US gas prices dip 2 cents per gallon

US gas prices dip 2 cents per gallon

LOS ANGELES

The average price of regular gasoline in the U.S. has fallen 2 cents a gallon during the past two weeks.

Industry analyst Trilby Lundberg said Sunday a gallon of regular now costs $3.29 on average. Gas is 30 cents a gallon cheaper than this time last year

Lundberg says the price has dropped more than a nickel per gallon in the past month, but it’s unlikely to fall further unless crude oil prices plunge.

Of the cities surveyed in the lower 48 states, Billings, Mont., has the lowest price at $2.99 a gallon and San Diego has the highest price at $3.63.

Company recalls 8.7M pounds of meat

PETALUMA, CALIF.

A Northern California company is recalling more than 8.7 million pounds of beef products because it processed diseased and unhealthy animals without a full federal inspection, federal officials said Saturday.

That’s just over a year’s worth of meat products processed by Rancho Feeding Corp., which has been under scrutiny by the USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service. The agency said that without full inspection, the recalled products are unfit for human consumption.

The products were processed from Jan. 1, 2013, through Jan. 7, 2014, and shipped to distribution centers and retail stores in California, Florida, Illinois and Texas.

AOL reverses plan on retirement

AOL Corp. CEO Tim Armstrong has abandoned an unpopular plan to delay company contributions to employee retirement accounts and apologized for citing two high-cost births as part of the impetus for the plan.

“We heard you on this topic,” Armstrong wrote in a letter to employees Saturday.

In a move to cut costs, AOL had decided to pay matching 401(k) retirement contributions in one lump sum at the end of the year. Workers who left the company before the end of the year would have received no contributions, and all workers would sacrifice interest or earnings on those contributions throughout the year.

After a worker backlash, Armstrong said the company would return to depositing matching contributions every pay period throughout the year.

Mark Zuckerberg: biggest giver in 2013

SEATTLE

Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, were the most-generous American philanthropists in 2013, with a donation of 18 million shares of Facebook stock, valued at more than $970 million, to a Silicon Valley nonprofit in December.

The Chronicle of Philanthropy reported today that Zuckerberg’s donation was the largest charitable gift on the public record in 2013 and put the young couple at the top of the magazine’s annual list of 50 most-generous Americans in 2013.

The top 50 contributors made donations last year totaling $7.7 billion, plus pledges of $2.9 billion.

Vindicator wire reports

Selected local stocks

STOCK, DIVIDENDCLOSECHANGE

Aqua America, .61, 23.87 .36

Avalon Holdings,5.43—.04

Clear Channel, .61 21.40 .69

Cortland Bancorp, 10.50.00

Farmers Nat., .126.91 —.01

First Energy, 2.20, 30.77.31

FirstMerit Corp., .64,19.98 .09

First Niles Financial, .32,6.20.00

First Place Fin., .00.00

FNB Corp., .48,11.72—.05

General Motors,36.10.87

General Electric, .76,25.17.21

Huntington Bank, .20, 9.02—.02

JP Morgan Chase, 1.52,56.69.21

Key Corp, .22,12.72.07

LaFarge, 17.88 .25

Macy’s, 1.00, 53.07.53

Parker Hannifin, 1.80, 118.844.56

PNC, 1.76,79.88.05

RTI Intl. Metals,30.73.65

Simon Prop. Grp.,4.60,156.651.33

Stoneridge 9.83 .05

United Community Fin. 3.44.04

Selected prices at 4 p.m. Friday. Provided by Stifel. Not to be construed as an offer or recommendation to buy or sell any security.