Average US gas prices jump 8 cents

Average US gas prices jump 8 cents

CAMARILLO, Calif.

The average price of a gallon of regular-grade gasoline jumped 8 cents nationally over the past three weeks, to $2.40.

Industry analyst Trilby Lundberg of the Lundberg Survey said Sunday that the spike results from higher crude oil prices.

The current price is 23 cents above where it was a year ago, but well below where it was in mid-August of 2015, 2014 and 2013.

Gas in San Francisco was the most expensive in the contiguous United States at an average of $3.02 a gallon. The cheapest was in Jackson, Miss., at $2.08 a gallon.

Judge halts Nevada pot regulators’ licensing move

LAS VEGAS

For now, Nevada marijuana regulators won’t be able to issue pot distribution licenses to businesses other than liquor wholesalers after all.

The Las Vegas Review-Journal reports a judge Friday sided with the Independent Alcohol Distributors of Nevada, who have the exclusive rights to deliver recreational marijuana to sellers for 18 months.

The ruling comes a day after the Nevada Department of Taxation decided Thursday to open up the market to meet demand since legal recreational marijuana sales started July 1.

The judge said the alcohol distributors are owed their due process after winning the rights from the November election ballot question approved by voters.

Tropical Storm Gert forms in Atlantic

MIAMI

A tropical depression in the Atlantic Ocean has formed into Tropical Storm Gert but it’s not expected to make landfall.

The National Hurricane Center said Sunday that Gert was centered about 505 miles west-southwest of Bermuda and had maximum sustained winds of 40 mph. It is moving toward the north-northwest at 10 mph.

Iran lawmakers raise spending, challenge US

TEHRAN, IRAN

Chanting “Death to America,” Iran’s parliament voted unanimously Sunday to increase spending on its ballistic missile program and the foreign operations of its paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, part of a sanctions bill mirroring a new U.S. law targeting the country.

While offering hundreds of millions of dollars in new funding, the lawmakers’ bill offered a tactic as old as the slogan shouted since the 1979 Islamic Revolution – using America’s own tactics against it.

The vote salves public anger in Iran over U.S. President Donald Trump’s constant threats to renegotiate or abandon the nuclear deal struck by world powers under his predecessor. While lawmakers stressed the bill wouldn’t violate that agreement, it ensures those both home and abroad know Iran will continue confronting America either in the Persian Gulf or legislatively, analysts say.

At least 17 killed in attack on restaurant

OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso

Suspected Islamic extremists opened fire at a Turkish restaurant late Sunday in the capital of Burkina Faso, killing at least 17 people in the second such attack on a restaurant popular with foreigners in the last two years.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the violence, which continued into the early hours today with yet another heavy exchange of gunfire overheard by witnesses.

Communication Minister Remi Dandjinou told journalists that at least 17 people were dead and eight others wounded, according to a provisional toll. The victims came from several nationalities, he said. Among the dead was at least one French national.

Associated Press