A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Over the last several years, the Coast Guard has experienced what it considers to be serious reliability and safety problems with its workhorse HH-65 helicopter used for key missions, such as search and rescue, migrant and drug interdiction, and homeland security. Annually, the HH-65 contributes to saving 375 lives and assists on 2,065 drug interdiction cases, according to the Coast Guard. An increasing trend in the number and seriousness of safety-related HH-65 incidents in recent months, highlighted by some the Coast Guard deemed to be serious life-threatening incidents, prompted a Coast Guard decision in January 2004 to replace the existing engine and the associated engine control system in this helicopter with a different engine, which it believes will improve safety and reliability and substantially reduce incidents. In light of the Coast Guard's decision to replace the existing engine, and as part of our already ongoing work on the safety and reliability of the HH-65 helicopter, we determined (1) whether the Coast Guard's decision to replace the existing HH-65 helicopter engine was fact- and risk-based; (2) the management and efficiency implications, if any, of the Coast Guard's …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Weed and Seed program, within the Department of Justice's Office of Justice Programs (OJP), aims to prevent and reduce violent crime in targeted neighborhoods, but it cannot optimize its effectiveness without sound management practices. In 1999, GAO made four recommendations to the Executive Office for Weed and Seed (EOWS) to improve the program's management, including (1) developing adequate internal controls to fully document decisions, (2) improving program monitoring, (3) developing criteria for determining when sites have become self-sustaining and when to reduce or withdraw program funding, and (4) developing additional performance measures. GAO did this study to assess progress in implementing these recommendations."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "As the second largest source of foreign direct investment in China, U.S. companies continue their keen interest in China's implementation of its World Trade Organization (WTO) commitments. China's 2001 WTO commitments include specific pledges to increase market access, liberalize foreign investment, continue fundamental market reforms, and improve the rule of law. In 2002, GAO reported on selected U.S. companies' views, finding that many commitment areas, particularly those related to rule of law, were important to U.S. companies. GAO also found that company representatives expected China's reforms would have a positive impact on their business operations but expected some difficulties during implementation. In 2003, GAO continued to analyze companies' views about (1) the extent to which China has implemented its WTO commitments and (2) the impact of China's implementation of its WTO commitments on U.S. companies' business operations. GAO collected the views of representatives from 82 U.S. companies with a presence in China. GAO focused on companies in the agriculture, banking, machinery, and pharmaceutical industries. Results reflect a response rate of 60 percent of the study population. These responses may not reflect the views of all U.S. …

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "About 7,500 Peace Corps volunteers currently serve in 70 countries. The administration intends to increase this number to about 14,000. Volunteers often live in areas with limited access to reliable communications, police, or medical services. As Americans, they may be viewed as relatively wealthy and, hence, good targets for crime. In this testimony, GAO summarizes findings from its 2002 report Peace Corps: Initiatives for Addressing Safety and Security Challenges Hold Promise, but Progress Should be Assessed, GAO- 02-818, on (1) trends in crime against volunteers and Peace Corps' system for generating information, (2) the agency's field implementation of its safety and security framework, and (3) the underlying factors contributing to the quality of these practices."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "One of the five priorities in the President's Management Agenda is the expansion of electronic (e-) government--the use of Internet applications to enhance access to and delivery of government information and services. To this end, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has sponsored 25 high-profile e-government initiatives. The initiatives were selected on the basis of value to citizens, potential improvement in agency efficiency, and the likelihood of being deployed within 18 to 24 months. In May 2002, a total of 91 objectives were set for these initiatives. At the request of Congress, GAO assessed the progress of the initiatives in addressing these 91 objectives as well as key challenges they have faced."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The appraisal and mortgage lending industry has changed dramatically since the passage of Title XI of the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery, and Enforcement Act of 1989. Some have concluded that the problems Title XI was intended to address--the risk to the federal deposit insurance funds and the lack of uniform standards and qualifications--no longer exist. This statement is based on GAO's May 14, 2003, report and discusses the roles of private, state, and federal entities that oversee the appraisal industry; the challenges that Title XI presented to these entities; and industry participants' concerns about the effectiveness of the Title XI regulatory structure."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the U.S. military has deployed high numbers of active duty and reserve troops to fight the global war on terrorism and for Operation Iraqi Freedom. Ensuring that U.S. military forces are adequately compensated and that the morale of deployed troops remains high have been priorities for the Congress and the Department of Defense (DOD). In response to congressional mandates, GAO has reviewed a number of issues concerning military personnel. For this hearing, GAO was asked to provide the results of its work on military compensation for National Guard and Reserve personnel and on the Selective Reenlistment Bonus (SRB) program, a tool DOD can use to enhance retention of military personnel in critical occupational specialties. In addition, GAO was asked to provide its preliminary views, based on ongoing work, concerning mail delivery to troops stationed in the Middle East."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Since the Cold War, the Department of Defense (DOD) has increased its reliance on prepositioned stocks of military equipment and supplies, primarily because it can no longer plan on having a large forward troop presence. Prepositioned stocks are stored on ships and on land in the Persian Gulf and other regions around the world. Prepositioning allows the military to respond rapidly to conflicts. Ideally, units need only to bring troops and a small amount of materiel to the conflict area. Once there, troops can draw on prepositioned equipment and supplies, and then move quickly into combat. Today's testimony describes (1) the performance and availability of Army and Marine Corps prepositioned equipment and supplies to support Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF); (2) current status of the stocks and plans to reconstitute them; and (3) key issues facing the military as it reshapes these programs to support DOD's force transformation efforts."

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

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

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 common-law doctrine of incompatibility prohibits a city council member from simultaneously serving as a member of the board of directors of a tax increment reinvestment zone created by his or her municipality under chapter 311 of the Tax Code (RQ-0120-GA)

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 a state representative may represent a criminal defendant in an administrative license revocation hearing (RQ-0126-GA)

This report provides an overview of the jurisdiction and referral reform options on the house committee system.

Semi-weekly newspaper from Seminole, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with extensive advertising.

This study is to show how a model was used to enable management to better estimate production capabilities to ensure contract milestones/commitments are met, to cope with fast changing project baselines and project missions, to ensure the project will meet the negotiated throughput, and to eliminate unnecessary but costly design changes.

A new analytical technique has been developed that measures both total protium (H) and deuterium (D) in a gas mixture containing H2, D2, and HD. This new analytical technique uses a micro gas chromatograph (GC) with two molecular sieve columns. One column uses D2 as the carrier gas and the other uses H2 as the carrier gas. Laboratory tests have shown that when used in this configuration the GC can measure both total protium and total deuterium, each with a sensitivity of less than 20 ppm. This new analytical technique was developed as a result of a request to provide instrumentation to measure the protium and deuterium concentrations at several process points during initial testing of the new hydrogen tritium thermal cycling absorption process columns.

The techniques of normal form analysis, well known in the literature, can be used to provide a straightforward characterization of linear betatron dynamics in a coupled lattice. Here, we consider both the beam distribution and the betatron oscillations in a storage ring, assuming that the beam emittances and betatron actions respectively are provided as parameters. We find that the beta functions for uncoupled motion generalize in a simple way to the coupled case. Defined in the way that we propose, the beta functions remain well behaved (positive and finite) under all circumstances, and have essentially the same physical significance for the beam size and betatron oscillations as in the uncoupled case. We discuss a technique for making direct measurements of the ratio of the coupled lattice functions at different points in the lattice.

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

Transcript of the eighth public hearing held by the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States held March 23-24, 2004 in Washington, D.C. The two-day hearing investigated the formulation and conduct of U.S. counterterrorism policy, with particular emphasis on the period from the August 1998 embassy bombings to September 11, 2001. The Commission heard from current and former top-level administration officials. Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld, Director of Central Intelligence George J. Tenet, and Deputy Secretary of State Richard L. Armitage testified, as did former Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright, former Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen, former National Security Adviser Samuel R. Berger, and former National Counterterrorism Coordinator Richard A. Clarke. In addition to witness testimony, four staff statements were delivered during the course of the proceedings.

Official statement issued by the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States describing preliminary findings regarding the use of intelligence agencies in countering terrorism. This statement focuses on the role of of the Central Intelligence Agency as an instrument of national policy.

Transcript of the eighth public hearing held by the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States held March 23-24, 2004 in Washington, D.C. The two-day hearing investigated the formulation and conduct of U.S. counterterrorism policy, with particular emphasis on the period from the August 1998 embassy bombings to September 11, 2001. The Commission heard from current and former top-level administration officials. Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld, Director of Central Intelligence George J. Tenet, and Deputy Secretary of State Richard L. Armitage testified, as did former Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright, former Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen, former National Security Adviser Samuel R. Berger, and former National Counterterrorism Coordinator Richard A. Clarke. In addition to witness testimony, four staff statements were delivered during the course of the proceedings.

Daily student newspaper from the University of North Texas in Denton, Texas that includes local, state and campus news along with advertising.

Monoenergetic laser acceleration of trapped microbunches has been demonstrated for the first time. An inverse free electron laser (IFEL) is used to create microbunches, which are then accelerated by a second IFEL using a tapered undulatos. An adjustable magnetic field chicane is located between the two IFELs and is used to control the phase of the microbunches with respect to the laser field in the second IFEL. The IFELs are driven by a single lases beam from a high peak power CO{sub 2} laser. During the experiment, the trapped portion of the microbunch electrons had an energy gain of >16% with an energy width of -0.86% (full width at half-maximum).

Motivated by many design considerations, several conceptual designs for advanced reactors have proposed that the entire reactor building and a significant portion of the steam generator building will be either partially or completely embedded below grade. For the analysis of seismic events, the soil-structure interaction (SSI) effect and passive earth pressure for these types of deeply embedded structures will have a significant influence on the predicted seismic response. Sponsored by the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) is carrying out a research program to assess the significance of these proposed design features for advanced reactors, and to evaluate the existing analytical methods to determine their applicability and adequacy in capturing the seismic behavior of the proposed designs. This paper summarizes a literature review performed by BNL to determine the state of knowledge and practice for seismic analyses of deeply embedded and/or buried (DEB) nuclear containment type structures. Included in the paper is BNL's review of the open literature of existing standards, tests, and practices that have been used in the design and analysis of DEB structures. The paper also provides BNL's evaluation of available codes and guidelines with respect to seismic design practice of DEB structures. Based …