Business Briefs: Ford touts hybrid police car

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Ford touts hybrid police car

The next time the cops chase you down for speeding, they could be driving a fuel-efficient gas-electric hybrid. Ford Motor Co., which sells more police vehicles in the U.S. than any other automaker, said it will offer a police pursuit version of the hybrid Fusion midsize sedan, in response to requests from cities nationwide.

The new car, with its 2-liter four-cylinder engine and 1.4 kilowatt lithium-ion battery, is expected to get 38 miles per gallon of gas in combined city-highway driving. That's 20 mpg more than Ford's current police car, the Taurus police interceptor.

Local gas prices up 6 cents a gallon

Chattanooga gas prices rose another 5.8 cents per gallon last week to the highest price yet this year, according to GasBuddy's daily survey of 170 gas outlets in Chattanooga.

The average retail gasoline prices in Chattanooga at the start of this week was $2.10 per gallon, up 9.6 cents a gallon from a month ago and 26.9 cents per gallon higher than a year ago.

Despite the increase, however, Chattanooga gas prices still average 29 cents per gallon less than the U.S. average.

And while gas prices are up from a year ago, they are similar to what they were priced at two years ago and remain $1.25 per gallon below what gas was priced at in Chattanooga in 2014.

"Oil now stands $5 per barrel higher than just a few weeks ago and is the main culprit for rising gasoline prices," said Patrick DeHaan, senior petroleum analyst for GasBuddy.

Barclays CEO investigated for unmasking whistleblower

LONDON - The CEO of Barclays bank is being investigated by regulators for his attempts to unmask a whistleblower who had written anonymous letters raising concerns about a senior employee.

Jes Staley had sought to identify the author of the letters but was told it was inappropriate to do so under rules protecting whistleblowers. Staley then sought again to identify the person, even using help from a U.S. law enforcement agency, but failed.

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