Well, folks, we have a new winner this week. Ripley is debuting on the Buzz with the cheapest gas. Regular is $3.49 per gallon.

After that, it’s $3.55 in Corinth and New Albany. Sherman and Sam’s Club (members price) both have regular priced at $3.59. Regular is $3.63 at Kroger in Tupelo and $3.69 in Oxford and Starkville.

Most expensive: Aberdeen $3.79

Read Sunday’s paper for additional gas prices.

Sales of the world’s most popular hybrid car, the Toyota Prius, have hit 1 million – and counting.

Toyota said yesterday that cumulative sales of the car hit 1,028,000 at the end of April. The vehicle is sold in 40 countries and regions.

Toyota said in the process of selling all those Priuses (?) there has been a reduction of about 4.5 million tons of CO2.

The company hopes to sell 1 million or more hybrids as early as 2010.

If you have a Prius what do you think of it. And if you don’t have one, same question, and would you consider buying one?

President Bush got royal sand kicked in his face today when King Abdullah of our “friend and ally” Saudi Arabia said there was no reason to increase oil production until customers demand it.

Bush asked the good king back in January to boost production but got a similar response.

Excerpts from the AP story:

Saudi officials stuck to their position that they will only pump more oil into the system when asked to by buyers, something they say is not happening now, the president’s national security adviser told reporters.

“Saudi Arabia does not have customers that are making requests for oil that they are not able to satisfy,” Stephen Hadley said. “What the Saudis wanted to tell us was we’re doing everything we can do … to meet this problem, but it’s a complicated problem.”

The Saudis bumped up production in May by about 300,000 barrels, but an energy analyst interviewed by the AP said it was a “token amount” and that the Saudis are still pumping about 2 million barrels a day below capacity.

Bush administration officials seem OK with the Saudis reasoning but as the AP story pointed out:

When Bush first ran for president in 2000, he criticized the Clinton administration for high fuel prices and said the president must “jawbone” oil producing nations and persuade them to drop rates. At that time, oil was nearing $28 a barrel — less than a quarter what it is now.

No wonder Republicans like me are disenchanted …

At least, Bush did agree to cancel oil shipments into the Strategic Oil Reserve, two days after Congress voted to temporarily halt the daily 70,000 barrel shipment.

Not that it will matter all that much. We still don’t have the refineries to produce the gas we need. And we can thank some of the enviro-nuts for some of that, in addition to our own thirst for oil and gas.

Meanwhile, gas prices continue to go up….

Looks like toilet seat manufacturing Bemis isn’t going to take crap from a Canadian company it is suing for patent infringement and false advertising.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel said Wisconsin-based Bemis Manufacturing Co. is suing Centoco Plastic Ltd. for the descriptions of a couple of models of its cheap wood and plastic seats.

Here’s some of it:

Centoco, Bemis alleges in a suit filed recently in federal court, has claimed in its advertising “that Centoco toilet seats were superior or equal to Bemis toilet seats.”
Bemis says the Canadian firm hasn’t backed that up, and that, in fact, Centoco’s seats are inferior to Bemis products.
Further, Bemis alleges, Centoco claims that the 700 and 900 — the former is round, the latter elongated — are made of molded wood when they actually “contain only 5 percent to 20 percent wood.”
All this has “deceived a substantial segment of consumers and potential customers,” Bemis alleges.
Beyond that, Bemis claims Centoco has infringed on a Bemis patent relating to an injection molding process.
In its complaint, Bemis includes what it says is “a representative sample of Centoco’s misleading advertising.”

The ad, however, doesn’t say Centoco seats are better than Bemis seats, or mention the company. The only claim to superiority is a headline that reads, “Our wood seats are highly durable and superior for high-traffic locations.”

From The Washington Post today:

At the Internal Revenue Service, one employee over a two-year period took sick leave on 13 of the 14 Tuesdays after a Monday holiday.

That’s an extreme case of sick-leave abuse, but the IRS employee had plenty of co-workers who also liked to take Tuesdays off, a report by the Inspector General for Tax Administration found.

The story goes on to discuss sick leave use and compensation for unused leave. The issue is something I’ve found to be a hot button topic at places where I’ve worked. Some places gave a standard 10 days off. You could use the time off for sick days, personal days or vacation. Other places split them up - 10 for vacation, two personal days and five sick days.

The sick days always were the source of controversy. If you took them off, you got the day off work. But say you got your flu shot, took your vitamins and didn’t need any sick days? You got a pat on the back and that’s about all. But what if you could cash in unused sick days and vacation at the end of the year? Would you be more inclined to bring your germs to the office?

How does it work at your office?

According to the Graduate Management Admission Council, the MBA Careers Services Council and the European Foundation for Management Development, people with MBA degrees will find that companies are hiring you.

Here’s some info from the release:

The proportion of respondents to the annual GMAC Corporate Recruiters Survey who are preparing to hire new MBAs is higher this year than it was in 2007. Seventy percent of recruiters in the survey are in the market for people with MBAs, compared with 64 percent last year. Additionally, the expected projected number of new hires per employer is slightly up, from an average of 12 new MBA hires to 13 new MBA hires.

Through economic slow downs, as well as expansions, organizations see value in the skills that MBAs bring to the table,” said David A. Wilson, president and CEO of the Graduate Management Admission Council. “Even as there is serious retrenchment going on at investment houses, more companies in the finance and accounting industry plan to hire MBAs than did last year. About 18% more health-care companies plan to hire MBAs than did last year.”
Most employers expect salaries to rise at the rate of inflation or better despite a rough economic climate that is seeing many firms retrench. The projected starting annual salary for new MBA hires in 2008 averages $83,541, up from $80,452 last year. In the U.S., projected average starting annual salaries is $85,581, up from $81,483.

Dick’s Sporting Goods, which has been enjoying a well-received “soft opening” the past couple of weeks, will officially have its grand opening on Saturday.

Special deals are on tap – but you’ll have to see the ad in Saturday’s Daily Journal to see what they are. We can’t even get a peek at it. Well, actually, we can, but we can’t tell you yet.

On a separate note, I’ll give the store mixed reviews as a customer during this early going. Here’s the story:

I (the Dennis half of biz buzz) like the store; however, customer service could be a little better. The first time I visited, I was never asked if I could be helped. And I was there a good 10 minutes. Not that I needed acknowledgment by an employee, but you would figure SOMEBODY might see how you’re doing, if you need help finding something, etc.

The second time was last Saturday when my wife and 6-year old went shopping for a basketball goal. Had to track down somebody to send help. Two employees walked by, but one of them apologized and came back a few minutes later.

Granted, the place was full of folks, including baseball teams that were in town for the tournament.

Anyway, we had our eyes set on a goal and backboard that was competitively priced. More expensive than Wal-Mart, but in our eyes, better quality. However, no where was there a sign that said the price was for the backboard only, and that the pole and stand were not included. That’s not good.

At least the employee was very apologetic about the “mixup.” Still, had we been hard bargainers like some people are, we could have argued that we should get the whole package for that price that was listed. Having been in retail, I know what it’s like, and I felt a little – a little – sorry for them. So we went elsewhere, I’m afraid.

Sorry, Dick’s!

But we’ll be back for fishing gear, camping gear, and probably some golfing stuff.

We’ll just have to look at the prices VERY carefully and make sure what we’re getting.

Call it growing pains for a new store. It happens to everybody.

The Ford F-150, which has been the best-selling pickup in the U.S. for more than 30 years, is being recalled due to a brake problem. As per usual, Ford will notify owners soon.

Here’s a blurb from Automotive News:

Ford Motor Co. is recalling more than 650,000 Ford F-150 and Lincoln Mark LT pickup trucks to fix a brake hose that could weaken brake power.
Ford is recalling the 2005-06 versions of the trucks with 5.4-liter three-valve engines, according to a posting today by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
The brake hose may swell over time and detach from the intake manifold, according to the posting. Although the brake function wouldn’t be completely lost, braking would require increased brake pedal effort, the posting said.
Ford spokesman Wes Sherwood said 11 minor accidents caused by the issue were reported, a sufficient number for the automaker to act. No injuries were reported, he said.

Did you know we had a Black & Decker outlet store in Tupelo?

To be honest, neither did I. But it opened in late fall at the VF Factory Outlet center on Eason.

Anyway, the store is having its official grand opening on Friday, May 23.

It’s officially a Black and Decker Clearance Outlet, which means it offers big discounts on manufacturer’s overruns, older models and factor reconditioned items. It also has a large selection of power tools and accessories, hand tools, small home appliances and lawn and garden items.

Hey - just in time for Father’s Day. Or any other time, I suppose.

Corn and cooking oil are among the “biofuels” being used and promoted, and researchers are now looking into sweet sorghum.

The sugary sap inside the plant’s stalk can be turned into a “potent” biofuel, some experts say.

From the Associated Press:

Ethanol made from the stalk’s juice has four times the energy yield of the corn-based ethanol, which is already in the marketplace unlike sweet sorghum. Sweet sorghum produces about eight units of energy for every unit of energy used in its production. That’s about the same as sugarcane but four times as much as corn.

I think it can be a piece of the puzzle” as a biofuel crop, said Danielle Bellmer, executive secretary of the Sweet Sorghum Ethanol Association and an Oklahoma State University researcher studying ways to improve stalk pressing and fermentation methods. “The real issue is it’s just not a well-known crop.”

Currently about 10 million tons of grain from the tops of the plant’s stalks are harvested in the U.S., the world’s leading grower, but most of the sugar from the stalks goes to make syrup that people use to pour on biscuits, cook, and feed animals.

Sweet sorghum also spares the environment. Less fertilizer is needed than with corn and as a result there is less water contamination.

Sounds like a plan to me. Maybe if we back off corn for ethanol, we can see some relief on price pressures that are rippling through the economy.

But then, maybe the price of sugar will skyrocket…