Free Republic

Price of oil rises 30 percent in 2010; gasoline prices could hit $4 a gallon in 2011 NEW YORK (AP) -- The price of oil is poised for another run at $100 a barrel after a global economic rebound sent it surging 34 percent since May. That could push gasoline prices to $4 a gallon by summer in some parts of the country, experts say. Flying, shipping a package and ordering a pizza all likely would get more expensive in the new year if that happens and companies pass along higher energy costs. Some economists say rising energy prices will...

Saying transit agencies need financial help, legislative Democrats announced a budget plan Friday that digs up extra cash for bus and rail in California while boosting the state general fund. The proposal, to be heard at the Senate budget committee Tuesday, would allow local governments to establish a fee at the gas pump – possibly a fraction of a penny or a few pennies per gallon. Metropolitan areas could spend that money on transit to help comply with state greenhouse gas reduction requirements. Democrats said they have not decided whether local governments could impose the fee on their own, or...

Is anyone really surprised to discover the same state government that has mismanaged itself into a $20 billion budget deficit this year also managed to fritter away $75 million on new furniture, vehicles and other discretionary items last year while claiming to be even more impoverished? Sacramento's government culture seems to view spending other peoples' money as some kind of bureaucrat's birthright. A parade of state workers testified this week before an Assembly committee to explain why even as the state was groping with ways to close last year's $60 billion deficit, and even in the face of executive orders...

Afghanistan crisis paves way for return of the Taliban (Filed: 27/06/2006) Five years after the West promised to rebuild Afghanistan, the country is facing its worst crisis since the Taliban was overthrown. Hamid Karzai has criticised the West's refusal to help his government with more money and troops earlier on. President Hamid Karzai and his western backers are seriously disillusioned with each other, while the Islamic militia is resurgent and people are being killed at a rate not seen since the 2001 American-led invasion. At a recent reception for the Queen's 80th birthday at the new British Council in Kabul...

<p>When Democratic political consultant Darry Sragow showed up for the first meeting of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's bond-measure campaign, he met an unfamiliar sight.</p> <p>"I look around and say, 'This looks like a corporate boardroom, a lot of guys wearing white shirts and ties,'" Sragow said of the Jan. 14 meeting in the office of veteran strategist Rick Claussen. "It was not a meeting of Democrats. It was, relatively speaking, very corporate."</p>