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Today's News

  • School board tackles construction concerns

    While everyone else is thinking thoughts of summer vacation this time of year, the thoughts of the Los Alamos Board of Education have already moved on to the next school year.

    Specifically, Aug 14, the day most students go back to school.

    The board’s session was to address concerns surrounding the final construction phases at the middle school and the beginning phases of construction at Aspen Elementary.

    The chief concern among board members was making sure both middle school students and elementary students had a place to go when their schools open next year. That involved a lengthy discussion on the dilemma of moving the campus of portable classrooms that the middle school students have called home for the last two years to see service at Aspen.

    Move them too soon, when construction at the middle school isn’t completed, middle school students won’t have a place to go in August. Move them too late, neither will the Aspen Elementary students.

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  • McMillan speaks out on cyber security

     

    Los Alamos National Laboratory Director Charlie McMillan told a gathering of energy executives today that securing the electrical grid is a major concern now and it’s only becoming more serious.

    “If you look back at the last year, there were several hundred attacks on critical infrastructure,” McMillan said, addressing attendees at the Deloitte Energy Conference near Washington, D.C. “More than 40 percent of those attacks were on the energy sector.”

    Resilience and reliability of the electrical grid have become key energy security concerns at the Laboratory and are important focus areas in global security. Experience with massive amounts of data, complex systems and security technology involved in nuclear weapons research are now providing insights for grid security, McMillan said.

    “In the time it takes me to say this sentence, the external firewalls of Los Alamos will be challenged hundreds of times by adversaries. Our systems, and yours, are very attractive.” McMillan said. “But encrypting control signals on the grid is particularly challenging because any encryption scheme must be able to meet competing standards for very rapid response and high security.”

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  • LANL makes strides in cleaning runoff

    Engineer Erin English, with Biohabitats, Inc., a firm representing the Communities for Clean Water (CCW), gave the Regional Coalition of LANL Communities a progress report on Los Alamos National Laboratory’s efforts at storm water management.

    English spoke highly of the LANL stormwater team.

    “We’ve actually ended up in quite a collaborative process and have found that the LANL folks have gone far above what they had committed to doing as a result of that lawsuit, and have really looked to us for some assistance in how to manage that storm water, not only in conventional ways but perhaps in ways that give them a little more flexibility that are rooting in green infrastructure grounds,” English said.

    English believes LANL’s budget for compliance with the stormwater mitigation is approximately $10 million.

    The core members of CCW are Amigos Bravos, Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety, Honor our Pueblo Existence and the New Mexico Acequia Association, with several other groups also participating.

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  • Police Beat 05-21-13

    Police Beat items are compiled from public information contained in Los Alamos Police Department Records. Charges or citations listed in Police Beat do not imply innocence or guilt. The Los Alamos Police Department uses the term “arrest” to define anyone who has been physically arrested, served a court summons, or issued a citation.

    May 9

    9:47 a.m. — A 53-year-old Los Alamos man told police his property was damaged (less than $1,000) in the 300 block of El Conejo Street.

    10:31 a.m. — A 53-year-old Los Alamos man told police he had been the victim of a larceny (less than $2,500) in the 1300 block of San Ildefonso Road.

    3:53 p.m. — Gary Brown, 44, of Los Alamos was arrested on charges of driving on roadways laned for traffic and driving with a suspended or revoked license at Canyon and East Road.

    6:54 p.m. — Fernando Rodriguez, 31, of Los Alamos was arrested on charges of driving while under the influence of drugs and/or alcohol, driving with a suspended or revoked license, driving with an open container, and possession of controlled substance in the 2300 block of Trinity Drive.

    May 10

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  • Glow Run fun

    Participants begin the race and run past Chamisa Cheetah, Chamisa Elementary School mascot. The first Glow Run was on Saturday in White Rock. The fun included the sale of glow lights, popcorn and homemade fudge to boost the bottom line. 100 participants were registered for the run which raised approximately $1,100 in the hopes of adding a paved track to the campus in the future. 

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  • New Rotary group raises funds to benefit local fourth graders

    A newly-formed satellite group of the Rotary Club of Los Alamos called STARS (Service to All Rotary Satellite) will host a fundraising event from 4-7 p.m. Sunday June 2 at the Dixie Girl Restaurant.
    The theme of the event is “Are You Smarter than a 4th Grader?” and all members of the community are invited to join. The evening’s events will include a trivia quiz competition for all ages, as well as an all-you-can-eat pasta buffet with salad, drinks and dessert.
    Funds raised at the event will benefit a program to provide four weeks of swim lessons to all 4th graders in the Los Alamos school district, a program that was eliminated several years ago due to budget cuts.
    Tony Hinojosa, Physical Education instructor at Mountain School, has been advocating to reinstate the program. He started by appealing to the Mountain School PTA to fund the lessons for its own 4th graders.
    This year, all Mountain 4th graders were given swim lessons at the Aquatic Center. In a similar program funded by the Mountain PTA, Hinojosa took 5th graders to Pajarito Mountain for ski and snowboard lessons.

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  • Update 05-21-13

    Memorial service

    The Los Alamos High School Student Council is holding a remembrance service for Isaac Hayden at 3:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Memorial Garden. The public is invited.

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    County Council

    Los Alamos County
    Council will meet in a regular session at 7 p.m. today in council chambers.

    Arts board

    The Arts in Public Places Board has just discovered technical difficulties with the email address associated with its “Open Call for Art.” (ArtProposals@lacnm.us). All proposals must be resent and the deadline has been extended to June 7.

    Trash pickup

    In observance of Memorial Day there will be no trash or recycling collection on Monday. Put roll carts out on Wednesday.

    BPU meeting

    The Board of Public Utilities will hold a special meeting at the White Rock Town Hall at 5 p.m. Thursday. 

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  • N.M. team heads to Oklahoma

    ALBUQUERQUE (AP) — The University of New Mexico hospital is sending a 26-member team of medical, computer and security specialists to Moore, Okla., to help with the response to Monday’s massive tornado hit.
    Medical personnel who are part of the Disaster Medical Assistance Team include doctors, nurses and medical managers.
    The deployment could be for up to two weeks.
    According to the hospital, the team is part of a national system that deploys medical support to events of national significance. The hospital says the team is outfitted to treat up to 250 patients per day for up to three days without resupply. The New Mexico team has deployed to hurricanes as well as terrorist attacks, earthquakes, Olympic games and other events.

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  • Smart Meter study open to all residents

    Los Alamos County and White Rock residents are invited to sign up for the 100 Smart Meter Seasonal Study. The study, which will support global research for residential smart grids, is a partnership between DPU, Japan’s New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) and Toshiba.
    These groups, along with research partners Marketwave and iThink, are working together to measure electric usage behavior during the various seasons of the calendar year. This involves measuring electric usage behavior in response to pricing signals, called “demand response.”
    The study originally intended to focus on residents of North and Barranca Mesa, and, with an outcome of over 650 participants, project representatives from Marketwave are aiming to recruit the remaining residents of the Mesas. Recruitment will end on May 28, and representatives will use phone calls, door-to-door conversations, and flyers as means of communication with the residents.
    Now open to residents outside the Mesas, the study is in need of 100 households to participate in the year-long program. Participants will be chosen on a first-come, first-serve basis.

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  • McMillan lays out alternative plutonium strategy

    When lab director Charlie McMillan was in Washington recently, one of the items he addressed with the Senate Armed Forces Subcommittee on strategic forces had to deal with plutonium strategy.

    Last year, the Obama administration deferred the CMRR-Nuclear Facility because of escalating costs. And this year, it appears there will be a slowdown in the plutonium acquisition process for the MOX facility in Savannah.

    McMillan went into some detail about the CMRR deferment.

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