The U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA's) Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) is required to provide assistance to 20 specified agricultural commodities, to achieve three primary objectives: to support prices, supplement incomes, and manage supplies. Supporters contend that financial help to the farm sector also ensures consumers an abundant supply of reasonably priced food. But critics believe that basic U.S. farm policies, conceived in the 1930s, no longer meet the needs of modern agriculture or society as a whole. This report discusses the various programs available for different commodities.

Early in the post-Cold War era, the willingness of the United States to use military force was tested by Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait. U.S. actions and those of allied nations suggested that the international community had the will and ability to respond to serious aggressions and some other threats to international order. The United States appeared to be showing the way toward a post-Cold War international system whose demonstrated ability to respond to such threats was expected to deter at least some of them.

Kim Il Sung died on July 8, 1994, the only leader North Korea had since its founding in 1948. His death raises several questions about future stability and the strong U.S. interests on the Korean Peninsula.

Letter opinion 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, Dan Morales, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification; Authority of municipal police to enforce truancy laws, and related questions (ID# 24829)

Photograph used for a newspaper owned by the Oklahoma Publishing Company. Caption: "Holly Jorgenson / OU lifeguard/swim instructor"

Photograph used for a story in the Daily Oklahoman newspaper. Caption: "Brent Hawkinson, a senior systems integrator, demonstrates a new video conference system at the Norman office of Southwestern Bell Telephone."

Photograph used for a newspaper owned by the Oklahoma Publishing Company. Caption: "Jones, Tone, OSU Football"

Photograph used for a story in the Daily Oklahoman newspaper. Caption: "Former Prague Mayor and oil-field businessman Danny Morgan."

Photograph used for a newspaper owned by the Oklahoma Publishing Company.

Photograph used for a story in the Daily Oklahoman newspaper. Caption: "Tomah, Lawrence-WWII veteran used in Mustard Gas experiment"

Photograph used for a newspaper owned by the Oklahoma Publishing Company. Caption: "Garrick McGee"

Weekly Czech and English language newspaper from Temple, Texas published as the official organ of the Slavonic Benevolent Order of the State of Texas that includes news of interest to members along with advertising.

Funeral program for Erma Davis, born February 12, 1904. The funeral was held July 20, 1994 at Mt. Zion First Baptist Church, officiated by Rev. Claude W. Black, Jr. Funeral arrangements were made through Lewis Funeral Home and he was buried in Meadowlawn Memorial Park in San Antonio, Texas.

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

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

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

Video footage from the KXAS-TV/NBC station in Fort Worth, Texas, to accompany a news story.

Video footage from the KXAS-TV/NBC station in Fort Worth, Texas, to accompany a news story.

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

Semiweekly newspaper from Seminole, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

The Natural Gas Monthly (NGM) highlights activities, events, and analyses of interest to public and private sector organizations associated with the natural gas industry. Volume and price data are presented each month for natural gas production, distribution, consumption, and interstate pipeline activities. Producer-related activities and underground storage data are also reported. From time to time, the NGM features articles designed to assist readers in using and interpreting natural gas information.

The pulsed characteristics of gated, stripline configuration microchannel-plate (MCP) detectors used in X-ray framing cameras deployed on laser plasma experiments worldwide are examined in greater detail. The detectors are calibrated using short (20 ps) and long (500 ps) pulse X-ray irradiation and 3--60 ps, deep UV (202 and 213 nm), spatially-smoothed laser irradiation. Two-dimensional unsaturated gain profiles show < 5% percent long-range transverse variations but up to 3 dB/cm drop in gain parallel to the pulse propagation direction. Up to 50% gain enhancements due to voltage reflection from the bends of a meander stripline geometry and from the ends of conventional straight striplines are also observed. Reproducible gate profiles are obtained with either picosecond X-ray or UV bursts and FWHM extracted with 3 picosecond accuracy. A novel single-shot method for measuring local gate propagation speeds using a tilted MCP is also demonstrated. Detailed output versus input studies indicate a linear dynamic range of 300. At higher irradiances, the gradual transition from linear behavior to hard saturation is gathered over a range of 10{sup 5} in irradiation and fitted using a discrete dynode model. Finally, a pump-probe experiment quantifying for the first time long-suspected gain depletion by strong localized irradiation was …

Rare-earth (RE) doped ZrO{sub 2} prepared by a method of coprecipitation from aqueous solution shows many properties such as good thermal stability and large surface area ({approximately}80 m{sup 2}/g) that are suitable for use as catalyst supports and sorbents for a variety of molecules. The authors have measured the vibrational densities of states of surface hydroxyl groups as well as physisorbed water molecules in La{sub 0.1}Zr{sub 0.9}O{sub 1.95} and Nd{sub 0.1}Zr{sub 0.9}O{sub 1.95} by inelastic neutron scattering. The spectrum of dry RE-ZrO{sub 2} exhibits a peak at about 455 meV characteristic of the O-H stretch vibrations of surface hydroxyl groups. At a submonolayer coverage of H{sub 2}O this peak broadens and shifts to a slightly lower energy. At higher coverage three bands, corresponding to the O-H stretch ({approximately}430 meV), H-O-H bend ({approximately}200 meV) and librational motion ({approximately}80 meV), were observed. The decreasing energy and larger width of the OH stretch band with increasing H{sub 2}O coverage indicate the influence of hydrogen bonding on the motion of water molecules.

Beamlet is a full scale single beam prototype laser system, built to demonstrate the laser technology and performance of the 192 beam National Ignition Facility (NIF) fusion laser driver. Both laser systems apply multipass amplifier architectures. By passing the beam four times through the large aperture amplifier sections, the small signal gain during the first few passes is used efficiently to reduce expensive staged amplifier chains. The beamlet prototype laser integrates results of development programs for large aperture components: large aperture optical switch, polarizers, 2 x 2 multisegment amplifiers and new pulse generation and pre-amplification techniques. The authors report on performance test results of the recently completed 1 {omega}-laser section of Beamlet.