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.
Broken Bow is a city in McCurtain County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 4,230 at the 2000 census. The town was named after Broken Bow, Nebraska, the former hometown of the city's founders, the Dierks brothers. It was the location of the wounding and capture of murderer Richard Wayne Snell, following his shootout with local police.