This second volume of the Savage Frontier series focuses on two of the bloodiest years of fighting in the young Texas Republic, 1838 and 1839. By early 1838, the Texas Rangers were in danger of disappearing altogether. Stephen L. Moore shows how the major general of the new Texas Militia worked around legal constraints in order to keep mounted rangers in service. Expeditions against Indians during 1838 and 1839 were frequent, conducted by militiamen, rangers, cavalry, civilian volunteer groups and the new Frontier Regiment of the Texas Army. From the Surveyors' Fight to the Battle of Brushy Creek, each engagement is covered in new detail. The volume concludes with the Cherokee War of 1839, which saw the assembly of more Texas troops than had engaged the Mexican army at San Jacinto. Moore fully covers the failed peace negotiations, the role of the Texas Rangers in this campaign, and the last stand of heroic Chief Bowles. Through extensive use of primary military documents and first-person accounts, Moore provides a clear view of life as a frontier fighter in the Republic of Texas. The reader will find herein numerous and painstakingly recreated muster rolls, as well as a complete list of Texan …

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Through the Civil Works Program, the Corps of Engineers (Corps) constructs, operates, and maintains thousands of civil works projects across the United States. The Corps uses a two-phase study process to help inform congressional decision makers about civil works projects and determine if they warrant federal investment. As part of the process for deciding to proceed with a project, the Corps analyzes and documents that the costs of constructing a project are outweighed by the benefits. To conduct activities within its civil works portfolio, the Corps received over $5 billion annually for fiscal years 2005 and 2006. During the last 4 years, GAO has issued five reports relating to the Corps' Civil Works Program. Four of these reports focused on the planning studies for specific Corps' projects or actions, which included a review of the cost and benefit analyses used to support the project decisions. The fifth report focused on the Corps management of its civil works appropriation accounts. For this statement, GAO was asked to summarize the key themes from these five studies. GAO made recommendations in the five reports cited in this testimony. The Corps generally …

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Unemployment Insurance (UI) has been a key component in ensuring the financial security of America's workforce for over 70 years. In fiscal year 2004, UI covered about 129 million wage and salary workers and paid about $41 billion in benefits to nearly 9 million workers. With unemployed workers at a greater risk of long-term unemployment than in the past, it is increasingly important to understand how individual workers are being served by UI. This testimony draws upon the results of three GAO reports providing new information about (1) the extent to which individual workers ever receive UI benefits or receive benefits multiple times, (2) the types of workers who are more likely to receive UI, and (3) what is known about the extent to which UI beneficiaries receive reemployment services and their reemployment outcomes. GAO is not making new recommendations at this time. The Department of Labor (Labor) generally agreed with the findings from each of the three reports on UI, but took issue with GAO's recommendation that the Secretary work with states to consider collecting more comprehensive information on UI claimants' services and outcomes. Labor commented that, …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) is DOD's most expensive aircraft program. The program represents 90 percent of the remaining planned investment for recapitalizing DOD's aging tactical aircraft fleet. GAO is required by law to review the program annually for 5 years, beginning in fiscal year 2005. This is our second report and GAO assessed the program's acquisition approach--in terms of capturing knowledge for key investment decisions--and identified an alternative to improve outcomes."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of Defense (DOD) has spent nearly $90 billion since 1985 to develop a Ballistic Missile Defense System (BMDS). In the next 6 years, the Missile Defense Agency (MDA), the developer, plans to invest about $58 billion more. MDA's overall goal is to produce a system that is capable of defeating enemy missiles launched from any range during any phase of their flight. MDA's approach is to field new capabilities in 2-year blocks. The first--Block 2004--was to provide some protection by December 2005 against attacks out of North Korea and the Middle East. Congress requires GAO to assess MDA's progress annually. This year's report assesses (1) MDA's progress during fiscal year 2005 and (2) whether capabilities fielded under Block 2004 met goals. To the extent goals were not met, GAO identifies reasons for shortfalls and discusses corrective actions that should be taken."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Billions of dollars have been spent governmentwide to modernize financial management systems that have often exceeded budgeted cost, resulted in delays in delivery dates and did not provide the anticipated system functionality when implemented. GAO was asked to identify (1) the key causes for financial management system implementation failures, and (2) the significant governmentwide initiatives currently under way that are intended to address the key causes of financial management system implementation failures. GAO was also asked to provide its views on actions that can be taken to help improve the management and control of agency financial management system modernization efforts."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Through 2011, the Department of Defense (DOD) plans to spend $20 billion to significantly increase its inventory of unmanned aircraft systems, which are providing new intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, and strike capabilities to U.S. combat forces--including those in Iraq and Afghanistan. Despite their success on the battlefield, DOD's unmanned aircraft programs have experienced cost and schedule overruns and performance shortfalls. Given the sizable planned investment in these systems, GAO was asked to review DOD's three largest unmanned aircraft programs in terms of cost. Specifically, GAO assessed the Global Hawk and Predator programs' acquisition strategies and identified lessons from these two programs that can be applied to the Joint Unmanned Combat Air Systems (J-UCAS) program, the next generation of unmanned aircraft."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "As GAO and others have reported, the use of information technology (IT) has enormous potential to improve the quality of health care and is critical to improving the performance of the U.S. health care system. Given the federal government's influence in the health care industry, it has been urged over the years to take a leadership role in driving change to improve the quality and effectiveness of medical care, including the adoption of IT. In April 2004, President Bush called for widespread adoption of interoperable electronic health records within 10 years; established the position of the National Coordinator for Health IT, who was appointed in May 2004 and released a framework for strategic action two months later. In May 2005, GAO recommended that HHS establish detailed plans and milestones for each phase of the framework and take steps to ensure that those plans are followed and milestones are met. HHS agreed with our recommendation. GAO (1) assessed the progress being made by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) since 2005 to develop a national health IT strategy and (2) provided an overview of selected federal agencies' …

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "GAO audits and evaluations identify federal programs and operations that in some cases are high risk due to their greater vulnerabilities to fraud, waste, abuse, and mismanagement. Increasingly, GAO also has identified high-risk areas that are in need of broad-based transformations to address major economy, efficiency, or effectiveness challenges. Since 1990 with each new Congress, GAO has reported on its high-risk list. GAO's most recent update, in January 2005, presented the 109th Congress with the latest status of existing and new high-risk areas warranting attention by both the Congress and the administration. Lasting solutions to high-risk problems offer the potential to save billions of dollars, dramatically improve service to the American public, strengthen public confidence and trust in the performance and accountability of our national government, and ensure the ability of government to deliver on its promises."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "This testimony discusses the Architect of the Capitol's progress in achieving selected project milestones and in managing the project's schedule since Congress's February 15, 2006, hearing on the project. As part of this discussion, we will address a number of key challenges and risks that continue to face the project, as well as actions AOC has taken or plans to take to address these risks. In addition, we will discuss the status of the project's costs and funding."

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In February 2006, we briefed Congress on the results of our review of various contracting issues related to the Gulf Coast hurricanes. We conducted this work under the Comptroller General's statutory authority in order to assess how three agencies--the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), and the General Services Administration (GSA)--planned for and conducted oversight of several key contracts in support of Katrina and Rita response and recovery efforts."

This report describes a screening and ranking framework(SRF) developed to evaluate potential geologic carbon dioxide (CO2)storage sites on the basis of health, safety, and environmental (HSE)risk arising from possible CO2 leakage. The approach is based on theassumption that HSE risk due to CO2 leakage is dependent on three basiccharacteristics of a geologic CO2 storage site: (1) the potential forprimary containment by the target formation, (2) the potential forsecondary containment if the primary formation leaks, and (3) thepotential for attenuation and dispersion of leaking CO2 if the primaryformation leaks and secondary containment fails. The framework isimplemented in a spreadsheet in which users enter numerical scoresrepresenting expert opinions or general information available frompublished materials along with estimates of uncertainty to evaluate thethree basic characteristics in order to screen and rank candidate sites.Application of the framework to the Rio Vista Gas Field, Ventura OilField, and Mammoth Mountain demonstrates the approach. Refinements andextensions are possible through the use of more detailed data or modelresults in place of property proxies. Revisions and extensions to improvethe approach are anticipated in the near future as it is used and testedby colleagues and collaborators.

The mineral alteration in the concrete barrier and in the clay formation around long-lived intermediate-level radioactive waste in the French deep geological disposal concept is evaluated using numerical modeling. There are concerns that the mineralogical composition of the surrounded clay will not be stable under the high alkaline pore fluid conditions caused by concrete (pH {approx} 12). Conversely, the infiltration of CO{sub 2}-rich groundwater from the clay formation into initially unsaturated concrete, at the high temperature (T {approx} 70 C) produced from the decay of radionuclides, could cause carbonation, thereby potentially affecting critical performance functions of this barrier. This could also lead to significant changes in porosity, which would affect aqueous diffusive transport of long-lived radionuclides. All these processes are therefore intimately coupled and advanced reactive transport models are required for long-term performance assessment. The uncertainty in predictions of these models is one major question that must be answered. A mass-transfer model response to an alkaline perturbation in clay with standard model values is first simulated using the two-phase non-isothermal reactive transport code TOUGHREACT. The selection of input parameters is thereafter designed to sample uncertainties in a wide range of physico-chemical processes without making a priori assumptions about the relative …

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Data from a recently installed insertable magnetic probe array in the Sustained Spheromak Physics Experiment (SSPX) [E. B. Hooper et al., Nucl. Fusion 39, 863 (1999)] is compared against NIMROD [C. R. Sovinec et al., J. Comp. Phys. 195, 355 (2004)], a full 3D resistive magnetohydrodynamic code that is used to simulate SSPX plasmas. The experiment probe consists of a linear array of chip inductors arranged in clusters that are spaced every 2 cm, and spans the entire machine radius at the flux conserver midplane. Both the experiment and the numerical simulations show the appearance, shortly after breakdown, of a column with a hollow current profile that precedes magnetic reconnection, a process essential to the formation of closed magnetic flux surfaces. However, there are differences between the experiment and the simulation in how the column evolves after it is formed. These differences are studied to help identify the mechanisms that eventually lead to closed-flux surfaces (azimuthally averaged) and flux amplification, which occur in both the experiment and the simulation.

Free weekly newspaper that includes business and classified advertising.

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

Photograph of Panel A of the Historic Wall at Fort Worth's Intermodal Transportation Center, chronicling the African American Marketplace that was there in 1865 to 1940. The text underneath the mural reads "Fort Worth's first African American business man was John Pratt blacksmith. 1865-1876." The public artwork and mural made of tile.

Photograph of Panel D of the Historic Wall at Fort Worth's Intermodal Transportation Center. It chronicles the African American Jim's Hotel. This is a twentieth-century piece created during the 1930s-1940s. This two-dimensional tiled mural is framed with red bricks and is on display for the public.

Photograph of a mural made of tile at Fort Worth's Intermodal Transportation Center. It chronicles the African American Marketplace that was there in 1865 to 1940. The text under the mural says "Hunt Hawes Grocery Warehouse & Bill McDonald's Fraternal Bank and Trust -- Part of the 20th Century. 1900-1910."

Photograph of a public artwork at Fort Worth's Intermodal Transportation Center. It is a square of red bricks with the words "The Dance Floor of Politics" written in a white square in the middle. A person's leg can be seen standing on the lower right corner of the red square.

Photograph of Panel E of the Historic Wall at Fort Worth's Intermodal Transportation Center. It chronicles the African American Jim's Hotel. This is a twentieth-century piece created during the 1930s-1940s. This two-dimensional tiled mural is framed with red bricks and is on display for the public.

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 Structural Pest Control Board may require apartment employees to obtain licenses before they may apply pesticides to the apartment landscape (RQ-0398-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 nepotism statute applies to a junior college district's employment of a person related to a member of the district's board of regents (RQ-0401-GA)