In Brief, Christmas 2006 Edition

Since you're online and reading this now, and not too busy spending time with family/friends or enjoying Christmas gifts, here's a few links of interest.

• Matt Stoller asks whether John Edwards should run for President.
• The truly important topic of healthcare is getting some attention thanks to the new Democratic majorities in Congress.
• Money allocated for Hurricane Katrina relief was apparently (but not surprisingly) wasted by the Bush administration. Just another glaring example of the GOP's fiscal mismanagement.
• Two obituaries of note: James Brown and Frank Stanton.
• Puget Sound Energy is still at work restoring customers' power.

According to PSE, here's the latest information on power restoration efforts:

We're now in the final stages. Crews have been assigned to all circuits with known outages, and virtually every neighborhood where power is still out will have crews working in them this weekend. We expect nearly all our customers to have their power back today – with any remaining outages likely numbering a couple of hundred.

Where we've completed repairs to our system, any customer still without service should notify our Call Center (1-888-225-5773) and we'll dispatch a service crew.

In some instances, our service crew may find that the storm damaged power equipment belongs to the homeowner, such as the weather head. If that is the case, PSE can't legally fix the damage, and the homeowner will need to hire a licensed electrician to make repairs. Once these repairs have been completed, the customer should notify our Call Center at the number above and we will dispatch a service crew to make permanent connections and restore power.

That information is current as of yesterday - Christmas Eve. Once again, a very merry Christmas and seasons' greetings from NPI to you.