• Gasoline: A year ago, gas cost $1.71 a gallon in the New York metro area, according to the Automobile Club of New York. A month ago, the price was at $1.93 a gallon. Now gas is at a record high of $2.13 a gallon in the New York area. Yesterday, prices for a gallon of gas ranged from $2.09 in Matamoras, Pa., to $2.17 in Liberty. "We do not have enough refinery capacity to keep up with the increased demand for gasoline," said Robert Sinclair, a spokesman with the Automobile Club of New York. If a refinery went down or a pipeline broke, like in Arizona last year, Sinclair said there would be even higher gasoline prices. "Forty percent of the American population lives paycheck to paycheck," Sinclair said. "It makes it very difficult on the average American who just does not have the elasticity in their budget to deal with these fluctuating gas prices."
  
  
• Dairy: The prices for milk, butter, cheese and ice cream have all been going up recently. The culprit: fewer milking cows. "Typically in the U.S., milk production increases about 1 [percent] to 2 percent per year," said Larry Salathe, senior economist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture. "Last year we had no increase in milk production." In fact, milk production in the first quarter was down 2 percent and is expected to stay down, Salathe said. So prices will likely stay up. Also, dairy farmers are getting more money for milk, causing store prices to go up, said Salathe. The USDA increased the wholesale level of milk 52 cents per gallon for May. At ShopRite on Dolson Avenue in Middletown yesterday, a gallon of whole milk cost $3.49. That’s up from a national average of $2.91 in April and well over the previous record of $3 in February and March 1999.
  
  
• Building materials: A hot housing market has caused prices of building materials such as lumber to go up 30 percent to 40 percent since the winter, said Monroe Levine of Fallsburg Lumber. Nationally, housing starts topped 2 million units in March, said Shawn Church, editor of Random Lengths, a newsletter publishing company in Oregon that tracks softwood lumber and panel markets. That’s up 15 percent from the March 2003 figure of 1.74 million housing starts. "This is as strong a home-building market as we have seen," Church said. "Especially when you consider that the houses built today generally are bigger than they were in past years." Softwood lumber prices are up 63.7 percent from $281 per 1,000 board feet a year ago to $460 per 1,000 board feet now, Church said. The price of plywood is up 123 percent from $264 per 1,000 square feet a year ago to $589 per 1,000 square feet now, Church said.
  
  
• Furniture: Steel prices are up 30 percent since January, according to Reuters. One of the main reasons behind the increase is that China, which is doing a lot of building to prepare for the 2008 Olympics, is demanding more steel. As a result, furniture prices are up. Don Urmston, owner of Furniture Options in Goshen, is paying 7 percent more for mattresses. He expects the price of recliners to also increase. "Towards the fall, prices would jump up probably in the range of 5 percent," Urmston said of recliners. "But whether the retail consumer will see that, I don’t know." One of Urmston’s suppliers recently notified him that for a number of reasons, including oil and steel prices increasing, the price of all furniture could go up as much as 34 percent this year. Kevin Jacobs, manager of Royal Furniture in Port Jervis, has seen prices for everything from sofas to chairs go up. The average mattress is up about $40, from $699 to $740, Jacobs said.
  
  
• Paper goods: This is a hike that’s looming for consumers. Distributors are experiencing price hikes that will soon affect stores and eventually shoppers’ pocketbooks. The culprit here is higher prices for pulp and fuel. "I’ve seen a lot of increases in the past two, three weeks on almost all the products we buy," said Carl Morse, vice president of E.A. Morse & Co., a paper supply distributor in Middletown and Hudson. Last week alone, 25 different companies notified distributors like E.A. Morse that prices are going up, Morse said. Solo Cup Co. and Sweetheart Cup Co. increased prices of all paper products 8 percent on Sunday. Kimberly Clark raised prices 6 percent on certain products May 1. "The percentages of increase are from 3 percent and they go as high as 12 percent," Morse said. "We have to raise our prices."

An e-mail from a retired Marine:

"Dear Hugh:

I've come up with what I think is a good analogy that may help your listeners understand the significance of the Sarin gas shell that was recently found in Iraq.

We are all familiar with the Mars robots that are cruising around the Red Planet looking for signs of life. Suppose that they were unable to find a single bit of evidence for it; no water, no carbon, no primitive fossils, nothing. Then, on the last day of their exploration, one of them finds... a spoon.

Now, on its face, it's an insignificant find. Just a common eating utensil. But do you think the folks at NASA will consider it insignificant? Of course not; it would be a monumental find. Imagine the implications! That one spoon would provide evidence for fully developed extraterrestrial life, hominid life forms, interplanetary space travel, a functioning industry, economy, and government base which is not of earthly origin... The list could go on and on.

Likewise, with that single chemical warhead we know several things. First and foremost, that it must be the product of a Saddamist government program, it could not have been something that was mixed up in someone's garage with fertilizer and gasoline. Also, it gives evidence of a chemical warfare industry in Iraq, as well as a dedicated military program. The fact that it was used by agents who didn't really know how to use it is particularly chilling, as it may indicate that the shells are so numerous that almost anyone can get their hands on them. Again, as with the spoon on Mars, the list of implications goes on and on. It's no wonder that the liberal press has so carefully avoided mentioning it. After all, according to them, Bush has been lying about WMD's, and this artillery shell doesn't fit with the story they've been telling.

Thanks for your program Hugh; keep slugging away at the lefties.

Sincerely,
Stephen M. Young, LtCol (Ret), USMC"