From Nukes To Guns, It's Saturday Morning, April 18, 2015

I've been receiving links from a reader about this story for quite some time -- background stories or regional stories, I suppose. Now this story has become a national story and is a lead article in today's edition of The Wall Street Journal: nuclear energy companies are asking for a "bailout" of sorts -- of course, they don't want it called that -- to maintain production. The linked article:

Electricity producers in several states are asking for hundreds of millions of dollars in financial support to keep costly nuclear power plants in business—a move that is likely to boost customers’ power bills. 

The utilities claim the nuclear reactors in question—located in New York, Ohio and Illinois—should be given special compensation because they are important to local economies and the electrical grid’s stability, and because they don’t emit greenhouse gases or other pollutants. 

But consumer advocates don’t see why utility customers should be asked to subsidize these plants. They note that New York, Ohio and Illinois all deregulated their electricity markets more than a decade ago, a move meant to reduce power costs in part by weeding out the least-competitive power plants. 

Nuclear plants cost a lot to maintain and staff because they must meet more stringent safety standards than other kinds of power-generating stations. In recent years, plunging natural gas prices have forced down wholesale power prices, making it hard for reactors to compete, though they still supply 19% of America’s power.

It all goes back to de-regulation ... which if memory serves me correctly, the industry wanted. But I could be wrong.

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From Nukes To Guns

Quick: what's the open-carry gun law in North Dakota? Stumped? Here's a map:

For all the talk about Texas being "out-of-control" when it comes to guns, Texas is one of only eight states that prohibits "open carry."

Most of the country, including North Dakota, allows open carry without a permit or license. An additional eleven states, including Minnesota, allow open carry with a permit or license.

The story is in the news today because Texas may soon join the rest of the nation -- minus seven states -- in allowing open carry. If Texas becomes an open-carry state that will generate a lot of news stories, conveniently omitting the fact that a) only seven states then ban open carry; and, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Colorado and most of the rest of the country allow open carry.