New “fast track” (or, trade promotion) authority (TPA) is at issue in the 107th Congress. Such authority could enable the Administration to submit negotiated foreign trade agreements to Congress for consideration under expedited procedures. Efforts to renew this authority, which expired in 1994, have not succeeded since then. Many agricultural and food industry interests are among the export-oriented enterprises that support TPA, arguing that foreign trading partners will not seriously negotiate with an Administration that lacks it. However, some farm groups argue that fast track ultimately will lead to new agreements that could have adverse effects on U.S. producers, at least in some commodity sectors.

n the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), in a September 13, 2001 memorandum to executive branch agencies, identified various hiring flexibilities that can be used to meet staffing needs in emergency situations. This report provides information on each of the flexibilities.

This feature article provides a summary of study about the role of clouds in the balance. Until recently, scientists were uncertain whether clouds had an overall net cooling or heating effect on the Earth's climate. But recent studies show that, in the tropics, a "near cancellation" between shortwave cooling and longwave warming exists, which indicates that the amount of incoming radiant energy is roughly equal to the amount of outgoing radiation. However, small changes in tropical cloudiness can disrupt this precarious balance.

Weekly student newspaper from Howard Payne University in Brownwood, Texas that includes local, state and campus news along with advertising.

Weekly student newspaper from Hardin-Simmons University in Abilene, Texas that includes local, state and campus news along with advertising.

Weekly student newspaper from Tarleton State University in Stephenville, Texas that includes local, state and campus news along with advertising.

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

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

Funeral program for Henry "Bear" Wilcox, Jr., born May 24, 1939. The funeral was held October 11, 2001 at Tried Stone Baptist Church, officiated by Rev. H. Franklin Harris, II, Pastor. Funeral arrangements were made through Sutton-Sutton Mortuary, Inc., and he was buried in Southern Memorial Park in San Antonio, Texas.

Weekly student newspaper from Texas Wesleyan University in Fort Worth, Texas that includes campus and local news along with advertising.

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

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Information technology (IT) management process controls are predictors of organizational success in developing, acquiring, implementing, operating, and maintaining IT systems and related infrastructure. GAO found that the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) has not implemented practices associated with effective IT investment and enterprise architecture management. Furthermore, these investments are not aligned with an agencywide blueprint that defines the agency's future operational and technological plans. INS does not know whether its ongoing investments are meeting their cost, schedule, and performance commitments."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of Defense's (DOD) Logistics Strategic Plan is not comprehensive enough and does not provide an adequate overall logistics strategy to effectively guide the defense components' logistics plans. The military services, the Defense Logistics Agency, and the U.S. Transportation Command each developed separate logistics transformation and other implementation plans to support the Department-wide Logistics Strategic Plan. However, these plans also have weaknesses and are not likely to improve the overall economy, efficiency, and effectiveness of logistics activities."

Weekly newspaper published in Duncanville, Texas that includes local Cedar Hill, state, and national news along with advertising.

Weekly student newspaper from Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas that includes campus news along with advertising.

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

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While improving their energy use in buildings and bus fleets, schools are likely to create better places for teaching and learning with better lighting, temperature control, acoustics, and air quality. Smart districts also realize benefits in student performance.

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It is commonly assumed that efforts to simultaneously develop energy efficient building technologies and to improve indoor environmental quality (IEQ) are unfeasible. The primary reason for this is that IEQ improvements often require additional ventilation that is costly from an energy standpoint. It is currently thought that health and productivity in work and learning environments requires adequate, if not superior, IEQ. Despite common assumptions, opportunities do exist to design building systems that provide improvements in both energy efficiency and IEQ. This report outlines the selection of a heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) system to be used in demonstrating such an opportunity in a field study using relocatable school classrooms. Standard classrooms use a common wall mounted heat pump HVAC system. After reviewing alternative systems, a wall-mounting indirect/direct evaporative cooling system with an integral hydronic gas heating is selected. The anticipated advantages of this system include continuous ventilation of 100 percent outside air at or above minimum standards, projected cooling energy reductions of about 70 percent, inexpensive gas heating, improved airborne particle filtration, and reduced peak load electricity use. Potential disadvantages include restricted climate regions and possible increases in indoor relative humidity levels under some conditions.

Weekly newspaper from Port Aransas, Texas on Mustang Island that includes local, state and national news along with advertising.

Work completed in this reporting period focused on the measurement of the rate of ammonia loss from mortar and concrete, and the measurement of ammonia gas in the air above the materials immediately after placement. The majority of mortar experiments have been completed, and testing has begun on concrete. The mortar experiments indicate that the rate of ammonia loss is greater in mortars prepared using a higher water content and water:cement (W:C) ratio, although the higher rate is primarily observed within the first 2 days, after which the loss rates are nearly the same. The source of low-calcium (Class F) fly ash exerted a negligible influence on the loss rate. However, mortar prepared using a higher-calcium fly ash evolved ammonia at a slightly slower rate than the Class F ash mortars. The data also indicate that an increase in ventilation increases the ammonia loss rate from mortar, and suggest that a well-ventilated space could substantially increase the loss of ammonia from mortar and, by inference, a concrete slab. Analysis of ammonia concentrations in the air above freshly-placed mortars in an enclosed space indicate that the fly ash ammonia concentration should not exceed 100 mg N/kg ash in confined space applications. …

This report considers the issue of new "fast track" or trade promotion authority (APA) legislation in the 107th Congress. Moreover, the report summarizes the agricultural debates on the issue.

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