The global shipment volume of wine made in California dropped by 1.6 percent, to 236 million cases, according to 11 months of data and December estimates from Jon Fredrikson, who heads the wine research firm in Woodside, California.

Shipments to the U.K. plunged 36 percent because of the recession, high taxes, rising duties on imports and the drop in the value of the pound, which boosted California wine prices, Fredrikson said today in a telephone interview. Shipments in the U.S. fell 0.4 percent. Revenue for California wineries, whose biggest product is Chardonnay, probably fell more than shipment volumes as shoppers sought out cheaper bottles, he said.

"Today, frugality is hip," said Fredrikson, who hasn't yet estimated 2009 revenue for the industry. "There's a lot of heartburn going on among industry planners."

On Tuesday, executives and consultants for the Arlington, Va., trade group asked members of the California Energy Commission to instead let consumers use their wallets to decide whether they want to buy the most energy-saving new models of liquid-crystal display and plasma high-definition TVs. "Voluntary efforts are succeeding without regulations," said Doug Johnson, the association's senior director for technology policy. Too much government interference could hamstring industry innovation and prove expensive to manufacturers and consumers, he warned.

But those pleas didn't appear to elicit much support from commissioners at a public hearing on the proposed rules that would set maximum energy-consumption standards for televisions to be phased in over two years beginning in January 2011. A vote could come as early as Nov. 4.

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California's estimated 35 million TVs and related electronic devices account for about 10% of all household electricity consumption, the Energy Commission staff reported. But manufacturers quickly are coming up with new technologies that are making even 50-inch-screen models much more economical to operate. New features, such as light-emitting diodes that consume tiny amounts of power, special reflective films and sensors that automatically adjust TV brightness to a room's viewing conditions, are driving down electricity consumption, experts said.

The companies declined to say how many cars were sold under the heavily advertised program, although GM said the number of sales directly connected to the effort was small. "We thought the program was successful but that this was not the right time," GM sales chief Mark LaNeve said.

Mr. LaNeve said the program did generate customer interest, including 1.5 million visits to a special section of eBay's Web site, and 15,000 customer leads for California dealers. He said GM hopes to try again with eBay next year.

When the program launched Aug. 11, GM Chief Executive Frederick "Fritz" Henderson said it was part of an effort to make car shopping more convenient.

Rob Chesney, vice president of eBay Motors, said he was "really pleased" with the results and would use lessons from the program to develop future programs for selling new cars on the site. He declined to say when or how that might happen. "We had no expectations in terms of what the measured result would be," Mr. Chesney said. The test was to see "if we offer consumers a new way to interact with the purchase of a car, would they engage?" The traffic to the site, he said, proves "there is a real proposition that we can build upon there."

"The bridge has been inspected, and it is safer than when we closed it on Friday," Iwasaki said.

Over the weekend, crews began repairing a "significant crack" that was found on the east span of the bridge during a planned closure for another project.

The target time for reopening had been early Wednesday, but crews worked nonstop overnight to repair the eyebar beam, Iwasaki said. He thanked motorists for being patient.

Need a 2001 Ford Focus wagon with 110,059 miles and Schwarzenegger's autograph on the visor? Someone did, offering the high bid of $1,625.01 for the old state car as of Tuesday afternoon. The governor got the idea to sign the visors from one of nearly 1 million people who follow him on Twitter, and he jumped on it.

"I look forward to selling these signed cars and making some $ for California," the governor tweeted last week as he autographed the visors.

"It's an innovative idea," said the governor's spokesman, Aaron McLear. "We're always happy to listen to the people about ways in which we can run government more efficiently."

Methyl iodide was introduced to agriculture as a replacement for another sinister fumigant called methyl bromide, which was phased out of the nation’s fields (except for "allowable exemptions") in 2005 because it was a major contributor to depletion of the ozone layer. Methyl iodide may not harm the atmosphere, but its effects on animals and humans is another matter entirely: Exposure to the chemical has been found to cause thyroid toxicity, neurological damage, and fetal loss in lab animals.

In 2007, a group of more than 50 chemists and doctors from dozens of American universities wrote a letter to the EPA pleading with the Bush-era regulators not to approve methyl iodide, which they described as a "highly reactive chemical" with "well-known cancer hazards." They wrote: "We are concerned that pregnant women and the fetus, children, the elderly, farm workers, and other people living near application sites would be at serious risk."