In Alabama, Attorney General Troy King is warning unscrupulous contractors and businesses that he will take action against those who seek to profit illegally at the expense of Alabamians who may suffer damage and others who seek refuge in the state from tropical storms and hurricanes.

The state law that prohibits "unconscionable pricing" of items for sale or rent comes into play when the governor has declared an official state of emergency. Gov. Riley declared a state of emergency Friday in anticipation of Hurricane Gustav.

An unconscionable price is defined as one that is 25% more than the average price charged in the same area within the last 30 days, unless the increase can be attributed to a reasonable cost. The penalty is a fine up to $1,000 per violation, and those determined to have willfully and continuously violated this law may be prohibited from doing business in Alabama.

In Louisiana, Attorney General Buddy Caldwell announced zero tolerance for price gouging at the gas pump before, during, or after Gustav. His office says it's logged over 300 complaints. In one case, a station was caught jacking up the price of gas from $3.50 a gallon to $4.10

MP: Hey wait a minute, that's only a 17% increase, that would be legal in Alabama.

Caldwell says when they busted these stations, employees told his investigators they didn't know they are not allowed to raise the prices. On Highway 415, west of Port Allen, gas prices are hovering around $3.65. People are warned that if they haven't gassed up, they should get to the pump soon. Some stations are running out of gas.

MP: Hey wait minute, officials are telling people to fill up, so demand for gas is rising sharply, and supply is declining, stations are running out, and prices aren't supposed to increase?

Update: Politicians seem to have a strong dislike for high oil and gas prices, and are willing to immediately blame, investigate and prosecute price gougers and speculators for "unconscionable pricing" when oil and gas prices increase. But it's often those same politicians who continually hold our own vast domestic energy resources off-limits to exploration and development, which contributes to higher prices. Isn't that "unconscionable logic?"

All in the name of fairness:

One man winning EIGHT gold medals in just ONE Olympics! We need to take the "windfall" gold medals from that greedy American, Michael Phelps, and distribute them to the less fortunate, but equally hard-working athletes in the swimming-poor countries. The International Olympic Committee should take control of 60% of his obscene, record medal count, and distribute them to athletes in nations like Iceland and Lichtenstein, who've never won Olympic swimming medals. He'd still have 3 medals left, he'd never even miss the ones we took. --Glenn Beck

Obama has also promised that "we will get 1 million 150-mile-per-gallon plug-in hybrids on our roads within six years." What a tranquilizing verb "get" is. This senator, who has never run so much as a Dairy Queen, is going to get a huge, complex industry to produce, and is going to get a million consumers to buy, these cars. How? Almost certainly by federal financial incentives for both -- billions of dollars of tax subsidies for automakers, and billions more to bribe customers to buy these cars they otherwise would spurn.

~George Will

How about a $1000 fine for not properly sorting your garbage? Read this interesting article in the New York Times about the religion of environmentalism.

For those who may not keep in touch with the exciting world of public education. There have been some murmurings of the recent $300,000 bonus given to UCA president Lu Hardin. Part of the controversy stems from the fact that the funds were taken out of the Board of Trustees Endowment Fund. According to the Democrat Gazette,

The Board of Trustees Endowment Fund was established in 1995 “to provide long-term support for scholarships and other operations of the university.”

But a review of the expenditures shows that the board used less than 1 percent of the money to fund college scholarships over the past six years. Just $17,000 of the $1.92 million spent from 2002-03 to 2007-08 went to fund scholarships — $2,000 for Miss UCA scholarship in 2007-08 and $15,000 in 2004-05 for “staff senate book scholarships,” which went to student workers and their children.

Other expenditures include an $800,000 payment to supplement construction at Estes Stadium, a $334,019.14 buyout for former UCA President Winfred Thompson, $250,000 for several university centennial celebrations and programs in 2006 and 2007, and Hardin’s $300,000 bonus.

Board members also approved $20,000 over two years to help the struggling Oxford American magazine, $12,000 for championship football rings, and $13,000 for chair risers for the UCA choir.

Not only does the board have to deal with the implication that they may be misappropriating these funds, their huge bonus for Lu may not comply with Arkansas law which caps the salary of public university presidents.

I wonder who is squirming more, the board because their afraid that they may be caught fudging on the very policies they created, or Lu who may have to write a check to UCA for $300,000.

See the full article from the Democrat Gazette.

The last couple of walk-in customers where I work have complained about high gas prices after exiting their large luxury cars or SUVs. All I can think is "what is the big deal?" And what exactly worries them about current high gas prices? I am left to figure that one out. Here's a good article by Justin Wolfers called "What Exactly Concerns Us About Gas Prices?" Only if I could hand it to them as they walk out.
http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2 ... #more-2757

The list of University of Central Arkansas Salaries is now searchable. (You can use the built in search capabilities of Adobe Acrobat.)

UCA Salaries

Stay tuned for the new, updated salary list coming soon...

According to Shawn Tully in Why oil prices will tank:

"Arguments that $4-a-gallon gas (or even higher) is here to stay are dead wrong. Housing's boom-and-bust cycle tells you why."

This greenhouse calculator was developed by Australian Broadcasting Corporation and is meant for children.

Fill out the survey yourself and you can learn when you should die!


http://www.abc.net.au/science/planetsla ... e_calc.htm