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

This report gives an overview of the federal debt limit, its history, and recent increases

This report discusses the National Intelligence Estimates (NIEs) that represent the highest and most formal level of strategic analysis by the U.S. intelligence community.

This report discusses the use of biomass as an energy feedstock, which is emerging as a potentially viable alternative to address U.S. energy security concerns, foreign oil dependence, rural economic development, and diminishing sources of conventional energy. Biomass (organic matter that can be converted into energy) may include food crops, crops for energy (e.g., switchgrass or prairie perennials), crop residues, wood waste and byproducts, and animal manure. This report discusses legislation regarding biomass, the evolving definition of biomass, and the positions of supporters and detractors of biomass as an alternative energy source.

Predictions of alpha heating in L-mode and H-mode DT plasmas in ITER are generated using the PTRANSP code. The baseline toroidal field of 5.3 T, plasma current ramped to 15 MA and a flat electron density profile ramped to Greenwald fraction 0.85 are assumed. Various combinations of external heating by negative ion neutral beam injection, ion cyclotron resonance, and electron cyclotron resonance are assumed to start half-way up the density ramp. The time evolution of plasma temperatures and, for some cases, toroidal rotation are predicted assuming GLF23 and boundary parameters. Significant toroidal rotation and flow-shearing rates are predicted by GLF23 even in the L-mode phase with low boundary temperatures, and the alpha heating power is predicted to be significant if the power threshold for the transition to H-mode is higher than the planned total heating power. The alpha heating is predicted to be 8-76 MW in L-mode at full density. External heating mixes with higher beam injection power have higher alpha heating power. Alternatively if the toroidal rotation is predicted assuming that the ratio of the momentum to thermal ion energy conductivity is 0.5, the flow-shearing rate is predicted to have insignificant effects on the GLF23- predicted temperatures, and alpha …

Daily newspaper from Altus, Oklahoma that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

This report will monitor pending and possible proposals for U.S. free trade areas (FTAs), relevant legislation and other congressional interest in U.S. FTAs.

Results from the 9975 Surveillance Program at the Savannah River Site (SRS) are summarized for justification to extend the life of the 9975 packages currently stored in the K-Area Materials Storage (KAMS) facility from 10 years to 15 years. This justification is established with the stipulation that surveillance activities will continue throughout this extended time to ensure the continued integrity of the 9975 materials of construction and to further understand the currently identified degradation mechanisms. The current 10 year storage life was developed prior to storage. A subsequent report was later used to extend the qualification of the 9975 shipping packages for 2 years for shipping plus 10 years for storage. However the qualification for the storage period was provided by the monitoring requirements of the Storage and Surveillance Program. This report summarizes efforts to determine a new safe storage limit for the 9975 shipping package based on the surveillance data collected since 2005 when the surveillance program began. KAMS is a zero-release facility that depends upon containment by the 9975 to meet design basis storage requirements. Therefore, to confirm the continued integrity of the 9975 packages while stored in KAMS, a 9975 Storage and Surveillance Program was implemented alongside …

The purpose of this report is to present and assess water activity versus ionic strength for six solutes:sodium nitrate, sodium nitrite, sodium chloride, sodium carbonate, sodium sulfate, and potassium nitrate. Water activity is given versus molality (e.g., ionic strength) and temperature. Water activity is used to estimate Hanford crystal hydrate solubility present in the waste.

This report discusses issues surrounding the proposed Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which would prohibit discrimination based on an individual's actual or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity by public and private employers in hiring, discharge, compensation, and other terms and conditions of employment.

This report provides an overview of organized retail crime (ORC) rings, their operations, and goods targeted. It then examines the domestic impact of ORC in the arenas of the economy, public health and safety, and domestic security. The report also outlines current efforts by retailers, resale markets, and the federal government to combat ORC. It then analyzes various policy issues that Congress may wish to consider, including whether current federal resources provided for the investigation of ORC are adequate, whether to amend the U.S. Code to criminalize ORC, and whether to regulate resale marketplaces that may be utilized as fences for criminals to sell stolen goods.

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

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

Daily newspaper from Baytown, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

Daily newspaper from Sapulpa, Oklahoma that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

Budgetary legislation is constrained by certain enforcement rules that are generally intended to control spending, revenues, and the deficit. Since 1990, those rules have provided, in various forms, procedural mechanisms allowing Congress to effectively exempt certain budgetary amounts from such constraints by designating a provision in a measure as an emergency requirement. This report provides a brief description of the current rules and congressional procedures associated with the emergency designation.

This report reviews unilateral preference programs for the Caribbean, discusses how they have been affected by Free Trade Agreement (FTA) in the region, and considers trade policy options for dealing with countries still relying on trade preferences and that may be considering whether to negotiate an FTA with the United States.

Weekly newspaper from Port Aransas, Texas on Mustang Island that includes local, state and national news along with extensive advertising.

This report provides a basic overview of the island of Guam, including population and location, as well as the strategic significance of Guam for boosting U.S. deterrence and power projection in Asia.

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

This report provides an overview of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) budget and operations. This report chronicles congressional action on the FY2011 Commerce, Justice, Science (CJS), and Related Agencies Appropriations bills, as well as any FY2010 supplemental appropriations bills, that provide funding for ATF.

Weekly newspaper from Albany, Texas that includes local, county, and state news along with extensive advertising.

This report describes substantive enforcement procedures associated with the budget resolution, explains the concept of a "deeming resolution," discusses House and Senate action on deeming resolutions, and provides information on a related topic, waiving a bar against the consideration of budgetary legislation for a fiscal year before a budget resolution for that fiscal year has been adopted.

This letter confirms that the Laboratory for Laser Energetics (LLE) was an important part of the FY10 NIF Polar Drive Exploding Pusher experiments on the National Ignition Facility (NIF). These experiments were designed by LLE to produce requested neutron yields to calibrate and qualify nuclear diagnostics. LLE built a deuterium-tritium filling system for the glass shells and provided them to LLNL for mounting. In FY10, four exploding pusher implosions were performed with measured neutron yields within a factor of two of requested and ion temperatures within 20% of requested. These implosions are proving to be an ideal platform for commissioning the nuclear diagnostic suite on the NIF and are achieving all of the objectives planned for this campaign.