Gas prices on the rise...

Almost 40 cents more than one year ago, the national average for a gallon of gasoline is at $2.35. In some places it's a much as 50 cents more. Locally, prices are actually less than the national average.

The price for a barrel of crude oil has been inching up over the last 4 months, and it appears that the hike may be here to stay for awhile as OPEC has cut production in an effort to get prices up.

OPEC has been feeling pressure to get prices up as U.S. production has increased over the last year or so.

Some good news? Compared to 1980 prices, gasoline has about doubled in price (as of today), while the cost of food is up 3 to 5 times what it was in 1980.