High oil prices and their impact on the US and Canada this month

Air Canada has cut more than 600 flight attendant jobs across the country and intends to cut up to 2000 in total. In the US, Northwest Airlines has slashed 2500 jobs and bumped up ticket and bag fees.

SUV and full-size pickup truck sales in the US are down almost 50% from what they were a year ago.

US schools are scaling back or cutting services because of fuel costs. More students will be walking farther when classes resume in September. More schools are shifting to four day weeks, and cutting bus trips for non-competitive extracurricular activities.

New England governors met recently to call on the federal government for more home heating assistance.

The Pray at the Pump Movement

I had to chuckle at this a bit.

The Pray at the Pump Movement, founded by Rocky Twyman, has been holding prayer vigils at gas stations across the country. On Monday, Twyman decided to take his movement from Exxon and Shell stations straight to the steps of the Embassy of Saudi Arabia in Washington, D.C., hoping to encourage the oil-rich country to raise the amount of barrels they release each day from 200,000 to 1.2 million.

Twyman, who is a member of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, spent the afternoon outside of the embassy praying and asking passersby to sign his petition for the release of more oil, which he hopes to deliver to the Saudi oil minister.

Read the rest here.