Connecting the dots: top news stories for Monday, March 7

It's no news to drivers that gas prices have soared. Attacks by Libyan rebels on Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi have influenced  prices, which have jumped an average of 39 cents per gallon across the country since the uprising began last month...

War usually means casualties, and that's what's happening in California's schools. With the struggle to adequately fund K-12 schooling, adult education is losing out...

Foundations have stepped in with money, and one philanthropic effort is to make recess more fun for kids in underprivileged neighborhoods. Since 2005, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation in New Jersey has supported Oakland-based Playworks with $23 million in grants...

No such help is on the way for California's highways. More than a dozen road projects in the Bay Area will be delayed this year, as the state is expected to cancel the sale of transportation bonds to save about $175 million in debt payments...

In another effort to save money, Gov. Jerry Brown wants to do away with redevelopment agencies. The San Francisco Chronicle says one reason Brown may be so willing is payments on a Raiders stadium that may never be used...

Meanwhile, this blog says California's economic picture is less bleak than reported numbers make it seem...

Things are also looking up for the coastal tailed frog, an amphibian with a, um ... well, let's just say it's a healthy-sized appendage...

Speaking of what everyone wants, the battle to host Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories' second campus has begun, and the city of Richmond is the front-runner...

Richmond is also home to a new bioswale – a manufactured creek that snakes alongside the Richmond Greenway for one city block and captures rain water...

From ingenuity to genius, we bring you Evan O'Dorney, a 17-year old math whiz who will compete in this week's Intel Science Talent Search for a prize of $100,000...

And finally, it is all about numbers, isn't it? Santa Clara County's 408 area code will soon have a companion. As of next year, new customers will be assigned the area code 669...

Connecting the Dots connects the day's news.