TULARE, Calif. -- Stores opened recently by Love’s Travel Stops & Country Stores, Wawa Inc. and Fast Lane brought new cobranded foodservice, iconic proprietary brands and rejuvenation, respectively, to three communities.

Love’s opened a new travel stop in Tulare, Calif., and will host a grand opening and ribbon-cutting ceremony at today in partnership with the Tulare Chamber of Commerce. The Tulare Love’s employs approximately 40 people and includes Subway and McDonald's restaurants.

NEW YORK -- U.S. independent refiners could post their biggest quarterly losses for the year after grappling with narrow margins and low demand for petroleum products throughout 2009.

Refiners were operating their plants at historically low rates for much of the fourth quarter. Cold weather and a slew of expected and unexpected outages of key refinery units failed to support product prices and profitability on an inventory glut and poor economic conditions.

SOMERVILLE, N.J. -- A call from a Quick Chek convenience store clerk about a suspicious person led to an arrest this week and a frightening discovery: The man was wearing a bulletproof vest and carrying a loaded assault rifle and four magazines of ammunition, according to an Associated Press report.

Back in the man’s motel room, authorities found a grenade launcher, more rifles, a night-vision scope and, ominously, a map of the Fort Drum Army base in upstate New York.