Publicly-Owned Utilities and the Recession

I have already commented on the local water utility and their interesting ideas as to what constitutes "investing in the community". However, today I discovered they decided to kick it up a notch.

The Scranton Times-Tribune reports today that, as the third-costliest water utility in the state of PA, they are petitioning the PUC for a rate hike. Of almost 14%. Which would bring us up to second-costliest!

They suggest that it's because they've invested *so* much money into the local infrastructure. But there's also a completely separate charge on the bill for "Distribution Systems Improvement". And rates got hiked 9% in 2007.

I'll have more on this later, but I mainly just wanted to get the links bookmarked for handy reference.

Write the PUC and your state representatives, dammit.

Ice, Ice Baby

Hello? Hello? Is this thing on?
[tap, tap- SQUEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!111]

Um...hey. So, yeah. I guess it's been a while.

Just wanted to do a quick rundown of what's new and exciting today.

The newly-arrived Phoenix Mars explorer appears to have discovered ice!! They can tell because some little white chunks appear to have sublimated. And salt just doesn't do that. Eagerly awaiting more robust confirmation.

Also, the 6th disembodied foot to have washed up on the shore of British Columbia in recent weeks appears to be a hoax. Thank heavens for that. 5 random feet, we can deal with, but 6? That's just crazy, man.

That's it. Talk to you in a few months.