Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "GAO reviewed the audit reports covering the financial statements of the Legion of Valor of the United States of America, for the fiscal year ended April 30, 2003. GAO's review disclosed no reportable instances of noncompliance with the financial reporting requirements of the law. The audit reports included the auditor's opinion that the financial statements of the corporation were presented fairly in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles."

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "GAO reviewed the audit reports covering the financial statements of the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation for fiscal years ended December 31, 2003, and 2002. GAO found no reportable instances of noncompliance. The audit report included the auditor's opinion that the financial statements of the corporation were presented fairly in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles."

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "GAO reviewed the audit reports covering the financial statements of the National Mining Hall of Fame and Museum for Fiscal Year 2003. GAO found no reportable instances of noncompliance. The audit report included the auditor's opinion that the financial statements of the corporation were presented fairly in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles."

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "GAO reviewed the audit reports covering the financial statements of the National Tropical Botanical Garden for Fiscal Years 2003 and 2002. GAO found no reportable instances of noncompliance. The audit report included the auditor's opinion that the financial statements of the corporation were presented fairly in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has faced challenges for many years in managing its grants, which constitute over one-half of the agency's budget, or about $4 billion annually. EPA awards grants through 93 programs to such recipients as state and local governments, tribes, universities, and nonprofit organizations. In response to concerns about its ability to manage grants effectively, EPA issued its 5-year Grants Management Plan in 2003, with performance measures and targets. GAO was asked to assess EPA's progress in implementing its grant reforms in four key areas: (1) awarding grants, (2) monitoring grantees, (3) obtaining results from grants, and (4) managing grant staff and resources. To conduct this work, GAO, among other things, examined the implementation of the reforms at the regional level for two Clean Water Act programs in 3 of EPA's 10 regional offices."

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "GAO reviewed the audit reports covering the financial statements of the National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements for Fiscal Year 2003. GAO found no reportable instances of noncompliance. The audit report included the auditor's opinion that the financial statements of the corporation were presented fairly in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles."

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "GAO reviewed the audit reports covering the financial statements of the Little League Baseball, Incorporated, for Fiscal Years 2003 and 2002. GAO found no reportable instances of noncompliance. The audit report included the auditor's opinion that the financial statements of the corporation were presented fairly in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles."

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In November 2005, we issued our report on the results of our audit of the Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) financial statements as of, and for the fiscal years ending, September 30, 2005 and 2004, and on the effectiveness of its internal controls as of September 30, 2005. We also reported our conclusions on IRS's compliance with significant provisions of selected laws and regulations and on whether IRS's financial management systems substantially comply with requirements of the Federal Financial Management Improvement Act of 1996. A separate report on the implementation status of recommendations from our prior IRS financial audits and related financial management reports, including this one, will be issued shortly. The purpose of this report is to discuss issues identified during our audit of IRS's financial statements as of, and for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2005, regarding internal controls that could be improved for which we do not currently have any recommendations outstanding. Although not all of these issues were discussed in our fiscal year 2005 audit report, they all warrant management's consideration."

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "GAO reviewed the audit reports covering the financial statements of the Paralyzed Veterans of America for Fiscal Years 2003 and 2002. GAO found no reportable instances of noncompliance. The audit report included the auditor's opinion that the financial statements of the corporation were presented fairly in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles."

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "GAO reviewed the audit reports covering the financial statements of the American Ex-Prisoners of War for Fiscal Year 2003. GAO found no reportable instances of noncompliance. The audit report included the auditor's opinion that the financial statements of the corporation were presented fairly on a modified cash basis of accounting."

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "GAO reviewed the audit reports covering the financial statements of the National Fund for Medical Education for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2003. GAO found no reportable instances of noncompliance. The audit report included the auditor's opinion that the financial statements of the corporation were presented fairly in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Money laundering and terrorist financing can severely affect the nation's economy and also result in loss of lives. To combat these transnational crimes, the Treasury Department (Treasury) and its component bureau, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), have key roles. Section 330 of the USA PATRIOT Act encourages the federal government to engage foreign jurisdictions in negotiations to ensure that foreign banks and financial institutions maintain adequate records to combat international financial crime. Treasury plays a lead role in facilitating such efforts. In accordance with its various responsibilities codified by section 361, FinCEN is to coordinate with its foreign counterparts--financial intelligence units (FIU). This report describes (1) Treasury's approach for negotiating with foreign jurisdictions, (2) how FinCEN has contributed to establishing FIUs in foreign countries and enhancing the capabilities of these units, and (3) what actions FinCEN is taking to maximize its performance as a global partner."

None

We use TOUGH+/GasH2O to study the effects of a heat sourceburied in the Martian permafrost to evaluate the possibility ofestablishing a wet zone of liquid water, in which terrestrialmicroorganisms could survive and multiply. Analysis of the problemindicates that (1) only a limited permafrost volume (not exceeding 0.35 min radius) is affected, (2) a "wet" zone with limited amounts of liquidwater de-velops (not exceeding 8 and 0.7 kg for a 250 W and a 62.5 Wsource, respectively), (3) the wet zone per-sists for a long time,becomes practically stationary after t = 20 sols because of venting intothe Martian atmosphere, and its thickness is limited and decreases slowlyover time, (4) a "dry" zone (where SG>0.9) evolves, continues toexpand (albeit slowly) with time, but its extent remains limited, and (5)the ice front surrounding the wet zone is self-sharpening. For a range ofinitial conditions investigated, evolution of the liquid water massoccurs at approximately the same rate, reaches roughly the same maximum,and occurs at about the same time (10 to 20 sols; 1 sol = 24.39hours).

Toxic materials in DOE sites pose a significant threat to DOE personnel who must inspect these locations. Working in confined spaces further complicates the situation especially when the workers must wear heavy and cumbersome protective suits.

The purpose of this DOE-funded effort is to develop continuous processes for solvent extraction of coal for the production of carbon products. The largest applications are those which support metals smelting, such as anodes for aluminum smelting and electrodes for arc furnaces. Other carbon products include materials used in creating fuels for the Direct Carbon Fuel Cell, metals smelting, especially in the aluminum and steel industries, as well as porous carbon structural material referred to as ''carbon foam'' and carbon fibers. During this reporting period, coking and composite fabrication continued using coal-derived samples. These samples were tested in direct carbon fuel cells. Methodology was refined for determining the aromatic character of hydro treated liquid, based on Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) and Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR). Tests at GrafTech International showed that binder pitches produced using the WVU solvent extraction protocol can result in acceptable graphite electrodes for use in arc furnaces. These tests were made at the pilot scale.

During this reporting period, efforts focused on improving our understanding of the basic operating principles of the lamella classifier. It was determined from testing that product grade is primarily a function of the classifier configuration and operation and the feed grade has relatively minor influence. Additionally, within the range of the testing conducted, the feed density did not seem to have an impact of the yield. Thus, the product composition will not be strongly influenced by the variability of the feed, an important consideration for heterogeneous ponded fly ash. Three types of chemically and functionally different thermoplastic polymers have been chosen for evaluation with the fly ash derived filler: high density polyethylene, thermoplastic elastomer, and polyethylene terphthalate. The selections were based on volumes consumed in commercial and recycled products. The reference filler selected for comparison was 3 {micro}m calcium carbonate, a material which is commonly used with all three types of polymers. A procedure to prepare filled polymers has been developed and most ({approx}80%) of the polymer/filler blends have been prepared. Selected samples of filled polymers were subjected to SEM analysis to verify that the fly ash derived filler and the calcium carbonate were well dispersed. A stainless steel mold …

This report explores design options for compact fast burner reactors that can achieve low conversion ratios. Operational characteristics and whole-core reactivity coefficients are generated and contrasted with low conversion ratio designs of previous studies. A compact core point design is then selected and detailed reactivity coefficients are displayed and discussed. The effectiveness of fast spectrum systems for actinide transmutation has been well documented. The key advantage of the fast spectrum resides in the severely reduced capture/fission ratios. this inhibits the production of the higher actinides that dominate the long-term radiotoxicity of nuclear waste. In conventional fast burner studies, the transmutation rate was limited by constraints placed on the fuel composition. In an earlier phase of this study the entire range of fuel compositions (including non-uranium fuel) was explored to assess the performance and safety limits of fast burner reactor systems. In this report, similar fuel compositions are utilized for application in compact configurations to achieve conversion ratios below 0.5.

Argonne National Laboratory is carrying out a research program to create, prepare, and evaluate catalysts to promote Fischer-Tropsch (FT) chemistry--specifically, the reaction of hydrogen with carbon monoxide to form long-chain hydrocarbons. In addition to needing high activity, it is desirable that the catalysts have high selectivity and stability with respect to both mechanical strength and aging properties. It is desired that selectivity be directed toward producing diesel fraction components and avoiding excess yields of both light hydrocarbons and heavy waxes. The goal is to produce shape-selective catalysts that have the potential to limit the formation of longchain products and yet retain the active metal sites in a protected 'cage'. This cage also restricts their loss by attrition during use in slurry-bed reactors. The first stage of this program was to prepare and evaluate iron-containing particulate catalysts. This activity report centers upon this first stage of experimentation with particulate FT catalysts. (For reference, a second experimental stage is under way to prepare and evaluate active FT catalysts formed by atomic-layer deposition [ALD] of active components on supported membranes.) To date, experimentation has centered upon the evaluation of a sample of iron-based, spray-dried catalyst prepared by B.H. Davis of the Center of …

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 an individual employed as a part-time instructor at a community college may be compensated for simultaneous service as a member of the board of directors of a municipal utility district (RQ-0409-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 Wells Independent School District is subject to the policy of the City of Alto's natural gas company regarding payment deadlines and penalty assessments or to the deadlines and late charge set forth in Government Code chapter 2251 (RQ-0411-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 county to remove an abandoned mobile home from county right-of-way (RQ-0412-GA)

This report analyzes ways to improve antitrust laws through S.557. These include, but are not limited to: mitigating regional shortages of oil petroleum and natural gas products, creating a federal task force to analyze information-sharing in the industry, and make U.S. antitrust laws applicable to the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).

Magma flow in a dike rising in a crack whose strike runs from a highland or a ridge to an adjacent lowland has been modeled to determine the effect of topography on the flow. It is found that there is a distinct tendency for the flow to be diverted away from the highland end of the strike toward the lowland. Separation of the geometric effect of the topography from its effect on lateral confining stresses on the crack indicates that both contribute to the effect but that the effect of stress is less important. Although this analysis explains a tendency for volcanic eruptions to occur in low lands, it does not preclude eruptions on highlands. The particular configuration modeled mimics topography around the proposed nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, so that the results may indicate some reduction in the volcanic hazard to the site.