Calif. panel may reopen "direct access" to power
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The California Public Utilities Commission on Thursday moved to possibly reopen a program suspended during the state's energy crisis in 2001 that lets consumers buy electricity from independent suppliers rather than from utilities.
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By Brooke Bryant, Contra Costa Times, Walnut Creek, Calif.  Dec. 15--Orinda is urging the East Bay Municipal Utility District to reconsider plans to overhaul its regional water system.
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In a change that could give new meaning to direct democracy, San Franciscans will soon cast ballots listing their first, second and third-place choices for municipal offices under a new "ranked-choice voting" system that would eliminate separate run-off elections.
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By By Bob Cuddy, The Tribune, San Luis Obispo, Calif.  Sep.
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By Bruce Gerstman, Contra Costa Times, Walnut Creek, Calif.  Sep.
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California's electric grid operator expected to have sufficient electricity on Tuesday afternoon as increasing generation and conservation efforts averted the potential for a blackout, the agency said.
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The electric grid can be protected from big blackouts by deliberately disabling a few key power stations.
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By Shelli Derobertis, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, Calif.  Dec.
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In the event of a computer failure such as the one that caused massive power outages in the Northeast and upper Midwest last year, can the federal government intervene?
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Wildfires threatened to shut down the last remaining major power transmission link to San Diego, which would make the Californian county an electricity "island", susceptible to major blackouts, the manager of the state power grid said Wednesday.
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By Kevin Howe, The Monterey County Herald, Calif.  Sep.
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Officials said service on the A and C lines could be restored in six to nine months, dramatically revising their earlier prognosis.
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By Julie Sevrens Lyons, San Jose Mercury News, Calif.  Dec.
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(InfoWorld) - A California judge is likely to order a Berkeley city initiative back on the ballot because of local officials' mishandling of electronic voting machine data, a public-interest lawyer arguing the case said Friday. In a preliminary ruling Thursday, Judge Winifred Smith of the Alameda County Superior Court indicated she would nullify the defeat of a medical marijuana proposal in Berkeley in 2004 and order the measure put back on the ballot in a later election. A hearing on Friday morning in advance of a final ruling brought out nothing that indicated Smith would deviate from her preliminary decision, said attorney Gregory Luke, who is representing Americans for Safe Access. The medical-marijuana advocacy group is suing the county, assisted by the technology rights group Electronic Frontier Foundation. The case points to the dangers of electronic voting systems, which make it harder to ensure fair elections, Luke said. Electronic voting machines have been widely adopted in the U.S. since the disputed presidential election of 2000. Laws in California and some other states now require paper records of all votes, but the California law wasn't in place for the Berkeley election. Both sides argued their cases before Smith on Friday in a last-ditch hearing on the proposed sanctions, according to Luke. The hearing brought out nothing new that suggested Smith would change direction, he said. Americans for Free Access sought a recount of the vote on Measure R, which would have established procedures for opening marijuana dispensaries in Berkeley. It lost by fewer than 200 votes. A recount wasn't possible because the city didn't share the necessary voting records, in violation of election laws, Judge Smith ruled in April. In May,Â the county agreed to share some data. The county reused voting machines from Diebold Election Systems without saving sufficient data to carry out a recount or review the election process, Luke said. Officials failed to save key evidence even after the suit was pending, he said. Data from the vote in question has only been found on 20 of the hundreds of machines used in the election, according to Luke. In addition to ordering another vote on Measure R, Judge Smith's preliminary ruling called for the county to pay the $22,604 cost of the recount as well as attorney's fees and the cost of a trip to Diebold offices in Texas. Ordering a new vote is a rare move for a court, Luke said. "This is a very severe sanction. ... and it's warranted," he said Friday. Luke expects a final ruling in the case within two weeks. The county could appeal to a higher court if the ruling goes against it, he said. Attorneys for the county were not immediately available for comment.
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The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which has refused to approve California&#39;s demand for $2.8 billion in refunds from power companies found to have gouged the state during the 2000-2001 energy crisis, has been ordered to rethink its position and
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FCC clears the way for more companies to offer the alternative form of Net access. The US Federal Communications Commission this week cleared the way for power companies to roll out broadband over power line
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Clearing the way for homes and businesses to receive high-speed Internet services through their electrical outlets, the Federal Communications Commission adopted rules this week that would enable the utility companies to offer an alternative to the