With every opinion, it is closing another chapter in the story.

Will this lead to a proliferation of billboards? Our answer is, it might.

In the aftermath of the U.S. Supreme Court decision, there were questions about the procedures that prosecutors could use to have courts impose these (longer) sentences. State legislation clarified the process, but there was a question about whether it was retroactive. That is resolved by these decisions.

Those are the barriers on both sides. Apart from that, the PUC essentially has complete authority to make (rate) adjustments.

There's $1.8 billion that is apparently at issue here, so this is going to be a matter that we take extremely seriously. It's impossible at this point to predict how long litigation might take.

This is all a very politicized process. They're going to need to go out and shop this measure, and they want to be sure the ballot title is optimal. And they have opponents who want to be sure the ballot title is optimal for their purposes.

It only takes hours to get an ID in somebody else's name and to start abusing their account, so three and a half weeks is disappointing.

My guess is that the farther you get away from the East Coast, the less the impact Sept. 11 has had on state sunshine laws.

Mr. Van Dorn has agreed to a conditional release that will move him to the Department of Corrections as early as Monday.