The United States and its allies are helping Afghanistan emerging from more than 22 years of warfare, although substantial risk to Afghan stability remains. Before the U.S. military campaign against the orthodox Islamist Taliban movement began on October 7, 2001, Afghanistan had been mired in conflict since the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. The defeat of the Taliban has enabled the United States and its coalition partners to send forces throughout Afghanistan to search for Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters and leaders that remain at large, including Osama bin Laden. As the war against remaining Al Qaeda and Taliban elements winds down, the United States is shifting its military focus toward stabilizing the interim government, including training a new Afghan national army, and supporting the international security force (ISAF) that is helping the new government provide security.

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.

This report presents the results of the neutron and photon calibration of a Bicron BC-420 plastic scintillator and a BC-501 liquid scintillator using a set of reference gamma sources and a Cf-252 source. The position of neutron and photon detection inside the scintillators as a function of energy is investigated by Monte Carlo simulation.

We apply recent analytic solutions to the radiation diffusion equation to problems of interest for ICF hohlraums. The solutions provide quantitative values for absorbed energy which are of use for generating a desired radiation temperature vs. time within the hohlraum. Comparison of supersonic and subsonic solutions (heat front velocity faster or slower, respectively, than the speed of sound in the x-ray heated material) suggests that there may be some advantage in using high Z metallic foams as hohlraum wall material to reduce hydrodynamic losses, and hence, net absorbed energy by the walls. Analytic and numerical calculations suggest that the loss per unit area might be reduced {approx} 20% through use of foam hohlraum walls. Reduced hydrodynamic motion of the wall material may also reduce symmetry swings, as found for heavy ion targets.

This report discusses President Bush's 2003 requests for new funding and additional authority to provide assistance to Colombia and six regional neighbors in a continuation of the Andean Regional Initiative (ARI) launched in 2001.

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

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

An article, written by Ron Hutcheson for the Lesbian/Gay Rights Lobby of Texas, about Charles Francis' influence with President George W. Bush. It also covers Bush's policies and stance on several gay issues.

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

The Clean Water Act Issues has again received attention in the 108th Congress. At issue is how the federal government will assist states and cities in meeting needs to rebuild, repair, and upgrade wastewater treatment plants, especially in light of capital costs which are projected to be as much as $390 billion over the next two decades. In October 2004, the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee reported legislation to authorize $20 billion in funding for clean water infrastructure (S. 2550), while in July 2003, a House Transportation and Infrastructure subcommittee also approved a water infrastructure financing bill (H.R. 1560). Still, prospects for further action during the 108th Congress are uncertain.

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

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

In the National Ignition Facility (NIF) ICF point design, the cylindrical hohlraum target is illuminated by multiple laser beams through two laser entrance holes on the ends. According to simulations by LASNEX and HYDRA plasma created inside the hohlraum will stream out of the LEH, accelerate to supersonic speeds and then fan out radially. Inside the hohlraum, flows are subsonic. Forward Brillouin scattering can transfer energy between pairs of laser beams (0 and 1) if the following frequency matching condition is satisfied: {omega}{sub 0} - {omega}{sub 1} = (k{sub 0} - k{sub 1}) {center_dot} V + |k{sub 0} - k{sub 1}| c{sub s} (1) where {omega}{sub 0.1} and k{sub 0.1} are the frequencies and wave-numbers of the two laser beams, V is the plasma flow velocity and c{sub s} is the local ion sound speed. In the nominal case of equal frequency beams, this requires the component of the plasma flow velocity transverse to the bisector of the beam directions to be sonic, with the resulting transfer being to the downstream beam. In the NIF beam geometry, this is from the outer to inner cones of beams. The physics of this transfer is the same as in beam bending; the …

OAK B127 Development of Designer Diamond Technology for High-Pressure-High Temperature Experiments in Support of the Stockpile Stewardship

None

For FY2004, the President’s budget requested $7.6 billion in budget authority for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), $448 million (or 6%) less than the $8.1 billion current funding level. The House approved $8.0 billion in H.R. 2861 (H.Rept. 108-235) on July 25. Senate action is anticipated in September. The request consisted of $3.1 billion for EPA operating expenses, $3.1 billion for assisting state and local governments, and $1.4 billion for cleaning up Superfund toxic waste sites. Wastewater infrastructure needs and the future of Superfund are prominent topics.

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

This report presents the tax thresholds for various families for tax year 2003.

This report provides an overview of the major exceptions to the First Amendment.

The First Amendment to the United States Constitution provides that “Congress shall make no law . . . abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press. . . .” This language restricts government both more and less than it would if it were applied literally. It restricts government more in that it applies not only to Congress, but to all branches of the federal government, and to all branches of state and local government. It restricts government less in that it provides no protection to some types of speech and only limited protection to others. This report provides an overview of the major exceptions to the First Amendment – of the ways that the Supreme Court has interpreted the guarantee of freedom of speech and press to provide no protection or only limited protection for some types of speech.

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

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The sharing of information by federal authorities to state and city governments is critical to effectively execute and unify homeland security efforts. This report examines (1) what initiatives have been undertaken to improve information sharing and (2) whether federal, state, and city officials believe that the current information-sharing process is effective."

This report provides information about the Human Resources Management of Homeland Security. It discusses the provisions of P.L. 107-296 as they relate to human resources management. It does not discuss provisions of the law that relate to labor-management relations and collective bargaining.