Monthly report documenting contracts for road construction and maintentance in Texas, organized by county and district. It includes information about each project including contractor, dates, costs, and other relevant data.

Monthly report documenting contracts for road construction and maintentance in Texas, organized by county and district. It includes information about each project including contractor, dates, costs, and other relevant data.

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A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Concerned that Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) had not significantly improving the educational achievements of children at risk, Congress mandated major changes in 1994. States were required to adopt or develop challenging curriculum content and performance standards, assessments aligned with content standards, and accountability systems to measure progress in raising student achievement. In return, states were given greater flexibility in the use of Title I and other federal funds. The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 augments the assessment and accountability requirements that states must implement and increases the stakes for schools that fail to make adequate progress. The 1994 legislation required states to comply with the requirements by January 2001 but allowed the Department of Education to extend that deadline. Education has granted waivers to 30 states to give them more time to meet all requirements. If states fail to meet the extended timeliness, they are subject to the withholding of some Title I administrative funds. Title I directors indicated that a state's ability to meet the 1994 requirements improved when both state leaders and state agency staff made …

West Carney Field produces from Hunton Formation. All the wells produce oil, water and gas. The main objective of this study is to understand the unique behavior observed in the field. This behavior includes: (1) Decrease in WOR over time; (2) Decrease in GOR at initial stages; (3) High decline rates of oil and gas; and (4) strong hydrodynamic connectivity between wells. This report specifically addresses two issues relevant to our understanding of the West Carney reservoir. By using core and log data as well as fluorescence information, we demonstrate that our hypothesis of how the reservoir is formed is consistent with these observations. Namely, oil migrated in water wet reservoir, over time, oil changed the wettability of some part of the reservoir, oil eventually leaked to upper formations prompting re-introduction of water into reservoir. Because of change in wettability, different pore size distributions responded differently to water influx. This hypothesis is consistent with fluorescence and porosity data, as we explain it in this quarterly report. The second issue deals with how to best calculate connected oil volume in the reservoir. The log data does not necessarily provide us with relevant information regarding oil in place. However, we have developed …

This report discusses global climate change and the market-based strategies to reduce greenhouse gases.

CO{sub 2} emissions from the combustion of fossil fuels have been linked to global climate change. Proposed carbon management technologies include geologic sequestration of CO{sub 2}. A possible, but untested, sequestration strategy is to inject CO{sub 2} into organic-rich shales. Devonian black shales underlie approximately two-thirds of Kentucky and are thicker and deeper in the Illinois and Appalachian Basin portions of Kentucky than in central Kentucky. The Devonian black shales serve as both the source and trap for large quantities of natural gas; total gas in place for the shales in Kentucky is estimated to be between 63 and 112 trillion cubic feet. Most of this natural gas is adsorbed on clay and kerogen surfaces, analogous to methane storage in coal beds. In coals, it has been demonstrated that CO{sub 2} is preferentially adsorbed, displacing methane. Black shales may similarly desorb methane in the presence of CO{sub 2}. The concept that black, organic-rich Devonian shales could serve as a significant geologic sink for CO{sub 2} is the subject of current research. To accomplish this investigation, drill cuttings and cores were selected from the Kentucky Geological Survey Well Sample and Core Library. Methane and carbon dioxide adsorption analyses are being performed …

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A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "In 1988, radioactive contamination was found in the drinking water wells of residences near the federal government's uranium enrichment plant in Paducah, Kentucky. In response, the Department of Energy (DOE) began a cleanup program. In 2000, GAO reported that DOE faced significant challenges in cleaning up the site and that it was doubtful that the cleanup would be completed as scheduled by 2010 and within the $1.3 billion cost projection. GAO was asked to determine (1) the amount of money DOE has spent on the site, the purposes for which it was spent, and the estimated total costs for the site; (2) the status of DOE cleanup efforts; and (3) the challenges GAO previously identified that continue to be issues for DOE."

This report discusses the saver's tax credit, under which eligible individuals receive a non-refundable tax credit of up to $1,000 for contributing to a traditional IRA or an employer-sponsored retirement plan that is qualified under §401, §403 or §457 of the Internal Revenue Code. The credit was first available in 2002 but will expire after 2006 unless extended by Congress.

Assessment of soil organic carbon (SOC) sequestration potential of reclaimed minesoils (RMS) is important for preserving environmental quality and increasing agronomic yields. The mechanism of physical SOC sequestration is achieved by encapsulation of SOM in spaces within macro and microaggregates. The experimental sites, owned and maintained by American Electrical Power, were characterized by distinct age chronosequences of reclaimed minesoils and were located in Guernsey, Morgan, Noble, and Muskingum Counties of Ohio. These sites were reclaimed both with and without topsoil application, and were under continuous grass or forest cover. In this report results are presented from the sites reclaimed in 2003 (R03-G), in 1973 (R73-F), in 1969 (R69-G), in 1962 (R62-G and R62-F) and in 1957 (R57-F). Three sites are under continuous grass cover and the three under forest cover since reclamation. Three bulk soil samples were collected from each site from three landscape positions (upper; middle, and lower) for 0-15 and 15-30 cm depths. The samples were air dried and using wet sieving technique were fractionated into macro (> 2mm), meso (2-0.25 mm) and microaggregate (0.25-0.053 mm). These fractions were weighted separately and water stable aggregation (WSA) and geometric mean (GMD) and mean weight (MWD) diameters of aggregates were …

This report discusses the Deepwater program, which is a 20- to 25-year acquisition effort to replace or modernize 93 aging Coast Guard ships and 207 aging Coast Guard aircraft. The program’s estimated total acquisition cost is $19 billion to $24 billion. On March 25, 2005 the Coast Guard submitted to Congress a revised implementation plan for the program that alters the planned capabilities and numbers of Deepwater assets and the schedule for acquiring or modernizing them. Some Members of Congress have criticized the revised implementation plan. The Coast Guard’s proposed FY2006 budget requests $966 million for the program.

West Carney field--one of the newest fields discovered in Oklahoma--exhibits many unique production characteristics. These characteristics include: (1) decreasing water-oil ratio; (2) decreasing gas-oil ratio followed by an increase; (3) poor prediction capability of the reserves based on the log data; and (4) low geological connectivity but high hydrodynamic connectivity. The purpose of this investigation is to understand the principal mechanisms affecting the production, and propose methods by which we can extend the phenomenon to other fields with similar characteristics. In our experimental investigation section, we present the data on methane injection using huff-n-puff process. It appears that additional oil can be recovered using methane as a solvent. Additional experiments will be needed to confirm our analysis. Our engineering analysis has laid out detailed indicators to make the de-watering successful. Using those indicators, we are currently investigating potential in fill well locations in West Carney field. Our technology transfer activities continued this quarter with two presentations and one workshop.

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In 1990, Congress established an investor visa category, referred to as EB-5, whereby immigrants are granted conditional residence and after 2 years, permanent residence status in the United States if they invest in a commercial enterprise that will benefit the U.S. economy and create at least 10 full-time jobs. The Basic Pilot Program Extension and Expansion Act of 2003 (P.L. 108-156) mandates that GAO provide certain information regarding the EB-5 employment category. In response to the mandate, this report provides information on immigrant participation, including the number of participants, their countries of origin, and the number who sought U.S. citizenship. Also, this report includes information about the types of business established and where they were established."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Social Security Statement is the federal government's main document for communicating with more than 140 million workers about their Social Security benefits. By law, the statement must show an individual's annual earnings, payments into Social Security and Medicare, and projected benefits. The Social Security Administration also uses the statement to explain the various types of Social Security benefits and to encourage greater financial planning for retirement. GAO conducted a review to examine (1) how well recipients understand the current statement, (2) how the Social Security Administration is evaluating the statement's understandability, and (3) the promising practices used by private sector companies and other industrial countries. GAO's information was obtained from its national survey and focus groups of statement recipients, a firm that evaluates benefit statements, officials from three other countries (Canada, Sweden, and the United Kingdom), and other experts from the private sector."

This report discusses the history, current posture, and outlook for federal energy tax policy. It also discusses current energy tax proposals and major energy tax provisions enacted in the 109th Congress.

This report presents the factual situation presented by Andrew Speaker; briefly addresses the existing law relating to quarantine and isolation, with an emphasis on the interaction of state and federal laws and international agreements; and examines the relationship of quarantine and isolation to civil rights protections.

This report explores the reasons behind government funding of research and development and subsequent efforts to facilitate private sector commercialization of the results of such work.

This report provides brief summaries of the major federal laws affecting financial institutions and markets.

This report discusses the farm bill, which renewed about every five years, governs federal farm and food policy.

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Honest Leadership and Open Government Act (HLOGA) of 2007 amended the Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995 by doubling the frequency of lobbyists' reporting and increasing criminal and civil penalties. This is GAO's second report in response to the Act's requirement for GAO to annually (1) determine the extent to which lobbyists can demonstrate compliance with the Act by providing support for information on their registrations and reports, (2) describe challenges identified by lobbyists to complying with the Act, and (3) describe the resources and authorities available to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia's efforts to enforce the Act. For this report, GAO placed increased emphasis on written documentation to support disclosure reports. GAO reviewed a random sample of 100 lobbyist disclosure reports filed during the first three quarters of calendar year 2008. GAO also selected a random sample of 100 reports of federal political contributions, filed for the first time, for mid-calendar-year 2008. This methodology allowed GAO to generalize the sample results to the populations of 40,169 lobbying activity disclosure reports and 6,048 reports with contributions filed. GAO met with lobbyists regarding …

This report presents an overview of the economic and political situation in Bosnia. It starts out by describing the current situation, the negotiations on forming a new central government, the international role in Bosnia, and the last part discusses the implications of U.S. policy.

This report identifies and briefly summarizes the 19 budget reconciliation measures enacted into law during the period covering 1980, when reconciliation procedures first were used by both chambers, through 2008, the last year of the 110th Congress.

This report provides an overview of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and examines evolving U.S. policy toward the Convention, including past and current Administration positions and congressional perspectives. The report also highlights issues for the 111th Congress, including the Convention's possible impact on federal and state laws, U.S. sovereignty, parental rights, and U.S. family planning and abortion policy.