Document issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Texas in Austin, Texas, providing an interpretation of Texas law. It provides the opinion of the Texas Attorney General, Ken Paxton, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification: To what extent the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality may consider a recommendation from a local government to deny a permit for a facility because the facility is incompatible with the local government's zoning or land use ordinances (RQ-0185-KP).

Instructional guide to Texas Ethics Commission form CEC, for County Executive Committee campaign finance reporting.

Instructional guide to Texas Ethics Commission form GPAC, for general-purpose committee campaign finance reporting.

Instructional guide to Texas Ethics Commission form GTA, for reporting the appointment of a campaign treasurer by a general-purpose committee.

instructional guide to Texas Ethics Commission form MCEC, for monthly filing county executive committee campaign finance reporting.

Instructional guide to Texas Ethics Commission for MPAC, for monthly filing general-purpose committee campaign finance reporting.

News release about improvements made to the paratransit loading area in front of the Dallas Lighthouse for the Blind building.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Al D’Agostino. D’Agostino joined the Merchant Marine in 1945 and received training in Brooklyn. Upon completion, he was assigned to the SS Monterey where he worked as a butcher. His first trip to the Pacific was transporting European troops, who were unhappy about the looming invasion of Japan. The war ended while the Monterey was in transit, and the soldiers returning home were a much happier bunch. Even more joyful was the reunion of families when the Monterey picked up war brides and their babies from all over the Pacific and brought them back to the States. He transferred to a Liberty ship that brought German war criminals back to the States from South America, although he believes that the majority of the passengers were actually concentration camp survivors. D’Agostino was discharged but was drafted again during the Korean War and served as a radio relay operator atop a mountain in dangerous and harsh winter conditions. When he was discharged a second time, he applied his kitchen experience and attended Cornell’s hotel school. D’Agostino became the director of food service for Trans World Airlines. Before retiring, he moved …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Michael W. Deery. He discusses his family, growing up during the Great Depression and what led him to join the US Navy. He describes his experiences during bootcamp and in the Pacific Theatre during World War Two.

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Noncompliance does not have a single source but occurs across different types of taxes and taxpayers. For example, individual income tax accounts for the largest portion of the tax gap, but corporate income tax and employment tax are also significant. Further, misreporting by individuals involves business income, non-business income, deductions, and credits. The extent of misreporting depends on the extent to which income tax is withheld or reported to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) by third parties. For example, nearly 40 percent, or $179 billion, of the 2006 gross tax gap is due to misreporting of non-corporate business income and related self-employment taxes. Much of this misreporting can be attributed to sole proprietors underreporting receipts or over-reporting expenses. Unlike wage and some investment income, sole proprietors’ income is not subject to withholding and only a portion is reported to IRS by third parties."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In summary, we found that, between 1981 and 2010, the time it took OSHA to develop and issue safety and health standards ranged from 15 months to 19 years and averaged more than 7 years. Experts and agency officials cited several factors that contribute to the lengthy time frames for developing and issuing standards, including increased procedural requirements, shifting priorities, and a rigorous standard of judicial review. We also found that, in addition to using the typical standard-setting process, OSHA can address urgent hazards by issuing emergency temporary standards, although the agency has not used this authority since 1983 because of the difficulty it has faced in compiling the evidence necessary to meet the statutory requirements. Instead, OSHA focuses on enforcement activities—such as enforcing the general requirement of the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 (OSH Act) that employers provide a workplace free from recognized hazards—and educating employers and workers about urgent hazards. Experiences of other federal agencies that regulate public or worker health hazards offered limited insight into the challenges OSHA faces in setting standards. For example, EPA officials pointed to certain requirements of the Clean …

News release about a promotional partnership between DART and Hotel Palomar Dallas, involving savings on rooms for holders of DART passes and a photo scavenger hunt.

Transcript of a public hearing held by the Commission on Wartime Contracting in Iraq & Afghanistan held April 19, 2010 in Washington, D.C. This hearing includes testimony from two panels of witnesses representing governmental agencies and contractors on improving the federal government's oversight on service contracts in Southwest Asia operations.

Event program containing lists of officers, donors, award winners, and members of the Texas Institute of Letters (TIL) from the annual awards banquet on April 19, 2008.

Flyer and gallery of photographs for the 11th annual Red, Hot & Soul event hosted by ZACH Theatre in Austin, Texas.

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Weather-related events in the United States have caused tens of billions of dollars in damages annually over the past decade. A major portion of these losses is borne by private insurers and by two federal insurance programs-- the Federal Emergency Management Agency's National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), which insures properties against flooding, and the Department of Agriculture's Federal Crop Insurance Corporation (FCIC), which insures crops against drought or other weather disasters. In this testimony, GAO (1) describes how climate change may affect future weather-related losses, (2) provides information on past insured weather-related losses, and (3) determines what major private insurers and federal insurers are doing to prepare for potential increases in such losses. This testimony is based on a report entitled Climate Change: Financial Risks to Federal and Private Insurers in Coming Decades are Potentially Significant (GAO-07-285) being released today."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Commonwelth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) is a self-governing commonwealth of the United States that administers its own local government functions under its own constitution. CNMI consists of 14 islands in the North Pacific with a total land area about 2.5 times the size of Washington, D.C. In recent years, CNMI has experienced serious economic and fiscal challenges, and several indicators point to a fiscal crisis in fiscal year 2006. This testimony highlights the recent economic trends in the CNMI economy, its weakening fiscal condition, and its financial accountability challenges. Our conclusions are based on work performed for our December 2006 report on U.S. insular areas and our February 2007 testimony on CNMI before the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, which was updated to include audited financial information through fiscal year 2005 and some recent developments in fiscal year 2006 based on information available as of February 2007. Today, we are also including additional information on CNMI's fiscal year 2006 status recently provided to us by CNMI's Secretary of Finance. We conducted our work in accordance with generally accepted government auditing standards."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "This testimony is given in support of the fiscal year 2008 budget request for the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) before the House Subcommittee on the Legislative Branch, Committee on Appropriations. The requested funding will help us continue our support of the Congress in meeting its constitutional responsibilities and will help improve the performance and ensure the accountability of the federal government for the benefit of the American people. GAO is especially appreciative of the Subcommittee's efforts to help us avoid a furlough of our staff during fiscal year 2007. Had we not received additional funds this year and not taken other cost minimization actions, GAO would have likely been forced to furlough most staff for up to 5 days without pay. At the same time, due to funding shortfalls, we were not able to make pay adjustments retroactive to January 7, 2007. Our testimony today focuses on key efforts that GAO has undertaken to support the Congress, our fiscal year 2006 performance results, our budget request for fiscal year 2008 to support the Congress and serve the American people, and proposed legislative changes."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "For many years, GAO has reported that weaknesses in information security are a widespread problem with potentially devastating consequences--such as intrusions by malicious users, compromised networks, and the theft of personally identifiable information. In reports to Congress since 1997, GAO has identified information security as a governmentwide high-risk issue. Concerned by reports of significant vulnerabilities in federal computer systems, Congress passed the Federal Information Security Management Act of 2002 (FISMA), which permanently authorized and strengthened the information security program, evaluation, and reporting requirements for federal agencies. FISMA also defines responsibilities for ensuring centralized compilation and analysis of incidents that threaten information security and providing timely technical assistance in handling security incidents. In this testimony, GAO discusses the continued weaknesses in information security controls at 24 major federal agencies, the reporting and analysis of security incidents, and efforts by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to develop a cyber threat analysis and warning capability. GAO based its testimony on its previous work in this area as well as agency and congressional reports."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "As operations overseas continue, the Department of Defense (DOD) is experiencing a growing demand for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) assets to provide valuable information in support of military operations. While the 2006 Quadrennial Review emphasized the need for the ISR community to improve the integration and management of ISR assets, DOD plans to make significant investments in ISR capabilities for the future. Congress has been interested in DOD's approach for managing and integrating existing assets while acquiring new systems. This testimony addresses preliminary observations based on GAO's ongoing work regarding (1) the status of DOD initiatives intended to improve the management and integration of ISR requirements and challenges DOD faces in implementing its initiatives, (2) DOD's approach to managing current ISR assets to support military operations, and (3) the status of selected ISR programs in development and the potential for synergies between them. GAO's ongoing work included document review, interviews with officials at relevant organizations, observations of some U.S. Central Command operations, and review of 12 airborne ISR development programs."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "DOD's space system acquisitions have experienced problems over the past several decades that have driven up costs by hundreds of millions, even billions of dollars, stretched schedules by years, and increased performance risks. DOD has recognized the need to change its approach to developing space systems and is attempting to instill best practices in new efforts. GAO was asked to testify on its findings on space acquisitions problems and steps needed to sustain and expand the use of best practices. In preparing this testimony, GAO relied on its detailed reviews of space programs as well as cross-cutting work on cost estimating and best practices. GAO does not make recommendations in this testimony. However, GAO has made recommendations on steps DOD can take to ensure better outcomes for its space acquisitions programs. These include developing an overall investment strategy for acquisition programs, addressing human capital and other shortfalls in capacity, and revising policies supporting space to incorporate best practices."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Since 1990, GAO has periodically reported on high-risk federal programs that are vulnerable to fraud, waste, and abuse. Two such high-risk areas are managing federal contracts more effectively and assessing the efficiency and effectiveness of federal tax administration. Weaknesses in the tax area continue to expose the federal government to significant losses of tax revenue and increase the burden on compliant taxpayers to fund government activities. Over the last several years, the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations requested GAO to investigate Department of Defense (DOD), civilian agency, and General Services Administration (GSA) contractors that abused the federal tax system. Based on that work GAO made recommendations to executive agencies including to improve the controls over levying payments to contractors with tax debt--many of which have been implemented--and referred 122 contractors to IRS for further investigation and prosecution. As requested, this testimony will highlight the key findings from prior testimonies and related reports. This testimony will (1) describe the magnitude of tax debt owed by federal contractors, (2) provide examples of federal contractors involved in abusive and potentially criminal activity related to the federal tax system, and (3) describe …

Document issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Texas in Austin, Texas, providing an interpretation of Texas law. It provides the opinion of the Texas Attorney General, Greg Abbott, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification: Whether the Legislature may authorize electronic pull-tab bingo by statute without amending the Texas Constitution.

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "When GAO originally placed the U.S. Postal Service's (the Service) transformation efforts and long-term outlook on its high-risk list in early 2001, it was to focus urgent attention on the Service's deteriorating financial situation. Aggressive action was needed, particularly in cutting costs, improving productivity, and enhancing financial transparency. GAO testified several times since 2001 that comprehensive postal reform legislation was needed to address the Service's unsustainable business model, which assumed that increasing mail volume would cover rising costs and mitigate rate increases. This outdated model limited its flexibility and incentives needed to realize sufficient cost savings to offset rising costs, declining First-Class Mail volumes, unfunded obligations, and an expanding delivery network. This limitation threatened the Service's ability to achieve its mission of providing affordable, high-quality universal postal services on a self-financing basis. This testimony will focus on (1) why GAO recently removed the Service's transformation efforts and outlook from GAO's high-risk list, (2) the Service's financial condition in fiscal year 2007, (3) the opportunities and challenges facing the Service, and (4) major issues and areas for congressional oversight. This testimony is based on GAO's past work, review of …