Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of Health and Human Services' (HHS) Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is the federal agency responsible for administering the Medicare program for nearly 45 million beneficiaries, including beneficiaries with limited English proficiency (LEP)--meaning they may not be proficient or are limited in their ability to communicate in the English language. Medicare beneficiaries face a complex set of health care choices that require them to obtain information about the comparative benefits, costs, and quality of available options. CMS is responsible for providing clear, accurate, and timely information about this program and making the information accessible to beneficiaries. Under section 601 of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, entities that receive federal financial assistance are prohibited from discriminating against or otherwise excluding individuals from their programs or activities on the basis of race, color, or national origin. In 1964, as directed under section 602 of Title VI, HHS first published regulations applying these prohibitions to entities receiving federal financial assistance from HHS, including health care organizations. In 2000, Executive Order 13166 was published, requiring federal agencies to take certain step to clarify Title …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with William McLemore. McLemore joined the Navy in March of 1934. Beginning in November he served aboard the USS Augusta (CA-31), with Chester Nimitz as the Commanding Officer. McLemore???s job was swabbing down the decks and serving as twin 50mm gunner. They traveled to Chang Jiang, China, Shanghai, the Solomon Islands, the Philippines and Australia. He provides some details of his experiences in China and Australia. He was discharged from the Navy as Seaman First Class in 1938 and reenlisted as a coxswain in May of 1942. He was assigned to Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron 8 aboard PT-121, and operated on the south coast of New Britain. Their boat was destroyed by Australian aircraft on 27 March 1944. He later served aboard the liberty ship SS John B. Floyd as a coxswain. They traveled to Cairns, Australia. He was discharged in December of 1945.

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The U.S. Postal Service's (USPS) financial condition has worsened this year, with the recession and changing mail use causing declines in mail volume and revenues despite postal rate increases. GAO testified in May to this subcommittee that USPS expects these declines to lead to a record net loss and an unprecedented cash shortfall even if ambitious cost cutting is achieved. GAO reported that maintaining USPS's financial viability as the provider of affordable, high-quality universal postal service will require actions in a number of areas, such as (1) rightsizing its retail and mail processing networks by consolidating operations and closing unnecessary facilities and (2) reducing the cost and size of its workforce, which generates about 80 percent of its costs. Today GAO is releasing its report on USPS efforts to improve the efficiency of delivery. Delivery accounts for nearly half of USPS salary and benefit costs. This testimony (1) updates USPS's financial condition and outlook and explains GAO's decision to place USPS's financial condition on the High-Risk List and (2) discusses the need for USPS to restructure its mail processing, retail, and delivery networks and its efforts to improve …

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In 2008, the United Nations (UN) began construction associated with its Capital Master Plan (CMP) to renovate its headquarters complex in New York City. As the UN's host country and largest contributor, the United States has a substantial interest in the success of the CMP. In this requested update, GAO reviewed the following key areas: schedule, cost, funding, risk management, procurement, and oversight. To perform this work, GAO reviewed UN documents and met with officials from the CMP office and other UN departments. GAO also reviewed select CMP schedules to assess the extent to which they met best practices for scheduling contained in GAO's Cost Estimating and Assessment Guide. To assess oversight and monitoring, GAO reviewed UN documents and oversight reports and interviewed officials from the UN's Office of Internal Oversight Services and officials from the U.S. Department of State (State)."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Chesapeake Bay Program (Bay Program) was created in 1983 when Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, the District of Columbia, the Chesapeake Bay Commission, and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) agreed to establish a partnership to restore the Bay. The partnership's most recent agreement, Chesapeake 2000, sets out five broad goals to guide the restoration effort through 2010. This testimony summarizes the findings of an October 2005 GAO report (GAO-06-96) on (1) the extent to which measures for assessing restoration progress had been established, (2) the extent to which program reports clearly and accurately described the bay's health, (3) how much funding was provided for the effort for fiscal years 1995 to 2004, and (4) how effectively the effort was being coordinated and managed. It also summarizes actions taken by the program in response to GAO's recommendations. GAO reviewed the program's 2008 report to Congress and discussed recent actions with program officials."

This volume of the LLE Review, covering January-March 2008, features 'Cryogenic Targets: Current Status and Future Development', by D. R. Harding, D. H. Edgell, M. D. Wittman, L. M. Elasky, S. J. Verbridge, A. J. Weaver, L. D. Lund, W. Seka, W. T. Shmayda, R. T. Janezic, M. J. Shoup III, M. Moore, R. Junquist, and A. V. Okishev. In this article (p. 57), the authors report on the status of layering cryogenic DT and D{sub 2} targets at LLE for inertial confinement fusion (ICF) targets. This critical effort achieves the important milestone of routinely providing cryogenic DT targets that meet the 1.0-{micro}m (rms) OMEGA ice-quality-surface specification. The best D{sub 2}-ice layers produced so far (rms roughness of 1.1 {micro}m) are approaching the quality typically achieved in DT targets. Efforts to improve the consistency of this process are reported along with investigations supporting the National Ignition Campaign studying issues relevant to indirect-drive and direct-drive cryogenic targets. Additional highlights of recent research presented in this issue include the following: (1) an improved laser speckle smoothing scheme that augments the current NIF 1-D SSD system by using multiple-FM modulators (MultiFM 1-D SSD) (p. 73). With a judicious choice of modulator frequencies, MultiFM …

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Over the past decade a number of requirements have been established with regard to the processing of security clearances for federal employees. The Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act (IRTPA) of 2004 established statutory clearance requirements for the executive agencies, military departments, and intelligence community. These requirements include, among other things, milestones for the reduction in length of time to complete personnel security investigations and adjudications, reciprocity of security clearance and access determinations, the establishment of an integrated database to track investigative and adjudication information with the authorization of appropriations for its implementation, and continuous evaluation of available technology in investigations and adjudications. The most recent security clearance reform efforts include the Joint Security and Suitability Reform Team's (hereafter referred to as the joint reform team) Security and Suitability Process Reform initial report, which was issued on April 30, 2008 in response to a memorandum from the President, and the President's Executive Order 13467, which was released on June 30, 2008. The joint reform team's initial report contains a reform plan that outlines a new 7-step process for determining clearance eligibility, and the executive order establishes a Performance …

Deposit summary and receipt of $220.00 made on July 30, 2007. Included is a letter from Ruth Dalrymple to Al Daniels on July 18, 2007, discussing membership fees ending on June 30, 2007.

News release about the DART's upcoming HOV lane extensions.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Lloyd Fulbright. Fulbright joined the Army in September 1943 and trained in the artillery branch. He went overseas in Fenruary 1944 first to New Caledonia, then to New Zeraland where he was assigned to the 169th Field Artillery Battalion, 43rd Infantry Division. He then went to Aitape, New Guinea with the division and the Philippines. Fulbright shares several anecdotes about his combat experiences and stories from his time in occupied Japan. While in Japan, he was part of a detail that guarded the Kirin Brewery in Yokohama. He returned tot he US in January, 1946 and opted for discharge.

The aims of the research under this grant were to develop a theoretical understanding and predictive abiility for a variety of processes occurring in the gas phase. These included bimolecular chemical exchange reactions, photodissociation, predissociation resonances, unimolecular reactions and recombination reactions. In general we assumed a knowledge, from quantum chemistry, of the interactions of the atoms and molecular fragments involved. Our focus was primarily on the accurate (quantum) dynamics of small molecular systems. This has been important for many reactions related to combustion and atmospheric chemistry involving light atom transfer reactions and, for example, resonances in dissociation and recombination reactions. The rates of such reactions, as functions of temperature, internal states, and radiation (light), are fundamental for generating models of overall combustion processes. A number of new approaches to these problems were developed inclluding the use of discrete variable representations (DVR's) for evaluating rate constants with the flux-flux correlation approach, finite range approaches to exact quantum scattering calculations, energy selected basis representations, transition state wave packet approaches and improved semiclassical approaches. These (and others) were applied to a number of reactive systems and molecular systems of interest including (many years ago) the isotopic H + H2 exchange reactions, the H2 …

Past particulate matter (PM) research projects conducted at the Energy & Environmental Research Center included data on PM size, morphology, and chemistry. The objective of this project was to improve automated analysis capabilities of the scanning electron microscope (SEM) equipped with an energy-dispersive spectrometer. The SEM is now able to perform particle-by-particle analysis on the desired number of particles and provide size, morphology, and chemistry information for each particle. A new x-ray and image analysis system was purchased and implemented for improvements to data acquisition and analysis. This new analysis system is equipped with a digital-pulse processor, allowing for the determination of pixel-by-pixel chemistry, which significantly enhances our ability to characterize PM and other materials. In addition, this system is personal computer-based, which allows programming of the SEM to perform the automated image analysis along with detailed chemical information. This permits the incorporation of particle classification algorithms within the same computer system as the analysis is conducted. Additionally, the new Spirit software can now integrate full SEM control with imaging, elemental identification, and electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) operation. The EBSD system has also allowed for phase identification within the SEM. Reexamination of previous samples collected on a polycarbonate filter for …

Base Input - Reno-Tahoe International Airport Air Guard Station - NV - Includes 92nd Weapons of Mass Destruction Civil Support Team Information Guide, pictures, letter from Krys T. Bart, map

Community Briefing - Red River Army Depot

Community Input - Fort Monmouth - NJ - Disruption War Time Responsiveness Presentation

DOD Input - Submarine Base new London/Naval Shipyard Portsmouth Radiological Information

Collection of BRAC related news articles and clippings. Produced for Commission staff review.

Guidance issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "This publication has been superseded by GAO-05-225G, Core Financial System Requirements: Checklist for Reviewing Systems under the Federal Financial Management Improvement Act, February 2005. The Federal Financial Management Improvement Act of 1996 (FFMIA) requires, among other things, that agencies implement and maintain financial management systems that substantially comply with federal financial management system requirements. These requirements are detailed in the Federal Financial Management System Requirements series issued by the Joint Financial Management Improvement Program (JFMIP) and in the guidance issued by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB): Circular A-127, Financial Management Systems, and the January 4, 2001, Revised Implementation Guidance for the Federal Financial Management Improvement Act (FFMIA) of 1996. JFMIP intends for the requirements to promote understanding of key financial management systems concepts and requirements, to provide a framework for establishing integrated financial management systems to support program and financial managers, and to describe specific requirements of financial management systems. We are issuing this checklist, which reflects JFMIP's revised Core Financial System Requirements (JFMIP-SR-02-01, November 2001), to assist (1) financial systems analysts, systems accountants, systems developers, program managers, and others who design, develop, implement, operate, or …

Guidance issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) and the President's Council on Integrity and Efficiency (PCIE) maintain the GAO/PCIE Financial Audit Manual (FAM). The FAM provides guidance for performing financial statement audits of federal entities. It is a key tool for enhancing accountability over taxpayer-provided resources."

Guidance issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) and the President's Council on Integrity and Efficiency (PCIE) maintain the GAO/PCIE Financial Audit Manual (FAM). The FAM provides guidance for performing financial statement audits of federal entities. The FAM is a key tool for enhancing accountability over taxpayer-provided resources."

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: Implementing a tax freeze by a county, city, or town, or junior college district for persons with disabilities or persons sixty-five years of age or older (RQ-0171-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 a condominium development is a subdivision subject to county regulation under Local Government Code chapter 232 (RQ-0177-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 a member of the board of directors of a water improvement district may simultaneously serve as a school district trustee (RQ-1074-GA)

Current designs for electric motors use a housing that acts as both a structural support and as a method of cooling the stator and rotor. This approach to cooling is not as effective as possible because heat must flow from the rotor and stator through the housing to the cooling media. Because the housing must contain the coolant, it is also larger, heavier, and more expensive than necessary. This project develops a motor that uses a direct lamination cooling (DLC) system, passing coolant directly through the stator and eliminating the need for bulky housing, thereby improving heat transfer. Motor size could be reduced by up to 30-40%, mass by up to 20-30%, and cost by up to 30%. Phase I demonstrated that reliable lamination-to-lamination seals and reliable stack-to-manifold seals can be achieved using the methods identified. The addition of the selected sealants adds only slightly to the thermal resistance and pressure drop compared with unsealed counterparts. Phase II builds electric motors and inductors using the DLC method, obtain comparative performance data on the effectiveness of the method, and then obtain operational use data on these components through long term testing in a representative environment. The long-term testing will ensure that …