Washington, DC - Dear Rusty:  For a number of years I lived and worked in Germany.  I paid into their version of social security.  As far as I know I will be eligible to receive German benefits either in a lump sum or monthly amount when I reach the age of 65.  If that happens can you tell me how this will affect my social security benefits? Signed ~ International worker

Imperial, California - Emergency health information for you and your family may be needed at a moment's notice. Make sure that key information is up to date, accurate and handy — it may help you get the care you need in a medical emergency.

Sacramento, California - California Attorney General Xavier Becerra and New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman today secured a federal court ruling requiring national energy efficiency standards go into effect. Attorneys General Becerra and Schneiderman led a coalition that sued the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) on June 13, 2017 for refusing to implement these standards in violation of the law. The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California ruled that DOE violated its error correction regulation under the Energy Policy and Conservation Act by failing to publish in the Federal Register finalized energy efficiency standards for four products: portable air conditioners, uninterruptible power supplies, air compressors, and commercial packaged boilers.

Gaithersburg, Maryland - The U.S. Commerce Department’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has awarded its first funds for a research consortium focused on the development of new materials to enable novel computing and storage technologies. NEW LIMITS, for NEW materials for LogIc, Memory, and InTerconnectS, seeks to create innovative solutions that will allow U.S. semiconductor producers to remain on the cutting edge.

Washington, DC - A competition for radical ideas in the fight against blindness will move to its next phase by challenging participants to build functioning human retina prototypes. The National Eye Institute (NEI) 3-D Retina Organoid Challenge (NEI 3-D ROC 2020) is a $1-million federal prize competition designed to generate lab-grown human retinas from stem cells. Organoids developed for the competition will mimic the structure, organization, and function of the human retina, the light-sensitive tissue in the back of the eye. NEI is part of the National Institutes of Health.

Washington, DC - Today, the Department published a Request for Proposal in the Federal Register (#2018-03116) for the fundraising, project management, design, construction, operation, and disassembly and removal of a USA Pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).