Aes

A hearing on an air-pollution permit for two gas-fired generators at the AES power plant has been postponed until Aug. 21 to allow for further negotiations between AES, the city and the South Coast Air Quality Management District. The hearing is rescheduled for 9 a.m. at the district's offices in Diamond Bar.

The woman who led History Channel to historic ratings has been promoted. Nancy Dubuc, president of entertainment and media for A+E Networks, parent of cable networks History, Lifetime and A&E, has been tapped as president and chief executive of the company, which is jointly owned by Walt Disney Co. and Hearst Corp. Dubuc, 44, will succeed Abbe Raven, 60, who has been chief executive of A+E Networks since 2005. Raven will stay on and become chairman. Dubuc will report to both Raven and the A+E board of directors.

Re "AES Pushes for Friendlier Surf City," May 18: It seems the corporate citizens at AES and their lawyer, Scott Baugh, are even sore if they win. They got the "fast track" approval for their generators in spite of the pollution and noise concerns expressed by the city. They defeated the ballot measure that would have required them to pay the same utility tax that applies to the rest of the businesses and residents in the town. Baugh even got to go to the state Assembly in spite of his dubious election practices.

When, in her famous essay "A Room of One's Own," Virginia Woolf conjured the tragically compelling possibility of Shakespeare's sister, a new sort of narrative was born - the reclamation of female characters who previously lurked at the edges of epic tales. Queens and consorts, mothers and parlor maids have all gotten their due in retellings of famous works, from the Bible to the tales of Sherlock Holmes. And now here's Mama Bates. The mother of cinematic serial killer Norman Bates is among the most famous off-stage characters in dramatic history.

Re "Time for AES to Pitch In," July 22 editorial: While I agree with the thrust of your editorial, I found it way too tepid in going after an energy corporation (and major polluter) that has been not only a poor neighbor but also a traitor to the community in which it is located. It is bad enough for the residents of Huntington Beach to sit powerless (no pun intended) while their environmental and economic well-being is sacrificed to these 21st century robber barons, but it is worse if the energy produced leaves the state that is handing out break after break.

California Atty. Gen. Bill Lockyer decided Friday to complete a settlement that calls for the state to drop price-gouging lawsuits against Williams Cos. in exchange for concessions on long-term electricity contracts valued at more than $1.8 billion. The tentative agreement was threatened after disclosures last month that Williams may have conspired with AES Corp. to cut power supplies to California in early 2000. But after lawyers from Lockyer's office made three trips to Williams' Tulsa, Okla.

Editorial writers are entitled to their opinions. But Karin Klein's May 6 piece on automated essay scoring simply misses the point. She questions the value of automated essay scoring software (AES) as a teaching supplement in the area of writing, based in part on her own daughter's experience. It is unfortunate that her singular personal experience was frustrating for mother and daughter, but it should not be used to censure an evolving technology that can, indeed, produce better writers.

State and federal energy regulators moved on two fronts against the giant investment bank JPMorgan Chase & Co. over its dealings in the California electricity market. On Wednesday, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission hit Morgan's electricity-trading unit with one of the most stringent penalties in its arsenal, barring it from selling electricity in California's auction-based market for six months starting in April. The ruling, which may deprive Morgan of millions of dollars in profits in California, stemmed from FERC's conclusion that JPMorgan Ventures Energy Corp.

Lineman Ernie Lopez has been rousted out of bed on countless cold, rainy nights. He's climbed 100-foot utility poles in heavy winds and grabbed live electrical lines with nothing but a pair of rubber gloves to protect him. But the hardest thing Lopez has done in 20 years at Southern California Edison is walk away from a darkened apartment building while residents pleaded for their heat. It happened in late January.

The state's condition for letting the operator of a Huntington Beach power plant fire up two mothballed generators was that the power be sold within California because of the state's energy crisis. Now a state agency that set the terms mistakenly has backed away. The decision on restarting the plant was not easy in the first place because of local concern that the plant's two operating generators were fouling the ocean.

Customized TV Listings are available here: www.latimes.com/tvtimes Click here to download TV listings for the week of March 17 - 23, 2013 in PDF format This week's TV Movies   SUNDAY The route remains roughly the same - from Dodger Stadium to Downtown, Echo Park, Silver Lake, Hollywood, West Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Westwood, West Los Angeles and Santa Monica - at the annual running of "The L.A. Marathon....

The big screen's most formidable mama's boy is coming to TV. Norman Bates, the deranged character of "Psycho" fame, is proving movie stars aren't the only ones hunkering down to the small screen - some of cinema's fictional personas are also making the move. "Bates Motel" is a sort-of prequel to Alfred Hitchcock's 1960 standard set to roll out Monday on A&E. The new series, from Carlton Cuse ("Lost") and Kerry Ehrin ("Friday Night Lights"), tracks the notorious psychopath during his adolescent years in the present day. (Cue the violin screeches.)

"Duck Dynasty" star Jase Robertson was scanning the lunch menu when something caught his eye. "Look, they have duck!" the bushy-faced Robertson announced to his family members sitting near him, including his wife, Missy, and his brother Willie, his "boss" and chief executive of Duck Commander, the thriving Louisiana bayou company and family-run duck-call manufacturers. Pausing a moment, he said, "I think I'll pass. They probably don't make it like they do at home. " FOR THE RECORD: "Duck Dynasty": A March 10 article about the Robertson family, the stars of the cable show "Duck Dynasty" on A&E, said that family patriarch Phil Robertson played quarterback ahead of football star Terry Bradshaw at Louisiana State University.

This post has been corrected. See below for details. Take that, Morrissey. The Season 3 premiere of "Duck Dynasty," A&E's reality-comedy series about an offbeat Louisiana bayou family that runs a successful duck-calling business, scored 8.6 million viewers, making it the top-rated broadcast in the cable network's history. The back-to-back episodes airing Wednesday made "Duck Dynasty" the top-rated nonfiction series on cable this year. "Duck Dynasty" centers on the Robertson family, where the adult men all have very heavy beards and personalities that frequently clash with comic results.

Yuuup! "Storage Wars" star Dave Hester is suing A&E, claiming its hit reality show is a fake. Hester - whose aggressive bidding call "yuuup!" has become a catch-phrase emblazoned on T-shirts -- filed suit in Los Angeles Superior Court on Tuesday, claiming that he was fired after he complained that producers were planting exotic and expensive items to pump up drama on the show. "Storage Wars," which premiered in 2010, features Hester and other bidders competing over abandoned storage lockers in public auctions.

"Duck Dynasty" is nothing to quack at. The finale of the A&E reality show about a Louisiana bayou family that has established a sporting empire by fabricating fancy duck calls and decoys out of salvaged swamp wood was the highest-rated telecast in the cable network's history, drawing 6.5 million viewers. The hour-long episode also shattered A&E's audience records among several demographic groups, including adults 18-49, adults 25-54 and adults 18-34. "'Duck Dynasty' represent the best of A&E's unique brand of storytelling, showcasing authentic and engaging characters," said Bob DeBitetto, president and general manager of A&E Network.

"Duck Dynasty" star Jase Robertson was scanning the lunch menu when something caught his eye. "Look, they have duck!" the bushy-faced Robertson announced to his family members sitting near him, including his wife, Missy, and his brother Willie, his "boss" and chief executive of Duck Commander, the thriving Louisiana bayou company and family-run duck-call manufacturers. Pausing a moment, he said, "I think I'll pass. They probably don't make it like they do at home. " FOR THE RECORD: "Duck Dynasty": A March 10 article about the Robertson family, the stars of the cable show "Duck Dynasty" on A&E, said that family patriarch Phil Robertson played quarterback ahead of football star Terry Bradshaw at Louisiana State University.

Re "Our Shoreline Is Worth Protecting," Orange County Perspective, Feb. 4: Your editorial is right on the mark about not hastily approving the 450-megawatt expansion at the AES power plant in Huntington Beach. There is no doubt that we are in an energy crisis, but approving this expansion that could further exacerbate the pulling of a sewage plume toward our shore with swimmers and surfers is not the answer. Let's wait until the UCI and Sanitation District study is concluded and gives us answers before we approve any expansion.

"Duck Dynasty" is ascending the TV ratings throne. The 10:30 p.m. Wednesday episode of the A&E series about a once-poor Louisiana family whose fortunes were transformed by their duck-call business hit a record 4.9 million total viewers, according to Nielsen. That's the type of number very few reality series see on basic cable. By comparison, TLC's notorious "Here Comes Honey Boo Boo" -- about a rural Georgia family and their precocious pageant participant daughter -- hit a high of 3 million viewers earlier this year.

State and federal energy regulators moved on two fronts against the giant investment bank JPMorgan Chase & Co. over its dealings in the California electricity market. On Wednesday, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission hit Morgan's electricity-trading unit with one of the most stringent penalties in its arsenal, barring it from selling electricity in California's auction-based market for six months starting in April. The ruling, which may deprive Morgan of millions of dollars in profits in California, stemmed from FERC's conclusion that JPMorgan Ventures Energy Corp.