captioning funded by cbs and hello, everyone. welcome to the early show here on a monday morning. good morning once again, i m chris wragge. and i m erica hill. good to have you with us this morning. we begin with that ongoing pain at the pump, which you have likely noticed. the unrest in the middle east has sent gas prices soaring over the past few weeks. a gallon of gasoline now averages which is 78 cents higher than it was just one year ago. cbs news business and economics correspondent rebecca jarvis joins us from a gas station here in manhattan with more on that price spike and how washington may respond to it. rebecca, good morning. good morning, erica. and this is a scene we re really seeing play out across gas stations throughout the country. prices back near $4 a gallon in some places. they even are paying $4 a gallon. back where prices were in 2008. and now the government is considering getting involved. unrest in the middle east has gasoline prices here soa
for quite a shock. not since hurricane katrina ravaged the gulf coast in 2005 have gasoline prices in this country shot up so quickly. the national average for a gallon of regular gas tonight is $3.50. that s up almost 40 cents from just a month ago. and some parts of the country are already looking at $4 gas. the dramatic rise, of course, is being driven by the unrest in the mideast, and today the white house signaled it s considering emergency measures to try to bring gas prices down. california is feeling the most pain, and that s where we start tonight with nbc s miguel almaguer. reporter: from new york to illinois to california, sticker shock. it s a ripoff. $4 a gallon? i spent $65 to fill up my car, it will only last me like a week. reporter: $4 a gallon is a bargain in some california cities. it s frustrating. it s only going to go up more. reporter: in the golden state gas prices spiked nearly 50 cents a gallon in february alone. michigan, up 38 cents. illi
himself in his own jail cell. reporter: 39-year-old aaron thomas, seen here escorted out of court after his first appearance before a judge. prosecutors believe he is the east coast rapist, pictured in these sketches, responsible for some 17 rapes over 14 years, beginning in maryland, stretching to rhode island, virginia and connecticut. he was arrest the last week, after electronic billboards went up around the east coast. the website garnered 51,000 hits in one week. ultimately, there was a detailed hit that cracked this case. reporter: in court, thomas kept his head down as prosecutors said when police swooped in to catch him, he said, what took you so long? they said thomas confessed to several of the rapes, saying he has dr. jeckyll and mr. hyde personality when it comes to women. some of the first rapes took place in 1998 and 2001. it was music to my ears to hear that he was arrested. reporter: he will face five life sentences for the halloween attacks on two
that s right, some of you may see a few inches of snow. good sunday, everyone. heavy rain has fallen all night on macarthur boulevard, northwest washington. cars had to contend with large puddles that stretched across the road. our area was under a flood warning for much of the day. prince william county, firefighters had to rescue people whose van got stuck in high water in noaksville this afternoon. who s looking at snow? hot spots north and west of town are actually reporting snow. i had a viewer call in from warren county, virginia, 2 inches of snow on the ground. winter weather advisories have been posted along and to the west the blue ridge. you folks out towards martins burg, winchester, front royal, tom s brook, stanton, washington, virginia, be on the lookout for the winter weather advisory. temperatures look like they re all above freezing but that s at reporting stations. high spots, you can see on the radar, have changed over to heavy, wet snow at this point in
war, much of the fighting surrounds oil refinery cities. gaddafi dropped a bomb today to push back rebel forces. they said they will not back down. president obama, hoping to avoid the need for military involvement, issued this warning. i want to send a clear message to those who are around colonel gaddafi. it is their choice to make how they operate moving forward and they will be held accountable. as for gas prices, the national average is now $3.51 per gallon. it is ridiculous. some are calling for the president to tap into the nation s oil reserves, the 727 million barrels stored underground along the gulf coast. i cannot do much about it, so i deal with it. and it is not just on the road. the airways are now feeling the pinch. southwest airways, which usually refrains from air air fare hikes just announced a ball of $10 per ticket. a bomb plot of $10 per ticket. a bump of $10 per ticket. president obama today that to a two-year ban on military tri