Local News

At a Senate budget committee hearing earlier this year, senators wanted to hear what Energy Secretary Steven Chu thought about their own states’ strong points as a basis for solving the energy problem.

What about carbon capture, a strategy for getting energy from coal with less carbon going into the atmosphere, Chu was asked.

A “reasonable chance of success,” he answered.

On nuclear power, Chu said, “The price is still very high,” but he added that it was “a technology certainly worth testing.”

ALBUQUERQUE ­— New recommendations aimed at saving taxpayer money and making New Mexico’s government more efficient call for merging some state departments, doing away with more than a dozen boards and commissions and changing the public school funding formula.

A committee on government efficiency submitted recommendations to Gov. Bill Richardson on Thursday. He appointed the committee last month with the goal of finding ways to streamline state government.

People in sympathy with the suffering people of Haiti in the wake of the devastation from the earthquake this week may wish to give some consideration to a local effort that has been providing permanent help in Port Au Prince since 2006.

Harold Salomon, executive director of he American Haitian Association for Medical, Economical and Educational Support (AHAMES), said Thursday that he is trying desperately to get information not only about his family there, but also about the staff of the organization’s facility.

The League of Women Voters is hosting a forum at 7 p.m. today in the Student Center on the UNM-Los Alamos campus.

The forum will feature the pros and cons of the Los Alamos Public Schools referendum and the UNM-LA 2 mil levy election currently underway in Los Alamos County.