Americans reveal concerns, solutions

Mary Sypolt pushes a full cart though Save-A-Lot, a store that carries few major brand-name products, offering cheaper, unknown brands instead. On this day, she's buying hamburger, chicken, cereal and other food for a four-day camping trip at Burnsville Lake, her family's one big vacation of the summer.

"I don't see how anyone is living on minimum wage anymore. I really don't," says Sypolt, 34, a nurse's aide at West Virginia University Hospitals in Morgantown, a 50-mile round-trip drive from her home in Kingwood. Her husband works for a lawn maintenance and landscaping company, and they have two daughters, 8 and 12.

The family survives on a combined income of about $40,000 a year.

"Gas prices hurt us some, but we drive four-cylinders, so it's not too bad. But the food prices are really hurting us," Sypolt says. "The kids complain they have nothing 'good' to eat anymore — meaning junk.

"We never had much extra before. Now we have none."

She used to let her older daughter buy a gossip magazine on a trip to the store. Not anymore. "That's $5. That's a gallon of gas."

Her daughter understands when she tells her, "Honey, we just don't have the money."

— By AP Writer Vicki Smith.

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LOUISIANA: A mayor listens but feels 'powerless'

In north Louisiana, in the agriculture community of Mer Rouge, gas prices are a main topic of conversation — and concern — at hangouts like Mer Rouge Cafe. Mayor Johnny McAdams offers a sympathetic ear.

"It's, 'How high is it today?' and 'What's it doing today?"' he says. "Most everybody can get CNBC, and, as you know, they run (the price of oil) constantly."

McAdams says the town encourages conservation, from water usage to parking the car, when possible. But "that's about all we can do right now. You feel a little bit powerless about the price of crude."

"We're all concerned this isn't the highest it's going to go," McAdams adds. "I think the majority (here) think the worst is yet to come."

The government could do more to ease the crunch, he believes, adding that many in his town want Congress to open more places up to drilling. "It's time to quit thinking about the caribous and start thinking about the people."

Asked whether he's optimistic things will turn around, he says: "I hope so, but I don't have a lot of confidence in that."

— By AP Writer Becky Bohrer.

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NORTHERN CALIFORNIA: Among wealthy, 'worries are different'

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