Number 4. New York Post. California imports oil from the Bahamas to skirt shipping law.
To ask why California, one of the most oil-rich states in these United States, doesn’t simply use their own refined gasoline, instead of importing it, would be to evidence that you might really be out of touch with post-pandemic political platforms.
Since 2024, gasoline imports to California have increased by factor of 11. That is a 1000% increase in the quantity of imports, and may help explain why California prices at the pump are nearing $5.00 per gallon.
The state Assembly in Sacramento prefers that others, rather than Californians, contribute to global climate doom. That, of course, does nothing to stop Californians from demanding gasoline produced someplace else.
The “someplace else” is mostly Texas and Louisiana.
Last year, two of the dozen or so California refineries closed their doors: Phillips 66 at Los Angeles and Valero at San Francisco. Those two had produced over 17% of California’s gasoline. They had found it financially impossible to continue under the well intentioned and poorly contemplated CARB guidelines regulating vehicle emissions.
In addition, under the 1970 US Clean Air Act, California is the only state allowed to set stricter emission standards than the federal government. Beware of giving legislators freedom to make laws. By statute, California gasoline is cleaner and costs more to refine.
Compliant gasoline could of course be simply pipelined into the Golden State from the Lone Star State, except there are no pipelines. California is a “fuel island”: No gasoline comes in unless it travels by ocean tanker.
Furthermore, due to complexities in the hundred-year-old Jones Act (which, as you know, is post Spanish-American War maritime legislation), the number of tankers allowed to carry oil from the U.S. Gulf Coast to California is limited, and thus expensive. And for various arcane reasons the route requires transshipment through the Bahamas.
All of which means that gas costs close to 5 bucks a gallon in the Land of Fruits and Nuts. Legislation on top of legislation on top of regulation is aided and abetted by a deathly fear of burying a pipeline across the largely unpopulated Great American Southwest Desert.
I love California politics. It would be nice if it stayed in California. But it rarely does.
Number 3. Road and Track. Thief fails to wear seatbelt when stealing car, so victim is fined $4000.
I love this. Hamid and Leila were asleep in their Australian home when thieves staged a home invasion, searching the house brazenly for items of value. Hamid, awakened by the noise, managed to chase them out.
Then they stole his Lexus and drove away. Hamid called police.
Crime doesn’t pay, even down under. The perps were captured. Not by Aussie police, but on digital film by an unattended traffic camera. The image shows a driver operating the vehicle — gasp! — without wearing a seat belt.
The car was apparently never recovered, the thieves never identified, and after three weeks, police have yet to visit Hamid and Leila to take a report of the theft.
Despite what some might see as shortcomings, the law enforcement system actually worked flawlessly. The camera generated the automated report, and a citation was issued through the mail for failing to wear the seatbelt while driving.
The citation was of course imposed upon Hamid, the registered owner of the Lexus. The amount was $4,400 US.
Well, think about it: The easiest and most accurate way to assess the fine is simply to match the license tag to the owner — because who else would be driving, but the owner? — and use the mail service to deliver the court-ordered bill.
Chasing crooks is probably way more involved than that. If there is a seat belt violation, which we now know is taken quite seriously in Australia, the state is owed a fine. Once Hamid coughs up the 4 grand, everyone is satisfied.
Justice has been served.
Any questions?
Number 2. Mashable dot com. Waymo hires temporary help to close car doors on stranded rides.
In this super-technological world, this one actually makes a lot of sense.
With 1,500 robotaxis operating in the U.S., and presumably all busy all the time, it is quite probable that some jerk with an iPhone and a credit card will jump out of the driverless vehicle at his destination and leave the car door open. This is likely, even when the taxi stops in a lane of traffic to discharge the occupant.
Of course, safety-ness being next to godliness, the Waymo car’s interlocked system prevents it from moving with the door open. Naturally: Someone might be reaching back inside for a parcel.
So the car remains motionless, stuck at the curb or in traffic.
It has become a common enough occurrence that Waymo has reached out to drivers who might happen to be close, and who might be reachable via another electronic dispatch. The solution: Door Dash. Obviously.
Door Dash drivers can pick up $11.25 per response for simply approaching the quiescent Waymo car and slamming the door.
Waymo, it is claimed, is working on automatic door-closing technology. I am sure they are. At 11 bucks a pop it’s easy to do the math and figure out much they can afford to pay for a retrofit.
I have visions of terrified customers with long trailing coats or dresses trapped by deaf and mute automated doors as their car powers away into traffic.
In the meantime, Door Dash drivers in certain big cities might have just gotten a raise in their gig pay.
Don’t anybody tell PETA about this one.
Maryland has always been big whitetail deer territory. Rural residents who hunt — there are still a few, though a vanishing breed — can keep the outstate population from exploding, but inside the city limits it’s a different story.
Wildlife planners say a reasonable deer density is 20 head per square mile. One of Baltimore’s city parks has a computed density of 422. That’s probably too many in anyone’s book.
Deer ravage plants, interfere with traffic, collide with cars, and on occasion manage to get inside an occupied home where, terrified, they destroy furniture and sheetrock until finding a way of escape.
The City Of has now determined the right way to handle this is quietly, at night, with specially trained personnel. And a USDA grant to pay for it.
The “specially trained personnel” are snipers, most of whom are former military. The “night” part refers to invading a city park after hours with night-vision gear. The “quiet” part refers to using a sound-suppressed high-powered rifle.
The plan is that the shooters will clean up after themselves. Being a family publication, I will just say this involves “field dressing” the downed critter. I would prefer to avoid using the term “gut pile,” but someone has to deal with that part, too.
Dressed carcasses will be delivered to area meat processors for butchering. (It seems their participation is taken for granted. I happen to know some meat processors there, and I think that’s a stretch.) Harvested meat will be turned over to the Maryland Food Bank. The aforementioned USDA grant will cover most costs.
It all sounds fine; they have all the details worked out.
As we have observed before here at the ANR, I find it interesting that the gun is always the problem, until it becomes the solution.
And thanks for joining The Alligator News Roundup for Friday, February 20, 2026. Break out that old deer rifle and get it zeroed, just in case your city begins to advertise for specially trained contractors. Maybe they’ll even foot the bill for your NVGs.
And remember, “sound suppressed” does not quite mean “silenced.” When you hear a screen door slamming outside your bedroom window at 2:00 AM, you might know that herd culling is in progress.
Have a good weekend!
