NE gas prices up

NE gas prices up

The average price for gasoline across Northeast Ohio is 13 cents higher this week at $2.782 per gallon, according to AAA East Central’s Gas Price Report.

Seven of the top 10 states with the largest weekly increase hail from the region: Indiana (+15 cents), Illinois (+14 cents), Missouri (+10 cents), Ohio (+10 cents), Michigan (+8 cents), Kentucky (+8 cents) and Nebraska (+7 cents).

The national gas price average is $2.79, which is an 8-cent increase since the beginning of July. The average price for a gallon of gas in Youngstown on Monday was $2.71.

Deals, protests during Amazon Prime Day

NEW YORK

Amazon’s Prime Day has come with a wave of deals – and protests.

The company’s fifth annual Prime Day stretches two days, Monday and today, invented as an effort to try to drum up sales during sluggish summer months and sign up more users for its Prime loyalty program.

The Seattle-based e-commerce behemoth said it is offering more than a million deals. Amazon’s own products are usually among the strongest sellers.

At a warehouse in Shakopee, Minn., workers planned a strike to raise awareness for workers’ conditions. A group of tech workers in Seattle, called Amazon Employees for Climate Justice, is supporting the strike.

Telescope foes tie together, block road to Hawaii summit

MAUNA KEA, Hawaii

Hundreds of demonstrators gathered Monday at the base of Hawaii’s tallest mountain to protest the construction of a giant telescope on land that some Native Hawaiians consider sacred.

At about daybreak, a group of kupuna, or elders, sitting in chairs tied themselves together with rope and blocked the road to the summit of Mauna Kea. Another group of protesters lay prone on the ground, with their arms shackled under a grate in the road.

Scientists hope the massive telescope they planned for the site – a world-renowned location for astronomy – will help them peer back to the time just after the Big Bang and answer fundamental questions about the universe.

But some Native Hawaiians consider the land holy, as a realm of gods and a place of worship.

Police stop 4 kids who drove SUV 600 miles

CANBERRA, Australia

Four children age 10 to 14 packed fishing rods in a parent’s SUV, left a farewell note then drove more than 600 miles down the Australian east coast before they were stopped by police the next day after two fuel thefts and one aborted pursuit, officers said Monday.

When the children were stopped by police near Grafton in New South Wales state at 10:40 p.m. Sunday, they locked the doors and refused to get out, Acting Police Inspector Darren Williams said.

A police officer used a baton to break a window of the 2004 Nissan Patrol, which was reported stolen by worried parents, Williams said.

Police were not sure which child or children drove or why they left Rockhampton in Queensland state on Saturday. The children are a 14-year-old boy, two 13-year-old boys and a 10-year-old girl.

Staff/wire reports