US gas prices drop

US gas prices drop

CAMARILLO, Calif.

The average price of gasoline has dropped 8 cents over the past two weeks, to $1.82 a gallon.

Industry analyst Trilby Lundberg said Sunday that the price is 37 cents per gallon under its year-ago point.

Lundberg says the price drop may continue if crude oil costs continue to slide.

In the Lower 48 states, the highest average price of regular gasoline was $2.62 per gallon in Los Angeles. The lowest was $1.44 in Tulsa, Okla.

Report: Ford to build auto plant in Mexico

NEW YORK

Published reports are saying that Ford plans to build a new auto plant in Mexico, with plans to rev up production there.

According to The Wall Street Journal, Ford plans to build a new assembly complex in San Luis Potosi and expand an existing facility near Mexico City.

The Journal says the Dearborn, Mich., carmaker will add 500,000 units of annual capacity there, beginning in 2018. That would be more than double last year’s production in that country.

4th patient dies after mold outbreak

PITTSBURGH

A fourth transplant patient who contracted a fungal infection during a mold outbreak at a western Pennsylvania hospital has died, officials said Sunday.

The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center confirmed the death of Che DuVall, a 70-year-old retired glass cutter who was diagnosed with the infection in September, a month after undergoing a double lung transplant.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said four organ-transplant patients who developed a mold infection at UPMC likely got it from time spent in a “negative pressure” room normally reserved for those who already had infections.

Police: 2 dead after post-parade shooting

PASS CHRISTIAN, MISS.

South Mississippi police say a shooting after a Mardi Gras parade in Pass Christian has left two people dead and four others wounded.

Police Chief Tim Hendricks confirmed the number of dead and wounded to WLOX-TV. “It’s chaos,” he told The Sun Herald. “We are roping off the area and collecting evidence and trying to deal with traffic.”

Pass Christian is a city of about 5,300 on Mississippi’s Gulf Coast, about 45 miles east-northeast of New Orleans. About 50,000 people had attended the St. Paul Carnival Association’s parade, which broke up before the shooting erupted north of its route, Hendricks said.

The shootings occurred a day after parade accidents in south Louisiana injured a man and a woman.

Police in Lafayette, La., told media that a man fell from the top level of a float during a Mardi Gras parade there.

Baton Rouge, La., EMS spokesman Mike Chustz told The Advocate that a float also hit a pedestrian during the Spanish Town parade. Cpl. L’Jean McKneely, a Baton Rouge police spokesman, said in an email Sunday that he didn’t know many details about the accident.

New England to get brunt of snowstorm

boston

Forecasters say parts of New England could get the brunt of a snowstorm that’s heading for the east coast.

The National Weather Service on Sunday issued a blizzard warning for southeast Massachusetts, including Cape Cod and the islands. Up to 18 inches of snow could fall from this morning through the evening. Whiteout conditions and 40 mph winds are expected.

The rest of Massachusetts, plus Rhode Island and eastern Connecticut, could see winter storm conditions with 4 to 8 inches of accumulation today.

Associated Press