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U.N. Security Council Consideration of North Korea's Violations of its Nuclear Treaty Obligations

Description: Since early 1993, North Korea has refused to allow inspections of its nuclear facilities by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). This is contrary to North Korea's obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and its 1992 safeguards agreement with the Agency. Following North Korean obstruction of an inspection in March 1994, the IAEA referred the issue to the U.N. Security Council. The Clinton Administration is set to propose that the Council act against North Korea, possibly… more
Date: April 6, 1994
Creator: Niksch, Larry A.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Managing Regional Growth: Is There a Role for Congress?

Description: Regional growth management is largely addressed at he local and state levels, driven by a myriad of concerns. Many of these concerns re driven by the concept of sprawl, and pit expansion of suburban development against protection of open space, agricultural activities, and amenity values. Local and state policies to these concerns are also diverse.
Date: January 4, 1999
Creator: Zinn, Jeffrey A.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Right to a Clean Environment Provisions in State Constitutions, and Arguments as to a Federal Counterpart

Description: The issue arises occasionally whether it might be desirable to amend the U.S. Constitution to add an environmental provision - such as one declaring an individual right to a clean environment. Some attention was given this issue during the 1970s, when over a dozen states adopted clean environment or other environmentally oriented provisions in their constitutions. Our focus here is solely personal right to a clean environment provisions and the questions they raise. Are they self-executing, or … more
Date: February 23, 1999
Creator: Meltz, Robert
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Capital Gains Taxes: An Overview

Description: The capital gains tax has been a tax cut target since the 1986 Tax Reform Act treated capital gains as ordinary income. An argument for lower capital gains taxes is reduction of the lock-in effect. Some also believe that lower capital gains taxes will cost little compared to the benefits they bring and that lower taxes induce additional economic growth, although the magnitude of these potential effects is in some dispute. Others criticize lower capital gains taxes as benefitting higher income i… more
Date: August 30, 1999
Creator: Gravelle, Jane G.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Excise Taxes on Alcohol, Tobacco, and Gasoline: History and Inflation-Adjusted Rates

Description: This report provides inflation-adjusted excise tax rates for alcohol, tobacco, and gasoline products. The base for computation is November 1951. All of the above cited commodities had rate increases effective for that date under the Revenue Act of 1951. The adjustments show what the tax rates would be in 1999 if they had been increased to reflect inflation
Date: April 22, 1999
Creator: Talley, Louis Alan & Cashell, Brian W.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Spinning the Web: The History and Infrastructure of the Internet

Description: The Internet is an international, cooperative computer "network of networks" that links many types of users, such as governments, schools, libraries, corporations, hospitals, individuals, and others. No single organization owns, manages, or controls the Internet. However, the Internet is not free. The major costs of running the network are shared by its primary users: universities, national laboratories, high-tech corporations, and governments.
Date: August 12, 1999
Creator: Tehan, Rita
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Year 2000 Computer Problem: Selected Internet Addresses

Description: The Year 2000 computer problem, also called "Y2K" or the "millennium bug," describes a situation created over the last 30 years in the computer industry. Generally speaking, it means that some computers will not recognize the year 2000 as a valid date. This report is an annotated list of government (local, state, federal, and international), industry, small business, media, and grass-roots Internet sites which address various aspects of the Year 2000 computer problem.
Date: June 18, 1999
Creator: Tehan, Rita
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Hong Kong: Sino-British Disputes and Implications for U.S. Interests

Description: On Oct. 7, 1992, Hong Kong's new Governor, Christopher F. Patten, unveiled a set of proposals to expand the voting franchise in Hong Kong and broaden the scope of other democratic initiatives. The People's Republic of China, which resumes sovereignty over Hong Kong on July 1, 1997, has objected strenuously to the proposals, claiming they are a violation of the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration on the Question of Hong Kong. British and Hong Kong officials deny this, stating that the proposals … more
Date: September 24, 1993
Creator: Dumbaugh, Kerry
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Marine Dead Zones: Understanding the Problem

Description: Very low levels of dissolved oxygen (hypoxia) in bottom-water "dead zones" are natural phenomena, but can be intensified by certain human activities. The largest hypoxic area affecting the United States is in the northern Gulf of Mexico near the mouth of the Mississippi River, but there are others as well.
Date: November 23, 1998
Creator: Dandelski, John R. & Buck, Eugene H.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Disease Funding and NIH Priority Setting

Description: Research at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has strong political support, but a heated debate rages over the allocation of NIH funds among various diseases. NIH contends that decisions are made based on scientific opportunity while critics of the NIH process charge that spending often follows current politics and political correctness.
Date: September 10, 1998
Creator: Johnson, Judith A.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Federal Timber Harvests: Implications for U.S. Timber Supply

Description: The importance of federal timber has been debated at length over many years. The federal government owns about 20% of U.S. timberlands, concentrated in the west, and about 30% of U.S. timber inventory (and 44% of the softwood inventory). Declines in federal harvests in recent years, and legislation to end federal harvests, have led to concerns about the impacts on forest health and on the economy. The national impacts appear to be relatively modest, but local and regional effects could be subst… more
Date: March 10, 1998
Creator: Gorte, Ross W.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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High-Level Nuclear Waste Disposal - A Fact Sheet

Description: The Federal government's high-level waste disposal program is designed to build a permanent repository for highly radioactive waste from nuclear power plants and defense facilities. The Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 (NWPA) created an office in the Department of Energy (DOE) to develop this repository, to be paid for by a fee on nuclear-generated electricity.
Date: November 4, 1993
Creator: Holt, Mark
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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The Chip Mill Industry in the South

Description: Chip mills turn trees into chips for paper, particle-boards, and exports. While the federal government does not collect data on a chip mill industry, chip production in the South has apparently been expanding. The timber supply appears sufficient to allow some increased harvests, but could be depleted by continued industrial expansion. The federal government does not directly regulate timber cutting but could become engaged if requirements of the Clean Water and Endangered Species Acts were tri… more
Date: June 10, 1998
Creator: Gorte, Ross W.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Federal Sales of Natural Resources: Pricing and Allocation Mechanisms (1998)

Description: Although the federal government. ended FY1997 with a budget surplus, pressures to realize federal budget savings persist. Many question whether federal resource prices should be set to increase the public returns from the sale or use of those resources or at least to avoid financial losses. This report describes the systems used by the federal government to price its resources (timber, forage for livestock grazing, recreation uses, various categories of minerals, commercial fisheries, and water… more
Date: December 11, 1998
Creator: Gorte, Ross W.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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The Department of Energy's Tritium Production Program

Description: Tritium is a radioactive isotope of hydrogen used to enhance the explosive yield of every thermonuclear weapon. Tritium has a radioactive decay rate of 5.5% per year and has not been produced in this country for weapons purposes since 1988.
Date: September 10, 1998
Creator: Rowberg, Richard E. & Lau, Clifford
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Federal Land and Resource Management: A Primer

Description: Four federal agencies administer most of the U.S. government's land. The National Park Service administers the Park System for recreation use and preservation. The Fish and Wildlife Service manages wildlife refuges primarily for protecting and improving fish and wildlife habitats. The Bureau of Land Management manages the public lands for sustained yields of multiple uses - grazing, recreation, timber, and fish and wildlife. The Forest Service similarly manages the national forests. Most forest… more
Date: December 22, 1998
Creator: Gorte, Ross W.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Restructuring Electricity Markets, Public Power, and Tax-Exempt Bonds: An Economic Analysis

Description: Tax-exempt bonds subsidize public power's cost of capital and enable it to lower price. The subsidy is economically beneficial (enables public power price to reflect the true cost of electric service) only if the private market fails to provide the correct amount of electricity. In general, the private market does provide the correct amount of electricity; in those cases when it does not, the tax-exempt bond subsidy is unlikely to correct the problem. Tax-exempt bond legislation over the last 3… more
Date: June 10, 1998
Creator: Zimmerman, Dennis
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Health Care Fact Sheet: International Health Spending

Description: Numerous indicators are used to make international comparisons of health spending. The two most often used show: 1) health spending as a share of a nation's overall economy percent of GDP); and 2) a nation's real (adjusted for inflation and exchange rates) per capita spending.
Date: November 15, 1993
Creator: Rimkunas, Richard
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Organic Foods and the Proposed Federal Certification and Labeling Program

Description: In mid-December 1997, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) published in the Federal Register a proposed rule to establish national standards for the marketing of organically produced foods. 1 The purpose of the rule is to give consumers confidence in the legitimacy of all products sold as organic, permit legal action against these who use the term fraudulently, and increase the supply and variety of available organic products, especially of meat and poultry products,
Date: September 8, 1998
Creator: Rawson, Jean M.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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