ReporterLeslieAlbrecht's blog

It's been about a month since PG&E starting billing local irrigation district customers for "new municipal departing load charges."

Looks as if it's time for a follow-up story on what residents affected by the bills are doing to protest the fees, which many call unfair.

Today I got a call from a man in Ripon who said he's been organizing people to sign petitions protesting the PG&E charges.

A couple weeks ago members of the Merced City Council made their second tour of the Wal-Mart distribution center in Apple Valley.

Before the visit, city officials asked Merced residents to submit questions they wanted answered during the tour.

Readers on the Sun-Spot have been wondering whatever became of these questions. More importantly, were they answered?

Today I asked the city for copies of the questions.

Here's yet another example of how so-called soft news stories can make a difference.

Last week I wrote a Monday Merced Matters profile of Jillian Garcia, a 7-year-old who's raising money to help kids with cancer.

Jillian doesn't have cancer, nor does anyone in her family. But she somehow got the idea that kids with cancer need help. Better yet, she decided to take action. She's making necklaces to sell to raise money for her effort.

Twice in the past six weeks the Merced City Council has broken its regular routine of meeting on the first and third Monday of the month to call "special meetings". Instead of waiting until its next regularly scheduled meeting, the council has met to vote on items its says need urgent action.

What's so important in Merced these days? Dealing with the impact of the housing bust.

In both cases, the council called special meetings to vote on actions that directly address foreclosures and a frozen real estate market.

Here's a list of the questions I've collected so far about PG&E's "departing load" charges now going out to MID customers.
I'll be answering some of them in a story this Saturday. If you have one to add to the list, post it in comments or e-mail me at lalbrecht@mercedsun-star.com.

1. Why am I being charged for these New Municipal Departing Load charges?

2. How is the amount of charges determined?

Last week I asked readers to send questions in about PG&E charges. I'll be posting some of them here.

But in the meantime, readers might also be interested to know that three Merced City Council members want your questions about Wal-Mart.

Council members will be touring a Wal-Mart distribution center in Apple Valley next week. Wal-Mart wants to build a 1.2 million square-foot distribution center in southeast Merced.