JCam Loc: MD Eastern Shore

Tex, Those were the days for us then young's that wanted to buy a nice new car; my wife and I drove a '55 Pontiac n(good car!) while I was in the service, but shortly after I was released from Active Duty ('late 64), we bought a brand new Mustang ($2600) and drove it for about 10 years. I don't remember the cost of fuel in NJ, but I'd guess about $0.28-33/ gal.

Curmudgeon Loc: SE Arizona

The California Achievement Test, CAT E/Survey (Grades 4-12), is a nationally normed standardized test (italics mine) that measures achievement in the areas of Reading, Language Arts, and Math.
It meets most states’ requirements for an annual assessment for homeschool and private school use. This is a Core Battery/Survey Edition and takes approximately 2½ hours to administer.

I don't often defend California anymore, but this is a special case. I was a second generation Californian until crowds and politics drove me out. I attended California Public Schools for 13 years. I started Kindergarten in 1948, graduated high school in 1961. During that period CA schools were constantly rated in the top 5 nation wide. We were, I believe, the only state who didn't charge tuition for in state students to attend State College or University. If you graduated HS with a 2.0 GPA you were guaranteed acceptance somewhere in the State College system, 3.0 GPA in the University system.

The CA education system is different now, but so is education everywhere.

robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

I took the old Iowa Achievement Tests in 7th grade, first time I had ever taken any kind of standardized tests and it only scored up to grade 14, so college sophomore. My score was 14+. One other kid got a 14, the two of us were called to the Principal's Office and told to sit down, our mothers were on their way, but did not tell us why. We figured it was to witness our execution but could not remember doing anything to rate a firing squad. (Different days, you went to the office for execution or sainthood.) Our mothers walked in together a bit later (we both lived close to the school) and the Principal came out with a big grin "Ladies, congratulations your sons have made the highest scores on the achievement tests in the history of the school." They wanted to jump the two of us right to 9th grade that week. Both mothers said NO!, the two of us had started 1st grade at 5 and were already the youngest in our classes. Instead of graduating at 17 like we did, we would have been only 15. We wouldn't have even been able to drive ourselves to college.

Robert Bailey Loc: Canada

In Ontario, Canada, the price is currently over $5.00 for a U.S. gallon.

chrissybabe Loc: New Zealand

Is that dollar US or Canadian as it makes quite a difference ?

Robert Bailey Loc: Canada

Canadian- the price is currently around $1.29 per litre.
I don't know why it is so high.
About six months ago it was around 99 cents a litre.
The highest I've seen in Ontario was about $1.50 a litre.
One U.S. gallon is about 3.8 litres.
One Imperial gallon is about 4.5 litres.

chrissybabe Loc: New Zealand

I don't know why it is so high either.
Ours that is - we are paying $2.05/ltr. That is Canadian dollars.
Enjoy it while you can.

LittleRed

Update from up here in Canada. Overnite in our city the price of regular gas went from $1.22 a litre to $1.39 a increase of $0.17. Don't know why, maybe our government is increasing our so-called "carbon tax" or the oil companies are increasing their profits (again). For our American friends south of the 49th that would be the equivalent of a gallon of YOUR gas going up $0.51 overnight. I don't think even old California has seen something like that (but I might be wrong). I see that gas on the American side of the border today is still holding at $2.79 USD which means that even taking into consideration the 33% difference in our dollars the cost in the USA for us equals about $1.00 a litre. That is $0.39 per litre difference. Our Rav usually takes 40 litres so by crossing the border we would save roughly $19. So if you are driving a Dodge Ram or the like and a fillup was triple that total your savings would approximately $60. Savings are reduced by the $10 bridge toll which means a total more in our pockets is $9 while driving our 4 cyl. Doesn't sound like much to many but those like me on a fixed income every penny counts. (Mind you a couple of gas cans in the trunk helps increase or savings a lot)

LittleRed (Ron)

bodiebill

Crude oil prices are climbing

Robert Bailey Loc: Canada

We live near a Mohawk reservation here in Ontario. They usually sell gas for about 10 cents a litre less than off the reserve.
I don't know what taxes they have to pay to the government on each litre- maybe nothing. I suspect they could sell gas for a LOT less and still make a LOT more money than a dealer off the reserve.

The dozens of marijuana shops are another story....

Harry0 Loc: Gardena, Cal

But that's the thing ... their taxes go where it's supposed to go.
Here in SoCal, it seems every time the road taxes go up, a higher percentage gets "diverted" to somewhere else. Our streets are crappy. Our sidewalks are a disaster. The PTBs want more money to do what they said the last money should cover because after Schwarzenegger's policies there isn't any money left. Nobody know where the money went- or at least we're not allowed to know.

Harry0 Loc: Gardena, Cal

I'm not quite as old- but I'm catching up.
One of MANY reasons I came out here in '71 was the school system. In Philly standards were drooping in order to get better graduation rates, and I wanted better for my kids. Fast forward 30 years ...

A well known and respected Nursing division dissolved it self a few years ago, 2 years after decertification. The Gov instituted "results based testing". Even tho most of the classes were mostly Filipino and Costa Rican, they were considered "White", and that skewed the demographics. Therefore, if you have "X" percentage of a specific non-White minority "Y" in your class, then "X" percentage needs to pass.

This last week another university medical division lost their ability to "certify" their graduates, for pretty much the same reasons. Some students who didn't understand English enough had "tutors" with them to help them study, and take the tests with them. Some teachers went over the same test as a "refresher" just before the test was taken. Add results based testing, and most of the graduating class weren't good enough to be hired.

robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

But the Democrats controlled the two houses of the Assembly the whole time Arnold was governor so they controlled almost everything done, including diversion of funds from where they were supposed to be to the general fund or special projects (read that as things that will get them votes).

And besides the taxes a large part of our expensive gas is lack of refining capacity for the special gas blends that CA requires. We need more refineries/crude supply or we need to use the gas blends the rest of the country uses.

Harry0 Loc: Gardena, Cal

Yeah, umm ... no.
The classic election cycle here has been to "defer" major maintenance until the election year. Then you'd have a big pile of cash to tear up the roads, build big billboards, and create enough buzz for elections. Ahnode took most of that money that 4th year, added it to the General Fund to make it look like he was doing better than he really was, and then spent it on other promised projects.
Pete Wilson did the same kinda trick when he raided the pension funds,added it all to the General Fund to push thru HIS promised porkie projects. Did that ever get paid back?
And California gas is just more expensive in California. I can follow the fuel tankers to Arizona, fill up at the Lovekin exit, and pay almost a 1$ cheaper.

robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

The assembly controls where money goes for the most part. All a governor can do is spend it once they allocate it. The governor can ask/beg the assembly to move money around and allocate it but only the assembly has that power. The executive branch only handles the money after the assembly has allocated it. Oh, and as for the pension funds, the assembly controls those in the end also. They were the ones with the power to divert those funds, not the governor. Plus the assembly were the ones who did not kick in their share of those pension funds for many years, they gave the funds an IOU instead.

Slept through 12th grade Government Class?