In Spartan Band (coined from a chaplain’s eulogistic poem) author Thomas Reid traces the Civil War history of the 13th Texas Cavalry, a unit drawn from eleven counties in East Texas. The cavalry regiment organized in the spring of 1862 but was ordered to dismount once in Arkansas. The regiment gradually evolved into a tough, well-trained unit during action at Lake Providence, Fort De Russy, Mansfield, Pleasant Hill, and Jenkins' Ferry, as part of Maj. Gen. John G. Walker's Texas division in the Trans-Mississippi Department. Reid researched letters, documents, and diaries gleaned from more than one hundred descendants of the soldiers, answering many questions relating to their experiences and final resting places. He also includes detailed information on battle casualty figures, equipment issued to each company, slave ownership, wealth of officers, deaths due to disease, and the effects of conscription on the regiment’s composition. “The hard-marching, hard-fighting soldiers of the 13th Texas Cavalry helped make Walker’s Greyhound Division famous, and their story comes to life through Thomas Reid’s exhaustive research and entertaining writing style. This book should serve as a model for Civil War regimental histories.”—Terry L. Jones, author of Lee’s Tigers

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Air Force is on the verge of making a major commitment to the multi-billion dollar E-10A Multi-sensor Command and Control Aircraft program. Due to the substantial investment needed and technological challenges in developing the aircraft, the Subcommittee on Tactical Air and Land Forces asked GAO to examine the soundness of the E-10A business case as well as the risks associated with the current acquisition strategy."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Air Force is preparing a modernization plan that expands the capabilities of the F/A-22, which was first designed to serve as an air-to-air fighter aircraft with very limited ability to strike targets on the ground. The Air Force now intends to transform it by adding robust air-to-ground capabilities to attack enemy ground threats and by adding onboard intelligence data gathering capabilities. After the recent budget cut, DOD estimates F/A-22 cost at $63.8 billion for 178 aircraft. It has been in development for more than 19 years, a decade longer than originally envisioned. In the face of significant cost and schedule overruns, Congress mandates that GAO annually assess the F/A-22 program. In this report, GAO addresses (1) the Air Force's business case for the F/A-22 modernization plan and (2) the recently completed initial operational test and evaluation."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Mandated to screen all checked baggage using explosive detection systems at airports by December 31, 2003, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) deployed two types of screening equipment: explosives detection systems (EDS), which use computer-aided tomography X-rays to recognize the characteristics of explosives, and explosives trace detection (ETD) systems, which use chemical analysis to detect traces of explosive material vapors or residues. This report assesses (1) TSA's use of budgeted funds to install EDS and ETD systems and the impact of initially deploying these systems, (2) TSA and airport actions to install EDS machines in-line with baggage conveyor systems, and the federal resources made available for this purpose, and (3) actions taken by TSA to optimally deploy checked baggage screening systems."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In fiscal year 2004, the Department of Housing and Urban Development's Federal Housing Administration (FHA) and the Department of Agriculture's Rural Housing Service (RHS) guaranteed approximately $136 billion in mortgages for single-family homes, multifamily rental housing, and healthcare facilities under a variety of programs. In past years, both agencies have occasionally had to suspend the issuance of guarantees under some programs when they exhausted the dollar amounts of their commitment authority (which serves as a limit on the volume of new loans that an agency can guarantee) or credit subsidy budget authority (the authority to cover the long-term costs--known as credit subsidy costs--of extending these guarantees) before the end of a fiscal year. These suspensions can be disruptive to homebuyers, developers, and lenders. GAO was asked to determine (1) how often and why FHA and RHS have suspended their loan guarantee programs over the last decade, (2) how these agencies manage and notify Congress of the rate at which the authorities for these programs will be exhausted, and (3) options Congress and the agencies could exercise to help prevent future suspensions and the potential implications of …

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "FCS is the core of Army efforts to create a lighter, more agile, capable force: a $108 billion investment to provide a new generation of 18 manned and unmanned ground vehicles, air vehicles, sensors, and munitions linked by an information network. Although system development and demonstration began in May 2003, the program was restructured in July 2004, including processes to make FCS capabilities available to current forces. GAO has been asked to assess (1) FCS technical and managerial challenges; (2) prospects for delivering FCS within cost and scheduled objectives; and (3) options for proceeding."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of Defense's (DOD) new human resources management system--the National Security Personnel System (NSPS)--will have far-reaching implications for the management of the department and for civil service reform across the federal government. The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2004 gave DOD significant authorities to redesign the rules, regulations, and processes that govern the way that more than 700,000 defense civilian employees are hired, compensated, promoted, and disciplined. In addition, NSPS could serve as a model for governmentwide transformation in human capital management. However, if not properly designed and effectively implemented, it could severely impede progress toward a more performance- and results-based system for the federal government as a whole. On February 14, 2005, the Secretary of Defense and Acting Director of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) released for public comment the proposed NSPS regulations. This testimony (1) provides GAO's preliminary observations on selected provisions of the proposed regulations, (2) discusses the challenges DOD faces in implementing the new system, and (3) suggests a governmentwide framework to advance human capital reform."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Under the Ronald W. Reagan National Defense Authorization Act of 2005, GAO is required to to review the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) program annually for the next 5 years. This is the first GAO report, and it (1) analyzes the JSF program's business case for delivering new capabilities to the warfighter and (2) determines whether the JSF program's acquisition strategy follows an evolutionary, knowledge-based approach. Also, the act requires GAO to certify whether we had access to sufficient information to make informed judgments on the matters contained in our report."

Arc and glow discharges are defined based on their cathode processes. Arcs are characterized by collective electron emission, which can be stationary with hot cathodes (thermionic arcs), or non-stationary with cold cathodes (cathodic arcs). A brief review on cathodic arc properties serves as the starting point to better understand arcing phenomena in sputtering. Although arcing occurs in both metal and reactive sputtering, it is more of an issue in the reactive case. Arcing occurs if sufficiently high field strength leads to thermal runaway of an electron emission site. The role of insulating layers and surface potential adjustment through current leakage is highlighted. In the situation of magnetron sputtering with ''racetrack'', the need for a model with two spatial dimensions is shown. In many cases, arcing is initiated by breakdown of dielectric layers and inclusions. It is most efficiently prevented if formation and excessive charge-up of dielectric layers and inclusions can be avoided.

The CH-TRU Waste Content Codes (CH-TRUCON) document describes the inventory of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) CH-TRU waste within the transportation parameters specified by the Contact-Handled Transuranic Waste Authorized Methods for Payload Control (CH-TRAMPAC). The CH-TRAMPAC defines the allowable payload for the Transuranic Package Transporter-II (TRUPACT-II) and HalfPACT packagings. This document is a catalog of TRUPACT-II and HalfPACT authorized contents and a description of the methods utilized to demonstrate compliance with the CH-TRAMPAC. A summary of currently approved content codes by site is presented in Table 1. The CH-TRAMPAC describes "shipping categories" that are assigned to each payload container. Multiple shipping categories may be assigned to a single content code. A summary of approved content codes and corresponding shipping categories is provided in Table 2, which consists of Tables 2A, 2B, and 2C. Table 2A provides a summary of approved content codes and corresponding shipping categories for the "General Case," which reflects the assumption of a 60-day shipping period as described in the CH-TRAMPAC and Appendix 3.4 of the CH-TRU Payload Appendices. For shipments to be completed within an approximately 1,000-mile radius, a shorter shipping period of 20 days is applicable as described in the CH-TRAMPAC and Appendix 3.5 …

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Photograph of Tom Craddick, a member of the Texas House of Representatives, standing in front of a podium and giving a guest lecture to the attendees of the 2005 Texas Daily News Association annual conference, held at the Driskell Hotel in Austin.

Photograph of Greg Mefford, Chris Kelley and Dale Peskin seated at a panelists table during the 2005 Texas Daily News Association annual conference, held at the Driskell Hotel in Austin.

Photograph of Robert Decherd, speaking into a microphone on a podium and addressing the guests attending the 2005 Texas Daily News Association annual conference, held at the Driskell Hotel in Austin. Decherd's colleagues Bob Carlquist and Lawrence Walker are seated at the guest speaker panel.

Photograph Wanda Cash, holding up her "Bright Idea" award that she was presented at the 2005 Texas Daily News Association annual conference, held at the Driskell Hotel in Austin.

A photograph Chris Kelley, sitting at the panelist table in front of a microphone as he addresses the audience attending the 2005 Texas Daily News Association annual conference, held at the Driskell Hotel in Austin.

Photograph of Joycelyn Marek (center) seen talking with another guest as they are attending the 2005 Texas Daily News Association annual conference, held at the Driskell Hotel in Austin.

Photograph of Bob Carlquist (center) talking with two other gentlemen during the buffet dinner at the 2005 Texas Daily News Association annual conference, held at the Driskell Hotel in Austin.

Photograph of Tom Craddick, a member of the Texas House of Representatives, standing in front of a podium and addressing the guests attending the 2005 Texas Daily News Association annual conference, held at the Driskell Hotel in Austin. Donnis Baggett (center) and David Dewhust (left) are seated at the special guests table on stage.

Photograph of Donnis Bagget standing in front of a podium and speaking into a microphone as he is addressing the attendees of the 2005 Texas Daily News Association annual conference, held at the Driskell Hotel in Austin.

Photograph of Lawrence Walker and Robert Decherd who are seated at a panel table, while panelist Bob Carqluist addresses the guests attending the 2005 Texas Daily News Association annual conference, held at the Driskell Hotel in Austin.

Photograph of Tom Craddick (left), a member of the Texas House of Representatives, talking with David Dewhurst, who served as the 41st Lieutenant Governor of Texas. Craddick and Dewhurst are attending the 2005 Texas Daily News Association annual conference, held at the Driskell Hotel in Austin.

Photograph of Lawrence Walker (right) presenting a woman identified as Wanda (left) with the "Bright Idea" award, during the 2005 Texas Daily News Association annual conference, held at the Driskell Hotel in Austin.

Photograph of Tom Craddick, seated at a guests speaker table while attending the 2005 Texas Daily News Association annual conference, held at the Driskell Hotel in Austin.