Pumped up Gas Prices; Peace Talks in Libya; Gadhafi Ready for Peace Talks
CHETRY: Well, if you're driving, most of us are, you feel the pinch of the high gas prices. Carmen Wong Ulrich is "Minding Your Business" this morning. We're hitting -- we're coming close to a dubious mark here about the highest price ever.</s>VELSHI: Unpinch us, Carmen.</s>CARMEN WONG-ULRICH, PERSONAL FINANCE EXPERT: It's pretty big. Well, I'm not going to because gas is really high now. It's up 20 cents in the past two weeks alone. $3.77 a gallon. Now we're only 35 cents from the all-time high of July 2008 of $4.11. And I'll tell you, I just got back from California it's over $4 there. Chicago is already at $4.11. Hawaii almost $4 and New York and Florida as well, $4 a gallon. Now gas prices, of course, is our big barometer for consumers. We have very tight budgets so we're going to have to cut somewhere if we're going to spend more on gas. Once gas gets over $4, this is going to really slow consumer spending and given the friction on the other side with retailers, retailers are going to have to raise their prices to meet the higher transportation costs so we know that consumer spending is probably going to go down. And this is really affected by gas. Notice it's not affected by your cable bill, your cell phone.</s>ROMANS: Right.</s>VELSHI: Sure.</s>ULRICH: No other bill that we have really affects our spending as much as the gas.</s>ROMANS: Because every week you feel it right away, you feel it right away.</s>ULRICH: You feel it. You see it in big giant numbers.</s>VELSHI: You see it, yes. We talk about it.</s>ROMANS: Tax on consumers. You know, and some of the experts have said they thought that the worst might be behind us, and maybe there's a little bit more to go, but that the big push had been made, but they just keep climbing up.</s>ULRICH: And there's more and more demand for it and that's a big part of the problem. The second biggest item on our budget is transportation, so it really affects us.</s>CHETRY: And so all of this back and forth that's been going on in Washington about the budgets, so that had an effect on Wall Street yet?</s>ULRICH: Well, that was Friday because Friday we were down. Here's your morning market check. Dow was down Friday almost 30 points. Nasdaq down 15. S&P; 500 down five. But things are looking much rosier today because a deal was made.</s>ROMANS: The big worry, of course, the debt ceiling. You start messing around the debt ceiling, that could be a big problem for Wall Street.</s>ULRICH: Yes.</s>VELSHI: But back to gas, those oil prices are still a threat and markets may start to feel that as well.</s>ULRICH: Exactly.</s>ROMANS: Thanks, Carmen.</s>ULRICH: Thank you.</s>ROMANS: Carmen Wong Ulrich.</s>VELSHI: Top stories. Congress and the president are preparing for a new bigger battle over the soaring national debt. President Obama wants lawmakers to raise the $14.29 trillion debt ceiling, which we are going to hit next month about the middle of May. Republicans want something in return for doing that. The president will also announce his long-term plan for reducing the deficit on Wednesday. A 6.6 magnitude earthquake has hit northern Japan. It comes on the one-month anniversary of the March 11th earthquake and tsunami. It's not clear yet if there's any new damage but the latest quake forced workers at the severely damaged nuclear plant in Fukushima to evacuate. Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi reportedly agreeing to a cease-fire deal with the African Union. It's being called a roadmap to peace and it calls for the immediate end to fighting and mediation with rebel leaders. Opposition forces still want Gadhafi to step down. It is unclear whether that is part of this peace plan.</s>ROMANS: Talks are set to begin today in Benghazi between the Libyan rebel leaders and African Union members. It comes on the heels of a bitter fight for the rebel stronghold Ajdabiya. Gadhafi's army pushed out with the help of NATO air strikes. Our Fred Pleitgen is live in Tripoli this morning. Fred, is the cease-fire in effect? Are both sides honoring it?</s>FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: No. There's no cease-fire whatsoever in effect, Christine. And basically what we heard yesterday after Moammar Gadhafi met these five leaders from the African Union is that he agreed to their part of the peace plan, which in essence, called for first of all an immediate cease-fire, also a monitoring force on the ground. So you're talking about boots on the ground, possibly from the African Union, possibly also from the United Nations to verify that cease-fire and then, of course, for a transitional process as they call it, to try and bring these two sides back together. One of the interesting things, I think Ali just mentioned it is what would the fate of Moammar Gadhafi be under such a peace plan? Clearly, at this point in time, there is no word on that and we asked about that yesterday at a press conference. They said that so far that was in no way part of the negotiations. So are the rebels going to agree to that? We'll se when the African leaders travel to Benghazi to try to get talks there going. One of the interesting things though, Christine, is that NATO actually lifted its no-fly zone for these African leaders to be able to fly in here to Tripoli and then to be able to travel to Benghazi to meet with the rebels. So we'll see how those talks go, Christine.</s>ROMANS: All right. Fred Pleitgen in Tripoli. Thank you, Fred.</s>CHETRY: Well, still ahead, at one school in Florida, first, we brought you this story, the six-year-old girl there has a life threatening peanut allergy. And in order to protect her, it had to take some measures. They have to make sure that it's a peanut-free environment, that their classmates wash their hands before they go into the classroom. When they started to say that kids had to rinse their mouths out as well, parents said enough is enough. And they actually started protesting. Up next, we're going to finally get a chance to talk to the little girl's father. What's going on, what's the latest and did they manage to find some peace as they struggle to make sure their daughter is safe?