US gas prices hold steady despite production cut

US gas prices hold steady despite production cut

CAMARILLO, Calif.

The average price of regular grade gasoline is unchanged nationally over the past two weeks, holding steady at $2.20 a gallon.

Industry analyst Trilby Lundberg said Sunday that refiners have had little time to react to last week’s announcement by major oil-producing countries to slash output. Many retailers have yet to see big price increases.

Lindberg says to expect higher prices after OPEC’s decision to cut production. She says prices may fall if financial markets don’t believe the cuts will stick.

Gas in San Diego was the highest in the continental United States at $2.69 a gallon on average on Friday. The low average was in Houston at $1.91 a gallon.

Dylann Roof wants lawyers back on death-penatly case

COLUMBIA, S.C.

The white man charged with the shooting deaths of nine black parishioners at a South Carolina church wants to stop acting as his own lawyer, at least for now.

The request filed Sunday comes a week after a federal judge allowed Dylann Roof to represent himself in the June 2015 slayings at Emanuel AME Church.

In a handwritten request, the 22-year-old Roof asks U.S. District Judge Richard Gergel to bring his defense team back on board for the guilt phase of his federal death-penalty trial, which begins this week in Charleston.

Roof then says he wants to go back to representing himself for the penalty phase.

Mummers seek inclusive tone after insensitive displays

PHILADELPHIA

Organizers of the Mummers Parade are hopeful that cultural education efforts will help the city’s annual New Year’s celebration be more respectful and inclusive following a string of racially and ethnically offensive displays.

The initiatives include sensitivity-training sessions and online videos that explore issues such as cultural appropriation and privilege, sexual identity and the rules of satire. Mummers’ leaders also published an open letter last week condemning “expressions of hate and bigotry.”

The Mummers Parade – a Philadelphia tradition since 1901 – is often likened to New Orleans’ Mardi Gras, or Carnival celebrations in the Caribbean and South America. It includes more than 10,000 performers divided into brigades.

Spectators line the streets, and the parade is broadcast live on TV.

New stock link widens access to China’s Nasdaq

HONG KONG

Trading has begun on a new cross-border stock trading link between Hong Kong and the neighboring Chinese city of Shenzhen, the latest step to widen access to China’s markets for global investors.

The new link gives international investors the opportunity to buy and sell high-growth small and midcap stocks traded on the exchange in the southern boomtown of Shenzhen.

Its debut today follows the launch of a similar link between Hong Kong and China’s main exchange in Shanghai two years ago.

Government officials and executives marked the occasion in Hong Kong by banging a gong and toasting each other with champagne.

Associated Press