I drove to a conference in Newport, Rhode Island over the weekend. I filled my car up on Friday, and it was $3.15 a gallon. I had to fill it up again on Sunday, and the price had jumped - in just two days - to $3.29 a gallon. In California, the price of gas is hitting some residents hard. From the LA Times:

That's especially so in California, where long commutes are the norm and public transit is of little use to the masses who in recent years moved ever farther from their jobs to find affordable housing.

"For some people, their cost for gas has doubled in a short amount of time," said Susan Ulaga, senior vice president at Consumer Credit Counseling Services, a California nonprofit. "People are able to shift money around for a while, but eventually the credit card limits kick in … and once that credit is used up, they are saying, 'What do I do now?'"

A growing number of them are heading to pawnshops, said Mike Robinson, a co-owner of Orange Pawnshop in the city of Orange.