A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Tax Relief and Health Care Act of 2006 expanded the Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) whistleblower program, increasing rewards for submitting information on others' tax underpayments to up to 30 percent of collected proceeds. The expanded program targets tax underpayments over $2 million and could reduce the gap between taxes owed and taxes paid. IRS's Whistleblower Office has received over 1,300 submissions qualifying for this new program since 2007. GAO was asked to assess (1) how IRS manages the expanded program, (2) how IRS communicates with whistleblowers and the public, and (3) any lessons from IRS's or other government whistleblower programs that could improve IRS's expanded whistleblower program. GAO analyzed IRS documents and data and interviewed IRS officials, whistleblower attorneys, and federal and state whistleblower program officials."

This document provides information on the distribution of $606 million in monthly sales tax revenue to local government.

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This report discusses the U.S.-China economic relationship and China's rapid expansion as a global economic market, both with respect to the current global economic crisis. It also examines major U.S.-China trade issues and related legislation.

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The Social Services Block Grant (SSBG) is a flexible source of funds that states may use to support a wide variety of social services activities. States have broad discretion over the use of these funds. This short report provides background information on the SSBG and tracks relevant legislation and appropriations measures.

Although solar costs are dropping rapidly, solar power is still more expensive than conventional and other renewable energy options. The solar sector still needs continuing government policy support. These policies are driven by objectives that go beyond the goal of achieving grid parity. The need to achieve multiple objectives and ensure sufficient political support for solar power makes it diffi cult for policy makers to design the optimal solar power policy. The dynamic and uncertain nature of the solar industry, combined with the constraints offered by broader economic, political and social conditions further complicates the task of policy making. This report presents an analysis of solar promotion policies in seven countries - Germany, Spain, the United States, Japan, China, Taiwan, and India - in terms of their outlook, objectives, policy mechanisms and outcomes. The report presents key insights, primarily in qualitative terms, and recommendations for two distinct audiences. The first audience consists of global policy makers who are exploring various mechanisms to increase the penetration of solar power in markets to mitigate climate change. The second audience consists of key Indian policy makers who are developing a long-term implementation plan under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission and various state …

Biological assays have many applications. For example, forensics personnel and medical professionals use these tests to diagnose diseases and track their progression or identify pathogens and the host response to them. One limitation of these tests, however, is that most of them target only one piece of the sample - such as bacterial DNA - and other components (e.g. host genomic DNA) get in the way, even though they may be useful for different tests. To address this problem, it would be useful to extract several different substances from a complex biological sample - such as blood - in an inexpensive and efficient manner. This summer, I worked with Maxim Shusteff at Lawrence Livermore National Lab on the Rapid Automated Sample Prep project. The goal of the project is to solve the aforementioned problem by creating a system that uses a series of different extraction methods to extract cells, bacteria, and DNA from a complex biological sample. Biological assays can then be run on purified output samples. In this device, an operator could input a complex sample such as blood or saliva, and would receive separate outputs of cells, bacteria, viruses, and DNA. I had the opportunity to work this …

We present here the first dynamic Rayleigh-Taylor (RT) strength measurement of a material undergoing solid-solid phase transition. Iron is quasi-isentropically driven across the pressure-induced bcc ({alpha}-Fe) {yields} hcp ({var_epsilon}-Fe) phase transition and the dynamic strength of the {alpha}, {var_epsilon} and reverted {alpha}{prime} phases have been determined via proton radiography of the resulting Rayleigh-Taylor unstable interface between the iron target and high-explosive products. Simultaneous velocimetry measurements of the iron free surface yield the phase transition dynamics and, in conjunction with detailed hydrodynamic simulations, allow for determination of the strength of the distinct phases of iron. Forward analysis of the experiment via hydrodynamic simulations reveals significant strength enhancement of the dynamically-generated {var_epsilon}-Fe and reverted {alpha}{prime}-Fe, comparable in magnitude to the strength of austenitic stainless steels.

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The report also summarizes the results of recently published studies by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) evaluating energy subsidies across various technologies. According to data presented in the EIA reports, the share of direct federal financial support for electricity produced using coal, natural gas and petroleum, and nuclear energy resources was similar in 2007 and 2010.

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This report contains the exclusionary rule and its good-faith exception, including the opinion of the court and implications for congressional action on Davis v. United States.

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Vacuum distillation of chloride salts from plutonium oxide (PuO{sub 2}) and simulant PuO{sub 2} has been previously demonstrated at Department of Energy (DOE) sites using kilogram quantities of chloride salt. The apparatus for vacuum distillation contains a zone heated using a furnace and a zone actively cooled using either recirculated water or compressed air. During a vacuum distillation operation, a sample boat containing the feed material is placed into the apparatus while it is cool, and the system is sealed. The system is evacuated using a vacuum pump. Once a sufficient vacuum is attained, heating begins. Volatile salts distill from the heated zone to the cooled zone where they condense, leaving behind the non-volatile materials in the feed boat. The application of vacuum salt distillation (VSD) is of interest to the HB-Line Facility and the MOX Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF) at the Savannah River Site (SRS). Both facilities are involved in efforts to disposition excess fissile materials. Many of these materials contain chloride and fluoride salt concentrations which make them unsuitable for dissolution without prior removal of the chloride and fluoride salts. Between September 2009 and January 2011, the Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) and HB-Line designed, developed, tested, and …

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