Today's News

After Superstorm Sandy left so many New Yorkers without power, New York City and phone provider AT&T partner to install 25 solar powered charging stations over the summer.

Today
Carol Burns, Los Alamos National Laboratory Chemistry Division Leader, will present a talk on “Nuclear Forensics.” 6 p.m. at the monthly dinner meeting of The Military Order of the World Wars Chapter 229, at the Los Alamos County Research Park, Hot Rocks Java Cafe.

Summer Pilates class: 5:30 p.m. Class meets downstairs at the Los Alamos Jewish Center for one hour, $10. Bring a yoga mat, water and wear comfortable clothes.

Summer Family Evenings at PEEC, 6:30 p.m. Instructor Dave Yeamans teaches a family birding class. Learn how to spot birds, create bird habitats at home and how to identify some local species. Free for PEEC members, $5 per family for non-members. For more information, visit PajaritoEEC.org, call 662-0460, or email Programs@PajaritoEEC.org.
Wednesday
Sign-ups available for Bandelier Day Camp for kids who’d like to explore Bandelier National Monument, 8:30 a.m. to noon. Campers must have completed first grade, and can only attend one year’s session. Camp is free and runs until June 22. For details and to sign up, contact Chris Judson at the park at 505-672-3861, ext. 513.

Brown Bag lunchtime lecture — Dick Malenfant “Experiments with the Dragon Machine.” Noon at the Bradbury Science Museum. This talk is in recognition of National Safety Month.

This past weekend, local aviators tried to light the spark for local youth, with an interest in flying.
The Experimental Aircraft Association Chapter 961, hosted the annual Young Eagle Flight Rally at Los Alamos Municipal Airport.
Many local pilots took youth, between the ages of eight and 17, up for a 20-minute spin, in a variety of aircraft, during the three hour period.
As a parent, it is hard to smile and wave as your lips tremble during lift off. Once aloft, the planes seemed to disappear in the sunlight, as your heart travels outside your body for those 20 minutes. The youth were all smiles upon their return with great stories to share.
Will Fox took one student over Mesa Public Library, her favorite spot to be during the summer.
Another young man hoped to see his house in White Rock.
Programs like this offer youth a chance to experience an opportunity like no other. In many cases, an opportunity some could not afford, especially for families with multiple children.
One pilot commented how he has provided more than 100 Eagle Flights throughout the years. Wouldn’t it be marvelous to know if that sparked a passion that is soaring, all pun intended, today.
So well done, flyboys and thanks for such a neat memory.

Faces were pretty long during a recent meeting of the interim legislative Water and Natural Resources Committee and not because of the gloomy reports on snowpack and reservoir levels, the smoke hovering from wildfires, and the grim struggles among water users. No, it was the growing consensus among experts that this isn’t a drought; climate data tell us that the last 50 years have been wetter than normal. The new normal is also the old normal.
Writing in a recent column, Sen. Jerry Ortiz y Pino, an Albuquerque Democrat, launched into the implications of getting used to one to three inches of rain a year instead of the six to 10 inches of past years.
That’s a good discussion to have, of course, but the same experts have been telling us this for several years. They have practically talked themselves hoarse, and we don’t hear it because we’d rather hear “drought” than “desertification.” At least drought holds out the possibility of relief.
This dawning realization could work its way into the lawsuit Texas v. New Mexico and Colorado, the latest attempt by Texas to squeeze New Mexico like an orange.