A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Radio frequency spectrum enables vital wireless communications services used by the federal government, businesses, and consumers. Spectrum capacity is necessary for wireless broadband (high-speed Internet access) and broadband deployment will boost the nation's capabilities in many important areas. As the demand for spectrum continues to increase, there is concern about adequate access to meet future needs. This requested report examines (1) how the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) is managing spectrum needs of federal agencies, (2) how federal agencies are using and managing assigned spectrum, and (3) what steps NTIA has taken to meet recent initiatives aimed at making spectrum available for broadband. GAO reviewed NTIA's spectrum management documents; surveyed the 19 federal agencies comprising the Interdepartment Radio Advisory Committee; and interviewed NTIA officials and industry and academic experts."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and foreign tax administrators face similar issues regardless of the particular provisions of their laws. These issues include, for example, helping taxpayers prepare and file returns, and assuring tax compliance. GAO was asked to describe (1) how foreign tax administrators have approached issues that are similar to those in the U.S. tax system and (2) whether and how the IRS identifies and adopts tax administration practices used elsewhere. To do this, GAO reviewed documents and interviewed six foreign tax administrators as well as tax experts, tax practitioners, taxpayers, and trade group representatives. GAO also examined documents and met with IRS officials. This preliminary information is based on GAO's ongoing work for the Committee to be completed at a later date."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Financial literacy plays an important role in helping ensure the financial health and stability of individuals, families, and our broader national economy. Economic changes in recent years have highlighted the need to empower Americans to make informed financial decisions, yet evidence indicates that many U.S. consumers could benefit from a better understanding of financial matters. For example, recent surveys indicate that many consumers have difficulty with basic financial concepts and do not budget. This testimony discusses (1) the state of the federal government's approach to financial literacy, (2) observations on overall strategies for addressing financial literacy, and (3) the role GAO can play in addressing and raising awareness on this issue. This testimony is based largely on prior and ongoing work, for which GAO conducted a literature review; interviewed representatives of organizations that address financial literacy within the federal, state, private, nonprofit, and academic sectors; and reviewed materials of the Financial Literacy and Education Commission. While this statement includes no new recommendations, in the past GAO has made a number of recommendations aimed at improving financial literacy efforts.."

This presentation introduces topics related to digital libraries, including digital asset management, metadata, controlled vocabularies, and digital preservation.

The Legislative Reference Service, it was charged with responding to congressional requests for information. For more than 50 years, this department assisted Congress primarily by providing facts and publications and by transmitting research and analysis done largely by other government agencies, private organizations, and individual scholars. In 1970, Congress enacted a law transforming the Legislative Reference Service into the Congressional Research Service (CRS) and directing CRS to devote more of its efforts and increased resources to performing research and analysis that assists Congress in direct support of the legislative process.

Two separate but closely related issues confront Congress each time the President introduces armed forces into a situation abroad that conceivably could lead to their involvement in hostilities. One issue concerns the division of war powers between the President and Congress, whether the use of armed forces falls within the purview of the congressional power to declare war and the War Powers Resolution. The other issue is whether or not Congress concurs in the wisdom of the action. A longer-term issue is whether the War Powers Resolution is an appropriate and effective means of assuring congressional participation in actions that might get the United States involved in war.

The "digital divide" is a term used to describe a perceived gap between "information haves and have-nots," or in other words, between those Americans who use or have access to telecommunications and information technologies and those who do not. Whether or not individuals or communities fall into the "information haves" category depends on a number of factors, ranging from the presence of computers in the home, to training and education, to the availability of affordable Internet access.

Free weekly newspaper that includes business and classified advertising.

Free weekly newspaper that includes business and classified advertising.

Bi-weekly student newspaper from Hardin-Simmons University in Abilene, Texas that includes campus news and local news of interest to students along with advertising.

This report gives a summary of the usage of the War Powers Resolution (WPR) and various issues related to proposals to modify or repeal the resolution. The report summarizes most recent developments and background, and gives an overview of United Nations actions, and WPR activities in former Yugoslavia/Bosnia, Kosovo, Iraq (post-1991), Haiti, and Somalia. It also includes commentary on the instances formally reported under the WPR, consultation with Congress, and the current issues which Congress is considering.

This report provides background information and oversight issues for Congress on the Virginia-class nuclear-powered attack submarine (SSN) program. The Navy's proposed FY2012 budget requests procurement funding for the 15th and 16th Virginia-class boats, and advance procurement (AP) funding for Virginia-class boats to be procured in future years. Decisions that Congress makes on procurement of Virginia-class boats could substantially affect U.S. Navy capabilities and funding requirements, and the U.S. shipbuilding industrial base.

Report discussing the U.S. Navy's Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78) class aircraft carrier program, including the CVN-78, CVN-79 and CVN-80, which are the first of the class of nuclear-powered aircraft carriers (CVNs). The report provices background on the program and funding, as well as related issues for Congress.

Daily student newspaper from the University of North Texas in Denton, Texas that includes local, state, and campus news along with advertising.

Weekly student newspaper from the University of Dallas in Irving, Texas that includes campus news and commentaries along with advertising.

An increasing number of homes with existing photovoltaic (PV) energy systems have sold in the U.S., yet relatively little research exists that estimates the marginal impacts of those PV systems on the sales price. A clearer understanding of these effects might influence the decisions of homeowners, home buyers and PV home builders. This research analyzes a large dataset of California homes that sold from 2000 through mid-2009 with PV installed. Across a large number of hedonic and repeat sales model specifications and robustness tests, the analysis finds strong evidence that homes with PV systems sold for a premium over comparable homes without. The effects range, on average, from approximately $3.9 to $6.4 per installed watt (DC), with most models coalescing near $5.5/watt, which corresponds to a premium of approximately $17,000 for a 3,100 watt system. The research also shows that, as PV systems age, the premium enjoyed at the time of home sale decreases. Additionally, existing homes with PV systems are found to have commanded a larger sales price premium than new homes with similarly sized PV systems. Reasons for this discrepancy are suggested, yet further research is warranted in this area as well as a number of other areas …

Concurrent resolution introduced by the Texas House of Representatives and Senate in memory of U.S. Marine Corps Lance Corporal Colton Wesley Rusk of Orange Grove.

An increasing number of homes in the U.S. have sold with photovoltaic (PV) energy systems installed at the time of sale, yet relatively little research exists that provides estimates of the marginal impacts of those PV systems on home sale prices. This research analyzes a large dataset of California homes that sold from 2000 through mid-2009 with PV installed. We find strong evidence that homes with PV systems sold for a premium over comparable homes without PV systems during this time frame. Estimates for this premium expressed in dollars per watt of installed PV range, from roughly $4 to $6.4/watt across the full dataset, to approximately $2.3/watt for new homes, to more than $6/watt for existing homes. A number of ideas for further research are suggested.

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The federal government anticipates spending $79 billion on information technology (IT) in fiscal year 2011. The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) plays a key role in overseeing the implementation and management of federal IT investments. Given the size of these investments and their importance to the health, economy, and security of the nation, it is critical for OMB and federal agencies to provide appropriate program oversight and ensure adequate transparency. Over the past several years, GAO has issued a number of reports and testimonies on OMB's initiatives to improve troubled projects, justify IT investments, and use project management tools. Partly in response to this prior work, in 2009 OMB deployed a public Web site--known as the IT Dashboard--that provides detailed information on approximately 800 major federal IT investments, including assessments of these investments' performance against cost and schedule targets (referred to as ratings). GAO was asked to testify on OMB's key efforts to improve the oversight and management of federal IT investments through the use of the Dashboard and other efforts. To prepare this statement, GAO drew on previously published work on IT investments, including OMB's Dashboard, …

This report examines three labor issues and arguments related to the pending U.S.-Colombia free trade agreement (CFTA; H.R. 5724 and S. 2830): violence against trade unionists, impunity (accountability for or punishment of the perpetrators), and worker rights protections for Colombians.

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

The development of a control strategy for the supercritical CO{sub 2} (S-CO{sub 2}) Brayton cycle has been extended to the investigation of alternate control strategies for a Sodium-Cooled Fast Reactor (SFR) nuclear power plant incorporating a S-CO{sub 2} Brayton cycle power converter. The SFR assumed is the 400 MWe (1000 MWt) ABR-1000 preconceptual design incorporating metallic fuel. Three alternative idealized schemes for controlling the reactor side of the plant in combination with the existing automatic control strategy for the S-CO{sub 2} Brayton cycle are explored using the ANL Plant Dynamics Code together with the SAS4A/SASSYS-1 Liquid Metal Reactor (LMR) Analysis Code System coupled together using the iterative coupling formulation previously developed and implemented into the Plant Dynamics Code. The first option assumes that the reactor side can be ideally controlled through movement of control rods and changing the speeds of both the primary and intermediate coolant system sodium pumps such that the intermediate sodium flow rate and inlet temperature to the sodium-to-CO{sub 2} heat exchanger (RHX) remain unvarying while the intermediate sodium outlet temperature changes as the load demand from the electric grid changes and the S-CO{sub 2} cycle conditions adjust according to the S-CO{sub 2} cycle control strategy. For …

The analysis of specific control strategies and dynamic behavior of the supercritical carbon dioxide (S-CO{sub 2}) Brayton cycle has been extended to the two reactor types selected for continued development under the Generation IV Nuclear Energy Systems Initiative; namely, the Very High Temperature Reactor (VHTR) and the Sodium-Cooled Fast Reactor (SFR). Direct application of the standard S-CO{sub 2} recompression cycle to the VHTR was found to be challenging because of the mismatch in the temperature drop of the He gaseous reactor coolant through the He-to-CO{sub 2} reactor heat exchanger (RHX) versus the temperature rise of the CO{sub 2} through the RHX. The reference VHTR features a large temperature drop of 450 C between the assumed core outlet and inlet temperatures of 850 and 400 C, respectively. This large temperature difference is an essential feature of the VHTR enabling a lower He flow rate reducing the required core velocities and pressure drop. In contrast, the standard recompression S-CO{sub 2} cycle wants to operate with a temperature rise through the RHX of about 150 C reflecting the temperature drop as the CO{sub 2} expands from 20 MPa to 7.4 MPa in the turbine and the fact that the cycle is highly recuperated …

Recital presented at the UNT College of Music Voertman Hall.