A 1996 amendment to the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA) enables American victims of international terrorist acts supported by certain States designated by the State Department as supporters of terrorism -- Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Sudan, Syria, and previously Iraq and Libya -- to bring suit in U.S. courts to seek monetary damages. Despite congressional efforts to make blocked (of "frozen) assets of such States available for attachment by judgment creditors in such cases, plaintiffs encountered difficulties in enforcing the awards. This report provides an overview of these issues and relevant legislation.

Weekly student newspaper from Hardin-Simmons University in Abilene, Texas that includes local, state and campus news along with advertising.

Weekly student newspaper from the University of Dallas in Irving, Texas that includes campus news and commentaries along with advertising.

This report describes wave, tidal, and in-stream energy generation technologies — also referred to as hydrokinetic or marine energy. It discusses the recent changes in law aimed to clarify the federal role in ocean wave and renewable energy.

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "DOD's investment in weapon systems represents one of the largest discretionary items in the budget. The department expects to invest about $900 billion (fiscal year 2008 dollars) over the next 5 years on development and procurement with more than $335 billion invested specifically in major defense acquisition programs. Every dollar spent inefficiently in acquiring weapon systems is less money available for other budget priorities--such as the global war on terror and growing entitlement programs. This testimony focuses on (1) the overall performance of DOD's weapon system investment portfolio; (2) our assessment of 72 weapon programs against best practices standards for successful product developments; and (3) potential solutions and recent DOD actions to improve weapon program outcomes. It is based on GAO-08-467SP, which included our analysis of broad trends in the performance of the programs in DOD's weapon acquisition portfolio and our assessment of 72 defense programs, and recommendations made in past GAO reports. DOD was provided a draft of GAO-08-467SP and had no comments on the overall report, but did provide technical comments on individual assessments. The comments, along with the agency comments received on the individual assessments, …

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) mission includes evaluating and regulating toxic chemicals. EPA's Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) program is a chemical evaluation program that is a critical component of EPA's capacity to support scientifically sound environmental regulations and policies. The IRIS database contains EPA's scientific position on the potential human health effects of exposure to more than 540 chemicals. This testimony highlights GAO's work on toxic substances, focusing on (1) its March 2008 report, Chemical Assessments: Low Productivity and New Interagency Review Process Limit the Usefulness and Credibility of EPA's Integrated Risk Information System and (2) key changes to the IRIS assessment process EPA included in its revised IRIS assessment process released on April 10, 2008. It also highlights the findings of two GAO reports on EPA's regulation of toxic chemicals. For the IRIS report, GAO analyzed EPA data and interviewed officials at relevant agencies, including the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). For this testimony, GAO supplemented the IRIS report with a review of EPA's revised IRIS assessment process announced earlier this month. Given the importance of the IRIS program to EPA's ability to protect public …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Media reports in 2005 and 2006 highlighted serious problems at organ transplant programs, calling attention to possible deficits in federal oversight. Two agencies in the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) oversee organ transplant programs: the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) oversees transplant programs that receive Medicare reimbursement, and the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) oversees the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN), which manages the nation's organ allocation system. GAO was asked to examine (1) federal oversight of transplant programs at the time the high-profile cases came to light in 2005 and 2006 and (2) changes that federal agencies have made or planned since then to strengthen oversight. GAO interviewed CMS, HRSA, and OPTN officials and reviewed agency documents and data and a CMS draft proposal for sharing information with HRSA."

Free weekly newspaper that includes business and classified advertising.

Free weekly newspaper that includes business and classified advertising.

This report reviews the empirical studies of the effect of changes in price transparency on prices and quality of goods in a variety of industries; addresses the extent to which this evidence might be applicable to the health care market and certain special characteristics of the health care market which may reduce the importance of prices as signals; examines how prices are actually set by hospitals and the evidence that exists on price dispersion both across hospitals and across patient categories; discusses some initiatives undertaken by governments, insurers, and interest groups to improve information about prices and to regulate price discrimination; and finally, suggests that while it is difficult to determine the consequences of greater consumer price transparency, it is reasonable to believe that greater transparency would improve outcomes.

.Mainstreaming of climate change mitigation and adaptation into national and sub-national policies, planning, and investment frameworks. Establishment of innovative partnerships and dissemination of dissemination of technologies to mitigate climate change and increase local access to sustainable energy. Accelerated action by China in assessing vulnerability to climate change and developing adaptation plans and mechanisms.

This report provides an introduction to German foreign and security policy. The report discusses the foundations of German foreign policy, Germany in the European Union (EU), evolving security and defense policy, and transatalantic implications.

Monthly student newspaper from St. Philip's College in San Antonio, Texas that includes campus news along with advertising.

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This report provides the history and recent increases of the debt limit of the federal government.

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This report provides analysis of the education tax credit program.

This report is a guide to one of the regular appropriations bills that Congress considers each year. It summarizes the status of the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies appropriations bill, its scope, major issues, funding levels, and related congressional activity.

Weekly newspaper from Emory, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

We present valence photoelectron emission spectra of liquid water in comparison with gas-phase water, ice close to the melting point, low temperature amorphous and crystalline ice. All aggregation states have major electronic structure changes relative to the free molecule, with rehybridization and development of bonding and anti-bonding states accompanying the hydrogen bond formation. Sensitivity to the local structural order, most prominent in the shape and splitting of the occupied 3a{sub 1} orbital, is understood from the electronic structure averaging over various geometrical structures, and reflects the local nature of the orbital interaction.

Gravitational theories do not admit gauge invariant local operators. We study the limits under which there exists a quasi-local description for a class of non-local gravitational observables where a sum over worldlines plays the role of the Wilson line for gauge theory observables. We study non-local corrections to the local description and circumstances where these corrections become large. We find that these operators are quasi-local in at space and AdS, but fail to be quasi-local in de Sitter space.

A remarkable manifestation of the quantum character of electrons in matter is offered by graphene, a single atomic layer of graphite. Unlike conventional solids where electrons are described with the Schrödinger equation, electronic excitations in graphene are governed by the Dirac hamiltonian. Some of the intriguing electronic properties of graphene, such as massless Dirac quasiparticles with linear energy-momentum dispersion, have been confirmed by recent observations. Here, we report an infrared spectromicroscopy study of charge dynamics in graphene integrated in gated devices. Our measurements verify the expected characteristics of graphene and, owing to the previously unattainable accuracy of infrared experiments, also uncover significant departures of the quasiparticle dynamics from predictions made for Dirac fermions in idealized, free-standing graphene. Several observations reported here indicate the relevance of many-body interactions to the electromagnetic response of graphene.