This brief article discusses about a massive swell of water that was buffeting South America. Kelvin waves are warm bumps in the Pacific Ocean, characterized by a gentle yet massive swell of warm water. Usually not much happens when a Kelvin wave arrives -- beach combers experience a bit of extra rain, perhaps, and slightly warmer surf. Nevertheless, scientists pay careful attention to them because these gentle waves occasionally herald something far more powerful: the next El Niño.

On the stage of global change, ozone plays the role of both hero and villain. This brief document discusses about the tracking of Tropospheric Ozone, where ozone forms and where it travels have become key concerns for international health and economic policy-making.

A description of the key points of Japanese New Climate Change Policy Programme which includes the fundamental principles, the main points of the programme, and the measures for reducing of greenhouse gass emissions

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, John Cornyn, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification; Meaning of "lifetime service credit for purposes of subchapter D of chapter 41 of the Government Code, which mandates longevity pay for certain assisstant prosecutors (RQ-0042-JC)

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, John Cornyn, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification; Whether a member of the City Council of the City of Watauga may appoint himself to the Board of Directors of the Watagua Crime Control and prevention District.(RQ-0452-JC).

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, John Cornyn, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification; Authority of the Texas Board of Professional Land Surveying to require that all proposed oil and gas well locations be surveyed by a registered professional land surveyor(RQ-0440-JC).

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, John Cornyn, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification; Whether a commissioners court may establish and fund a courthouse security force and related questions.(RQ-0418-JC).

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, John Cornyn, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification; Applicability of section 154.155(d) of the Finance Code to insurance-funded ,prepaid funeral benefits contracts(RQ-0434-JC).

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, John Cornyn, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification; Whether the State Board of Education is Authorized to control the adoption or development of statewide assessment instruments under chapter 39 of the Education Code and related questions(RQ-0436-JC).

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, John Cornyn, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification: Whether certain eligibility requirements for a bail bond license application filed on May 28, 2001.

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, John Cornyn, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification: Whether a raffle ticket may be awarded as a prize in a bingo game.

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, John Cornyn, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification: Whether Harris County may prohibit a tow truck from having auxiliary stop and tail lamps in or under the factory-mounted light bar, and related question.

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, John Cornyn, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification: Whether a private Texas nonprofit corporation may operate a "charitable sweepstakes fundraising program," and related questions (RQ-0443-JC)

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, John Cornyn, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification; Whether the term of a justice of the peace may be reduced from four to two years as a result of redistricting(RQ-0447-JC).

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, John Cornyn, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification: Whether the Texas Council on Environmental Technology may award a grant to one of its members or to a university that employs a member, and related question.

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, John Cornyn, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification: Whether a municipality may enforce its own sexually oriented business ordinance when the entity to be protected is outside the corporate limits of the municipality.

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, John Cornyn, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification; Whether a financing statement terminating a "pre-effective-date financing statement " should be filed with the Secretary of State or the county clerk(RQ-0449-JC).

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, John Cornyn, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification; Whether the Board of Regents of the University of Texas System may hold a public meeting in mexico(RQ-0448-JC).

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Financial management problems at the Department of Defense (DOD) are complex, long-standing, and deeply rooted throughout its business operations. DOD's financial management deficiencies represent the single largest obstacle to achieving an unqualified opinion on the U.S. government's consolidated financial statements. So far, none of the military services or major DOD components have passed the test of an independent financial audit because of pervasive weaknesses in financial management systems, operations, and controls. These problems go back decades, and earlier attempts at reform have been unsuccessful. DOD continues to rely on a far-flung, complex network of finance, logistics, personnel, acquisition, and other management information systems for financial data to support day-to-day management and decision-making. This network has evolved into an overly complex and error-prone operation with (1) little standardization across DOD components, (2) multiple systems performing the same tasks, (3) the same data stored in multiple systems, (4) manual data entry into multiple systems, and (5) a large number of data translations and interfaces, which combine to exacerbate problems with data integrity. Many of the elements that are crucial to financial management reform and business process transformation--particularly those that rely …

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Office of Pipeline Safety (OPS) oversees 2.2 million miles of pipelines that transport potentially dangerous materials, such as oil and natural gas. OPS has been slow to improve its oversight of the pipeline industry and implement critical pipeline safety improvements. As a result, OPS has the lowest rate of any transportation agency for implementing the recommendations of the National Transportation Safety Board. In recent years, OPS has taken several steps to improve its oversight of the pipeline industry, including requiring "integrity management" programs for individual operators to assess their pipelines for risks, take action to mitigate the risks, and develop program performance measures. OPS has also (1) revised forms and procedures to collect more complete and accurate data, which will enable OPS to better assess the causes of incidents and focus on the greatest risks to pipelines; (2) allowed more states to oversee a broader range of interstate pipeline safety activities; and (3) increased the use of fines. OPS has made progress in responding to recommendations from the Safety Board and statutory requirements, but some key open recommendations and requirements, such as requiring pipeline operators to periodically …

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "E-government refers to operations that enhance delivery of government information and services. Enterprise architectures provides for successful delivery of e-government applications, which in turn promise improved government performance and accountability. Under the Office of Management and Budget's (OMB) leadership, the president's fiscal year 2003 budget proposes 24 e-government initiatives, most involving multiple agencies. These initiatives have laudable goals, including the elimination of redundant, nonintegrated business operations and systems which could save billions of dollars. The success of these initiatives depends in large part on whether they are pursued within the context of enterprise architectures. Approved architectures for most of these initiatives do not currently exist. OMB has been a proponent of enterprise architectures and has recently devoted increased attention to them. However, it can and should play a larger role. The maturity framework and benchmark data about 116 departments, component agencies, and independent agencies GAO reviews in this testimony provide important baseline information against which targeted improvement across the government can be defined and measured."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of Defense (DOD) has been at the forefront of federal agencies in using the OMB Circular A-76 process. In 1995, DOD made it a priority to reduce operating costs and free funds for other needs. DOD has also augmented the A-76 program with what it terms strategic sourcing--a broader array of reinvention and reengineering options that may not necessarily involve A-76 competitions. The number of positions--at one point 229,000--that DOD planned to study and the time frames for the studies have varied. Current plans are to study about 183,000 positions between fiscal years 1997 and 2007. Changes in the inventory of commercial activities and the current administration's sourcing initiatives could change the number of positions studied in the future. However, GAO has not evaluated the extent to which these changes might occur. DOD's A-76 program has faced several challenges that may provide valuable lessons learned for other federal agencies. These lessons include the following: (1) studies took longer than initially projected, (2) costs and resources required for the studies were underestimated, (3) selecting and grouping functions to compete can be difficult, and (4) determining and maintaining …

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "This testimony discusses the federal government's human capital challenges. The basic problem has been a longstanding lack of a consistent strategic approach to marshalling, managing, and maintaining the government's human capital needs. To overcome this problem, GAO has developed a model of strategic human capital management that highlights the importance of a sustained commitment by agency leaders to maximize the value of their workforce. The Office of Personnel Management and the Office of Management and Budget have developed tools to assess human capital management efforts that are conceptually consistent with GAO's model. GAO's model emphasizes two central principles. First, people are assets whose value can be enhanced through investment. As with any investment, the goal is to maximize value while managing risk. Second, an organization's human capital approaches should be designed, implemented, and assessed by how well they help pursue its mission and achieve desired results. GAO has also identified a preliminary list of key practices that will enable agencies to acquire, develop, and retain talent. Successful organizational change depends on a willingness by agency leaders to embrace strategic human capital management and related change management approaches."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Many people are homeless for only a short time and get back on their feet with minimal assistance, but others are chronically homeless and need intensive and ongoing assistance. Fifty federal programs exist to help the homeless with housing. Sixteen of these are targeted exclusively to the homeless, and the others are mainstream programs. Targeted programs were funded at $1.7 billion in fiscal year 2001. GAO found that the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has been unable to ensure that adequate coordination occurs among the programs without creating undue administrative burdens for the states and communities. Steps have been taken to improve the coordination of homeless assistance programs within communities and to reduce some of the administrative burdens caused by separate programs. Although low-income populations face barriers to obtaining services provided by mainstream programs, these barriers are compounded by homelessness. In addition, the underlying structure and operations of federal mainstream programs do not ensure that the special needs of homeless people are met. Consolidating HUD's McKinney-Vento programs could help reduce the administrative burden. However, to end chronic homelessness in 10 years, federal agencies must strive to …