www.purdueexponent.org By Michael Williams Staff Writer The Indiana Attorney General's Office is collecting information on gas pricing in case an emergency situation is declared due to the recent increased gas rates. According to Staci Scheider, press secretary for the Indiana Attorney General's Office, the state could see a decrease in gas prices as soon as spring, but the office is still collecting an information to protect consumers from the rising prices. The recent increase in gas prices across the nation is attributed to the tensions in the Middle East, oil workers' strike in Venezuela and the colder-than-expected winter. Gas prices in Indiana are less than .01 cent below the national average all-time high of $1.7271. Andrew Stoner, deputy press secretary for Gov. Frank O'Bannon, said, "We're closely monitoring the anomalies in order to determine if an emergency needs to be declared." The governor last called the emergency in 2000 when gas prices soared due to a break in the Explorer pipeline in Canada. The governor declared the emergency to protect consumers from the rising gas prices. Prices already increased at the beginning of the year when the increased gas tax was implemented. The Indiana Petroleum Marketers and Convenience Store Association states that federal tax, Indiana gasoline tax, and state sales tax all go into figuring the prices of gas. The rest of the price comes from production, distribution and retail — all of which yield minimal return. Local businesses that are dependent on fuel are feeling the effects of the rise in gas prices as well. I. Rutlege Towing & Recovery Inc. is just one of the many business effected. Tira Clayton, of Rutledge Towing said that the company has had to make cuts in advertising and office supplies to compensate for the gas prices. With spring approaching companies will be switching from winter-grade gasoline to summer-grade — a change is required by the government. These two grades are not interchangeable. Due to the switching of grades consumers are susceptible to supply shortages, which leads to increases in price. But the supply shortage would only last until early summer. Anyone concerned with a certain gas price can submit a report by calling (866) 241-9753 or submit it online at www.in.gov/attorneygeneral.

www.washingtonpost.com Friday, March 14, 2003; Page A05

Directing unusually blunt language at Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, the top U.S. military officer in Latin America said yesterday he sees a trend toward authoritarianism in the troubled country.

Gen. James T. Hill, head of the U.S. Southern Command, gave his assessment to the Senate Armed Services Committee.

He said the street protests during the two-month general strike that crippled Venezuela's economy were "for lack of a better term, democracy in action."

He said that following the strike, Chavez's "actions may portend a move toward greater authoritarianism. In my mind, that bears watching very carefully. I have directed my people to do that."

Hill also said that U.S. efforts to help Colombia fight leftist guerrillas have been successful, but that the country's conflict will not be resolved solely by military means.

www.nytimes.com By BLOOMBERG NEWS

WASHINGTON, March 13 — Retail sales fell 1.6 percent last month, the most since November 2001, the Commerce Department reported today, as snowstorms, terrorism concerns and a bleak job market curbed Americans' interest in buying furniture and cars.

The drop was roughly three times the 0.5 percent decline economists had expected and came after a revised 0.3 percent increase in January.

"It's somewhere between bad and dismal," said Cary Leahey, senior economist at Deutsche Bank Securities in New York.

Indeed, there was reason to worry about jobs. Initial claims for jobless benefits have remained above the 400,000 level since the week of Feb. 14, the Labor Department said today. States received 420,000 applications for benefits in the week ended Saturday. That was down from the previous week's 435,000, which was the highest since mid-December. The less volatile four-week moving average of claims rose to 419,750, the highest this year.

"While the latest reading does little to disagree with the view that the labor market remains extremely weak, it offers the hope that things are not deteriorating further," said Anthony Chan, chief economist at Banc One Investment Advisers and one of the forecasters who correctly predicted the claims data.

The number of workers continuing to receive jobless benefits rose 14,000, to 3.496 million, in the week ended March 1, the highest since mid-November.

Consumer sales were reduced by the Northeast and mid-Atlantic blizzard last month that closed stores. Lackluster consumer spending would make any acceleration in growth difficult as such purchases account for a majority of economic activity.

The Commerce Department said that retail sales, excluding volatile automobile sales, fell 1 percent last month, the largest drop since the attacks of September 2001. Sales totaled $304 billion, and without autos, $232.5 billion. Both results were below forecasts.

Gasoline service station revenue increased 2.7 percent in February after a 3.8 percent rise the month before, reflecting the higher price of crude oil. The average price of all grades of gasoline at the pump rose as high as $1.70 a gallon in February, up from January's high of $1.52 and up 35 percent from $1.26 a year earlier. In the week ended March 10, the average price rose to a record $1.752 a gallon.

The surge in the cost of oil pushed up prices of goods imported into the United States for a third consecutive month in February, a separate Labor Department report said today. The import price index increased 1.3 percent after rising 1.6 percent in January, the most in nine months. Excluding petroleum, the index increased 0.4 percent, the most since April, after rising 0.3 percent.

The threat of war in Iraq and a strike in Venezuela have pushed up the benchmark price of oil, with the April delivery contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange settling yesterday at $36.01 a barrel.

news.bbc.co.uk By Helen Sewell BBC News Online science staff

Climate change was largely to blame for the collapse of the Mayan civilisation in Central America more than 1,000 years ago, research suggests.

By the middle of the 8th Century there were up to 13 million people in the Mayan population but within 200 years their cities lay abandoned.

The Mayans built complex systems of canals and reservoirs to collect rainwater for drinking in the hot, dry summers.

Despite this there has long been speculation that the whole population was wiped out by drought, but there has not been enough evidence to support this theory.

Now research published in the journal Science suggests that climate change was indeed a major factor.

Coloured bands

To investigate the Mayan decline, scientists studied the ancient build-up of sediment on the sea floor just off the northern coast of Venezuela.

They discovered layers of deposits in bands of alternating dark and light colours each about a millimetre deep. The light bands consisted of algae and tiny fossils, while the dark bands were due to sediments of the metal titanium.

The scientists say titanium was washed into the sea by rivers during the rainy seasons. Shallower dark bands, which indicate lower levels of the metal, show the rivers were flowing more weakly. The researchers say this was because there was less rain.

They have worked out that in the 9th and 10th Centuries, probably just before the Mayan civilisation collapsed, there was a long period of dry weather and three intense droughts.

Modern implications

Archaeological evidence suggests that one reason for the Mayans' initial success over other societies was that they controlled the artificial reservoirs.

If this is true, the scientists say the drought could easily have pushed the whole civilisation to the verge of collapse.

The German scientist who led the research, Gerald Haug, said this had serious implications for climate change today.

"A three-to-nine-year drought, which could be a failure of the monsoon systems in Africa or in India, and in particular the change in the background state of climate... is a very severe threat to modern humanity," he told BBC News Online.

www.theage.com.au Friday 14 March 2003, 2:30 PM

World oil prices slumped as the twisted road to war in Iraq appeared to lengthen, warm weather approached and Venezuela pumped more crude, traders said.

US President George W Bush had run in a diplomatic tangle in the UN Security Council, traders said.

"The troubles the Bush administration is having at the UN appear myriad, giving the market the impression that the imminency of war has been pushed out a bit," said Fimat USA analyst John Kilduff.

New York's reference light sweet crude contract for April delivery skidded $US1.82 to $US36.01 a barrel.

In London, the price of Brent North Sea crude oil for April delivery slid $US1.44 to $US32.47 a barrel.

The United States, looking for a way around French, Russian or Chinese vetoes, said it could allow a UN Security Council vote on war against Iraq to slip into next week or even forgo the vote altogether.

"We are still talking to the members of the Council with respect to coalescing around a position that wouldn't draw a veto, but the options remain: go for a vote and see what members say, or not go for a vote," US Secretary of State Colin Powell told Congress.

Michael McAllister, energy analyst at Fahnestock and Co, said news that Venezuela had recovered from strike action to push production up to 2.95 million barrels a day depressed prices.

"It is a jittery market that can be swayed by one story," he said.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez broke the news that the country's production had exceeded OPEC quotas, after having fallen to record lows during a crippling strike.

"Good news," Chavez announced from the Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas. "Oil production in Venezuela has reached 2.95 million barrels per day."

Expectations of lower fuel demand as spring approached in the northern hemisphere also weighed on prices, traders said.

"There are milder temperatures forecast in the States driving the natural gas, heating oil and crude lower," said Prudential Bache trader Tony Machacek in London.

"There is also talk about further delays of the UN making any decision on Iraq or tabling any further steps," he said.

Matthew Parry, commodities expert at the Economist Intelligence Unit in London, said prices would probably rise to $US40-45 per barrel if and when conflict breaks out.