This report considers the events of Chandler v. James in 1997. The case was a federal district court ruling in Alabama holding up a statute to violate the establishment of religion of the First amendment. The Governor attempted to appeal the court's position to both the Supreme Court and the circuit court but was denied.

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

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

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "This report discusses the Office of National Drug Control Policy's (ONDCP) advertising contract for Phase III of the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign. The contractor for the advertising portion of the Phase III anti-drug media campaign did not properly charge the government for some of the labor costs incurred under the contract. Ogilvy & Mather's submission of time sheets claiming hours that some employees said they did not work on the anti-drug media campaign was clearly improper. Moreover, Ogilvy should not have been awarded a cost accounting standards (CAS)-covered cost-reimbursement government contract until the company had an adequate cost accounting system to support this type of contract. The government poorly managed aspects of the award and administration of the contract. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) should not have awarded this cost-reimbursement contract without determining whether the contractor had an adequate cost accounting system that met CAS standards. In addition, HHS should have reviewed the appropriateness of the large amount of money that the contracting officer's technical representative (COTR) recommended be disallowed from the contractor's invoices or arranged for an audit of the contract. …

Some nitrogen-fixing cyanobacteria are able to form symbioses with a wide variety of plants. Nostoc 2S9B is unusual in its ability to infect the roots of wheat, raising the prospect of a productive association with an important crop plant. The goal of the project was to lay the groundwork for the use of novel associations between Nostoc and crops of agronomic importance, thereby reducing our reliance on nitrogenous fertilizer. Nostoc 2S9B was found to enter roots through mechanical damage of roots and reside primarily in intercellular spaces. The strain could also be incorporated into wheat calli grown in tissue culture. In both cases, the rate of nitrogen fixation by the cyanobacterium was higher than that of the same strain grown with no plant present. Artificial nodules induced by the action of hormone 2,4D were readily infected by Nostoc 2S9B, and the cyanobacteria within such nodules fixed nitrogen under fully aerobic conditions. The nitrogen fixed was shown to be incorporated into the growing wheat seedlings. Nostoc thus differs from other bacteria in its ability to fix nitrogen in para-nodules without need for artificially microaerobic conditions. It would be useful to introduce foreign DNA into Nostoc 2S9B in order to make defined …

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

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

The restructuring of regional electricity markets in the U.S. has been accompanied by numerous problems, including generation capacity shortages, transmission congestion, wholesale price volatility, and reduced system reliability. These problems have created significant new opportunities for technologies and business approaches that allow load serving entities and other aggregators, to control and manage the load patterns of their wholesale or retail end-users. These technologies and business approaches for manipulating end-user load shapes are known as Load Management or, more recently, Demand Responsive programs. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) is conducting case studies on innovative demand responsive programs and presents preliminary results for five case studies in this paper. These case studies illustrate the diversity of market participants and range of technologies and business approaches and focus on key program elements such as target markets, market segmentation and participation results; pricing scheme; dispatch and coordination; measurement, verification, and settlement; and operational results where available.

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "This report reviews the Department of Defense's (DOD) fiscal year 2000 performance report required by the Government Performance and Results Act of 1993 and assesses the Department's progress in achieving selected outcomes that were identified as important mission areas for DOD. GAO found that shortfalls in DOD's current strategies and measures for several outcomes have led to difficulties in assessing performance in areas such as combat readiness, support infrastructure reduction, force structure needs, and the matching of resources to program spending plans. DOD's fiscal year 2002 performance plan, which has yet to be issued, provides DOD with the opportunity to address these shortfalls. On the basis of last year's analysis of DOD's fiscal year 1999 performance report and fiscal year 2001 performance plan, GAO recommended that the Department include more qualitative and quantitative goals and measures in its annual performance plan and report to gauge progress toward achieving mission outcomes. DOD has not as yet fully implemented this recommendation. GAO continues to believe that the Secretary of Defense should adopt this recommendation as it updates its strategic plan and prepares its next annual performance plan. By …

Properties of rock materials under quasistatic conditions are well characterized in laboratory experiments. Unfortunately, quasistatic data alone are not sufficient to calibrate models for use to describe inelastic wave propagation associated with conventional and nuclear explosions, or with impact. First, rock properties are size-dependent. properties measured using laboratory samples on the order of a few centimeters in size need to be modified to adequately describe wave propagation in a problem on the order of a few hundred meters in size. Second, there is lack of data about the damage (softening) behavior of rock because most laboratory tests focus on the pre-peak hardening region with very little emphasis on the post-peak softening region. This paper presents a model for granite that accounts for both the hardening and softening of geologic materials, and also provides a simple description of rubblized rock. The model is shown to reproduce results of quasistatic triaxial experiments as well as peak velocity and peak displacement attenuation from a compendium of dynamic wave propagation experiments that includes US and French nuclear tests in granite.

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

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO reviewed the audit report covering the financial statements of the American Gold Star Mothers, Incorporated, for the fiscal years 2000 and 1999 to determine if the audit report complied with the financial reporting requirements of the law. GAO found no reportable instances of noncompliance, and the audit report included the auditors' opinions that the financial statements of the corporation were presented fairly on a modified cash basis of accounting."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO reviewed the audit report covering the financial statements of the American War Mothers, for fiscal year 2000, to determine whether the report complied with the financial reporting requirements of the law. GAO found no reportable instances of noncompliance with applicable law, and the audit report included the auditors' opinions that the financial statements of the corporation were presented fairly in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO reviewed the financial statement audit reports for the Blinded Veterans Association for fiscal years 2000 and 1999. GAO found no reportable instances of noncompliance, and the audit report included the auditors' opinions that the financial statements of the corporation were presented fairly in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO reviewed the financial statement audit reports for the Fleet Reserve Association for fiscal year 2000 and 1999. GAO found no reportable instances of noncompliance, and the audit report included the auditors' opinions that the financial statements of the corporation were presented fairly in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "This report reviews the audit report covering the financial statements of the General Federation of Women's Clubs for fiscal years 2000 and 1999 to determine whether the audit report complied with the financial reporting requirements of the law. The audit report included the auditors' opinion that the financial statements of the corporation were presented fairly in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles, and GAO found no reportable instances of noncompliance with the requirements of the law."

Funeral program for John Milton McKinney, born April 18, 1926 and died June 18, 2001. The funeral was held Monday, June 25, 2001 at Holy Redeemer Catholic Church, officiated by Rev. Fr. Celestin Tongotani, CICM, Pastor. Funeral arrangements were made through Lewis Funeral Home and he was buried in Meadowlawn Memorial Park in San Antonio, Texas.

A briefing report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The High-Speed Rail Investment Act of 2001 would allow the National Railroad Passenger Corporation (Amtrak) to issue up to $12 billion in "tax credit bonds" over 10 years, primarily for capital improvement projects designated high-speed rail corridors and on Amtrak's Northeast Corridor. This report reviews the (1) cost of the bond-financing mechanism and alternatives to the U.S. Treasury, (2) degree to which bond proceeds would meet the capital needs of federally designated high-speed rail corridors, and (3) extent of the federal oversight role. GAO found that the estimated tax credit for Amtrak bonds would cost the U.S. Treasury between $16.6 billion and $19.1 billion (in nominal dollars) over 30 years. The overall capital needs of fully developed federally designed high-speed rail corridors are unknown because these initiatives are in various stages of planning, but preliminary estimates by Amtrak puts the capital costs for fully developed high-speed rail corridors and its Northeast Corridor at between $50 billion and $70 billion over 20 years.The proposed legislation would require the Secretary of the Treasury to report annually on whether the amount of money in the trust account is sufficient …

Application materials submitted to the Texas Historical Commission requesting a historic marker for the A.J. and Carolina Anderson House, in Round Rock, Texas. The materials include the inscription text of the marker, narrative, and photographs.

In this study, we measured and documented summertime air-conditioning (a/c) daily energy savings and demand reduction from a reflective roof membrane retrofit on a large retail store in Austin, Texas. The original black rubber membrane was replaced with white thermoplastic resulting in a decrease in the average maximum roof surface temperature from 168 degrees F (76 degrees C) to 126 degrees F (52 degrees C). This building, with 100,000ft2 (9300m2) of roof area, yielded 3.6Wh/ft2 (39Wh/m2) in a/c average daily energy savings and 0.35W/ft2 (3.8W/m2) in average reduced demand. Total a/c annual abated energy and demand expenditures were estimated to be $7200 or $0.072/ft2 ($0.77/m2). Based on cost data provided by the building manager, the payback is instantaneous with negligible incremental combined labor and material costs. The estimated present value of future abated expenditures ranged from $62,000 to $71,000 over the baseline 13-year service life of the roof membrane.

The myriad of human activities including strategic and energy development at various DOE installations have resulted in the contamination of soils and waterways that can seriously threaten human and ecosystem health. Development of efficacious and economical remediation technologies is needed to ameliorate these immensely costly problems. Bioremediation (both plant and microbe-based) has promising potential to meet this demand but still requires advances in fundamental knowledge. For bioremediation of heavy metals, the three-way interaction of plant root, microbial community, and soil organic matter (SOM)1 in the rhizosphere is critically important for long-term sustainability but often underconsidered. Particularly urgent is the need to understand processes that lead to metal ion stabilization in soils, which is crucial to all of the goals of bioremediation: removal, stabilization, and transformation. This project will build on the knowledge that we have generated on the role of root exudation and metabolism for metal mobilization and accumulation, to address the following objectives: (1) Identify molecular markers and characterize the chemical nature of recalcitrant SOM pools that are involved in below ground metal ion interactions, which are likely to be markers for sustainable sequestration; (2) Utilize (1) to determine plant and microbial factors that contribute to sustainable metal sequestration …

Under the Situation and Crisis Center (SCC) management, the Information Analytical Center (IAC) of the Ministry of Atomic Energy (Minatom) of Russia was created to oversee the operation of the Federal Nuclear Material Control and Accounting Information System (FIS). During 2000, the FIS achieved an important milestone in its development: the basic functions of the information system were implemented. This includes placing into operation the collecting and processing of nuclear material control and accounting (MC&A) information from the enterprises reporting to the FIS. The FIS began working with 14 Russian enterprises to develop and implement full-function reporting (i.e., reporting inventory and inventory changes including closeout and reconciliation between the FIS and enterprises). In 2001, the system will expand to include enterprise-level inventory information for all enterprises using nuclear materials in Russia. For this reason, at the end of 2000 through the beginning of 2001, five separate training sessions were held for over 100 enterprise personnel responsible for preparation and transfer of the reports to the FIS. Through the assistance of the Nuclear Material Protection, Control and Accounting (MPC&A) program, information systems for the accounting of nuclear materials are being installed at Russia enterprises. In creating the program for modernization of …

Solid fuels vary significantly with respect to the amount of CO{sub 2} directly produced per unit heating value. Elemental carbon is notably worse than other solid fuels in this regard, and since carbon (char) is an intermediate product of the combustion of almost all solid fuels, there is an opportunity to reduce specific CO{sub 2} emissions by reconfiguring processes to avoid char combustion wholly or in part. The primary goal of this one-year Innovative Concepts project is to make a fundamental thermodynamic assessment of three modes of solid fuel use: (1) combustion, (2) carbonization, and (3) oxidative pyrolysis, for a wide range of coal and alternative solid fuels. This period a large set of thermodynamic calculations were carried out to assess the potential of the three processes. The results show that the net carbon dioxide emissions and the relative ranking of the different processes depends greatly on the particular baseline fossil fuel being displaced by the new technology. As an example, in a baseline natural gas environment, it is thermodynamically more advantageous to carbonize biomass than to combust it, and even more advantageous to oxidatively pyrolyze the biomass.

Methods are being developed for demonstrating that nonstandard high-level radioactive waste (HLW) forms meet the intent of the product consistency requirement in the Waste Acceptance System Requirements document (WASRD). That requirement was established for borosilicate HLW glasses ''to ensure a consistent glass product by controlling the vitrification process, consistency is necessary to reflect consideration for the waste package designs.'' [1] The test method specified in the WASRD for HLW glasses is the 7-day product consistency test (PCT). To meet the WASRD requirement, the response of an HLW glass in the PCT must be less than that of the environmental assessment (EA) glass. The EA glass is used as a benchmark ''so that conservative but realistic assessments of the engineered barrier system performance can be made.'' [1] The PCT and the WASRD requirement were developed to bound the behaviors of the wide range of borosilicate HLW glasses that will be produced at DOE facilities for the purpose of repository design. However, the need to demonstrate that the physical, chemical, and radiological properties of HLW forms have been constrained within acceptable (i.e., as-qualified) ranges will probably apply to all HLW waste forms. The PCT may not be the appropriate method for nonstandard …