Rising gas and food prices hit home

>>> good evening. ooner or later, everybody pays for gas prices . even if you don't drive a car, gas prices drive up everything we buy. high gas prices hurt families already dealing with a recession, especially where they stand right now, average regular unleaded at $3.84 and selling at over $4 in a lot of places. that's up 30 cents in the last month. oil is up $112.39 a barrel. today, president obama went after one contributor in the prices, the speculators and manipulators, the prod that are often unseen factors in what we pay, but how will this work exactly? we begin with kristen welker. good evening.

>> reporter: good evening, brian. the president in reno, nevada, where the average price of gas is $4.03 a gallon. and he vowed to investigation what causing this pain at the pump. the president wasted no time addressing what's on everyone's mind, high gas prices .

>> the attorney general is putting together a team whose job is it to root out any cases of fraud or manipulation in the oil market that might affect the gas prices . we're going to make sure nobody is steaking advantage of american consumers.

>> the president's words resonating at alpine pastries where they have been feeling the pain. the cost of the ingredient in the oven, flour, sugar, and cocoa, rising every day.

>> you lay in bed and shake and think, gosh, am i going to be able to make the payment?

>> the owners say the only option is to raise prices.

>> when the prices of things go up, sometimes people can't afford to buy it.

>> it's not just gas prices rising each day. our food costs are also going up. fruits, vegetables, dairy, meat, and powelltry. in fact, inflation is showing its steepest increase since december 2009 .

>> this is now something the public is very much intune with. they can touch it, feel it, they see it every day that they go out in their cars or go to the grocery store.

>> with wages stagnant, tomorrows say they're being squeezed.

>> everything goes up, like the utilities, phone bills.

>>> while some retailer s are trying to absorb the extra costs, many small business owners can't. this man who manufacturers men's clothes is paying 100% more for cotton than he did a year ago.

>> i have to slim down to a point where i can barely just cover my overheads to keep the business going.

>> tough choices in an economy struggling to get back on track, and economists say the high prices are caused in part by speculatored buying oil and cotton at high prices and selling even higher.

>> covering the president's visit in