[Zain Verjee, Cnn Anchor:] You're pumping more and more money into your gas tanks as the average price approaches $3 a gallon. This hour, we have several reports on rising gas prices, beginning live in Washington just a few minutes from now. Voters in New Orleans are heading to the polls this morning. It's time to pick the person who will oversee the city's come back from Katrina. We're going to take you there live for the mayoral election. Some 200,000 marchers headed for the king's palace in Nepal today to demand an end to royal rule. The wire reports say this pro- democracy demonstration was fired on by soldiers and police. We'll bring you more details. That's coming up in our "Going Global" segment. Iraq finally has a new prime minister designate. Just a short while ago, Jawad al-Maliki was picked for the post. That removes a huge obstacle in efforts to form a new government of national unity aimed partly at averting a civil war and getting the insurgency under control, so bringing basics to the Iraqi people. And President Bush is spending Earth Day in California. He plans to promote hydrogen fuel technology in a speech on his energy plan. The president will tour a fuel cell development facility in Sacramento.
[Tony Harris, Cnn Anchor:] It is Saturday, April 22nd, election day in New Orleans.
[Verjee:] Yes, it is. We're keeping an eye on that.
[Harris:] Yes. We are.
[Verjee:] Good morning. From the CNN Center in Atlanta, I'm Zain Verjee.
[Harris:] And I'm Tony Harris. Betty is off today. Zane is with us. Thanks for being with us.
[Verjee:] Thank you.
[Harris:] Terror plot a court hearing today in that case involving a pair of Atlanta men accused of discussing terror attacks with Islamic militants. We'll have the latest. And, also, Earth Day gadgets we'll mark Earth Day 2006 we are going to look at some products that will help you stay in Mother Earth's good graces. But first...
[Unidentified Male:] How high do you think the price is going to go?
[Unidentified Female:] Well, I just now filled this up and I'm looking at almost $40. So, it's gone up even more just in the last week.
[Harris:] Gas prices rising rapidly. They rose another three cents, to an average of $2.88 a gallon. And many of you are paying way more than that. CNN's Kyung Lah joins us live from Washington Kyung, good morning.
[Kyung Lah, Cnn Correspondent:] Hey, Tony. The gas prices here have broken the $3 barrier, not just at this particular gas station, but they are everywhere, at all the gas stations in the D.C. area. And it's affecting people no matter how much they drive or how little they drive. We just met Michelle Brailey. Come over here, Michelle.
[Michelle Brailey:] OK.
[Lah:] The gas, $3.09. That's how much you're going to pay to fill up your Escort. You've changed your behavior because of the high price?
[Brailey:] Yes, I don't drive as much anymore. I take the bus more to work. When I go out in the city, I barely ever drive my car. I fill up about once a month and that's as much as I want to do so.
[Lah:] And even just filling up once a month, is that affecting your bottom line at all?
[Brailey:] It does. It does. But there's nothing I can do about it, because I do have to drive my car for some things, so.
[Lah:] So there are other people, who, who have to commute long distances?
[Brailey:] Yes. I mean luckily I don't have to drive to work, I can take public transportation and that kind of thing. So, I don't have to drive as much as other people. So that's lucky. But...
[Lah:] If the prices keep ticking up, what else can you do?
[Brailey:] I don't know. I haven't decided yet so.
[Lah:] Michelle Brailey, who's just about to fill up her car. We'll let you go. Thank you very much, Michelle. A lot of drivers here in the D.C. area say they're simply just going to stop driving because it's become prohibitive, almost, for them to get around the city and pay to fill up that tank of gas Tony.
[Harris:] Kyung, has the price of gas at the station where you are right now gone up in the time you've been with us this morning?
[Lah:] It has actually gone up overnight. Now, the station manager, when I talked to him about 30 minutes ago, said he was waiting for a phone call from his boss to actually boost up those numbers. The average price for gas at the various stations, the Exxon stations in this area, he says, have gone up $0.06. So he anticipates from $3.09 that's what the number says over my shoulder, $3.09 it's going to be $3.15, as soon as he gets that phone call from his boss.
[Harris:] Oh my goodness. Kyung Lah, we appreciate it. Thank you. Well, the price of oil coming from refineries like this one has reached record highs, more than $75 a barrel. And those prices are likely to climb higher, which, of course, would mean even higher pump prices. There are several other factors affecting what you pay for gas. CNN's John Lisk explains in this Fact Check.
[John Lisk, Cnn Correspondent:] Crude oil prices directly affect the cost of gasoline. The reason is simple crude is the primary raw material from which gasoline is produced. But other factors can affect the cost of gas, as well. Here in the U.S. refineries have not expanded at the rate of surging demand. According to the American Petroleum Institute, U.S. refineries were running last year at over 90 percent capacity. That left them unable to bump up product to respond to supply shortfalls. President Bush has pushed for expanding refinery capacity. The current gas price spikes and supply disruptions stem from environmental concerns. A number of states banned a gasoline additive shown to pollute ground water. To make the transition, terminals are having to drain holding tanks and prepare them for the new gas mixture. Other factors involved in the cost we pay at the pump include distribution costs, marketing costs and taxes. And, yes, oil company profits. Last year, Exxon Mobil posted the largest annual profit of any company in U.S. history, $36.13 billion.
[Harris:] And later this hour, President Bush's position on supply, demand and gas prices. Our Candy Crowley takes a closer look at the former oil man's energy policies.
[Verjee:] New Orleans was founded nearly 300 years ago, but no previous election there has ever drawn this much attention. Residents are casting ballots today in the city's first mayoral election since Hurricane Katrina. CNN's Sean Callebs is there. He joins us now Sean, why is this election so important to New Orleans?
[Sean Callebs, Cnn Correspondent:] Well, voters have said throughout the last several weeks that they want to send a message. They want to have a say. They want to dictate who is going to lead this city for the next four years as it continues to undergo this very difficult, very prolonged effort to try and rebuild. How will federal money come in? how will it be spent? What neighborhoods will be rebuilt? What neighborhoods won't? And how will they get all of the people who were forced to evacuate back? Well, that is what voters are trying to decide today. behind me, you can see the gymnasium at the University of New Orleans, one of 28 so-called super precincts because so many neighborhoods are still in total disrepair, uninhabitable. They've had to combine a number of voting precincts. Now, they expected that it would be crowded today. They expected they would get a lot of traffic and they are. Really, it's almost like a community gathering. We see people coming up. They're talking about the issues, they're talking about the candidates. There are 23 names on the ballot, but a couple have pulled out. So 21 people running for mayor of the city. Three people continually come up as those leading the list current Mayor Ray Nagin; Mitch Landrieu, who is the Democratic lieutenant governor; and Ron Forman, a businessman credited with developing an aquarium here and also the Audubon Zoo. He has a great deal of name recognition in this area. Now, the polls are going to be open until 8:00 Central time. That's 9:00 on the East Coast. But a couple of hours after that, they should get the first indication, Zane, of who is leading. And this is very important because if one candidate does not get 50.1 percent of the vote, more than 50 percent of the vote, then they will have a runoff on May 20th.
[Verjee:] Sean, some of the ballots have already been cast, either by fax or by mail. What can you tell us what is your sense so far of people that are driving in, also, to vote?
[Callebs:] You know, we're hearing that there is a big turnout at all of the precinct places. And we know that there are buses coming in from Atlanta. They're coming in from Houston. They're coming in from Austin. All over the state people are coming in. They want to have a say. These are people who have been forced to move out but still are eligible to vote for mayor. And we don't know who that 20,000 of the early votes, who they are voting for, but we can tell you, basically, the racial make up, and that is significant, because some civil rights leaders have legally challenged this election, saying that it is excluding a huge percentage of the people of the democratic process. But, Zane, so far, of those casting ballots, about 65 percent are non-white, 35 percent white. That is exactly in line with the pre- storm racial make up of this city.
[Verjee:] Sean Callebs covering a hugely significant mayoral election this day in New Orleans. Thanks Tony.
[Harris:] And now some stories making "News Across America." A court appearance in Appleton, Wisconsin for a man accused of trying to sell his 18-month-daughter. Authorities say Danny Vu wanted $7,000 so he could make home improvements. A man who went to an Oregon hospital complaining about a headache turned out to have a dozen nails in his head. Doctors say he later admitted using a nail gun on himself during a suicide attempt. He is the first person ever known to have survived such an extensive injury. Look at what happened to this house in Massachusetts after a car went out of control and slammed into it. It's not quite as bad as it looks, but it looks pretty bad. There were no life-threatening injuries and despite the damage to the front porch of the house, the rest of the structure is actually OK. Controversy is swirling in the State of Maine over plans to shut down a rest room with a dozen pay toilets. Officials in Old Orchard Beach are trying to remove the privately owned facility from the town pier to build a condominium there. The restroom's owner says that would leave many beachgoers literally with no place to go.
[Verjee:] An alleged terror plot one of the suspects being arraigned today. A CNN Security Watch is next.
[Harris:] It is Earth Day, the day we focus on the environment. Coming up, we'll offer some tips on electronic devices that will help you help Mother Nature. And, good morning, San Francisco.
[Verjee:] It's shaping up to be a beautiful morning. But what's the forecast for the rest of the country? Reynolds Wolf will join us and tell us, when CNN SATURDAY MORNING returns.