Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Implementing Recommendations of the 9/11 Commission Act of 2007 mandates the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to establish a system to physically screen 50 percent of cargo transported on passenger aircraft by February 2009 and 100 percent of such cargo by August 2010. This testimony provides preliminary observations on the Transportation Security Administration's (TSA) progress in meeting the mandate to screen cargo on passenger aircraft and the challenges TSA and industry stakeholders may face in screening such cargo. GAO's testimony is based on products issued from October 2005 through August 2008, and its ongoing review of air cargo security. GAO reviewed TSA's air cargo security programs, interviewed program officials and industry representatives, and visited two large U.S. airports."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Since fiscal year 2000, the Department of Defense (DOD) has significantly increased the number of major defense acquisition programs and its overall investment in them. However, acquisition outcomes have not improved. Over the next 5 years, DOD expects to invest $357 billion on the development and procurement of major defense acquisition programs and billions more on their operation and maintenance. Last year, we reported that the total acquisition cost of DOD's portfolio of major defense programs under development or in production has grown by $295 billion (in fiscal year 2008 dollars). In most cases, the programs we assessed failed to deliver capabilities when promised--often forcing warfighters to spend additional funds on maintaining legacy systems. Continued cost growth results in less funding being available for other DOD priorities and programs, while continued failure to deliver weapon systems on time delays providing critical capabilities to the warfighter. This testimony describes the systemic problems that have contributed to poor cost and schedule outcomes in DOD's acquisition of major weapon systems; recent actions DOD has taken to address these problems; and steps that Congress and DOD need to take to improve the …

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), health-care-associated infections (HAI)--infections that patients acquire while receiving treatment for other conditions-- are estimated to be 1 of the top 10 causes of death in the nation. The statement GAO is issuing today summarizes a March 2008 report, Health-Care-Associated Infections in Hospitals: Leadership Needed from HHS to Prioritize Prevention Practices and Improve Data on These Infections (GAO-08-283). In this report, GAO examined (1) CDC's guidelines for hospitals to reduce or prevent HAIs and what HHS does to promote their implementation, (2) Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' (CMS) and hospital accrediting organizations' required standards for hospitals to reduce or prevent HAIs, and (3) HHS programs that collect data related to HAIs and integration of the data across HHS. To conduct the work, GAO reviewed documents and interviewed HHS and accrediting organization officials. To update certain information for this statement, GAO reviewed relevant HHS documents released after GAO's March 2008 report."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "To prepare for forecasted air traffic growth, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), including its Joint Planning and Development Office (JPDO) and Air Traffic Organization (ATO), is planning for and implementing the Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen) in partnership with other federal agencies and the aviation industry. NextGen will transform the current radar-based air traffic control system into a more automated, aircraft-centered, satellite-based system. GAO's previous work has identified issues related to the usefulness of NextGen planning documents, FAA's organizational structure to manage the transition to NextGen, and FAA's workforce to oversee and implement NextGen. Recently, the focus of NextGen planning and implementation has shifted to capabilities that can be achieved in the midterm, defined as 2012 through 2018. GAO's testimony focuses on (1) JPDO's and ATO's progress in planning and implementing NextGen, (2) ongoing efforts to implement midterm capabilities to address capacity constraints and delays, (3) the potential impact on NextGen of organizational changes and human capital issues, and (4) research and development and facilities maintenance and reconfiguration challenges going forward. GAO's testimony updates prior GAO work with FAA data and interviews with agency and union officials …

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Federal Reserve) and the Department of the Treasury (Treasury) have made available over $182 billion in assistance to American International Group (AIG) to prevent its failure. However, questions have been raised about the goals of the assistance and how it is being monitored. Also, because AIG is generally known for its insurance operations, questions exist about the effect of the assistance on certain insurance markets. This statement provides preliminary findings on (1) the goals and monitoring of federal assistance to AIG and challenges to AIG's repayment of the assistance; and (2) the potential effects of the federal assistance on the U.S. commercial property/casualty insurance market. GAO's work on these issues is ongoing. To date, we have reviewed relevant documents on the assistance and ongoing operations of AIG, as well as documents issued by the Federal Reserve and Treasury. We also interviewed officials from these organizations as well as industry participants (competitors, brokers, and customers) and insurance regulators, among others."

Free weekly newspaper that includes business and classified advertising.

Bi-weekly student newspaper from Abilene Christian University in Abilene, Texas that includes local, state and campus news along with advertising.

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

Katzenstein and Apt investigate the important question of pollution emission reduction benefits from variable generation resources such as wind and solar. Their methodology, which couples an individual variable generator to a dedicated gas plant to produce a flat block of power is, however, inappropriate. For CO{sub 2}, the authors conclude that variable generators 'achieve {approx} 80% of the emission reductions expected if the power fluctuations caused no additional emissions.' They find even lower NO{sub x} emission reduction benefits with steam-injected gas turbines and a 2-4 times net increase in NO{sub x} emissions for systems with dry NO{sub x} control unless the ratio of energy from natural gas to variable plants is greater than 2:1. A more appropriate methodology, however, would find a significantly lower degradation of the emissions benefit than suggested by Katzenstein and Apt. As has been known for many years, models of large power system operations must take into account variable demand and the unit commitment and economic dispatch functions that are practiced every day by system operators. It is also well-known that every change in wind or solar power output does not need to be countered by an equal and opposite change in a dispatchable resource. The …

Free weekly newspaper that includes business and classified advertising.

This Cooperative Agreement was focuse on the development and dissemination of technologies, best-practices, energy-efficiency assessment programs, etc., that could support industry's drive to become more competitive in a rapidly chaning and highly competitive global marketplace. The Agreement covered a rane of collaborative activities between AIChE and DOE/ITP's various Industries of the Future ("IOF") Teams such as: 1. Help with technology evaluation adn support by providing industry experts to: a) Review solicitation proposals b) Review technology portfolios as deeped appropriate by DOE/ITP c) Market IOF Best Practices through outreach and technical assistance at the plant-level adn via meetings with operations staff. 2) Help establish various programs with industry, academia and National Laboratories to develop tools, methodologies and benchmarks that entities served by IOF would find valuable in establishing goals for improving energy consumption in specific processes. 3) Support IOF with Technology Vision 2020 programs.

Minimizing plutonium measurement uncertainty is essential to nuclear material control and international safeguards. In 2005, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) published ISO 12183 'Controlled-potential coulometric assay of plutonium', 2nd edition. ISO 12183:2005 recommends a target of {+-}0.01% for the mass of original sample in the aliquot because it is a critical assay variable. Mass measurements in radiological containment were evaluated and uncertainties estimated. The uncertainty estimate for the mass measurement also includes uncertainty in correcting for buoyancy effects from air acting as a fluid and from decreased pressure of heated air from the specific heat of the plutonium isotopes.

The objectives of the confirmatory surveys were to provide independent contractor field data reviews and to generate independent radiological data for use by the NRC in evaluating the adequacy and accuracy of the licensee’s procedures and survey results.

Letter from David A. Stallman to Fran Sargent and Helen Snapp discussing the 2008 WASP Reunion at Avenger Field and a DVD of the reunion.

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

AREVA Federal Services LLC (AFS), under a contract from Washington River Protection Solutions (WRPS), has performed an ultrasonic examination of selected portions of Double-Shell Tank 241-AW-101. PNNL is responsible for preparing a report(s) that describes the results of the AFS ultrasonic examinations.

Collaborative efforts of Midwest Consortium have been put forth to add value to distiller's grains by further processing them into fermentable sugars, ethanol, and a protein rich co-product consistent with a pathway to a biorenewables industry (Schell et al, 2008). These studies were recently published in the enclosed special edition (Volume 99, Issue 12) of Bioresource Technology journal. Part of them have demonstrated the utilization of distillers grains as additional feedstock for increased ethanol production in the current dry grind process (Kim et al., 2008a, b; Dien et al.,2008, Ladisch et al., 2008a, b). Results showed that both liquid hot water (LHW) pretreatment and ammonia fiber expansion (AFEX) were effective for enhancing digestibility of distiller's grains. Enzymatic digestion of distiller's grains resulted in more than 90% glucose yield under standard assay conditions, although the yield tends to drop as the concentration of dry solids increases. Simulated process mass balances estimated that hydrolysis and fermentation of distillers grains can increase the ethanol yield by 14% in the current dry milling process (Kim et al., 2008c). Resulting co-products from the modified process are richer in protein and oil contents than conventional distiller's grains, as determined both experimentally and computationally. Other research topics …

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

Funeral program for Doris Dominique "Grannie," born January 21, 1934 and March 11, 2009. The funeral was held March 18, 2009 at Greater Tree Mount Temple Baptist Church, officiated by Pastor Kevin Nelson. The funeral arrangements were made through Lewis Funeral Home and she was buried in Meadowlawn Memorial Park in San Antonio, Texas.

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Interview with Maurice Stamps, a serviceman in the U. S. Army during World War II. Stamps discusses growing up on a farm in Iowa, joining the army, going to Hawaii and staying at Schofield Barracks. He was assigned to the Classification/Assignment section at Fort Shafter without ever having basic training. He was later assigned to the Message Center at Ft. Shafter. He remembers his correspondence with his girlfriend Enid, whom he married upon his discharge in 1946.

Article on the backstage communication in hospice interdisciplinary team meetings and what families and patients don't hear.

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

Transcript of an oral interview with Maurice Stamps. Stamps is anecdotal as he discusses growing up on a farm in Iowa; joining the US Army; going to Hawaii and staying at Schofield Barracks; his assignment to the Classification/Assignment section Fort Shafter without ever having basic training; his assignment later to the Message Center at Ft. Shafter; his correspondence with Enid, whom he married upon discharge in 1946.