Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Every criminal justice system faces coordination challenges. However, the unique structure and funding of the D.C. criminal justice system, in which federal and D.C. jurisdictional boundaries and dollars are blended, creates additional challenges. The Criminal Justice Coordinating Council (CJCC) has played a useful role in addressing such coordination challenges, especially in areas in which agencies perceived a common interest. However, CJCC's uncertain future could leave D.C. without benefit of an independent entity for coordinating the activities of its unique criminal justice system. Funding CJCC through any participating agency diminishes its stature as an independent entity in the eyes of several CJCC member agencies, reducing their willingness to participate. Without a requirement to report successes and areas of continuing discussion and disagreement to each agency's funding source, CJCC's activities, achievements, and areas of disagreement have generally been known only to its participating agencies. This has created little incentive to coordinate for the common good, and all too often agencies have simply "agreed to disagree" without taking action. Furthermore, without a meaningful role in cataloging multiagency initiatives, CJCC has been unable to ensure that criminal justice initiatives are coordinated among …

The proposed U.S.-South Korea Free Trade Agreement (KORUS FTA) follows current U.S. free trade agreement (FTA) practice in containing two types of formal dispute settlement: (1) State- State, applicable to disputes between the KORUS FTA Parties, and (2) investor-State, applicable to claims by an investor of one KORUS FTA Party against the other Party for breach of an agreement investment obligation.

BestPractices Steam tip sheet about recovering low-pressure steam by flashing high-pressure condensates in plant-wide steam systems.

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Army has made progress developing a sound basis for its force structure requirements. It has improved the rigor of its analysis through more realistic scenarios and the integration of Army plans and initiatives. It has also expanded the analysis to include requirements for the entire Army. However, the weaknesses GAO identified suggest that the Army still lacks a sound basis for its institutional force requirements and the forces needed for the strategic reserve, domestic support, and homeland defense. GAO's analysis of the institutional force requirements casts doubt on their accuracy and, by extension, the accuracy of the shortfall that the Army identified in this element. By developing more accurate estimates of institutional forces, this shortfall might be entirely eliminated. A sound basis for requirements is also hampered by the lack of criteria for the strategic reserve, domestic support, and homeland defense element of the Army's force structure. A clearer definition of their missions is needed to accurately estimate the forces that will be required."

TO characterize the human HRDAD9 gene and evaluate its potential as a biomarker to predict susceptibility to the deleterious health effects potentially caused by exposure to radiations or chemicals present at DOE hazardous waste cleanup sites. HRAD9 is a human gene that is highly conserved throughout evolution. Related genes have been isolated from yeasts and mice, underscoring its biological significance. Most of our previous work involved characterization of the yeast gene cognate, wherein it was determined that the corresponding protein plays a significant role in promoting resistance of cells to radiations and chemicals, and in particular, controlling cell growth in response to DNA damage.

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The West Valley nuclear facility in western New York State was built in the 1960s to convert spent nuclear fuel from commercial reactors into reusable nuclear fuel. New York State, the owner of the site, and the Atomic Energy Commission--the predecessor of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and the Department of Energy (DOE)--jointly promoted the venture. However, the timing of the venture was poor because the market for reprocessed nuclear fuel was limited and because new, more restrictive health and safety standards raised concerns about the facility. West Valley was shut down in the 1970s, and Congress enacted the West Valley Demonstration Project Act in 1980, which brought DOE to West Valley to carry out cleanup activities. This report examines the: (1) status of the cleanup; (2) factors that may be hindering the cleanup; (3) degree of certainty in the Department's estimates of total cleanup costs and schedule; and (4) degree to which the West Valley cleanup may reflect, or have implications for, larger cleanup challenges facing DOE and the nation. DOE has almost completed solidifying the high-level wastes at West Valley, but major additional cleanup …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Telecommunications Act of 1996 expanded the traditional definition of universal service--affordable, nationwide telephone service--to include eligible schools and libraries. The act authorized the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to begin a program to help these institutions acquire advanced telecommunications services. Under FCC's program, often referred to as the 'e-rate' program, schools and libraries can receive discounts from the vendors on the cost of eligible telecommunications services, Internet access, and internal connections. FCC appointed the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC) as the program's permanent administrator, although FCC retains responsibility for overseeing the program's operations and ensuring compliance with its rules. USAC's Schools and Libraries Division (SLD) is responsible for carrying out the program's day-to-day operations. Schools and libraries do not receive funding directly from the program. The committed funds are held by USAC, which reimburses vendors directly for the discounted portion of the e-rate approved services that they provide. This report provides information on (1) the amount of funds requested and committed for all three program years (1998-2000) and (2) the result of FCC and SLD's steps to reduce the amount of committed funds that go unspent. …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Telecommunications Act of 1996 expanded the traditional definition of universal service--affordable, nationwide telephone service--to include eligible schools and libraries. The act authorized the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to begin a program to help these institutions acquire advanced telecommunications services in the following three areas: telecommunications, Internet access, and internal connections. This report discusses state-level data on the amount of funds committed to the three categories of eligible services for each of the program's first three years. GAO found that requests substantially exceeded the program's available funding level during the program's first and third years. Priority is given to funding telecommunications and Internet access requests, and then to internal connections. Applicants have requested nearly $5.2 billion in e-rate support, more than double the program's $2.25 billion funding cap. Because requests for telecommunications and Internet access services total about $1.7 billion, most of the nearly $3.5 billion in internal connections requests could go unfunded under the current funding cap priority rules."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO's January 2001 Performance and Accountability Series provides an overview of management issues at the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). In the series, GAO made several recommendations to improve HUD's programs and operations. This report reviews the status of nine key recommendations. GAO found that HUD has taken important steps toward addressing some of its management deficiencies; however, significant weaknesses persist in some major areas, including single-family mortgage insurance, rental housing assistance, information and financial management systems, and human capital."

The United States' Department of Energy Nuclear Energy Research Advisory Committee recently completed a study ''Technological Opportunities To Increase The Proliferation Resistance Of Global Civilian Nuclear Power Systems (TOPS).'' That effort included the development of a set of both intrinsic and extrinsic barriers to proliferation that technologies can directly impact. In this paper we will review these barriers as and framework for assisting in the evaluation of the relative proliferation resistance of various nuclear fuel cycles, technologies and alternatives.

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, John Cornyn, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification; Whether excess contribution refunded to a county under section 26.008 of the Government Code may be paid as one-time salary supplements to employees of a county court (RQ-0315-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, John Cornyn, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification; Whether a taxing unit may , by a "blanket" resolution ,authorize that tax-foreclosure-sale property be resold as directed by the taxing unit's private tax-collection attorney(RQ-0322-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, John Cornyn, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification; Application of nepotism and conflict of interest statutes to the governing boards of open-enrollment charter schools (RQ-0331-JC)

A weekly publication, the Texas Register serves as the journal of state agency rulemaking for Texas. Information published in the Texas Register includes proposed, adopted, withdrawn and emergency rule actions, notices of state agency review of agency rules, governor's appointments, attorney general opinions, and miscellaneous documents such as requests for proposals. After adoption, these rulemaking actions are codified into the Texas Administrative Code.

BestPractices Steam tip sheet about using a vent condenser to recover flash steam energy in steam systems.

BestPractices Steam tip sheet about using low grade waste steam to power absorption chillers in steam systems.

BestPractices Steam tip sheet about using vapor recompression to recover low-pressure waste steam from plant-wide steam systems.

The volumes and diversity of information in the discovery, development, and business processes within the chemical and life sciences industries require new approaches for analysis. Traditional list- or spreadsheet-based methods are easily overwhelmed by large amounts of data. Furthermore, generating strong hypotheses and, just as importantly, ruling out weak ones, requires integration across different experimental and informational sources. We have developed a framework for this integration, including common conceptual data models for multiple data types and linked visualizations that provide an overview of the entire data set, a measure of how each data record is related to every other record, and an assessment of the associations within the data set.

Gov. Davis issued Executive Order D-5-99 in March 1999 calling for removal of methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE) from gasoline no later than December 31, 2002. The Executive Order required the California Air Board, State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB) and Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) to prepare an analysis of potential impacts and health risks that may be associated with the use of ethanol as a fuel oxygenate. The SWRCB contracted with the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) to lead a team of researchers, including scientists from Clarkson University, University of Iowa, and University of California, Davis, in evaluating the potential ground and surface water impacts that may occur if ethanol is used to replace MTBE. These findings are reported in the document entitled Health and Environmental Assessment of the Use of Ethanol as a Fuel Oxygenate. This document has been peer reviewed and presented to the California Environmental Policy Council and may be viewed at: http://www-erd.llnl.gov/ethanol/. Ethanol used for fuels is made primarily from grains, but any feed stock containing sugar, starch, or cellulose can be fermented to ethanol. Ethanol contains 34.7% oxygen by weight. It is less dense than water, but infinitely soluble in water. …