BRIEFLY.

Laborer crushed when tractor flips

SIMI VALLEY - A 22-year-old farm laborer died when a tractor crushed him near the Ronald Reagan Library, authorities said Sunday.

Alejandro Ramos of Fillmore died about 1 p.m. Saturday at the scene of the incident, an avocado orchard in the 15200 block of Tierra Rejada Road, police said.

Deputies said Ramos was driving the tractor up a steep hill when it flipped backward and crushed him against the trailer he was pulling.

- Daily News

Retail gas prices continue to drop

CAMARILLO - Retail gas prices continued to drop nationwide, falling an additional 11 cents in the past two weeks, a survey released Sunday said.

The weighted average price for all three grades dropped to $2.16 a gallon Friday, said Trilby Lundberg, who publishes the semimonthly Lundberg Survey of 7,000 gas stations around the country.

Self-serve regular averaged $2.13 a gallon nationwide. Midgrade cost $2.24, and the price for premium was $2.33.

Prices have fallen about 88 cents a gallon since September, Lundberg said.

Among stations surveyed, the lowest average price in the country for regular unleaded was $1.89 a gallon in Tulsa, Okla. The highest price was $2.55 in Honolulu.

- Associated Press 

Arnold to usher in school program

GRANADA HILLS - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Baja California Gov. Eugenio Elorduy will be at George K. Porter Middle School today to launch a pilot sister-school program with Martires de Tacubaya Middle School in Tijuana.

Students from the two schools, along with the two governors, will be connected and interact via video conferencing.

The program, established through the California/Baja California Committee on Sports, Education and Culture, was developed by education secretaries for California and Baja.

- City News Service

Carson man ailing after hit-and-run

KOREATOWN - A man was listed Sunday in ``critical but stable'' condition after he was injured in a hit-and-run accident witnessed by his family, officials said.

The 46-year-old Carson resident had gotten out of the driver's seat of a 2005 Toyota Sequoia when he was hit by a speeding Toyota Camry at Fourth Street and Alexandria Avenue shortly before 10:30 p.m. Saturday, officials said. He was hospitalized at Los Angeles County/USC Medical Center with severe head and facial injuries and a broken leg.

The Camry also struck several parked vehicles, causing part of the dark-colored vehicle to come off.

Anyone with information about the accident should call the LAPD Central Traffic Division at [phone].

- City News Service

5 sea lions freed after recovering

SAN PEDRO - Five sea lions that had been nursed back to health were released back into the ocean near San Pedro on Sunday.

The big seals had been taken to the Marine Mammal Care Center in Fort MacArthur until they were ready to return to the wild.

Staff and volunteers were especially happy with the progress of one of the sea lions that had undergone two eye surgeries.

``He's doing just fine,'' Dr. Doug Esson, Eye Care for Animals veterinarian, told KCAL (Channel 9). ``He's visual, he's comfortable, and that eye should serve him in the years ahead of him.

Volunteer Joann Smith was also pleased with the sea lion's recovery.

``He went through multiple things prior to that, with infections and things that he came in with, and to see him go out, so fat, saving his eye was incredible to me,'' she told Channel 9.

The sea lion weighed 37 pounds when he was taken to the care center and gained nearly 60 pounds before being released, according to Channel 9.

- City News Service