By BJ Austin, KERA News & Wire Services
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/kera/local-kera-938439.mp3
Dallas, TX – Gasoline prices across the state are up four cents from a week ago - even more in Dallas-Fort Worth.
Ronan: The statewide average increased from $2.68 to $2.72, but in the Dallas-Fort Worth market we saw prices increase by seven cents to $2.74.
Dan Ronan, with Triple-A Texas says oil prices have spiked to 88 dollars a barrel and drives pump prices higher.
Texans are paying about 25 cents more a gallon than a year ago.
Green Line Preview
City leaders along DART's new Green Line got a preview today.
Monday is the grand opening of the 28 mile-long rail line from Pleasant Grove to Carrollton.
Carrollton's Mayor Ron Branson says light rail is going to make his city a major transit hub for the region.
Branson: With the A-Train coming in from Denton, that's due early next year, and then we're working on the Cotton Belt, going all the way from Plano out to the airport that will be the central transportation area.
Tomorrow, from 1 to 4, the public may ride the Green Line FREE, boarding at any of the twenty stations: from Buckner at Elam in southeast Dallas, to Frankford and I-35 in north Carrollton.
Former employee sues Daystar over affair
A Texas woman has filed suit against a prominent televangelist, alleging the Rev. Marcus Lamb falsely accused her of trying to extort millions of dollars from him in exchange for keeping silent about a lengthy extramarital affair he had with someone else years ago.
In a legal pleading filed in a Dallas District Court on Wednesday, Jeanette Hawkins says it is she who has been wronged.
Hawkins is a former employee of Lamb's Daystar Television Network, which airs some of the highest-profile evangelists in the world. Her suit says she was devastated when she learned of Lamb's infidelity in 2007.
On Tuesday, Lamb and his wife, Joni, said they had mended their marriage but went public about the affair because they refused to pay three people who demanded $7.5 million.
Atheist ads on Fort Worth buses causing uproar
Some ministers are calling for a boycott of Fort Worth city buses over ads carrying an atheist message.
That's despite the fact that religious groups also can buy advertising space on buses -- just as colleges, museums and sports teams have done.
But the Rev. Kyev Tatum says residents shouldn't ride the buses -- and churches shouldn't buy Christian ads -- because the Fort Worth Transportation Authority has put profit over principle.
The ads saying "Millions of Americans are Good Without God" are scheduled to start next week and run for 30 days on the sides of four buses.
The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports that the Dallas-Fort Worth Coalition of Reason paid about $2,480 for the signs and is targeting people who may feel left out during the holidays.
Big Dallas Cocaine Bust
A traffic stop this afternoon near the High Five netted 511 pounds of cocaine worth about six million dollars.
Dallas County Sheriff's Deputies pulled-over a driver for an unsafe lane change on Eastbound LBJ at Coit. Deputies noticed the driver acting suspicious and saw several large, black trash bags in the back seat.
A field test of the bags in the back seat and trunk came back positive for cocaine. It was the largest bust by Dallas County Deputies in recent years.
The suspect, Alejandro Vasquez is in custody.