An investigation into possible manipulation of gasoline prices has uncovered "disturbing'' revelations, Attorney General Eric Holder said today. "There are a couple things that … are disturbing,'' Holder said, declining to elaborate.
He indicated the information would be reviewed by a fraud task force formed last week. For the week that ended Monday, the nationwide average cost of a gallon of gasoline rose 3.5 cents, to $3.879, the Energy Department reported.
Over the next two days, this one-two punch is expected to bring record or near-record flood levels to a stretch of river from Smithland, Ky., on the Ohio to New Madrid, Mo., on the Mississippi, according to Noreen Schwein, deputy for hydrological services at the National Weather Service's Central Region Headquarters in Kansas City, Mo.
Officials with the US Army Corps of Engineers were sufficiently concerned about this pending aquatic onslaught that they were considering blasting a hole in a levee along the Mississippi just south of its junction with the Ohio. But they reportedly put off a decision after Missouri's attorney general went to court to block the move, arguing that some 130,000 acres of farmland would become inundated.