KILGOROUND
MITCH LUCAS

HERE'S A SCARY THOUGHT - some folks at the Automobile Association of America believe gas might just cost a staggering $10 a gallon by the end of this year.

I know I'm in oil country, but these gas prices are really hurting. It's disheartening to pull up to the pump and drop a $50, and then it not even fill up your vehicle.

Troy Green of the AAA told the New York Sun over the weekend that as long as the cost of oil per barrel keeps increasing (it was at $118 a barrel at day's end Friday), the cost of gas will continue to rise. Oil regularly hits new highs every week now. In the early part of 2007, though, it was just $50 a barrel.

I don't drive for a living (thank goodness, right now), but most Americans are struggling with gas prices. I can't imagine having a job like a truck driver, where the gas pump would impact you so much.

In its story, the Sun quotes forecasters from

Houston and from Jupiter, Fla., as saying they could definitely see $7 to $10-pergallon gas by the end of the year. Those same forecasters also point out that Europeans have been paying high gas prices for years. In Europe, the going price for a gallon of gas, according to the Sun's story, is $9 right now, and that's with some sort of $2-per-gallon tax.

So brace yourselves, or find a car-pooling buddy. It could be a long year.

+++

THE KILGORE HIGH SCHOOL baseball team beat Marshall on Friday night to qualify for the UIL Class 4A playoffs for the sixth straight year. Those playoffs will begin with a bidistrict playoff game on Friday night at 7 p.m. at Sulphur Springs, against Sulphur Springs.

If I've looked at the 4A playoff bracket correctly, the winner of the KHS-Sulphur Springs game will face Mesquite Poteet in the area round sometime next week.

Good luck to the Bulldogs Friday night. Let's hope they can keep the season going.

+++

CONGRATULATIONS to KHS track athlete Tai'Shea Reese, who will make her second straight trip to the UIL State Track & Field Championships next month.

Reese won the long jump on Saturday at regionals (held the University of North Texas - see the story on page 8 today), and is headed back to Mike Myers Field on the campus of the University of Texas on May 9.

Others who represented Kilgore at the regionals over the weekend were Shae Morgan, Andrea Ashley, Samone Jones, Brandi Johnson, Jessica Shepherd, Joe Colbert, Dominique Jones, Shadow Stokes, Joel Venegas and Shaun Edwards.

+++ Kilgore Together encourages parents to text their children on prom night to encourage them to have a safe alcohol and drug-free prom. (Now that we've made 'text a verb, some parents may have to learn to 'text.')

+++

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TODAY Steve Harris, Stormy Shelton, Angie Hobbs, Darren Camp, Dustin Swaim, Elise Cooper, Darlene Young, Bob Hearn, Dorothy Nell Dudley, Brad Henson, Odis O'Neal, Charlene Burleson, Jan Taylor, Ava Johnson, Steve Toon, Ammie Myrel Smith, Linda Kenney, Jean Hughes, Pauline Hardt, Brad Bryant.

If you are celebrating a birthday today, here are a few people celebrating with you: actress Michelle Pfeiffer (50), actor Daniel Day-Lewis (51), actor/comedian Jerry Seinfeld (54), country music's Duane Allen of the Oak Ridge Boys (65), actress Kate Mulgrew (53), rapper Master P (38), and actress Uma Thurman (38).

+++

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY TODAY to Mr. and Mrs. Kenneth Robertson.