Citizens turned away from public landfill hearing - Local / Metro - TheState.com

Renee Dudley

"County Planning Director Philip Slayter said the Colleton County Courthouse, where the meeting was held, was at capacity and that allowing entrance to additional residents and members of the media — including The Post and Courier — would compromise security. He said residents outside could register their comments by writing letters to the county."

Oconee Nuclear Station now safer - Breaking News - TheState.com

"SENECA - Federal regulators have lifted extra oversight that had been imposed at the Oconee Nuclear Station near Seneca following an inspection showed safety concerns have been corrected."

Pepco trailed other utilities, didn't call for help until well into snowstorm

By Mary Pat Flaherty

Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, January 28, 2011; 12:33 AM

"The state Public Service Commission acted after complaints from customers who suffered extended outages during snowstorms last year. The proposal also followed an investigation last month by The Washington Post that showed Pepco ranked near the bottom nationally among electricity companies in keeping the power on and bringing the lights back once they go out."

[Indiana] Utilities back bill to cut rate regulation | The Indianapolis Star | IndyStar.com

John Russell

"Major utilities across Indiana are pushing to change the way customer rates are set, supporting new legislation that would diminish the power of state regulators in favor of a formula that could set rates automatically."

[FLA.] Capitol News Service Blog

"State Senator Mike Fasano has filed legislation banning power companies from charging customers extra money on their bills for future projects. Fasano says shareholders, not the customers should pay for the company’s infrastructure."

Mayor denies conflict of interest as head of water company - WIS News 10 - Columbia, South Carolina |

"New York transplant Jeff Schaffer pays about $50 a month for his Fairfield County water bill. 'Lake Monticello is a wonderful area, great community we have,' said Schaffer

It's not the bill that Schaffer says bothers him, it's what's happening down the pipe at the Jenkinsville Water Company. Last week, he joined a room full of water customers at a packed meeting all wanting in on who would be on the board of trustees for the area's only water company."

Santa Clara University Law Professor Catherine Sandoval Named Commissioner of CPUC | Business Wire

"Sandoval joined SCU in 2004. She is a tenured associate professor and teaches telecommunications law, antitrust law, and contracts. She has been an active participant in Santa Clara University School of Law’s academic programs in high-tech, international, and social-justice law.

Sandoval is the first Latina to be named to serve as a CPUC Commissioner in its more than 100-year history. The San Francisco-based CPUC oversees rates and other rules for privately owned electric, natural gas, telecommunications, water, rail, and passenger transportation companies. CPUC commissioners are appointed by California’s governor and must be confirmed by the state Senate for their six-year, staggered terms."

How Comcast sealed the NBCU deal - Page 3 - Philly.com

By Bob Fernandez, Inquirer Staff Writer

"As for the civil rights agreements, they 'were designed not just to get Mignon Clyburn's vote,' Cohen said. 'They were designed to support momentum around the transaction so all the commissioners could vote for the deal,' he said.

Matthew Polka, president of the American Cable Association, a trade association of small cable operators, said he was thankful for Clyburn's help with concessions in the final days of the merger review.

'Comcast put a lot of resources behind this - in lobbying and everything else,' Polka said. 'And that was something that the rest of us didn't have.'"

Two Individuals Plead Guilty to Defrauding FCC Video Relay Service Program

"According to court documents, Thompson was the chief operating officer for Deaf Studio 29, Verson Studio and Deaf News Network, California corporations that contracted with a certified VRS provider company to use the company’s VRS service. Hutchinson was a call center manager for Innovative Communication Services for the Deaf Corporation (ICSD), a company that operated VRS call centers in Florida. Thompson and Hutchinson both conspired with others to generate illegitimate VRS call minutes for reimbursement by the FCC."

....

According to the indictment, VRS is an online video translation service that allows people with hearing disabilities to communicate with hearing individuals through the use of interpreters and web cameras. A person with a hearing disability who wants to communicate with a hearing person can do so by contacting a VRS provider through an audio and video Internet connection. The VRS provider, in turn, employs a video interpreter to view and interpret the hearing disabled person’s signed conversation and relay the signed conversation orally to a hearing person. VRS is funded by fees assessed by telecommunications providers from telephone customers, and is provided at no cost to the VRS user.

McCain: 'Ethanol is a joke' - The Hill's E2-Wire

By Bridget Johnson - 01/23/11 11:01 AM ET

"Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) sees an easy target in the drive to cut spending while leaving no 'sacred cow' untouched.

'Ethanol is a joke,' he said Sunday on CBS' 'Face the Nation,' saying that programs promoting the corn-derived fuel are wasting money.


'And it's a multibillion dollar spending -- all ag subsidies, sugar subsidies, all these things, they have to be examined,' he said."

OVERNIGHT ENERGY: Energy on the Senate agenda, House Energy panel to unveil EPA bill in a month - The Hill's E2-Wire

By Andrew Restuccia and Ben Geman - 01/24/11 08:00 PM ET

"Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee are working on a bill to limit EPA’s climate authority. The bill, energy subcommittee Chairman Ed Whitfield (R-Ky.) said late Monday night, will be unveiled in the next four to six weeks.

Whitfield suggested the bill will be a broad indictment of the EPA’s policies. It will touch on the EPA’s air transport rules, its new source review requirements and its plans to impose new greenhouse gas standards large facilities."

Carol Browner, Director of Policy on Climate Will Leave White House - NYTimes.com

By JOHN M. BRODER

Published: January 24, 201

"Ms. Browner, a former administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, was charged with directing the administration’s effort to enact comprehensive legislation to reduce emissions of climate-altering gases and moving the country away from a dependence on dirty-burning fossil fuels. That effort foundered in Congress last year, and Mr. Obama has acknowledged that no major climate change legislation is likely to pass in the next two years."