward turning the new-media mash of teenage ruminations, artwork and photos into a viable channel for advertisers.
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Long Beach Port Gets a New COO
Harbor commissioners Monday approved appointment of a retired coast guard general to the newly created post of chief operating officer of the Port of Long Beach, the Long Beach Press-Telegram reports. Kevin Eldridge, who retired from a position overseeing much of the Coast Guard’s West Coast operations in late June, is expected to begin his new job later this month, said Port of Long Beach Executive Director Richard Steinke. Eldridge will work under Steinke as the port complex’s second-in-command and will help oversee security, pollution prevention efforts, shipping operations and public affairs duties, among other responsibilities.
