Report of the Texas State Auditor's Office related to the growing correctional officer shortage in the Department of Criminal Justice. The report assesses how current correctional officer staffing levels compare to authorized staffing patterns, evaluates whether the Department has an effective process for determining the number of correctional officers needed at its institutions, determines if the Department ensures the safety of staff members and inmates in light of its current staffing situation, and evaluates whether the Department has a sound process for recruiting, hiring, training, and retaining qualified correctional officers.

Report of the Texas State Auditor's Office related to information on the number of state employees and the number of consultants and contract individuals who perform services for state government.

Report of the Texas State Auditor's Office related to evaluating the general condition and effectiveness of the Petroleum Storage Tank (PST) Program, focusing on the Natural Resource Conservation Commission's (Commission) efforts to analyze PST Program current and future resource needs, the Commission's evaluation of site cleanup and closure activities, and the Self-Certification Program implementation and financial assurance initiatives to lower future liability to the State.

This report discusses Class Actions and proposed reform in the 106th Congress of Class Action Fairness Act of 2000.

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The water quality of discharge from the surface water system is ultimately dictated by land use and climate within the watershed. Water quality has vastly improved from point source reduction measures, yet, non-point source pollutants continue to rise. 30 to 40% of rivers still do not meet water quality standards for reasons that include impact from urban storm water runoff, agricultural and livestock runoff, and loss of wetlands. Regulating non-point source pollutants proves to be difficult since specific dischargers are difficult to identify. However, parameters such as dissolved organic carbon (DOC) limit the amounts of chlorination due to simultaneous disinfection by-product formation. The concept of watershed management has gained much ground over the years as a means to resolve non-point source problems. Under this management scheme stakeholders in a watershed collectively agree to the nature and extent of non-point sources, determine water quality causes using sound scientific approaches, and together develop and implement a corrective plan. However, the ''science'' of watershed management currently has several shortcomings according to a recent National Research Council report. The scientific component of watershed management depends on acquiring knowledge that links water quality sources with geographic regions. However, there is an observational gap in this …

This report provides a user's guide to the proceedings of the House and Senate, the proceedings of the House and Senate.

Rheological and physical properties testing were conducted on actual AN-107 and AW-101 pretreated feed samples prior to the addition of glass formers. Analyses were repeated following the addition of glass formers. The AN-107 and AW-101 pretreated feeds were tested at the target sodium values of nominally 6, 8, and 10 M. The AW-101 melter feeds were tested at these same concentrations, while the AN-107 melter feeds were tested at 5, 6, and 8 M with respect to sodium. These data on actual waste are required to validate and qualify results obtained with simulants.

This report discusses copyright cases in the courts, including Napster, MP3 digital music, and DVD motion picture.

This report discusses funding and policy issues regarding the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which is responsible for ensuring the safety of foods, drugs, medical devices, cosmetics, and other products.

This report discusses the idea of "unanimous consent" in the Senate. Without its tradition of unanimous consent, the Senate would find it harder to process its complex workload.

The University of California and California Institute of Technology are currently studying the feasibility of building a 30-m segmented ground based optical telescope called the California Extremely Large Telescope (CELT). The early ideas for this telescope were first described by Nelson and Mast and more recently refined by Nelson. In parallel, concepts for the fabrication of the primary segments were proposed by Mast, Nelson and Sommargren where high risk technologies were identified. One of these was the surface figure metrology needed for fabricating the aspheric mirror segments. This report addresses the advanced interferometry that will be needed to achieve 15nm rms accuracy for mirror segments with aspheric departures as large as 35mm peak-to-valley. For reasons of cost, size, measurement consistency and ease of operation we believe it is desirable to have a single interferometer that can be universally applied to each and every mirror segment. Such an instrument is described in this report.

This is the final report for the LDRD strategic initiative entitled ''Dislocation Dynamic: Simulation of Plastic Flow of bcc Metals'' (tracking code: 00-SI-011). This report is comprised of 6 individual sections. The first is an executive summary of the project and describes the overall project goal, which is to establish an experimentally validated 3D dislocation dynamics simulation. This first section also gives some information of LLNL's multi-scale modeling efforts associated with the plasticity of bcc metals, and the role of this LDRD project in the multiscale modeling program. The last five sections of this report are journal articles that were produced during the course of the FY-2000 efforts.

The possibility of fast ignition of thermo-nuclear fusion is stimulating research interest and activity worldwide. Fast ignition (FI) offers significantly higher gain than conventional spark ignition and the high gain opens the way to an efficient fusion energy producing cycle with laser drivers. The key to FI is the efficient transport of energy from a short pulse laser beam, the igniter, to a small ignition spark in compressed deuterium-tritium fuel. The primary candidate process enabling such energy transfer, is the absorption of laser light and its conversion into a beam of relativistic electrons, which heats the spark. Theory has predicted self-induced magnetic collimation of the electron beam, which could enable efficient transport from the absorption point to the ignition spark. Experiments are required to understand this highly complex process which involves currents in the electron beam, which greatly exceed the Alfven current limit6 (at which the Larmor radius of an electron in the magnetic field associated with by the current is smaller than the radius of the beam). Almost complete current compensation by cold electron return current is therefore required. The oppositely directed hot and cold electron flows initiate strong growth of the Weibel instability, which causes the currents to …

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A groundwater quality assessment plan was prepared to investigate the rate and extent of aquifer contamination beneath Waste Management Area T at the Hanford Site in Washington State. This plan is an update of a draft plan issued in January 1999, which guided work performed in fiscal year 2000.

Using in situ optical microscopy and scattering measurements, we have followed the evolution of surface morphology during etching and measured surface etching rates as a function of humidity and undersaturation. From our experiments to date we have developed the following picture of etch pit formation on KDP crystal surfaces. Pit formation is characterized by a nucleation and growth process: the introduction of water creates a condition of undersaturation at the crystal surface. The equilibrium step directions define the orientation of the edges of the pits and the internal surfaces of the pits are low index facets of KDP. For z-cut and type I crystals, the pits are self-similar, indicating their geometry is controlled by equilibrium, not kinetic parameters. For type II crystals, the aspect ratio of the pits can vary dramatically from sample to sample or even within a sample, showing that the kinetics of dissolution can also play a role in determining overall etch pit geometry. The onset of pit formation during exposure to 55% relative humidity (RH) is detectable within a few hours and most of the etching process is complete within 48 hours, but pits continue to grow for a week or longer. At 75% RH, pits …

This report provides an overview of the Cuban economy.

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There is a deposit summary from State members of $210.00 made on May 23, 2000. A deposit summary from the Dallas Stonewall Democratic Club of $695.00 made on May 23, 2000. Also, a deposit summary from Houston Stonewall Democratic Club of $385.00 made on June 9, 2000

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