SAN FRANCISCO/LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Californians awoke on Friday to yet another unprecedented spike in the price of gasoline that brought the one-week increase in the Golden State to a whopping 36 cents a gallon.

Prices dropped, however, on the wholesale market, possibly signaling the end to a price spike that has blindsided the state’s car-loving consumers.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Pump prices in California have soared this week and are poised to break a record set in the summer of 2008 due to low inventories and disruptions at key Golden State refineries.

The state average for a gallon of regular gasoline jumped to $4.315 on Thursday, 18.2 cents higher than last week and 49 cents higher than a year ago, according to AAA data.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Miasole, which raised hundreds of millions of dollars as one of Silicon Valley’s hottest cleantech startups, has agreed to be sold to China’s Hanergy Holding Group for $30 million, according to a source familiar with the matter.

The company will continue to operate as a unit of Hanergy, and no employees will be laid off for a year after the deal closes, the source said, adding that it is expected to happen later this month.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Online gamers around the world took to the web on Wednesday to mourn the death of Sean Smith, an avid gamer who was one of four Americans killed in a U.S. consulate attack in Libya.

Known by the online moniker “Vile Rat,” Smith was a major participant in the multi-player role-playing game Eve Online, which has a single online universe where hundreds of thousands of players interact together.

LOS ANGELES, Sept 12 (Reuters) – The chief executive of thin
film solar startup Nanosolar Inc has left after less than eight
months on the job, the company said on Tuesday.

Eugenia Corrales, who was named CEO in January, left “to
pursue other ventures,” Nanosolar said. Corrales had previously
served as the company’s executive vice president of engineering
and operations.

LOS ANGELES, Sept 7 (Reuters) – President Barack Obama’s
acceptance speech on Thursday night drew the largest television
audience of this year’s political conventions and ranked as the
biggest political moment ever on social media site Twitter.

More than 35.7 million people tuned in on three broadcast
and 10 cable networks to watch Obama accept the Democrats’
nomination for president, according to Nielsen ratings data.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – President Barack Obama’s speech at the Democratic National Convention on Thursday night ranked as the biggest political moment ever on the social media site Twitter.

The number of tweets about the Democratic convention blew away similar figures from the Republican National Convention a week earlier.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Electric car startup Fisker Automotive Inc said on Monday it has suspended work at its U.S. manufacturing plant and laid off 26 workers there while it renegotiates the terms of its $529 million loan from the U.S. Department of Energy.

The company has also let go about 40 workers, mostly engineering contractors, at its Anaheim, California headquarters, a spokesman said.

LOS ANGELES, Feb 6 (Reuters) – Electric car startup
Fisker Automotive Inc said on Monday it has suspended work at
its U.S. manufacturing plant and laid off 26 workers
there while it renegotiates the terms of its $529
million loan from the U.S. Department of Energy.

The company has also let go about 40 workers, mostly
engineering contractors, at its Anaheim, California
headquarters, a spokesman said.

LOS ANGELES, Feb 2 (Reuters) – Solar power company
SolarCity is expected to debut on U.S. markets in the third
quarter this year and has hired Goldman Sachs (GS.N: Quote, Profile, Research) to
underwrite its initial public offering, a source close to the
company said on Thursday.

The San Mateo, California-based startup will file its IPO
plans with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission “within a
few weeks,” the source said. The deal is expected to value the
company at around $1.5 billion.