The gasoline prices at the BP @ Apperson & Colorado in Salem, VA were:
| Grade | Price |
|---|---|
| Regular | $3.079 |
| Mid | $3.179 |
| Premium | $3.339 |
| Diesel | $3.699 |
| Kerosene | $3.499 |
Diesel and Kerosene prices were up 10 cents per gallon today.
The gasoline prices at the BP @ Apperson & Colorado in Salem, VA were:
| Grade | Price |
|---|---|
| Regular | $3.079 |
| Mid | $3.179 |
| Premium | $3.339 |
| Diesel | $3.599 |
| Kerosene | $3.399 |
Regular and mid-grade unleaded prices were down 2 cents per gallon today.
Next week, statewide staff cuts by the Virginia Employment Commission (VEC) will land some of its employees on the other side of the counter — or online — filing claims for unemployment benefits.
Citing insufficient federal funding for operations, the VEC said layoffs are unavoidable. The state agency is eliminating 157 positions. The last work day for most affected employees will be March 14.
The Roanoke branch is losing 11 of 34 employees, and Martinsville is losing half of its staff.
Read (Roanoke Times)
Americans filed for bankruptcy in growing numbers in February, buckling under the combined weight of rising energy prices, a weakening housing market and sky-high personal debts.
An average of 3,960 bankruptcy petitions were filed **per day** nationwide last month, up 18% from January and up 28% from a year earlier.
February was the busiest month for filings since Congress overhauled the bankruptcy law in 2005. Bankruptcy experts said the rise was particularly worrisome because those changes made filing for bankruptcy more complicated and expensive.
The latest figures show the financial pain is spreading from states like California and Florida, which exemplified the housing boom and subsequent bust, to those along the Eastern Seaboard like Maryland, Virginia and Delaware, which were among the 10 states with the largest percentage increase in filings in January and February.
[Read](http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/05/business/05bankruptcy.html?ex=1362373200&en=70241fad9671e5d6&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss “Read the Article”) (New York Times)
The gasoline prices at the BP @ Apperson & Colorado in Salem, VA were:
| Grade | Price |
|---|---|
| Regular | $3.099 |
| Mid | $3.199 |
| Premium | $3.339 |
| Diesel | $3.599 |
| Kerosene | $3.399 |
Regular and mid-grade unleaded prices are up 2 cents per gallon today.
As the economy slows and perhaps slides deeper into a recession that may already be under way, cities that have long struggled with a shortage of jobs see work becoming scarcer still. Across the nation, the labor market has been deteriorating. Many companies, long reluctant to add workers, are hunkered down and waiting for improved prospects, engaged in “a hiring strike.”
Americans with jobs are taking cuts to their work hours; those without jobs are staying out of work longer, or accepting positions that pay far less than they earned previously. Teenagers are struggling to land minimum-wage jobs at fast-food restaurants, because those positions are increasingly being filled by adults. And those with poor credit are finding that this can disqualify them from getting a job.
Some economists say the weakness of hiring in recent years may protect those with jobs against the usual impact of a recession: Many companies are so lean that the unemployment rate may not increase much. But the same trend suggests that the impacts of the slowdown are likely to be felt deeply for several years, even after the economy resumes a swift expansion.
[Read](http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/02/business/02jobs.html?ex=1362200400&en=88034792dc47f58c&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss “Read the Article”) (The New York Times)
The U.S. government’s humanitarian relief agency will significantly scale back emergency food aid to some of the world’s poorest countries this year because of soaring global food prices, and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) is drafting plans to reduce the number of recipient nations, the amount of food provided to them, or both, officials at the agency said.
USAID officials said that a 41 percent surge in prices for wheat, corn, rice and other cereals over the past six months has generated a $120 million budget shortfall that will force the agency to reduce emergency operations.
A United Nations program is confronting similar price pressures. It announced this month that it was facing a $505 million shortfall due to soaring food and fuel costs, and would cut distribution if it did not receive new funds.
[Read](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/29/AR2008022904029.html?wpisrc=newsletter “Read the Article”) (Washington Post)
The gasoline prices at the [BP @ Apperson & Colorado](http://autos.msn.com/everyday/GasStations.aspx?station=19136&lat=37.2757&long=-80.05399&ico=315&m=1&l=1&zip=24153#map “MSN’s Local Prices & Mappoint Map”)
in Salem, VA were:
Grade | Price
——– | ——-
Regular | $3.079
Mid | $3.179
Premium | $3.339
Diesel | $3.599
Kerosene | $3.399
Gas prices were unchanged today.
For the month of February, unleaded prices increased 28 cents, and diesel increased 20 cents per gallon.
For calendar year 2008, unleaded increased 18 cents, and diesel increased 20 cents per gallon.
Since January 1, 2007, regular and mid-grade unleaded increased 92 cents, premium increased 98 cents, diesel increased $1.10, and kerosene increased 70 cents per gallon.
Since January 1, 2006, regular and mid-grade unleaded increased 98 cents, and premium increased $1.04 per gallon. (I didn’t record diesel and kerosene prices on this date.)
Since I started tracking gas prices on March 18, 2005, regular increased $1.12, mid-grade increased $1.15, and premium increased $1.24 per gallon. (I didn’t record diesel and kerosene prices on this date.)
The gasoline prices at the BP @ Apperson & Colorado in Salem, VA were:
| Grade | Price |
|---|---|
| Regular | $3.079 |
| Mid | $3.179 |
| Premium | $3.339 |
| Diesel | $3.599 |
| Kerosene | $3.399 |
Regular and mid-grade unleaded prices are up 2 cents, and premium’s up 4 cents per gallon today.
The gasoline prices at the BP @ Apperson & Colorado in Salem, VA were:
| Grade | Price |
|---|---|
| Regular | $3.059 |
| Mid | $3.159 |
| Premium | $3.299 |
| Diesel | $3.599 |
| Kerosene | $3.399 |
Regular and mid-grade unleaded prices were up 6 cents, and premium was up 4 cents per gallon today.
I received my third heating oil delivery of the season today, and I paid $3.249, which is 15 cents more per gallon than I paid on December 28th.
Universal Forest Products’ manufacturing facility in Fishersville closed Friday. The company cited a slowdown in the housing market as the reason for the shutdown. 25 more jobs lost…
Read (Staunton News Leader)
Jim Walter Homes is restructuring, and that includes closing 36 sales centers, including the sales center in Roanoke. More job losses…
Read (The Roanoke Times)
Soaring real estate values are prompting property owners throughout New York City to shutter grocery stores and sell to developers. In the process, another of the essential services that make New York livable is pushed further away, replaced by glittering condos and more banks.
Today there are one-third fewer supermarkets in New York’s five boroughs than there were six years ago. The impact of losing a neighborhood grocery is powerful, not only eliminating a spot where residents come together but also affecting a community’s health.
Some poor neighborhoods in central Brooklyn or the Bronx that have lacked a good supermarket for decades have the lowest rates in the city of consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables and the highest rates of diabetes and obesity — a trend that has been found in inner cities across the country.
A study found that every $1 spent on supermarket construction and operation generates $1.50 in additional economic activity, but investors have been slow to realize that grocery stores can anchor neighborhood development.
Read (Washington Post)
After years of steep decline, wood heat is back, with people flocking to dealers to buy new wood stoves, wood boilers and stoves that burn pellets made of wood byproducts. Others, to the dismay of environmentalists, are dusting off old wood-burning devices that are less efficient and more polluting.
Air pollution is still a major concern, particularly with wood boilers. A 2006 report found that average particulate emissions from one outdoor wood boiler equaled that of 22 wood stoves, 205 oil furnaces or as many as 8,000 natural gas furnaces.
Read (New York Times)