Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Department of Defense's (DOD) managed care program, TRICARE, focusing on: (1) DOD's requirements for and oversight of network adequacy; (2) the content and methodology of DOD's July 1999 report to Congress on network adequacy; and (3) the changes to network adequacy requirements that DOD anticipates under its next round of TRICARE contracts, referred to as managed care support 3.0."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on whether military active duty service personnel, retirees, and their dependents not enrolled in the Department of Defense's (DOD) TRICARE program, are obtaining nonemergency medical care through Military Treatment Facilities (MTF) emergency departments, focusing on the: (1) services' efforts to determine requirements for MTF emergency departments; (2) type of care emergency departments are providing; and (3) extent to which emergency department patients were TRICARE enrollees."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The major network carriers dominate traffic at most of their large hubs and extensive evidence exists that fares in markets where competition is absent are consistently above competitive levels. GAO believes that the oversight scheme contemplated when the industry was deregulated--with antitrust enforcement by the Department of Justice (DOJ) and oversight of unfair trade practices by the Department of Transportation (DOT)--has not been entirely successful in preserving and ensuring competition. Although the current legislative scheme grants explicit authority for DOT to regulate unfair competitive practices, the legislation does give DOT substantial leeway on the scope of its action. Thus, with the range of competitive challenges confronting the industry and directly affecting consumers, especially in the face of unprecedented industry consolidation, GAO believes there is merit in the overall intent of the proposed Aviation Competition Restoration Act to direct DOT to actively monitor the state of competition in the industry and to institute remedial actions as appropriate."

News release about DART's expanded and updated paratransit fleet, which includes GPS navigation systems on all buses.

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "More than one in six nonelderly Americans are uninsured today. The lack of insurance coverage does not affect all Americans equally, varying widely among demographic groups as well as geographically. An estimated 42.1 million Americans were uninsured in 1999, which is down from 43.9 million in 1998. Although the decline in the number of uninsured is welcome news, it is too early to know whether this reflects a reversal in the trend. Recent expansions of public programs, such as the implementation of the State Children's Health Insurance Program, and the tight labor market likely contributed to the improved coverage. Even with these positive factors, the number of uninsured remains high, and any significant downturn in economic conditions could lead to a resumption in the growth of their numbers. The uninsured population is a diverse group, including individuals working in different industries and firms of all sizes as well as of different income levels, ages, races and ethnicities, and geographic locations. The heterogeneous nature of the 42 million uninsured Americans suggests that consideration of a combination of strategies must be appropriate in any efforts to expand health insurance coverage."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "This testimony discusses findings from two GAO reports that relate to Maryland's pending legislation on pesticide reporting. To determine how the nation's information on pesticide illnesses could be improved, GAO has worked with two federal agencies--the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) and the National Center for Environmental Health. These agencies told GAO that establishing state pesticide illness reporting systems are key to improving the national information on acute pesticide illnesses. For example, according to NIOSH, state-based reporting systems are the best available data source for identifying epidemics, clusters of diseases, emerging pesticide problems, and populations at risk. Currently, about half of the states have some requirement that pesticide incidents be reported. However, only six states have a formal pesticide illness reporting and investigation system, and another three states have more limited systems. If Maryland decides to develop a formal pesticide illness reporting system, they may wish to consider these two important recommendations made by experts at federal agencies: (1) laws that require health care officials to report pesticide-related illness and injury. and (2) improving the training of health care professionals in pesticide incident handling."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "This testimony discusses GAO's follow-up on the audit of key internal controls over purchase card activity at two Navy units based in San Diego--the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command (SPAWAR) Systems Center and the Navy Public Works Center (NPWC). A breakdown in internal controls over $68 million purchase card transactions in fiscal year 2000 left these two units vulnerable to fraudulent, improper, and abusive purchases and to theft and misuse of government property. Although both units improved the overall control environment, including reducing the number of cardholders, increasing the number of approving officials, and decreased purchase card usage, serious weaknesses persisted in three key control environment areas. First, SPAWAR Systems Center needs to ensure that all cardholders receive required training and that this training is documented. Second, SPAWAR Systems Center needs to more carefully implement internal review and oversight activities, which have been ineffective. Third, GAO identified a significant impairment of management "tone at the top" at SPAWAR Systems Center during the last quarter of fiscal year 2001. The two basic internal controls over the purchase card program that GAO tested remained ineffective during the last quarter …

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has laid the groundwork for an integrated, departmentwide enterprise architecture--a blueprint for evolving its information systems and developing new systems to optimize their mission value. Crucial executive support is in place and the department has a strategy to define products and processes critical to its development. VA is now recruiting a chief architect to help implement and manage the enterprise architecture. VA has tried to strengthen its information security management program by mandating information security performance standards and greater management accountability for senior executives. It has also updated security policies, procedures, and standards to implement critical security measures. Despite these efforts, VA continues to report pervasive and serious information security weaknesses. The Veterans Benefits Administration is still far from launching a modernized system to replace its aging benefits delivery network. The Veterans Health Administration (VHA) has made good progress in expanding the use of its decision support system (DSS) for clinical and financial decision making. The use of DSS data for the fiscal year 2002 resource allocation process, and a requirement that veteran integrated service network directors better account for their use …

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "A key element of the President's Management Agenda is the expansion of electronic government (e-government) to enhance access to information and services, particularly through the Internet. In response, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) established a task force that selected a strategic set of initiatives to lead this expansion. GAO previously reviewed the completeness of the information used for choosing and overseeing these initiatives, including business cases and funding plans."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The availability of child pornography has dramatically increased in recent years as it has migrated from printed material to the World Wide Web, becoming accessible through Web sites, chat rooms, newsgroups, and now the increasingly popular peer-to-peer file-sharing programs. These programs enable direct communication between users, allowing users to access each other's files and share digital music, images, and video. GAO was requested to determine the ease of access to child pornography on peer-to-peer networks; the risk of inadvertent exposure of juvenile users of peer-to-peer networks to pornography, including child pornography; and the extent of federal law enforcement resources available for combating child pornography on peer-to-peer networks. GAO's report on the results of this work (GAO-03-351) is being released today along with this testimony. Because child pornography cannot be accessed legally other than by law enforcement agencies, GAO worked with the Customs Cyber-Smuggling Center in performing searches: Customs downloaded and analyzed image files, and GAO performed analyses based on keywords and file names only."

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Theodore Gruhn. Gruhn joined the Navy in September 1941 after working as a carpenter. He was en route to Pearl Harbor when the Japanese attacked. Once at Hawaii, Gruhn did shore patrol for a year until he was assigned to the USS Farenholt (DD-491) as a carpenter's mate in December 1942. In May, 1944, Gruhn transferred to the USS Abercrombie (DE-343). When the war ended, Gruhn had enough points to be discharged in October, 1945.

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 a member of the Board of Trustees of the San Jacinto College District may simultaneously serve as a member of the Board of Directors of the Clear Brook Municipal Utility District (RQ-0596-JC)

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 Texas Community Health Center Revolving Loan Fund exists as a trust fund outside the state treasury; whether loan income is the property of the Fund; and whether chapter 136 of the Human Resources Code, which establishes the Fund, violates article III, sections 1, 50 and 51 of the Texas Constitution (RQ-0602-JC)

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 a county may require the owner of a “junked vehicle” to erect a fence or other screening objects in order to shield the vehicle from public view (RQ-0605-JC)

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 questioning by the Texas Ethics Commission of third-party witnesses to the circumstances giving rise to a sworn complaint violates section 571.140 of the Government Code (RQ-0599-JC)

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 Texas Ethics Commission, in providing to the respondent in a commission-initiated complaint information that was obtained in connected with another sworn complaint, violates the confidentiality provision of section 571.140 of the Government Code (RQ-0601-JC)

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: County commissioners court's authority over hiring and budgetary matters concerning an elected county officer.

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 the Texas Education Agency to make a coordinated health program available to elementary schools.

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 Harris County may participate in the design and construction of a toll bridge from Galveston Island to Point Bolivar.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Richard Paine. Paine joined the Navy Reserves soon after 7 December 1941. He served as a photographer’s mate in charge of a photo printing lab in Washington DC. Paine briefly discusses the equipment he used. He was discharged in 1944 when he contracted a serious case of tuberculosis and took several years to recover.

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 the Private School Board to adopt certain rules regulating newly registered alarm installers (RQ-0391-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; Whether the Texas Lottery Commission may award the cash equivalent of a prize to a person who is at least 18 years of age but not yet 21 years of age (RQ-0393-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; Possible conflict between two versions of section 16.341 and 17.923 of the Water Code, as amended by House Bill 467 and Senate Bill 425, both adopted during the Seventy-ninth Legislature (RQ-0394-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; Voting procedures for Board of Managers of Harris County Hospital District (RQ-0395-GA)