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Editor's Note: A recollection of when gas prices first spiked. Mr. Potter began singin' the gas pump blues. For the whole sad story, follow the jump.

Gas Pump Blues
August 2005


Hot August day,
Sweat pouring down my brow
As me and my old dog, Blue
Set in the Chevy truck, thinking about how
George Bush done stuck it to me.

I came to town with $5.00 in my pocket,
Enough for a gallon of gas,
A Dr. Pepper, and two Moon Pies,
One for me and one for old Blue....

(Hickman, KY - December 30, 2014) - In less time than it took to walk into the meeting, all Fulton County Fiscal Court members present voted unanimously to pass right to work ordinance...

The reason repeatedly cited - jobs for Fulton County.

Why would Fulton County Kentucky pass a right to work ordinance that legal experts say is illegal?

A desperate need for jobs and attention...

Who needs 10 top stories when 12 will do? Here are our picks for the big stories we saw in 2014:

From politics to the polar vortex to building collapses, 2014 shook up the status quo in the Jackson Purchase.

Saudi Arabia last decided to teach the world a lesson in oil politics in 1973 through 1976. The lesson was you don't mess with the oil producers if you want energy.

The 2014 version of the lesson is that Saudi Arabia is only one nation can play the oil card. There will be no room for upstarts and no tolerance for alternative energies...

Where will they go from here?

Hickman County Chamber of Commerce Leadership students spent December 11th learning about the major industry of their rural county - agriculture.

The Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting looks at the costs of jailers without jails. Four far western counties, Carlisle, Trigg, Lyon, and Livingston, have jailers with no jails. Carlisle pays its jailer a modest $24,500 a year.

...Counties without a local jail either put arrestees in a regional jail or else transport them to a neighboring county jail that has agreed to house them. All 41 no-jail counties still have an elected jailer, which in Kentucky alone is a constitutional office.

Those counties are scattered around the state but generally are rural and among the least populous. More than a third are in eastern Kentucky, and many of those are financially strapped, periodically grappling with the possibility of cutbacks in basic services while paying thousands of dollars to jailers who, in the eyes of many, don't earn their keep.

"More than 80 percent of the nation's jails are run by sheriffs," said Michael Jackson, a program specialist with the National Institute of Corrections in Washington, D.C. "Kentucky's the only state that has elected jailers."

For the full report, follow the jump.