Letters from several pathologists to the Defense Base Closure and Realignment Commission regarding the disestablishment of the AFIP and their opposition to the recommendation to close the facility.

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In September 2003, the Head Start Bureau, in the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Administration for Children and Families (ACF), implemented the National Reporting System (NRS), the first nationwide skills test of over 400,000 4- and 5-year-old children. The NRS is intended to provide information on how well Head Start grantees are helping children progress. Given the importance of the NRS, this report examines: what information the NRS is designed to provide; how the Head Start Bureau has responded to concerns raised by grantees and experts during the first year of implementation; and whether the NRS provides the Head Start Bureau with quality information."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The use of wireless networks is becoming increasingly popular. Wireless networks extend the range of traditional wired networks by using radio waves to transmit data to wireless-enabled devices such as laptops. They can offer federal agencies many potential benefits but they are difficult to secure. GAO was asked to study the security of wireless networks operating within federal facilities. This report (1) describes the benefits and challenges associated with securing wireless networks, (2) identifies the controls available to assist federal agencies in securing wireless networks, (3) analyzes the wireless security controls reported by each of the 24 agencies under the Chief Financial Officers (CFO) Act of 1990, and (4) assesses the security of wireless networks at the headquarters of six federal agencies in Washington, D.C."

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In November 2004, Asian Soybean Rust (ASR) was discovered in the United States in Louisiana. In the following weeks, it was found in eight additional southern states. ASR is a harmful fungal disease that has spread throughout many other parts of the world, including Asia, Australia, Africa, and South America. ASR can infect over 90 host plant species, including legumes, such as dry beans, peas, and kudzu, a plant that grows wild primarily in the southern United States. Although the disease has caused significant soybean crop loss and increased production costs in many other countries, ASR arrived in the United States too late in the crop year to have any effect on soybean production in 2004, and scientists were uncertain about how it would survive the winter climates in the United States. However, in February 2005, researchers found that ASR had successfully over-wintered on kudzu in Florida, and it was subsequently detected in Georgia on soybean plants in April 2005. Since environmental factors, such as rainfall, humidity, and temperature, affect both the severity and incidence of ASR, scientists do not know how widespread or damaging the disease will …

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Before Social Security was enacted in 1935, at least half of those 65 and older in the United States were financially dependent upon others, including family members and public assistance. Today, the elderly's dependency on public assistance has dropped to a fraction of its depression-era levels, and poverty rates among this group are now lower than for the population as a whole. However, Social Security's long-term financing problems will require changes to restore fiscal stability to the program. The challenge for policymakers will be to make the necessary changes while retaining protections that are so important to millions of Americans. The Chairman of the Subcommittee on Social Security of the House Committee on Ways and Means asked GAO to discuss the importance of Social Security for vulnerable populations. This testimony will address the key provisions in the Social Security program that support vulnerable populations, the ways in which those populations and American society in general have changed over time, and the implications of those changes for the Social Security program."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "GAO has issued many reports documenting problems resulting from the fragmented nature of the federal food safety system--a system based on 30 primary laws. This testimony summarizes GAO's most recent work on the federal system for ensuring the safety of the U.S. food supply. It provides (1) an overview of food safety functions, (2) examples of overlapping and duplicative inspection and training activities, and (3) observations on efforts to better manage the system through interagency agreements. It also provides information on other countries' experiences with consolidation and the views of key stakeholders on possible consolidation in the United States."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "This testimony discusses the ease with which the public can obtain products that are marketed, designed, and sold to defraud urine drug use screening tests such as those administered in the Federal Workplace Drug Testing Program. For purposes of this testimony, these products will be referred to as masking products and ways in which some businesses peddle them on the Internet will be discussed. Masking products fall into one of four categories: (1) dilution substances that are added to a urine specimen at the time it is collected or are ingested before an individual submits a urine specimen; (2) cleansing substances that detoxify or cleanse the urine and are ingested prior to the time that an individual submits a urine specimen; (3) adulterants that are used to destroy or alter the chemical make-up of drugs and are added to a urine specimen at the time that it is provided for testing; and (4) synthetic or drug-free urine that is substituted in place of an individual's specimen and provided for testing. This testimony today summarizes our findings."

We present a three-dimensional modeling study of gas flow inthe unsaturated fractured rock of Yucca Mountain. Our objective is toestimate large-scale fracture permeability, using the changes insubsurface pneumatic pressure in response to barometric pressure changesat the land surface. We incorporate the field-measured pneumatic datainto a multiphase flow model for describing the coupled processes ofliquid and gas flow under ambient geothermal conditions. Comparison offield-measured pneumatic data with model-predicted gas pressures is foundto be a powerful technique for estimating the fracture permeability ofthe unsaturated fractured rock, which is otherwise extremely difficult todetermine on the large scales of interest. In addition, this studydemonstrates that the multi-dimensional-flow effect on estimatedpermeability values is significant and should be included whendetermining fracture permeability in heterogeneous fracturedmedia.

With the planned installation of a superconducting rf system, the new operation mode of TLS, the electron storage ring at NSRRC, is expected to double the beam intensity. Several accelerator physics topics need to be examined. Beam instability of single-bunch longitudinal microwave instability is one of these topics. We consider two approaches to measure the effective broad band impedance. We compare these measurement results with each other and to old data [Ref.1]. We calculate the threshold current of microwave instability with a mode-mixing analysis code written by Dr. K. Oide of KEK [Ref.2]. We also develop a multi-particle tracking code to simulate the instability. The results of simulation and measurement are compared and discussed. We conclude that doubling of beam current from 200 mA (1.5 mA/bunch) to 400 mA (3 mA/bunch) will not trigger the microwave instability even without a Landau cavity to lengthen the bunch. The benefit of Landau cavity is mainly for beam life time.

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Bill introduced by the Texas House of Representatives relating to migrant labor housing facilities.

Bill introduced by the Texas House of Representatives relating to limited liability companies and partnerships.

Bill introduced by the Texas House of Representatives relating to an exemption from The Real Estate License Act for persons who conduct foreclosure sales.

Bill introduced by the Texas House of Representatives relating to the regulation of service contract providers and administrators.

Bill introduced by the Texas House of Representatives relating to business entities and associations.

Bill introduced by the Texas House of Representatives relating to the regulation of certain investigators by the Texas Private Security Board.

Bill introduced by the Texas House of Representatives relating to the amount of homeowners insurance required in connection with certain financing arrangements.

Bill introduced by the Texas House of Representatives relating to regulation of rates and forms used to write guaranty bonds.

Bill introduced by the Texas House of Representatives relating to the applicability of certain insurance laws to multi-peril insurance policies.

Bill introduced by the Texas House of Representatives relating to the jurisdiction of the district courts in Nueces County to receive guilty pleas in and dispose of certain misdemeanor cases.

Bill introduced by the Texas House of Representatives relating to the period in which a birth certificate must be filed or a birth reported.

Bill introduced by the Texas House of Representatives relating to the treatment of certain persons younger than 18 years of age admitted for voluntary inpatient mental health services and discharge from that treatment for those persons.

Bill introduced by the Texas House of Representatives relating to trial by special judge in civil and family law cases.

Bill introduced by the Texas House of Representatives relating to an order by a court that a judgment debtor turn over certain property for the satisfaction of the judgment.