Calif. gas prices spike in downward trend

Calif. gas prices spike in downward trend

CAMARILLO, Calif.

While gas prices nationwide are on a downward trend, California is experiencing a spike that could see prices top $4 a gallon before easing again, according to analysts.

A shortage in oil and other components used in refining California’s unique blend of less-polluting gas was one of the reasons for the price jump, industry analyst Trilby Lundberg said Sunday.

Nationwide, the average price of gasoline dropped 2 cents over the past two weeks to $2.83 a gallon.

Greece is pressured to back deal or think about leaving euro

BRUSSELS

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and skeptical European leaders negotiated past a self-imposed deadline into the early hours of today, with talks stuck on how Greece would guarantee austerity measures in exchange for a rescue package to prevent its banks from collapsing.

If the talks don’t succeed, some of Greece’s eurozone partners warned, the country could be temporarily forced out of the euro, the European single currency that Greece has been a part of since 2002. No country has ever left the joint currency, which launched in 1999, and there is no mechanism in place for one to do so.

The leaders are discussing Greece’s request for a three-year, $59.5 billion financial package.

NASA flyby will sweep past Pluto

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla.

Pluto, reveal thyself, and Earthlings, enjoy the show.

On Tuesday, NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft will sweep past Pluto and present the previously unexplored world in all its icy glory. It promises to be the biggest planetary unveiling in a quarter-century. The curtain hasn’t been pulled back like this since NASA’s Voyager 2 shed light on Neptune in 1989.

New Horizons has traveled 3 billion miles over 91/2 years to get to this historic point. The fastest spacecraft ever launched, it carries the most-powerful suite of science instruments ever sent on a scouting and reconnaissance mission of a new, unfamiliar world.

Guarantees principal scientist Alan Stern, “We’re going to knock your socks off.”

The size of a baby grand piano, the spacecraft will come closest to Pluto on Tuesday morning at 7:49 a.m. EDT. That’s when New Horizons is predicted to pass within 7,767 miles of Pluto. Fourteen minutes later, the spacecraft will zoom within 17,931 miles of Charon, Pluto’s jumbo moon.

Pope: Welcome all

ASUNCION, Paraguay

Pope Francis put into practice his call for the world’s poor and powerless to not be left on the margins of society by visiting a flood-prone slum Sunday and insisting that the Catholic Church be a place of welcome for all – sick and sinners especially.

On the final day of his three-nation South American tour, Francis offered a message of hope and mission to the residents of the Banado Norte shantytown and to an estimated 1 million people gathered for his farewell Mass.

54 zoo stingrays die

CHICAGO

Officials say all 54 stingrays in a popular exhibit at a suburban Chicago zoo died because the oxygen levels in their tank dropped too low.

The Chicago Zoological Society released a statement Saturday saying the four southern stingrays and 50 cow-nose rays in the Brookfield Zoo exhibit were in a shallow pool that allows visitors to touch and feed the creatures. Most died Friday afternoon.

Bill Zeigler, senior vice president at the society, says zoo staffers tried to save the rays and are devastated by their deaths.

Associated Press