Public utilities provide electric, gas, water or telephone service to customers in a specified area. Utilities have a duty to provide safe and adequate service on reasonable terms to anyone who lives within the service area on without discriminating between customers. Because most utilities operate in near monopolistic conditions, they can be heavily regulated by local, state, and federal authorities. Generally, the local and state agencies are called Public Service Commissions (PSC) or Public Utility Commissions (PUC). Municipal Utilities and Rural Electric Cooperatives may be unregulated though.
Anthon is a city in Woodbury County in the U.S. state of Iowa. It is part of the Sioux City, IA–NE–SD Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 649 at the 2000 census. Anthon was home to Charles Osborne, who had the hiccups continuously for 68 years, and was featured in the Guinness Book of World Records . It was also home to eunuchoidal giant Bernard Coyne, who was over 8 feet (243 cm) tall. Anthon was named for J.C. Anthon, a railroad engineer .