Average US gas price jumps after Harvey shuts down refineries

Average US gas price jumps after Harvey shuts down refineries

CAMARILLO, Calif.

The average price of gasoline jumped in the past two weeks after Hurricane Harvey prompted the closure of refineries.

Industry analyst Trilby Lundberg said Sunday that it was the biggest price hike recorded by the Lundberg Survey since 2011.

But she says whole gasoline prices have started to decline since refineries came back online and she expects prices at the pump will follow.

In the survey on Sept. 8, the average price of regular gasoline was up 30 cents at $2.69 per gallon. That’s 48 cents higher than a year ago.

Delayed suit against Syngenta goes to trial

MINNEAPOLIS

A test lawsuit goes to trial in Minneapolis today against Swiss agribusiness giant Syngenta for introducing a genetically-engineered corn variety before China approved it for imports.

The case alleges Viptera corn wrecked an important export market for U.S. corn and hurt prices. But Syngenta says the 2013 price drop resulted from larger market forces, not China’s rejection of Viptera.

The trial had been set for May. It would have been the first of tens of thousands of cases to go to trial. But the Minnesota trial got delayed, so a lawsuit in Kansas went first, resulting in a $218 million award to Kansas farmers. Syngenta is appealing. In a third case, an Ohio judge backed Syngenta.

Woman found dead in hotel’s freezer

ROSEMONT, ILL.

Hotel employees found the body of a missing 19-year-old Chicago woman Sunday inside a suburban hotel’s freezer.

The Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office says Kenneka Jenkins was pronounced dead at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in the Chicago suburb of Rosemont. It says her cause of death is not yet confirmed although an autopsy has been completed.

Rosemont police say hotel staff discovered Jenkins inside the walk-in freezer. They say she was last seen at a party at the hotel early Saturday. The woman’s mother, Tereasa Martin, told the Chicago Tribune that police told her Jenkins apparently let herself into the freezer while drunk.

As floods hit Italy, at least 6 are killed

ROMe

Torrential rain in Italy triggered flooding that killed at least six people Sunday in the Tuscan port of Leghorn, including a family of four who were trapped by rising water in a basement. Two other people were reported missing.

Strong winds toppled trees and parked cars were nearly submerged by floodwaters that left the streets clogged with mud.

The Italian news agency ANSA said the bodies of a 4-year-old boy, his parents and his grandfather were found in the flooded basement of their two-family home. Before dying, the grandfather managed to save the boy’s sister, state TV RaiNews24 reported.

Military is accused of laying landmines

COX’S BAZAR, Bangladesh

Myanmar’s military has been accused of planting land mines in the path of Rohingya Muslims fleeing violence in its western Rakhine state, with Amnesty International reporting two people wounded Sunday.

Refugee accounts of the latest spasm of violence in Rakhine have typically described shootings by soldiers and arson attacks on villages. But there are at least several cases that point to anti-personnel land mines or other explosives as the cause of injuries on the border with Bangladesh, where 300,000 Rohingya have fled in the past two weeks.

Associated Press