By KERA News & Wire Services
Dallas, TX – Retail gasoline prices jumped across Texas and the nation this week for the first time in six weeks.
The weekly AAA Texas survey released Thursday shows regular unleaded jumped by 7 cents this week to a statewide average of $2.53 per gallon. Nationally, the average price jumped 7 cents to $2.68 per gallon.
A statement from the auto club cites as factors a jump in crude oil prices topping $80 per barrel, despite sluggish demand.
The cheapest gas in Texas is in Houston, where it rose 7 cents to $2.49. The most expensive gas is in El Paso, where the average price rose 4 cents to $2.68 per gallon.
Batman comic sells for more than $1 million
Heritage Auction Galleries says a 1939 comic book in which Batman makes his debut has sold at auction in Dallas for more than $1 million, setting a record for the amount paid for a comic.
The rare copy of Detective Comics No. 27 from 1939 went for $1,075,500 Thursday. A Heritage official says it was sold on behalf of an anonymous consignor and the buyer wished to remain anonymous as well.
Barry Sandoval, director of operations of Heritage's comics division, says that the consignor bought the comic in the late 1960s for $100.
On Monday, a copy of the first comic book featuring Superman sold for $1 million in a sale between a private seller and a private buyer, with the transaction conducted by the auction site ComicConnect.com. The comic was a 1938 edition of Action Comics No.
Texas expecting bountiful array of wildflowers
Experts say Texas should have a colorful spring, with recent rains bringing an abundance of wildflowers.
Damon Waitt is senior botanist at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center at The University of Texas at Austin. He predicts that Texas should be awash in wildflowers by the end of March.
He expects exceptional early and late spring wildflowers in many parts of the state after rains throughout the fall and winter ended drought conditions that persisted in the state since late 2007.
In Brenham, a town of about 14,000 nestled in the rolling hills between Austin and Houston, dozens of the state's famed bluebonnets made an early appearance this month. Their proud blooms dotted a hillside at a local intersection and stood tall against a snow there earlier this week.