The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Joe Mason. Mason entered the Navy in September of 1944. He completed storekeeper school at Samson, New York. He trained and served on a PT boat throughout the war. They traveled to Samar, Philippines on 1 September 1945, which he describes his experiences. He was stationed at PT Base 17. The war was over by the time he traveled overseas. He discusses his time in Samar and witnessed the burning of the PT boats. He traveled to other Philippine Islands and was discharged in June of 1946.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Wesley Plummer. Plummer joined the Marine Corps in February 1943 and trained at San Diego. After boot training, he volunteered for the Marine paratroopers and trained at Camp Gillespie. Then he was assigned to the 3rd Marine Parachute Battalion and went to Guadalcanal and Vella Lavella before landing on Bougainville in December, 1943. Plummer details some of his experiences in the jungle at Bougainville. He returned to the US for some leave before being assigned to H Company, 28th marine Regiment, 5th Marine Division. From there, he went to Iwo Jima, landing on D-day, and recalls a lot of details about operating there. Plummer was eventually wounded on 24 March and evacuated. Plummer had enough points to opt for discharge and spent only a few weeks in Japan before returning to the US. He was discharged in November, 1945.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Alvin Kendzora. Kendzora enlisted in the Army Air Forces in April 1944 and trained at Sheppard Field in Texas. After basic training, he qualified to train as a radio operator. He departed for overseas in May 1945. He stopped at New Guinea for a month or two before heading for Leyte in the Philippines. He was attached to a headquarters squadron in the Fifth Air Force and was there when the war ended. He was tasked with hauling supplies to Japan and recalls some details of his experiences in Japan. He also managed to travel some in Shanghai as well as Korea. He shares several anecdotes about his experiences overseas and was discharged in May 1946.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Sally Morgan. Morgan was born in Tientsin, China. Her father was in the 15th Infantry, stationed in China in the 1920s when he met Sally’s mother. He died of tuberculosis when Sally was 3 months old. At 11 years old, her mother attempted sending her and her two brothers to the US to escape the Japanese occupation of China. The children only traveled as far as Manila before the Japanese invaded the Philippines. Sally and her brothers were imprisoned in the Santo Tomas Internment Camp and later, the Los Baños Internment Camp until their liberation in 1945.

News release about DART's ridership setting records for the third consecutive month.

Email from Daniel Graney to Al Daniels on June 26, 2008, discussing TSDC second quarter dues.

Photocopy of the form completed by Jeannette Goodrum to dissolve the Women Airforce Service Pilots WWII as a nonprofit corporation in the state of California. A sticky note attached to the form includes a handwritten message stating, "It is finally finished. Hope you are well - and your husband also. Jan."

Compilation of lyrics to songs related to the Women Airforce Service Pilots, printed for the 2008 WASP Reunion. Songs in this compilation include: Yankee Doodle Pilots, Roll Out the Airplanes, Would You Like to Swing on a Star?, The Women Airforce Service Pilots of WWII, I Wanna Be a Miss H.P., You Left Your Father, Rugged But Right, Without Our Wings, and the Army Air Corps Song.

Helen Snapp's itinerary, compiled by David A. Stallman, which includes the contact information for Helen, David, and Brian Moffett, the addresses for a museum and Holiday Inn #68088282. and Delta flight information.

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In November 2005, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced the launch of Secure Border Initiative (SBI), a multiyear, multibillion-dollar program aimed at securing U.S. borders and reducing illegal immigration. Elements of SBI are carried out by several organizations within DHS. One component is the U.S. Customs and Border Protection's (CBP) SBI program office, which is responsible for developing a comprehensive border protection system using people; technology, known as SBInet; and tactical infrastructure (TI)--pedestrian and vehicle fencing; roads; and lighting. Initially, the focus of SBI is on the U.S. southwest border areas, between the ports of entry, that CBP has designated as most in need of enhanced border security because of serious vulnerabilities. In September 2006, CBP awarded a prime contract to the Boeing Company for 3 years, with three additional 1-year options. As the prime contractor, Boeing is responsible for acquiring, deploying, and sustaining selected SBInet technology and tactical infrastructure projects, and for providing supply chain management for selected tactical infrastructure projects. For fiscal years 2005 through 2008, Congress appropriated more than $2.7 billion for the SBI program. For fiscal year 2009, the President's budget includes a …

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Health-care-associated infections (HAI) in hospitals can be expensive to treat and, according to the Department of Health and Human Services' (HHS) Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), HAIs are estimated to be one of the top 10 causes of death in the United States. HAIs can be caused by bacteria or viruses, which may be introduced to a patient through the use of a device used to treat them, such as a needle or tube to deliver medicine, fluids, or blood. Common HAIs that are often associated with the use of medical devices are urinary tract infections (UTI), surgical site infections (SSI), pneumonia, and bloodstream infections (BSI). A number of federal agencies within HHS, including CDC and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), currently collect HAI-related data for a variety of purposes. Nearly half of the states also require public reporting of hospital HAI rates, according to a summary report of these state laws. The Food and Drug Administration Amendments Act of 2007 requires us to conduct work on HAIs in hospitals associated with medical devices. The act defines these infections as those that are …

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In fiscal year 2007, the Department of the Interior's (Interior) Minerals Management Service (MMS) collected over $9 billion in oil and natural gas (hereafter referred to as oil and gas) royalties and disbursed these funds to federal, state, and tribal accounts. The federal portion of these royalties, which totaled $6.7 billion, represents one of the country's largest non-tax sources of revenue. In addition to this substantial financial value to the government, oil and gas production on federal lands and waters represents a critical component of the nation's energy portfolio, supplying roughly 35 percent of all the oil and 30 percent of all the gas produced in the United States in 2006. Companies that develop and produce oil and gas resources from federal lands and waters do so under leases obtained from and administered by agencies of Interior--the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) for onshore leases and MMS's Offshore Energy and Minerals Management (OEMM) for offshore leases. Together, these agencies are responsible for overseeing oil and gas operations on more than 28,000 producing leases to help ensure that oil and gas companies comply with applicable laws, regulations, and agency …

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Rapid spending growth for Medicare Part B--which covers physician and other outpatient services--has heightened concerns about the long-range fiscal sustainability of Medicare. Medicare Part B expenditures are expected to increase over the next decade at an average annual rate of about 8 percent, which is faster than the projected 4.8 percent annual growth rate in the national economy over this time period. As we noted in our June 2008 report, spending on physician imaging services has been one of the fastest-growing sets of services paid for under the Medicare Part B physician fee schedule (PFS), the payment system used to determine fees for Medicare physician-billed services. From 2000 through 2006, Medicare spending for physician imaging services doubled from about $7 billion to about $14 billion--an average annual increase of 13 percent, compared to an 8 percent increase in spending for all Medicare physician-billed services over the same time period. We also found that by 2006 about two-thirds of spending on physician imaging services occurred in physician office settings--an indicator of a shift toward providing imaging services in physicians' offices as opposed to providing such services in hospital or …

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "This letter responds to a mandate in House Report No. 110-187 that directed GAO to review the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) budget execution, specifically to identify the factors that influence EPA's operating plan allocations to the regional offices for a selected national program and to compare and contrast these operating plan allocations with EPA's reported obligations in the regional offices. After discussing this mandate with your offices, we focused our review on EPA's enforcement and compliance assurance program in the regional offices. EPA, in partnership with state agencies, oversees compliance with 44 separate environmental programs. These programs regulate facilities--such as sewage treatment plants, petroleum refineries, and power plants--whose operations could pollute the air, water, and land, and thereby endanger public health and the environment. EPA and its regulatory partners are responsible for ensuring that these regulated facilities comply with program requirements and taking enforcement action in instances of noncompliance. EPA administers its environmental enforcement and compliance assurance responsibilities through its headquarters Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance (OECA). While OECA provides overall direction on enforcement policies, and sometimes takes direct enforcement action, EPA's 10 regional offices are responsible …

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Notification and Federal Employee Antidiscrimination and Retaliation (No FEAR) Act of 2002 has, since October 1, 2003, required federal agencies to reimburse the Judgment Fund for payments made to claimants to cover judgments, awards, and settlements in equal employment opportunity (EEO) and whistleblower cases. As we previously reported in 2004, the reimbursement provision of the No FEAR Act was intended to make agencies more accountable for their violations of employment discrimination and whistleblower protection laws brought against the agencies. Similarly, the Contract Disputes Act of 1978 (CDA) also has, since March 1, 1979, required agencies to reimburse the Judgment Fund for payments to claimants in cases involving federal contract disputes. The No FEAR Act mandated that we conduct a study of the payments, reimbursements, and effects of the reimbursement provisions of both No FEAR Act and CDA cases. In 1956, Congress established the Judgment Fund, which is a permanent, indefinite appropriation to pay judgments against federal agencies that are not otherwise provided for by other appropriations. In 1961, legislation was enacted allowing the Judgment Fund to pay, among other things, Department of Justice (DOJ) settlements of ongoing …

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), now in its fourth year of operations, is to provide aid to developing countries that have demonstrated a commitment to ruling justly, encouraging economic freedom, and investing in people. MCC provides assistance to eligible countries through multiyear compact agreements to fund specific programs targeted at reducing poverty and stimulating economic growth. MCC has received appropriations for fiscal years 2004 through 2008 totaling more than $7.5 billion and has set aside about $6.4 billion of this amount for compact assistance. As of August 2008, MCC had signed compacts with 18 countries totaling approximately $6.3 billion; of the 18 signed compacts, 11 compacts had entered into force, obligating a total of approximately $3 billion. The President has requested an additional $2.225 billion for MCC for fiscal year 2009, of which MCC plans to use $1.88 billion for compact assistance to countries currently eligible for compacts. To develop these fact sheets, we compiled and summarized publicly available data from a number of sources, including our previous reporting on MCC. We used information from the World Bank and from Central Intelligence Agency Fact Books to provide a …

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Congress created individual retirement accounts (IRAs) with two goals: (1) to provide a retirement savings vehicle for workers without employer-sponsored retirement plans, and (2) to preserve individuals' savings in employer-sponsored retirement plans when they change jobs or retire. Questions remain about IRAs' effectiveness as a vehicle to facilitate new, or additional, retirement savings. GAO was asked to report on (1) the role of IRAs in retirement savings, (2) the prevalence of employer-sponsored and payroll-deduction IRAs and barriers discouraging employers from offering these IRAs, and (3) changes that are needed to improve IRA information and oversight. GAO reviewed published reports from government and financial industry sources and interviewed retirement and savings experts, small business representatives, IRA providers, and federal agency officials."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) was created in 1975 to help insulate the U.S. economy from oil supply disruptions and currently holds about 700 million barrels of crude oil. The Energy Policy Act of 2005 directed the Department of Energy (DOE) to increase the SPR storage capacity from 727 million barrels to 1 billion barrels, which it plans to accomplish by 2018. Since 1999, oil for the SPR has generally been obtained through the royalty-in-kind program, whereby the government receives oil instead of cash for payment of royalties on leases of federal property. The Department of Interior's Minerals Management Service (MMS) collects the royalty oil and transfers it to DOE, which then trades it for oil suitable for the SPR. As DOE begins to expand the SPR, past experiences can help inform future efforts to fill the reserve in the most cost-effective manner. In that context, GAO's testimony today will focus on: (1) factors GAO recommends DOE consider when filling the SPR, and (2) the cost-effectiveness of using oil received through the royalty-in-kind program to fill the SPR. To address these issues, GAO relied on its 2006 report …

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Congress and the President need to have reliable, useful and timely financial and performance information to make sound decisions on the current and future direction of vital federal government programs and policies. Unfortunately, except for the 2007 Statement of Social Insurance, GAO was again unable to provide assurance on the reliability of the consolidated financial statements of the U.S. government (CFS) due primarily to certain material weaknesses in the federal government's internal control. GAO has reported that unless these weaknesses are adequately addressed, they will, among other things, (1) hamper the federal government's ability to reliably report a significant portion of its assets, liabilities, costs, and other related information; and (2) affect the federal government's ability to reliably measure the full cost as well as the financial and nonfinancial performance of certain programs and activities. This testimony presents the results of GAO's audit of the CFS for fiscal year 2007 and discusses the federal government's long-term fiscal outlook."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The National Weather Service (NWS), an agency under the Department of Commerce's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), provides staff on-site at each of the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) en route centers--the facilities that control high-altitude flight outside the airport tower and terminal areas. This group of NWS meteorologists provides air traffic managers with forecasts and briefings on regional conditions such as turbulence and icing. Over the last few years, FAA has been exploring options for enhancing the efficiency of the aviation weather services provided by these NWS meteorologists. In late December 2007, FAA delivered revised requirements and associated performance measures to NWS to improve these services. GAO was asked to summarize key segments of its report being released today, including its assessment of NWS and FAA efforts to ensure the quality of aviation weather services at en route centers, and its recommendations to improve these efforts. In addition, GAO was asked to provide an update on FAA's recent efforts to establish aviation weather requirements and performance measures, and NWS's plans for responding to these requirements. To do so, GAO summarized segments of its report, reviewed FAA's recently …

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Funded at $8 billion to $10 billion per year, the Missile Defense Agency's (MDA) effort to develop and field a Ballistic Missile Defense System (BMDS) is the largest research and development program in the Department of Defense (DOD). The program has been managed in 2-year increments, known as blocks. Block 2006, the second BMDS block, was completed in December 2007. By law, GAO annually assesses MDA's progress. This testimony is based on GAO's assessment of MDA's progress in (1) meeting Block 2006 goals for fielding assets, completing work within estimated cost, conducting tests, and demonstrating the performance of the overall system in the field, and (2) making managerial improvements to transparency, accountability, and oversight. In conducting the assessment, GAO reviewed the assets fielded; contractor cost, schedule, and performance; and tests completed during 2007. GAO also reviewed pertinent sections of the U.S. code, acquisition policy, and the charter of a new missile defense board. We have previously made recommendations to improve oversight in the areas that MDA has recently taken action. We also have a draft report that is currently with DOD for comment that includes additional recommendations."

Document issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Texas in Austin, Texas, providing an interpretation of Texas law. It provides the opinion of the Texas Attorney General, Greg Abbott, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification: Whether the Higher Education Coordinating Board’s standard method of calculating high school grade point averages must be followed by independent school districts (RQ-0716-GA)