problem connecting to postgres via apache

I'm having a problem connecting to postgres via a CGI program. I can
connect just fine using the same connect string in a non-cgi perl program
as in the perl cgi program. The error I get is this:

ERROR: Unable to connect to dbname testdb2, err: could not connect to
server: Permission denied
Is the server running on host "jacensolo.red.dsic.com" (192.168.10.16) and
accepting
TCP/IP connections on port 5432?

I tried adding postgres to the apache user's groups, because I saw
something on google that said that that is needed for the socket connection
to work, but it didn't help.

I just tried stopping and restarting apache, and when I try to start I get
this:

apachectl start
(13)Permission denied: make_sock: could not bind to address [::]:80
(13)Permission denied: make_sock: could not bind to address 0.0.0.0:80
no listening sockets available, shutting down
Unable to open logs

I took away the group permission for postgres, just in case that had messed
up something, but it didn't help. Now I can't even start apache.

But, if I do:

[scassidy(at)jacensolo init.d]$ ps auxww|grep http
apache 15426 0.0 0.0 186416 2740 ? S Jan19 0:00
/usr/sbin/httpd -k start
apache 15427 0.0 0.0 186416 2720 ? S Jan19 0:00
/usr/sbin/httpd -k start
apache 15428 0.0 0.0 186416 3004 ? S Jan19 0:00
/usr/sbin/httpd -k start
apache 15429 0.0 0.0 186416 2740 ? S Jan19 0:00
/usr/sbin/httpd -k start
apache 15430 0.0 0.0 186416 2724 ? S Jan19 0:00
/usr/sbin/httpd -k start
apache 15431 0.0 0.0 186416 2740 ? S Jan19 0:00
/usr/sbin/httpd -k start
apache 15432 0.0 0.0 186416 2988 ? S Jan19 0:00
/usr/sbin/httpd -k start
apache 15433 0.0 0.0 186416 2988 ? S Jan19 0:00
/usr/sbin/httpd -k start
root 18778 0.0 0.0 184208 2408 ? Ss 2013 2:25
/usr/sbin/httpd -k start

I'm seeing processes that apparently shouldn't be there. Maybe that's why
it can't connect, because it is already connected?

Should I just kill those processes, do you think?

What could have happened? It was working just fine before.

Very mysterious.

Susan