Wednesday, November 28, 2012

GAS PRICES: Did oil firms manipulate market, senetors ask... Press enterprise.. Nov. 28, 2012

GAS PRICES: Did oil firms manipulate market, senators ask


 /AP
California Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer are among those calling for a federal probe of gas price increases they say might have come as a result of market manipulation by oil companies in the West. 
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November 27, 2012; 05:54 PM 
WASHINGTON – A group of lawmakers including California Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer is calling upon federal authorities to launch an investigation into possible market manipulation by oil companies, following a pair of gas price spikes that drove fuel costs above $4 per gallon across the West.
In a letter sent Tuesday, Nov. 27, to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, the contingent of six U.S. senators, all Democrats, urged the Justice Department's Oil and Gas Price Fraud Working Group to conduct a "refinery-by-refinery level probe" of the May and October price increases.
Earlier this month, a report from McCullough Research, a Portland-based energy consulting firm, concluded that industry explanations for the price spikes were contradicted by emissions data. Specifically, the research indicated that some West Coast oil refineries may have been producing oil last May despite public reports that they were shuttered for maintenance. Also, both spikes came while crude oil, the main driver of gasoline prices, was decreasing, the senators note in their request for an investigation.
"Taken together we believe these facts paint a picture of a highly unusual set of concurrent events in West Coast petroleum markets," they wrote. "Given the hit to American families and businesses from gasoline price spikes, we urge the Working Group to use every existing authority and regulation to identify, stop, and prosecute any and all instances of false reporting, manipulation, or anticompetitive behavior in the West Coast petroleum wholesale markets."
An industry official said the petroleum companies dispute the notion that any false reporting or manipulation took place.
"We went through a very difficult time in the marketplace in the past few months," Western States Petroleum Association spokesman Tupper Hull said. "We experienced some very real and demonstrable disruptions in supply."
Hull said members have Congress have made similar appeals to authorities in the past and, despite dozens of investigations, the petroleum industry has never been found to have manipulated prices.
The McCullough report, however found that such manipulation could be easy to coordinate between companies.
"In highly concentrated industries, the exercise of market power through production reductions or cooperative pricing can require no more than an email or a phone call," it read.

RIALTO: Man convicted in bus driver killing.. Press Enterprise Nov. 28, 2012

RIALTO: Man convicted in bus driver's killing


Larry Kester, 47, of Fontana was fatally stabbed May 7, 2010 while driving an Omnitrans bus in Rialto. 
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STAFF WRITER 
November 27, 2012; 05:41 PM 
A jury that convicted a Rialto man of murdering a 2010 Fontana bus driver in 2010 will next have to decide whether he is insane.
Robert Darrell Johnson, 36, was found guilty of murder Tuesday, Nov. 27, for stabbing an Omnitrans driver on board a bus near a busy Rialto intersection in May 2010. The stabbing caused the bus to crash into a tree.
The jury also found a special allegation true that he used a knife.
Lawrence Kester, 47, was the father of eight and driving his normal route on Base Line from San Bernardino to Fontana when Johnson attacked him on the bus, which was carrying four other passengers. Authorities said the attack was without warning or provocation. No other passengers were injured.
Police said Johnson ran through a bank, where he dropped a knife, and into a supermarket, where he was arrested.
Johnson pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to the murder charge. A jury is set to return Wednesday to begin hearing evidence in the sanity phase of the trial.
Leading up to the trial, a judge had initially ruled Johnson incompetent to stand trial, based on two doctor's reports on his mental fitness. Johnson was ordered placed in a psychiatric facility and to undergo medication.
He was reevaluated in May, where doctors reported he was stabilized on medication and the judge found him fit to stand trial, according to court records. He had no prior criminal record in Riverside or San Bernardino counties.
Johnson could face up to a life sentence for the murder charge