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.
Shacklefords is an unincorporated community in King and Queen County, Virginia, United States. It derives its name from the Shackleford (or Shackelford) family, of whom the earliest American ancestor was Roger Shackelford, who was born in Old Alresford in the English county of Hampshire in 1629. (The orthography of the name of Roger Shackelford's descendants varies, sometimes spelled 'el' and sometimes 'le. ') The immigrant Roger Shackelford was first mentioned in Gloucester County, in a grant of land in 1658. One branch of the Shackelford family are descendants of President Thomas Jefferson. The family likely took its name from the village of Shackleford, in the English county of Surrey, which adjoins Hampshire and is not far from London. A North Carolina barrier island, Shackleford Banks, is named for descendants of the family, as is Shackelford County, Texas. The post office in Shacklefords (which was at one stage spelled with an apostrophe) was established in 1800.