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Gas Prices Expected to Rise for Memorial Day Weekend Travel

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Gas prices are between 40 to 50-cents higher this year than they were last year.  With record numbers of drivers expected to be on the road for the upcoming Memorial Day weekend, high demand could make the price at the pump higher.  Mike Right is the Vice President of Public Affairs for the American Automobile Association. He tells what is causing the gas prices to go higher.  

"There is a lot of unease about the uncertainty of what is going on in the Middle East," says Right.  "Oil prices are about $71 a barrel and that has a direct impact on gas prices.  Also, we are still recovering from last year's devastating hurricanes.  Low supply and high demand has everything off right now."

Gas prices are averaging $2.48 in Fayetteville, $2.54 in Jonesboro and Little Rock, and $2.59 in Texarkana. Wright says a record number of drivers are expected to be on the road for the Memorial Day weekend.  Gas prices could get close to three-dollars in some locations during the summer travel season.

Johnathan Reaves is the News Director for KASU Public Radio. As part of an Air Force Family, he moved to Arkansas from Minot, North Dakota in 1986. He was first bitten by the radio bug after he graduated from Gosnell High School in 1992. While working on his undergraduate degree, he worked at KOSE, a small 1,000 watt AM commercial station in Osceola, Arkansas. Upon graduation from Arkansas State University in 1996 with a degree in Radio-Television Broadcast News, he decided that he wanted to stay in radio news. He moved to Stuttgart, Arkansas and worked for East Arkansas Broadcasters as news director and was there for 16 years.