A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Medicare cost plans--managed care plans paid based on the reasonable costs of delivering Medicare-covered services--enroll a small number of beneficiaries compared to Medicare Advantage (MA), Medicare's managed care program in which the plans accept financial risk if their costs exceed fixed payments received for each enrolled beneficiary. Despite the small enrollment, industry representatives stated that cost plans provide a managed care option in areas that traditionally had few or no MA plans. Current law allows existing cost plans to continue operating unless specific MA plans of sufficient enrollment serve the same area. In such cases, the cost plan must discontinue serving that area beginning in 2011. The Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act of 2008 (MIPPA) required the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to examine issues related to the conversion of Medicare cost plans to MA plans. In response, GAO (1) determined the MA options available to beneficiaries in cost plans, (2) described key differences for beneficiaries between cost plans, MA plans, and Medicare fee-for-service (FFS); (3) determined the extent to which organizations offering cost plans also offer MA plans; and (4) described concerns cost plans …

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 multiple contiguous lots may be claimed as part of a homestead exemption under section 11.13(j) of the Tax Code (RQ-0808-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 peace officer who has taken a person into custody under chapter 573 of the Health and Safety Code may be required to transport that individual to a medical facility for evaluation prior to taking that person to a mental health facility (RQ-0809-GA)

This report provides an overview of the effects on U.S. farm workers of an agricultural guest worker program.

The Center of Excellence for Hazardous Materials Management award was used to establish the organization and initiate investigations of hazardous waste issues along the U.S.-Mexico border. Scientific investigations conducted during the execution of this grant contributed significant data and established new sampling protocols to the dimension, frequency and severity of hazardous materials (e.g., heavy metals) along the U.S.-Mexico border. Additionally, new protocols and assessments with distinct Homeland Security implications were embedded thus establishing a baseline that will be significant for related investigations in the future.

The research described in this report was performed under a grant from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to describe and compare the merits of two advanced alternative nuclear fuel cycles -- named by this study as the “UREX+3c fuel cycle” and the “Alternative Fuel Cycle” (AFC). Both fuel cycles were assumed to support 100 1,000 MWe light water reactor (LWR) nuclear power plants operating over the period 2020 through 2100, and the fast reactors (FRs) necessary to burn the plutonium and minor actinides generated by the LWRs. Reprocessing in both fuel cycles is assumed to be based on the UREX+3c process reported in earlier work by the DOE. Conceptually, the UREX+3c process provides nearly complete separation of the various components of spent nuclear fuel in order to enable recycle of reusable nuclear materials, and the storage, conversion, transmutation and/or disposal of other recovered components. Output of the process contains substantially all of the plutonium, which is recovered as a 5:1 uranium/plutonium mixture, in order to discourage plutonium diversion. Mixed oxide (MOX) fuel for recycle in LWRs is made using this 5:1 U/Pu mixture plus appropriate makeup uranium. A second process output contains all of the recovered uranium except the …

This report summarizes the conclusion of regular monitoring of occupied buildings at the Nevada Test Site and North Las Vegas facility to determine the extent of beryllium (Be) contamination in accordance with Judgment of Needs 6 of the August 14, 2003, “Minnema Report.”

This report describes a 2008 acoustic telemetry survival study conducted by the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory for the Portland District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The study estimated the survival of juvenile Chinook salmon and steelhead passing Bonneville Dam (BON) and its spillway. Of particular interest was the relative survival of smolts detected passing through end spill bays 1-3 and 16-18, which had deep flow deflectors immediately downstream of spill gates, versus survival of smolts passing middle spill bays 4-15, which had shallow flow deflectors.

The Savannah River Site (SRS) must empty the contents of Tank 48H, a 1.3 million gallon Type IIIA HLW storage tank, to return this tank to service. The tank contains organic compounds, mainly potassium tetraphenylborate that cannot be processed downstream until the organic components are destroyed. The THOR{reg_sign} Treatment Technologies (TTT) Fluidized Bed Steam Reforming (FBSR) technology, herein after referred to as steam reforming, has been demonstrated to be a viable process to remove greater than 99.9% of the organics from Tank 48H during various bench scale and pilot scale tests. These demonstrations were supported by Savannah River Remediation (SRR) and the Department of Energy (DOE) has concurred with the SRR recommendation to proceed with the deployment of the FBSR technology to treat the contents of Tank 48H. The Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) developed and proved the concept with non-radioactive simulants for SRR beginning in 2003. By 2008, several pilot scale campaigns had been completed and extensive crucible testing and bench scale testing were performed in the SRNL Shielded Cells using Tank 48H radioactive sample. SRNL developed a Tank 48H non-radioactive simulant complete with organic compounds, salt, and metals characteristic of those measured in a sample of the radioactive …

Funeral program for O. C. Jones, PhD, born September 1, 1932 and died December 17, 2009. The funeral was held Monday, December 28, 2009 at Greater Corinth Baptist Church, officiated by Rev. Edwin L. Peters. Funeral arrangements were made through Lewis Funeral Home and he was buried in Meadowlawn Memorial Park in San Antonio, Texas.

Daily newspaper from Chickasha, Oklahoma that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

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

This pre-conceptual engineering study is intended to assist in supporting the critical decision (CD) 0 milestone by providing a basis for the justification of mission need (JMN) for the handling and disposal of liquid effluents. The ETF baseline strategy, to accommodate (WTP) requirements, calls for a solidification treatment unit (STU) to be added to the ETF to provide the needed additional processing capability. This STU is to process the ETF evaporator concentrate into a cement-based waste form. The cementitious waste will be cast into blocks for curing, storage, and disposal. Tis pre-conceptual engineering study explores this baseline strategy, in addition to other potential alternatives, for meeting the ETF future mission needs. Within each reviewed case study, a technical and facility description is outlined, along with a preliminary cost analysis and the associated risks and benefits.