Ex Parte Requirements at the California Public Utility Commission: A Comparative Analysis and Recommended Changes

Emails released beginning in the fall of 2014 demonstrate several improper private communications between high-level utility officials and decision-makers at the California Public Utility Commission (“CPUC”). The email chains show discussions ranging from a utility repeatedly lobbying on the outcome of an enforcement matter or aggressively pushing for a new judge assignment, to a commissioner soliciting donations to a political campaign or a banquet fund. Entities in the transportation industry have also alleged improper contacts with CPUC officials. In each instance, the CPUC decision-makers did not report the communications or insist that the utilities stop sending them. Rather, they actively participated in the exchanges and, if anything, encouraged them. In the judicial and adjudicatory context, courts, legislatures and public agencies have long prohibited private communications with decision-makers to ensure a fair outcome and preserve the integrity of governmental action. These private communications are called ex parte contacts. Even though the CPUC uses a judicial-type of process to gather information for the record and allow for argument by interested parties, it broadly permits ex parte contacts in ratemaking proceedings, which are the majority of the CPUC’s contested cases. In addition, as many of the revealed emails indicate, some CPUC decision-makers have allowed for ex parte communications in circumstances in which all such contacts are strictly prohibited. Many decision-makers in the CPUC regularly engage in off-the-record communications with utilities and other stakeholders, creating a culture of conversations with parties occurring behind closed doors. The recent disclosures have caused many to seriously question the CPUC’s decisionmaking process. To restore the integrity of the CPUC’s process, the agency and the legislature should change the applicable rules. An analysis of practices in other state and federal agencies reveals that federal regulators, other California agencies, and utility regulators in most other states make similar decisions without allowing for ex parte contacts. While the CPUC places no constraints on private communications related to legislative rulemaking proceedings, many ex parte rules examined in this analysis take a more nuanced approach and focus on whether a proceeding is contested, hearings are held, or substantive rights might be affected

Public utilities commission reform takes a step back

California is taking a leadership role with its progressive energy and environmental policies by requiring that half its energy is generated from renewable resources, authorizing the largest low-income solar initiative in the country and mandating a 50 percent increase in building energy efficiency. But the primary agency overseeing many of these policies, the California Public Utilities Commission, has been plagued with allegations of impropriety. Last fall, emails between commissioners and high-level utility officials led to serious questions about the integrity and fairness of the PUC’s decision-making

When the people are the police : the community context of neighborhood security patrols.

Thesis. 1976. M.C.P.--Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning.Microfiche copy available in Archives and Rotch.Bibliography: leaves 156-163.M.C.P

Distributed and Multiprocessor Scheduling

This chapter discusses CPU scheduling in parallel and distributed systems. CPU scheduling is part of a broader class of resource allocation problems, and is probably the most carefully studied such problem. The main motivation for multiprocessor scheduling is the desire for increased speed in the execution of a workload. Parts of the workload, called tasks, can be spread across several processors and thus be executed more quickly than on a single processor. In this chapter, we will examine techniques for providing this facility. The scheduling problem for multiprocessor systems can be generally stated as \How can we execute a set of tasks T on a set of processors P subject to some set of optimizing criteria C? The most common goal of scheduling is to minimize the expected runtime of a task set. Examples of other scheduling criteria include minimizing the cost, minimizing communication delay, giving priority to certain users\u27 processes, or needs for specialized hardware devices. The scheduling policy for a multiprocessor system usually embodies a mixture of several of these criteria. Section 2 outlines general issues in multiprocessor scheduling and gives background material, including issues specific to either parallel or distributed scheduling. Section 3 describes the best practices from prior work in the area, including a broad survey of existing scheduling algorithms and mechanisms. Section 4 outlines research issues and gives a summary. Section 5 lists the terms defined in this chapter, while sections 6 and 7 give references to important research publications in the area

Ribosome Profiling Provides Evidence that Large Noncoding RNAs Do Not Encode Proteins

Large noncoding RNAs are emerging as an important component in cellular regulation. Considerable evidence indicates that these transcripts act directly as functional RNAs rather than through an encoded protein product. However, a recent study of ribosome occupancy reported that many large intergenic ncRNAs (lincRNAs) are bound by ribosomes, raising the possibility that they are translated into proteins. Here, we show that classical noncoding RNAs and 5′ UTRs show the same ribosome occupancy as lincRNAs, demonstrating that ribosome occupancy alone is not sufficient to classify transcripts as coding or noncoding. Instead, we define a metric based on the known property of translation whereby translating ribosomes are released upon encountering a bona fide stop codon. We show that this metric accurately discriminates between protein-coding transcripts and all classes of known noncoding transcripts, including lincRNAs. Taken together, these results argue that the large majority of lincRNAs do not function through encoded proteins

The Grizzly, April 21, 2022

A Look Into Ursinus\u27s Quest for an Inclusive Campus • Contact Without a Trace! • Get to Know Dr. Carol Dole • Meet Eva Wright! • Opinions: Club Sports Should Have Athletic Trainers • Trophy Brophy • The Get-Back: Ursinus Softballhttps://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/grizzlynews/1986/thumbnail.jp

The Grizzly, April 28, 2022

The New Normal: A Spotlight on Women\u27s Wrestling • A Conversation with the New Division of Inclusion and Community • Note from the News Editor • Dancing the Night Away: UCDC\u27s Spring Concert • That\u27s All, Folks: Goodbye Dr. Throop! • The Man Behind the Grizzly: Doron Taussig • A Note from the Features Editor • Opinions: Bring Back the Old Jazzman\u27s • A Note from the Opinions Editor • A Note from the Sports Editor • D3 Baller to D1 Coach • Ballin\u27 in Europehttps://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/grizzlynews/1987/thumbnail.jp