This report primarily focuses on the Department of Defense (DoD) oversight of serious incidents (such as attacks, deaths, injuries, and property damage) involving private security contractors (PSCs) in Iraq. It examines DoD?s (1) policies, procedures, and practices for reporting, investigating, and remediating those incidents and (2) efforts to identify trends and lessons learned. Because some Department of State (DoS) PSCs report their serious incidents...

In fiscal year 2006, the United States Postal Service (USPS) was responsible for discarding about 6.1 billion pieces of undeliverable-as-addressed Standard Mail (a class of bulk advertising mail that includes catalogs and circulars). Some of this mail was recycled, but a large quantity of it was treated as waste and simply thrown away. Standard Mail is increasing in prominence due, in part, to its importance to businesses, nonprofits, and others as...

This testimony discusses GAO's work on U.S. television broadcasting to Cuba. The United States has been broadcasting to Cuba for more than two decades via Radio Marti and, subsequently, TV Marti to "break the information blockade" and promote freedom and democracy in Cuba. U.S. television broadcasting to Cuba is performed by the Office of Cuba Broadcasting (OCB), which is a U.S. government entity, overseen by the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG),...

In 2005, as a result of Hurricane Katrina, more than 1,600 people lost their lives and more than a million were driven from their homes on the Gulf Coast. Tens of thousands of homes in New Orleans were flooded, many requiring either demolition or gutting before reconstruction. Nearly 3 years later, the New Orleans area still faces significant debris management issues and challenges. For example, the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality (LDEQ)...

"Children will strengthen problem solving and critical thinking skills while exploring the animal kingdom and developing creativity through color, music and sound exploration! All apps in this SuperPack have won industry awards including Academics' Choice Smart Book Award Winner, Children's Technology Review: Editor's Choice, and Parent and Teacher Choice Award Winner. This SuperPack contains 2X as many apps as the standard Launchpad!" It's time...

"The 21st century is widely heralded as the century of biology. Building on the fundamental understanding achieved in the second half of the last century, revolutionary advances are expected to improve many aspects of our lives, from clean energy and targeted, safer medicines to new industries. Prominent among emerging technologies is "synthetic biology," which aims to apply standardized engineering techniques to biology and thereby create organisms...