Survey: Gas prices continue to decline

Survey: Gas prices continue to decline

CAMARILLO, Calif.

A national survey of gas prices reports that Americans are paying on average 12 cents less than they were three weeks ago.

Industry analyst Trilby Lundberg said Sunday that the average for regular-grade gas is $3.26 per gallon, while midgrade averages $3.48 and premium $3.64. Retail diesel averages $3.74.

Lundberg said the price has decreased for 16 weeks, crediting lower crude-oil prices.

She forecast further cuts of a dime or more, thanks to decreases in the price of crude oil and ethanol.

In the lower 48 states, San Francisco averaged the highest average price at $3.66 per gallon, while Tulsa, Okla., had the lowest average at $2.93.

1 dead, more than 20 hurt in hayride crash

MECHANIC FALLS, Maine

A Halloween-themed hayride loaded with passengers crashed down a hill in the Maine woods and slammed into a tree, fatally injuring a teenage girl and leaving more than 20 other people hurt, police said Sunday.

Seventeen-year-old Cassidy Charette of Oakland died from her injuries after the Gauntlet Haunted Night Ride wagon overturned Saturday night at a rural farm in Mechanic Falls, authorities said.

The crash “threw everyone off the trailer and into each other and into trees,” said Sgt. Joel Davis of the state fire marshal’s office. He said a mechanical problem prevented the SUV pulling the wagon from stopping.

Several actors participating in the ride’s scenes assisted the injured riders — including some performing CPR — and likely helped prevent the accident from being even worse, Davis said.

Fay hits Bermuda, becomes hurricane

KINGSTON, Jamaica

Hurricane Fay gained force Sunday over the open Atlantic after knocking out power to thousands of people in Bermuda as a strong tropical storm, just as a new storm that threatened to become a hurricane in a couple of days raced toward the eastern rim of the Caribbean.

By late Sunday afternoon, Tropical Storm Gonzalo was centered roughly 115 miles east of the French Caribbean dependency of Guadeloupe and was expected to pick up strength as it moved toward the U.S. island of Puerto Rico, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami. It is the seventh named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season.

Putin orders troops from Ukraine border

MOSCOW

Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered thousands of Russian troops near the Ukrainian border to return to their usual bases, according to his spokesman.

Dmitry Peskov told Russian news outlets late Saturday in Sochi that Putin had ordered approximately 17,600 troops to return home from Rostov, a southern region that borders east Ukraine, where pro-Russian insurgents have been battling government troops since April.

Fallen firefighters honored in ceremony

EMMITSBURG, Md.

More than 100 names of firefighters who were killed in the line of duty have been added to the National Fallen Firefighters Memorial in Maryland.

Among the 107 firefighters honored were 19 Arizona firefighters killed in a 2013 canyon fire and 10 first-responders killed in a fertilizer plant explosion in Texas last year. Ninety-eight of the firefighters honored died in 2013. Nine died in previous years.

Associated Press