The summer season is almost upon us. If you have ever lived in or near New York City, you know that traffic to New Jersey or the Hamptons is all but impossible. Some commute 8 to 10 hours a day to and from work.

Those who have the big bucks fly. For $200, Liberty Helicopters can fly you from 30th street Pier 6 to Port Mammouth, New Jersey. Similar flights go to Long Island.

It was less than 3 weeks ago when Alex Rodriguez decided that the middle of World Series Game 4 was the opportune time to announce he was ditching the Yankees through a clause in his contract. At the time, Howard Stern sidekick (and lifelong Yankees fanatic) Artie Lange quipped: "Don't let the free-agency door hit you on the way out" (I'm paraphrasing to keep it clean, folks).

In the wake of this stunt, our own Georges Yared referred to A-Rod as a "crybaby extraordinaire" and a "selfish, self-centered you-know-what." Georges also noted that, "The attempt to upstage the Red Sox and Rockies should not be forgiven nor forgotten by the baseball brethren." Indeed, it was a classless move, one likely perpetrated by A-Rod's agent, but certainly given the green light by the third baseman himself.

And yet, here it is mid-November, and hijo pródigo A-Rod and the Yanks are back at the table. It's all sorts of amusing, really. This morning, it hit newswires that negotiations mediated by Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) officials have resulted in a new contract for the clutch player who isn't. Reportedly, A-Rod wanted to restart negotiations with the team, but chose to use a third party (Goldman representatives) instead of his agent, Scott Boras.

I've had a couple of brushes with fame in my day, and my track record isn't the greatest. I met River Phoenix in April 1991, about 2 1/2 years before his drug-related death at the age of 23 (I love the people who ask me if I got to meet him "while he was still alive." Ummm.) I also knew Ben Curtis (the spokesman, not the golfer). As an elementary-school-age boy, the once-and-future face of Dell (NASDAQ: DELL) was a peripheral friend of my brother and the son of my French teacher.

As I said, my celebrity encounters haven't enjoyed particular longevity. While Curtis isn't overdosing outside the Viper Room, he has been part of the wait staff at Tortilla Flats, a Manhattan bar at Washington and 12th, for the past 18 months. Last week, for Halloween, he dressed up as his former alter-ego, Steve the squirrelly "Dude, you're getting a Dell" kid. He says he gets recognized every day, but appreciated a job at which he can always be himself. And if you ask nicely, he may just repeat his famous catchphrase while he delivers your margarita.

For those of you who just can't stand the thought of running out and filling up your car with gasoline, I have a little bit of good news: gasoline prices fell again last week. According to the Energy Information Administration, the national average fell by a little over 8 cents a gallon last week.

This marks the third week in a row that prices have fallen, lowering the national average to $3.08 for a gallon of regular unleaded. While it is encouraging to see prices falling to a four-week low, prices are still up 91 cents from the start of the year.

U.S. refinery production has been the root of the problem, and although America's refineries are still running at sub 90% capacity, gasoline prices have been slightly offset by increased motor fuel imports. Analysts are expecting that more refineries will be coming back online during the remainder of this month, and if we continue to see above average fuel imports, then gasoline prices should continue to retreat.

Consolidated Edison (NYSE: ED) reported good first quarter earnings of $256 million, $0.99 EPS, up 41% from 1Q 2006 earnings of $181 million, or $0.74 per share. A big enough increase to make even a jaded in-bound strap hanger smile. Con Edison posted these numbers despite a $10 million loss, $0.04 per share, in complicated net mark-to-market valuations. This amount is only one-third as big as net mark to market losses of $31 million in 1Q 2006. Con Edison management states the earnings increase is a result of sales growth, a stretch of colder than normal temperatures during the early part of 1Q as well as a utility rate hike for NYC.

Con Edison transmits electricity, gas and even steam, and all three sectors recorded volume increases during 1Q 2007, electricity up 2.6%, gas up 7.4% and steam up 0.5%. Con Edison will continue its expansion and updating schema in both NYC and several surrounding boroughs during FY 2007 and beyond, and recently began the process of issuing an additional 11 million shares at an average price of $50.60 to fund these ambitious programs. The stock recently closed at $50.95, and its P/E ratio of 15.9 is less than the industry average of 17.10. Con Edison has annual revenues in excess of $12 billion, with assets valued at over $27 billion. It is one of the largest investor-owned energy companies in the US.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced that the city's entire taxi fleet, all 13,000 cabs, will become hybrid by 2012.

Under Bloomberg's new plan, 1,000 NYC cabs will be hybrid by October 2008 and then 20% will make the switch each year until 2012.

The standard cab, the Ford Motor Co (NYSE: F) Crown Victoria, gets 14 mpg. The city's hybrid models have expanded to include three Toyota Motor (NYSE:TM) models: the Prius, the Highlander Hybrid and the Lexus RX 400h. NYC will also use the hybrid Ford Escape.

That news doesn't bode well for Ford.

In addition to the five-year hybrd rule, New York City will require all new taxi's to get a minimum 25mpg vehicle starting in October of 2008. By 2009, the minimum bumps up to 30 mpg and must be hybrid.

The new standards are expected to reduce carbon emissions by more than 200,000 tons each year after 2012.

I'm breathing a sigh of relief right now. For decades, if you tried to look at Manhattan from the suburbs all you'd ever see is a cloud of smog surrounding the island. Thanks to Mr. Bloomberg, our lungs will breathe a little easier on the streets of Manhattan starting in 2012.

Dick Parsons for New York City mayor? A few weeks ago, I picked out an interesting tidbit in a story on why Parsons should be fired: Gramercy Capital Management's Joan Lappin dribbled the tantalizing rumor that the Time Warner CEO was considering a run for mayor when Michael Bloomberg's term is up in 2009.

Today's New York Magazine says "it's all but official." Parsons will run, with some insiders even saying he'll hand over the CEO position to Bewkes (Lappin said this, too) before his current contract ends in 2008. Naturally Parsons has said he'll fulfill his contract, but not opined on the mayoral run.

Frank Barnako of MarketWatch says this must be why Carl Icahn is buying up shares of Time Warner, while DealBreaker.com says Parsons entrance into the race "is not entirely unwelcome" and hints that the I-banking elite might vote for him. Would you?

With two new Wal-Mart Supercenters on tap in the areas of Camillus, New York and one of the original Wal-Mart stores on Route 31 in Central New York, another Supercenter is planned for the Clay area. Of course, the new Clay store will be a 200,000 square-foot Supercenter, as Wal-Mart goes about its business replacing smaller (and older) Wal-Mart stores with complete Supercenters, which feature expanded offerings and grocery shopping.

The standard worries exist about the new Clay location -- snarled and increased traffic -- but the new Supercenter location will be built into one of the last undeveloped areas of Route 31. Additionally, a senior housing complex would be built in this same complex, along with many other stores. Undoubtedly, the Wal-Mart Supercenter would be the anchor tenant of the new Route 31 complex, much like it is whenever a new Supercenter is built.

In other words, smaller tenants and outfits generally thrive being located next to a Wal-Mart Supercenter, although that's a double standard -- Wal-Mart wants its customers to shop at its stores for everything; Yet, smaller stores (non-anchors) always seem to build entire retail complexes around most Supercenters. That's food for thought.