[naviga:h3]Drugmaker merger will lower tax rate[/naviga:h3]

Pfizer and Allergan are joining in the biggest buyout of the year, a $160 billion stock deal that will create the world’s largest drugmaker.

It’s also the largest so-called inversion, where an American corporation combines with a company headquartered in a country with a lower corporate tax rate, saving potentially millions each year in U.S. taxes.

Pfizer, which makes the cholesterol fighter Lipitor, will keep its global operational headquarters in New York. But the drugmaker will combine with Botox-maker Allergan as a company that will be called Pfizer Plc. That company would have its legal domicile and principal executive offices in Ireland.

The combination will essentially be Pfizer “but with a lower tax rate,” wrote Bernstein analyst Tim Anderson. He said he expects a tax rate of about 18 percent after the deal, which compares to Pfizer’s current rate of 25 percent.

[naviga:h3]Average gas price falls 11 cents[/naviga:h3]

CAMARILLO, Calif. — The average price of gasoline plunged 11 cents over the past two weeks, to $2.14 a gallon.

Industry analyst Trilby Lundberg said that the drop comes as crude oil prices continue to fall.

Lundberg said prices may continue to go down into December.

The current gas price is 70 cents per gallon under its year-ago point.

In the lower 48 states, the highest average price of regular gasoline was $2.76 per gallon in Los Angeles. The lowest was $1.79 in Indianapolis.

The U.S. average diesel price is $2.50 per gallon, down about four cents from two weeks ago.

[naviga:h3]Recovering Giffords rides bike 40 miles[/naviga:h3]

TUCSON, Ariz. — Former U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords has completed a 40-mile charity bike tour in Tucson, Ariz., less than five years after she was gravely injured in a mass shooting.

Giffords finished the race Saturday afternoon in just over four hours.

She is still recovering and the right side of her body is mostly paralyzed. But the former congresswoman from Arizona trained for the last year to take on the longer route at Saturday’s El Tour de Tucson.

She rode the 11-mile portion last year and decided shortly after that she wanted to take on more.

Giffords was wounded in the Jan. 8, 2011 shooting at a political event outside a Tucson grocery store. Six people were killed.

The shooter, Jared Lee Loughner, was sentenced to life in prison.

[naviga:h3]Another college takes Cosby degree[/naviga:h3]

POMONA, Calif. — The California State University System has become the latest to take back an honorary degree from Bill Cosby.

The board of trustees voted Friday to revoke an honorary doctorate given to Cosby by Cal Poly Pomona in 1992.

The Cal State board said in a statement that it was revoking an honorary degree for the first time because Cosby’s conduct is contrary to the values of the university system.

With the move the system joins at least a half-dozen other institutions that have revoked degrees in an attempt to distance themselves from the 78-year-old Cosby as he has become embroiled in dozens of allegations of sexual assault.

Cosby has not been charged in any of the cases and has denied many of the allegations while not addressing others. A message left with a Cosby representative was not returned.