Gas prices in your area?

Here's the Road Runner sign near my house this morning -- it was $3.55 here on Friday morning. This station and others along the interstate are running about 20 cents higher than those on State Line Avenue, where it's selling for $3.79. I was forced to buy gas last night in Arkadelphia at $3.97.

The governor's emergency declaration on Friday triggered Ark. Code Ann. §4-88-301 et seq, which was enacted in 1997 to protect consumers from price gouging and unfair pricing practices during and shortly after a state of emergency. The statute, subject to some exeptions, prohibits any person or business from selling goods for a price of more than ten percent (10%) above the price charged by that person for those goods or services immediately prior to the proclamation of emergency. It is not a violation if the seller can prove that the increase in price was directly attributable to additional costs imposed by the supplier.