Daily Business Report: September 14, 2026
Why Gas Prices Are So High in California
By Katy Grimes | California Globe
While national crude prices set the floor, California’s taxes, climate rules, unique fuel special blend, and diminished refining system raise the price per gallon.
California gas is expensive for two overlapping reasons: it is structurally more costly than in most other states even in normal times, and the 2026 global oil shock has hit the state harder than the rest of the country.
As of mid-September 2026, regular gasoline in California averages about $5.89 to $5.97 a gallon versus a U.S. average around $4.27 to $4.31.
by Tessa Balc | Times of San Diego
Summer’s end means the precipitation we could see from this year’s potentially record-breaking “Super” El Niño is just around the bend.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Climate Prediction Center released its September El Niño update Thursday, saying there is a greater than 90% chance of a very strong event in the Northern Hemisphere during this fall and winter.
Chandler Price, a meteorologist at the San Diego office of the National Weather Service, said just because an El Niño is evident, it doesn’t automatically mean an unusually wet winter. Price says he and other researchers need to see a weather pattern develop before they can provide a forecast.
How the County Fought to Keep Employee Misconduct Records Under Wraps
by Lisa Halverstadt| Voice of San Diego
For months, county lawyers spun arguments to keep employee misconduct records Voice of San Diego requested from its behavioral health department from becoming public.
It all started after Voice made a March 2025 public records request seeking reports of misconduct in the county’s Behavioral Health Services Department that investigators found to have merit.
First, county officials claimed they didn’t have records to disclose. Then their lawyer incorrectly claimed that two county facilities weren’t part of the department we sought records from and later said they accidentally failed to include them in their search for records.
