Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Rigorous planning is key to a successful census as it helps ensure greater effectiveness and efficiency. The U.S. Census Bureau (Bureau) estimates the 2010 Census will cost around $11.3 billion, which would make it the most expensive census in our country's history, even after adjusting for inflation. GAO was asked to testify on (1) the Bureau's progress in preparing for the 2010 Census, (2) the challenges that Hurricanes Katrina and Rita might pose for the Bureau's future activities, and, (3) more broadly, the importance of planning for a range of events that could severely disrupt the census."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Census Bureau plans to increase its use of automation to conduct the 2010 Decennial Census. Two key acquisitions are the Decennial Response Integration System (DRIS) and the Field Data Collection Automation program (FDCA). DRIS is expected to standardize and integrate data from census forms and other response modes. FDCA is expected to provide automation support for field data collection activities. Last year, Congress asked GAO to assess the status, plans, and management capabilities of both of these projects. In January 2006, GAO briefed Congressional staff on the results of that work. This testimony summarizes key findings from that briefing, including the status and management capabilities of each project."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Future Combat System (FCS) is a networked family of weapons and other systems in the forefront of efforts by the Army to become a lighter, more agile, and more capable combat force. When considering complementary programs, projected investment costs for FCS are estimated to be on the order of $200 billion. FCS's cost is of concern given that developing and producing new weapon systems is among the largest investments the government makes, and FCS adds significantly to that total. Over the last five years, the Department of Defense (DOD) doubled its planned investments in such systems from $700 billion in 2001 to $1.4 trillion in 2006. At the same time, research and development costs on new weapons continue to grow on the order of 30 to 40 percent. FCS will be competing for significant funds at a time when Federal fiscal imbalances are exerting great pressures on discretionary spending. In the absence of more money being available, FCS and other programs must be executable within projected resources. Today, I would like to discuss (1) the business case needed for FCS to be successful and (2) related business …

News release about a DART auction where vehicles, including trolley buses, will be sold to the highest bidder.

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "GAO is required by law to annually audit the consolidated financial statements of the U.S. government. The Congress and the President need to have timely, reliable, and useful financial and performance information. Sound decisions on the current results and future direction of vital federal government programs and policies are made more difficult without such information. Until the problems discussed in GAO's audit report on the U.S. government's consolidated financial statements are adequately addressed, they will continue to (1) hamper the federal government's ability to reliably report a significant portion of its assets, liabilities, costs, and other information; (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; (3) impair the federal government's ability to adequately safeguard significant assets and properly record various transactions; and (4) hinder the federal government from having reliable financial information to operate in an economical, efficient, and effective manner."

A bill for an act relating to energy; prohibiting recovery of certain costs of electric service.

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In 2004, an estimated 35.7 million foreign-born people resided in the United States, and many legitimately have SSNs. Many of these individuals have Social Security numbers (SSNs) which can have a key role in verifying authorization to work in the United States. However, some foreign-born individuals have been given SSNs inappropriately. Recent legislation, aimed at protecting the SSN and preventing fraud and abuse, changes how the Social Security Administration (SSA) assigns numbers and awards benefits for foreign-born individuals. The chairman of the Subcommittee on Social Security asked GAO to address two questions. First, how does SSA determine who is and is not eligible for an SSN? Second, how does SSA determine who is and is not eligible for Social Security benefits?"

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 Natural Resources Code section 33.613 violates article VII, section 4 or 5 of the Texas Constitution (RQ-0388-GA)

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; Authority of a municipality with a population of fewer than 35,000 to impose a hotel occupancy tax in its extraterritorial jurisdiction when the combined rate of state, county, and municipal hotel occupancy taxes would exceed 15 percent (RQ-0390-GA)

The article deals with the Clinica Albert Galvan which provides health services mostly to lower income and undocumented patients. Both the original Spanish article and the English translation are included.

A form to reserve a table during the Building Citizens Week on the UNT campus. It includes deadlines and contact information.

News release promoting the use of DART transportation options to travel to museums and other attractions during Spring Break.

A document about Dr. Mark Vosvick for one of the League of Professional Women's luncheons. It is a bio about his education, professional experience, and role at UNT.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Al Kiracofe. Kiracofe joined the Navy in 1942 and received yeoman training at Great Lakes. Upon completion, he was assigned to CASU-22 at Quonset Point, helping to prepare squadrons for overseas deployment. He was then assigned to Carrier Air Group 41, which was just beginning to use radar for night flying. One of his duties as yeoman was to send letters of regret to the parents of soldiers who were killed in action. The experience upset him to the point that he remembered the date of each letter for the rest of his life. He was transferred to Carrier Air Group 10 aboard the USS Intrepid (CV-11) and helped to set up squadrons in Alameda from January 1943 to September 1944. At Okinawa, a kamikaze hit caused the deaths of eight men on the Intrepid. When the ship returned to Alameda for repairs, Kiracofe was so shaken up that he was ordered to a US Naval hospital for treatment and received a medical discharge in July 1945.

A document advertising a reception honoring Brittany Adams as the First Student Regent of UNT. It includes the original invitation that lists the date, time, and location of the event as February 15 at 5:30 in the evening. It was in the Golden Eagle Suite in the Union. The phone number to RSVP to is also listed and the logos for the Multicultural Center and the National Pan-Hellenic Council, Inc. At the bottom of the invitation, underneath the university's name, is the name of a sorority at UNT, Alpha Kappa Alpha.

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "An important goal of the Communications Act of 1934, as amended, is to ensure access to telecommunications services for all Americans. This testimony is based on GAO's January 2006 report GAO-06-189, which reviewed 1) the status of telecommunications subscribership for Native Americans living on tribal lands; 2) federal programs available for improving telecommunications on these lands; 3) barriers to improvements; and 4) how some tribes are addressing these barriers."

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "For many years, the Department of Defense (DOD) has been attempting to improve visibility over its inventory and equipment. The lack of visibility over inventory and equipment shipments increases vulnerability to undetected loss or theft and substantially heightens the risk that millions of dollars will be spent unnecessarily. Additionally, needed supplies may not reach the warfighter when needed, which may impair readiness. In order to improve visibility, DOD began using a technology to enable it to track shipments. This technology is known as radio frequency identification (RFID). RFID technology consists of active or passive electronic tags that are attached to equipment and supplies that are shipped from one location to another. This technology is part of a family of automatic information technologies used to enable hands-off identification of cargo and inventory. This report focuses on active RFID tags, which cost around $100 each and are reusable. DOD has been using active RFID technology since the early 1990s to help with in-transit visibility of shipments, and, as of January 2005, it officially began to implement the use of passive RFID. During the course of our work on the use …

A document collecting the four certificates given at the "Spring Cleaning Your Finances" League of Professional Women event. They include a green border and a re-made Mount Rushmore with women's faces. The certificates are for Dr. Mark Vosvick, Sindy Kong, Yvon Wang, and Rebecca Turner.

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The size and strength of Hurricane Katrina resulted in one of the largest natural disasters in our nation's history. Hurricane Katrina raised major questions about our nation's readiness and ability to respond to catastrophic disasters. Hurricane Rita increased demands on an already stressed response and recovery effort by all levels of government. The two hurricanes provided a sobering picture of the overwhelming strains on response and recovery if there are back-to-back catastrophic disasters in the same area. GAO has a large body of ongoing work on a range of issues relating to all phases of the preparation, response, recovery, and rebuilding efforts related to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Americans spend billions of hours each year providing information to federal agencies by filling out forms, surveys, or questionnaires. A major aim of the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) is to minimize the burden that these information collections impose on the public, while maximizing their public benefit. Under the act, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is to approve all such collections. In addition, agency Chief Information Officers (CIO) are to review information collections before they are submitted to OMB for approval and certify that these meet certain standards set forth in the act. GAO was asked to testify on the implementation of the act's provisions regarding the review and approval of information collections. For its testimony, GAO reviewed previous work in this area, including the results of an expert forum on information resources management and the PRA, which was held in February 2005 under the auspices of the National Research Council. GAO also drew on its earlier study of CIO review processes (GAO-05-424) and alternative processes that two agencies have used to minimize burden. For this study, GAO reviewed a governmentwide sample of collections, reviewed processes and …

Texas Daily Newspaper Association's 2006 Bright Idea entries for work conceived in 2005. A list of newspapers and their work have been nominated for four different levels of the Bright Idea awards, Under 10,000, 10,000 to 35,000, 35,000 to 100,000 and Over 100,000.

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Congress passed legislation creating the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) in 1997 to reduce the number of uninsured children in families with incomes that are too high to qualify for Medicaid. For SCHIP, the Congress appropriated $40 billion over 10 years, with funds allotted annually to the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. commonwealths and territories. States' participation in SCHIP is voluntary. States that do participate have three options in designing their SCHIP programs: expand the Medicaid program to include SCHIP-eligible children, develop a separate child health insurance program, or maintain a program that combines both of these options. Financed jointly by the states and the federal government, SCHIP offers a strong incentive for states to participate by offering a higher federal matching rate--that is, the federal government pays a larger proportion of program expenditures--than the Medicaid program. While this incentive encourages efforts to reduce the number of uninsured children through state participation in SCHIP, there have been concerns that states might inappropriately enroll Medicaid-eligible children in SCHIP and thus obtain higher federal matching funds than allowed under Medicaid. In addition, there has …

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Improper payments are a longstanding, widespread, and significant problem in the federal government. The Congress enacted the Improper Payments Information Act of 2002 (IPIA) to address this issue. Fiscal year 2005 marked the second year that federal agencies governmentwide were required to report improper payment information under IPIA. One result of IPIA has been increased visibility over improper payments by requiring federal agencies to identify programs and activities susceptible to improper payments, estimate the amount of their improper payments, and report on the amounts of improper payments and their actions to reduce them in their annual performance and accountability reports (PAR). GAO was asked to testify on the progress being made by agencies in complying with requirements of IPIA and the magnitude of improper payments. As part of the review, GAO looked at (1) the extent to which agencies have performed risk assessments, (2) the annual amount of improper payments estimated, and (3) the amount of improper payments recouped through recovery audits."

Representatives from John Peter Smith Hospital participate in a public health forum organized by the League of Women Voters of Tarrant County. Both the original Spanish article and the English translation are included.