The state is worried about how rising fuel prices affect not only the public but Florida’s agriculture industry. The Florida Department of Agriculture has created a web site to help people gauge gasoline prices in 20 major cities including Sarasota, Punta Gorda, Fort Myers and Naples. The Agency’s Terry Macelroy says it will provide weekly updates on the average price of regular, mid-grade and premium gasoline, as well as diesel.

“For example if you click on Miami and you see it’s 2.97, while it doesn’t tell you what the universe of stations in Miami are selling it for – if you pull into a station and you’re paying 2.89 I think you can be confident you’ve got a good deal on the other hand if you pull into a station and it’s 3.05 you might drive a couple blocks to see if you can do better.”

Macelroy says the state's farmers have seen fuel prices increase by nearly 70 cents a gallon in the past year, adding more than 100 million dollars to their agricultural production costs.
The web site is www.Florida-agriculture.com/gasprices

Essayist Andrea Carter of Fort Myers has been thinking about one half of the mothers in the country – stepmothers – this week before Mother’s Day.Essayist Andrea Carter is a librarian at the Three Oaks Library in Estero.

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Audubon of Florida says it's discovered the oldest wild Roseate
spoonbill on record while studying the species as part of Everglades
Restoration in Florida Bay. Researchers captured the 16-year-old they’ve named Enrico last month as part of a new Spoonbill Satellite Telemetry Project. Audubon Research Director Jerry Lorenz says the pink-colored bird has more than doubled the known life expectancy of a roseate spoonbill.
The organization hopes to get an interactive website up soon so everyone can watch the satellite data being brought in from the spoonbills.

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