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ByElliotSpagat TheAssociatedPress SAN DIEGO Californiacon- sumers rank among the nation's biggest spenders on housing and the low- est spenders on energy, ac- cording to new government data. Per-capita spending on housing and utilities totaled $8,650 in 2012, which is sixth-highest in the country and well above the national average of $6,415. California was sur- passed only by the District of Columbia at $11,985, Ha- waii at $10,002, Connecti- cut at $9,524, Maryland at $9,000 and New Jersey at $8,861. That's no surprise in a state with many of the most expensive housing markets. California occu- pied four of the top five slots in a National Asso- ciation of Realtors survey of single-family home sale prices in the first three months of this year, led by San Jose and San Fran- cisco, and followed by Ana- heim-Santa Ana and San Diego. On the flip side, a state known for its freeway cul- ture ranked fourth-to-last in spending on gasoline and other energy goods in 2012. Per-capita spending was $1,039 in 2012, ahead of Florida at $1,020, New York at $919 and Hawaii at $882. The national average was $1,328. The warm climate that draws many to California drives up housing prices but also keeps a lid other pock- etbook items, said Jerry Nickelsburg, economics professor at the UCLA An- derson School of Manage- ment. "You spend more on housing but less on cloth- ing, heating and even less on air conditioning," Nick- elsburg said. "There are a few things that help bal- ance the equation." The figures emerged from an annual report the U.S. Commerce Department released Thursday. For the first time, it reveals con- sumer spending on a state- by-state basis from 1997 through 2012. The numbers point to substantial shifts in the economy since the Great Recession ended. The re- cession, which began in December 2007, officially ended in June 2009. Spending in California surged 13.4 percent from 2009 to 2012, slightly above the national in- crease of 13.3 percent. North Dakota posted the largest spending increase during that time — 28 per- cent — a boom that was largely due to a break- through drilling tech- nique known as hydrau- lic fracturing that has unlocked vast oil and gas reserves. California consumers spent an average of $37,134 per person in 2012, slightly ahead of the rest of the na- tion. They spent less than average on health care and dining out. Despite relatively high costs of gasoline, Califor- nians have controlled en- ergy spending partly by em- bracing hybrid and fuel-ef- ficient vehicles, Nickelsburg said. Others have controlled costs by cutting down on commuting time, said Christopher Thornberg, founding partner of Bea- con Economics, a Los An- geles consulting firm. "While the traffic is pretty bad, one conse- quence is that people tend to live closer to work," he said. CONSUMER Ca li fo rn ia s pe nd s bi g on h ou si ng , li tt le o n en er gy NASA—THEASSOCIATEDPRESS NASA's Low-Density Supersonic Decelerator (LDSD) is li ed aboard the Kahana recovery vessel off the coast of the U.S. Navy's Pacific Missile Range Facility in Kauai, Hawaii, on June 28. The Associated Press LOS ANGELES NASA engi- neers insisted Friday that a test of a vehicle they hope to one day use on Mars achieved most of its objec- tives, despite a parachute that virtually disintegrated the moment it deployed. The engineers laid out at a news conference what they've learned in the six weeks since the $150 mil- lion high-altitude test of a vehicle that's designed to bring spacecraft — and eventually astronauts — safely to Mars. Engineers said they achieved the main objec- tive: getting a flying saucer- shaped craft to 190,000 feet above the Earth at more than four times the speed of sound under test condi- tions that matched the Mar- tian atmosphere. "The vehicle did an amazing job of getting to the right speed and alti- tude," said Ian Clark, prin- cipal investigator at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. As the craft prepared to fall back to Earth, a dough- nut-shaped tube around it expanded like a Hawaiian puffer fish, creating atmo- spheric drag to dramat- ically slow it down from Mach 4.3, a task that weeks of analysis have shown it performed beautifully, NASA said. "At this point, we've ac- tually achieved most of the objectives of the flight we've had for this summer," Mark Adler, the project manager, said of the first of three tests for the vehicle. In the two other exper- iments planned for next year, NASA will try to fig- ure out how to properly de- ploy the parachute, which immediately tore and tan- gled when it was let out, showing that engineers have "more to learn," Clark said. "The idea of taking 200 pounds of Kevlar and nylon and deploying it at 2,500 mph, 200 pounds that in- flated would be the size of a small warehouse, is cer- tainly a challenging en- deavor. There's a lot of phys- ics with this problem that we're now gaining new in- sights into that we've never had before," Clark said. "And we're going to take all of that knowledge, and feed it toward our flights next year." NASA Mars test called success despite torn chute SPACE By Randall Chase The Associated Press DOVER, DEL. A California man said Friday he was shocked to learn that his wife's cremated remains had been found inside a decrepit former funeral home, 35 years after she and more than 900 others died in a suicide-murder in Jonestown, Guyana. Maud Ester Perkins was 28 when she and her then- 7-year-old son died in 1978 at the Peoples Temple set- tlement led by Jim Jones. Her husband, Irvin Ray Perkins of Antioch, Cal- ifornia, told The Associ- ated Press on Friday that at the time he had tried to determine what happened to his wife's remains with- out success. All 911 bodies had been taken to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, home to the U.S. military's larg- est mortuary. About a half dozen local funeral homes helped prepare the bod- ies and return them to rel- atives over the course of several months, though many remains were never claimed. More than 400 were buried in a mass grave at a California cem- etery, while the rest were either cremated or buried in family cemeteries. "There was so much chaos. ... I never got a chance to get hold of any- body who knew anything exactly, so I just sort of backed off," said Perkins, who recalled being told that somebody would get back with him. "Somebody just got back to me 37 years later," said Perkins, now 64, who de- scribed his late wife as a "wonderful wife and a beautiful person." Perkins said he had planned to join his wife and son at Jonestown but never got chance. "Twenty days later, I would have been there," he said. Perkins still doesn't know what happened to the remains of his son but sus- pects they may have been among the unidentified re- mains buried at the Califor- nia cemetery in 1979. Perkins is planning to make arrangements with Delaware authorities to have his wife's remains shipped to him. He plans to place her remains on his mantle. "I don't have the money to come out there," said Perkins, who spoke Thurs- day with James Patton, an investigator with Dela- ware's Division of Forensic Science. Patton did not respond to an email message Friday. State officials have refused to publicly identify those whose remains were found because relatives were still being notified. However, an email from state officials indicated that the remains of Maud Perkins and two others had been claimed by relatives. Officials said Thursday that 38 containers of cre- mated remains were dis- covered inside the funeral home building, and that 33, including those of the Jonestown victims, were clearly marked. Jim Jones led the Peo- ples Temple in San Fran- cisco in the early 1970s. As allegations of wrongdoing mounted, he moved the set- tlement to Guyana, with hundreds of followers. On Nov. 18, 1978, on a re- mote jungle airstrip, gun- men from the group am- bushed and killed U.S. Rep. Leo Ryan of California, three newsmen and a de- fector from the group. All were visiting Jonestown on a fact-finding mission to in- vestigate reports of abuses of members. Jones then ordered his followers to drink cya- nide-laced grape punch. Most complied, although survivors described some people being shot, injected with poison, or forced to drink the poison. MURDER-SUICIDE Ma n: W if e' s re ma ins f ou nd 3 5 ye ar s a er J on es to wn EVAN VUCCI — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS The site of the former Minus Funeral Home in Dover, Del., in seen Thursday. The state Division of Forensic Science has taken possession of the remains, discovered at the former Minus Funeral Home in Dover, and is working to make identifications and notify relatives, the agency and Dover police said in a statement. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS The Rev. Jim Jones, pastor of Peoples Temple in San Francisco, is shown in this 1976file photo. The Associated Press SACRAMENTO Six mem- bers of a motorcycle gang in Northern California, in- cluding two who remain fugitives, have been in- dicted in a methamphet- amine-trafficking case, federal prosecutors an- nounced Friday. The ongoing investiga- tion by federal and local agencies targeted three Sacramento-area chapters of the Vagos Outlaw Motor- cycle Gang, the U.S. attor- ney's office in Sacramento said. The FBI used confiden- tial sources and undercover agents to buy methamphet- amine on several occasions from Vagos members and their associates starting in March 2013, according to affidavits supporting the charges. In addition to distributing methamphet- amine, the investigation also accuses members of the Sacramento-area chap- ters of being involved in il- legal weapons purchases and handling stolen mo- torcycles. It became clear to agents that the gang would be dif- ficult to infiltrate because of members' longstanding relationships and its ex- tended initiation process, the affidavits said. "Many of the members are childhood friends, prison associates, and/or white-power gang mem- bers," the affidavits said. NORTHERN CALIFORNIA Sacramento motorcycle gang faces drug charges By Scott Smith The Associated Press FRESNO A man who ran an unlikely campaign for gov- ernor of California earlier this year has been arrested on suspicion of shooting his neighbor in the stom- ach and killing a horse, of- ficials said Friday. Tye "Glenn" Champ, 48, was arrested without in- cident a day after Fresno County Sheriff's officials say he opened fire during a dispute with his neigh- bor in Prather, a commu- nity about 30 miles north- east of Fresno. Lt. John Golden said Champ drew a pistol on his 40-year-old neighbor and the neighbor's 13-year-old son overworkbeingdoneonapri- vate road, and shot the man. He is also accused of killing a nearby horse that belonged totheinjuredman.It wasnot immediately clear whether Champ had an attorney. Officials said he fled from the shooting in a blue Volk- swagen sedan, and depu- ties in neighboring Tulare County arrested Champ on Friday morning during a traffic stop. He was wanted on suspicion of attempted murder, child endanger- ment and animal cruelty. A registered sex offender, Champ campaigned as a Republican candidate for governor during this year's primary election, saying he had turned his life around since being in prison. CRIME Former candidate arrested in shooting Reynolds Ranch & Farm Supply presents Comecelebrateour 25th Anniversary with us! Fun! Food! Raffles! Prizes! 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