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Oil prices are soaring to levels never anticipated – nearly $100 a barrel. The price of oil affects just about everything that is made, transported, eaten and sold in the United States. But the cost hasn't had the impact on the economy many analysts expected.

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Anne Hull grew up in the rural interior of Central Florida during the 1960s and '70s. Her memoir evokes a land of perfect citrus, and the cruel costs of its harvest.

Five Republican presidential candidates square off for their final debate before New Hampshire voters go to the polls Jan. 8. At the Fox News forum, they spar on taxes, spending and the buzzword of this year's campaign: change.

The ultimate clean fuel, at least at first glance, is vegetable oil. Plants make it from sunlight, water, and a greenhouse gas — and they remove carbon dioxide from the air as they grow. The oil is easily converted into fuel for diesel engines. Around the globe there's now a rush toward so-called "biodiesel."

Republican presidential candidate John McCain is advocating a gas tax moratorium between Memorial Day and Labor Day to help ease the burden of high gas prices. But how would a gas tax holiday work? And would it help? Leonard Burman, director of the Tax Policy Center, a non-partisan think tank, talks with Melissa Block.

Gas prices have steadily risen a few pennies per week. Now, the average price is $3.60 per gallon nationwide. In some parts of the country, gas prices have already topped $4 dollars per gallon. Oil prices are up 25 percent since the start of the year. A week from now, voters in Indiana and North Carolina head to the polls for their primaries, and gas prices and the economy are on people's minds.

The national average of gas zoomed past the four dollar mark this week, and that's hurting the pockets of just about every commuter on the roads. But in California — which has the highest gas prices in the country — one man may feel the pinch at the pump more than other commuters. NPR's Andrea Seabrook talks to Dave Givens who commutes 186 miles, one way, just to get to work each day.

The U.S. Supreme Court ended a 14-year lawsuit Wednesday when it cut the award in a punitive damages case against Exxon. The lawsuit was brought by 30,000 people who suffered economic loss when a tanker leaked 11 million gallons of oil into Alaska's Prince William Sound in 1989.

The Supreme Court is pushing toward the end of its term, and on Wednesday morning the justices issued a raft of important decisions dealing with the death penalty, punitive damages and confronting witnesses.

Morning Edition and Los Angeles Times critic Kenneth Turan reviews The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, the second installment of the fantasy series by C.S. Lewis to be adapted into a film.