Glendale, California:
Holiday travel on the rebound
DOWNTOWN — Thousands of area residents renewed travel regimens this Memorial Day weekend, pouring onto highways and into airports as the nation officially ushered in the summer travel season.
Be it falling gas prices, enticing hotel and car rental rates or a slight uptick in consumer confidence, the Southland was expected to see nearly an 8% increase in the number of residents traveling over the holiday weekend, according to the Automobile Club of Southern California.
Denver, Colorado:
Memorial Day weekend brings lower gas prices in Denver
Gas prices in Denver have dropped a few cents this week as motorists fuel up for Memorial Day weekend driving.
The price of a gallon of regular gas in Denver costs an average of $2.636 cents Friday, down from $2.68 a week earlier, according to the American Automobile Association's Daily Fuel Gauge Report.
Mid-grade gas averages $2.819 in Denver on Friday, while premium is $2.946 and diesel is $2.984 -- all a few cents below prices of a week ago.
Everett, Washington:
Expect heavier traffic during holiday weekend
Traffic for the entire holiday weekend is expected to increase compared to last year.
It’s the first time since 2005 that experts anticipate heavier Memorial Day weekend volumes on the region’s highways and roads.
About 4.3 million people say they plan to travel by automobile in the West Coast states, according to AAA of Washington.
Columbus, Ohio:
AAA forecast: Cheaper gas, more travelers over Memorial Day
The American Automobile Association is projecting Memorial Day weekend travel to increase by more than 5 percent this year, fueled by lower gas prices.
About 32 million Americans will travel over the weekend, compared with 30.5 million last year, AAA said. More than 1.1 million Ohioans will travel 50 miles or more, up from 1 million a year ago.
A recent decline in gas prices is a key factor in the expected upswing in drivers hitting the road, AAA said. Regular gas prices in the Columbus area on Friday averaged $2.48 a gallon, down from $2.76 a month ago and below $2.60 in the same weekend last year. Average gas prices across the state were at $2.55 a gallon, unchanged from a year ago.
New Jersey:
N.J. gasoline prices drop in time for Memorial Day weekend travels
New Jerseyans can travel to their picnics, beaches and Memorial Day ceremonies this weekend on fuel that is much less expensive than originally feared.
Despite dire predictions earlier in the year that gas would hit $3 a gallon this weekend — the unofficial start of summer — the average price for a gallon of regular gas in New Jersey fell 11 cents over the last three weeks, from $2.81 to $2.70.
That paralleled a national drop from $2.92 to $2.78.
Consequently, AAA of New Jersey is forecasting a 7.5 percent increase in the number of New Jerseyans traveling more than 50 miles from home this Memorial Day, compared to last year. At the same time, the New Jersey Turnpike Authority expects about a 2.5 percent traffic increase on both the Turnpike and Garden State Parkway.
"We have indications from our businesses that reservations are good," said Diane Wieland, Cape May County’s director of tourism. "It’s been one cold winter and we keep hearing that people can’t wait to get out and do something fun."
"...people can't wait to get out and do something fun."
Do you think THESE people are having fun?
Local shrimpers helping the cleanup effort in Louisiana are reporting health problems after a plane spraying chemical dispersants on the oil spill passed within a mile of their boats. They claim that despite attending classes on petroleum waste management, they were not given protective gear, and are still using their old fishing boots.
BP responded that it is conducting constant air quality studies, and they appear to be within safe limits.
Another group of relief workers were taken to a New Orleans hospital, after bouts of nausea, vomiting, and severe headaches, in spite of having been properly trained and wearing protective gear. The hospital said they had been exposed to some unknown irritant.
As is his wont, BP's chairman, Tony Blair lookalike Tony Hayward, who is rapidly replacing Lloyd Blankfein in the public consciousness as the poster child for corporate scumbaggery and who is sure to be played by Michael Sheen in the movie, blames the workers' illness on food poisoning.
Even Joey the Intern Killer Scarborough has been reduced to agreeing with Ed Schultz about this guy, who was quoted this weekend as saying that no one wants this situation resolved more than he does so he can "get his life back", noting that the shrimpers and fishermen of the Gulf coast will never, ever get THEIRS back.
But while Americans were going away with Lucille in the 21st century equivalents of their grandfathers' Merry Oldsmobiles, how many do you think put together the fuel they used going to the beach with what is happening in the Gulf of Mexico?
I graduated high school in the middle of the 1973 Arab Oil Embargo, and graduated college in the middle of the 1977 one. I remember waking up early on my odd or even day and waiting in line for an hour for gasoline. That was over thirty years ago, and despite that energy crisis, the Exxon Valdez, $4 gasoline two summers ago, thousands of dead American soldiers in the service of the Bush family's (and others') oil interests -- soldiers who were largely forgotten yesterday amidst the sun and surf and zeppoles and Kohls Frozen Custard -- we still insist that the gas pump will always be working and that nothing bad happens to get that petroleum from its source to the SUVs that far too many Americans still insist is their birthright to drive.
What will it take before we learn? I realize that stupidity is now regarded in this country as a virtue, as evidenced by the rise of the almost incomprehensibly idiotic Sarah Palin, but have we become so mindless that we can no longer even add 2 + 2?
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