Gasoline prices and conspiracies: just a local anecdote to chew on. I gased up at the cheapest station near my home on Saturday AM at a station that is known for the cheapest prices in the neighborhood. I paid $2.59 per gallon. I was going to a kids soccer game in what is known around here as "The South Bay," an area that begins about ten miles south of Beverly Hills and then runs through towns like Torrance, Redondo Beach, and Palos Verdes. The moment I got off the freeway, ten miles as the crow flies, gasoline prices were $2.49. The further south I drove the cheaper the gasoline became til I saw it at $2.41. How can prices of the same brand of gasoline be $.18 cents cheaper within the same geographic area? I don't know, but gasoline prices here have yet to drop below $2.51. Something is very wrong with all that....