Today's News

 After struggling at times early in the season, the offense of the Los Alamos High School softball team has come to life in recent weeks, and it is leading to wins. 

That continued Tuesday on the road against Moriarty High School, as the Hilltoppers struck for 20 runs in a 20-5 victory. 

The offensive explosion included 16 hits and four walks, and four Hilltoppers also reached base on errors on defense by the Pintos. 

LAHS struck for 2 runs in the first inning to get going, and then 8 runs in the second and 9 more runs in the third inning to put the game away. The Hilltoppers added 1 more run in the fourth inning to get to 20 runs for the game, ending the game via the mercy rule after four innings of play. 

On the mound, Savana Luster had a good outing for the Hilltoppers, giving up 5 runs on eight hits and striking out five batters. 

After giving up 3 runs in the bottom of the first inning and 2 more runs in the second inning, she settled down, keeping Moriarty scoreless for the final two innings.

A Los Alamos National Laboratory spokesman has confirmed an explosion that resonated throughout the downtown area of Los Alamos County at noon Thursday was the result of ongoing experiment tests.

“The laboratory did conduct an explosives experiment on Thursday, April 5 at approximately noon,” according to LANL Spokesman Kevin Roark. “The laboratory uses high explosives in a wide variety of dynamic experiments, conducting several hundred experiments per year. While the vast majority of these experiments use small amounts of explosives, some are large enough to be heard off site.”

Roark also said the lab makes preparations beforehand to make sure sound is kept to a minimum and safety to a maximum.

“Before all experiments, the laboratory does an extensive assessment of atmospheric conditions in order to limit the possibility of off site sound intrusions. All experiments are conducted under strict regulations and with the utmost in safety, security and environmental stewardship,” Roark said.

MOJAVE, Calif. (AP) — Virgin Galactic has conducted the first powered test flight of its new space tourism rocket.
Virgin Galactic tweets that the spaceship named Unity was carried aloft by its mother ship and released over California's Mojave Desert early Thursday.

The company says the spacecraft achieved supersonic speed before the pilots shut down the engine and it glided back to Mojave Air & Space Port.

This was Virgin Galactic's first powered flight since the 2014 crash of its original spaceship that killed one of its two pilots.

Unity was previously flown on test flights in which it remained attached to the mother ship and others in which it was released to glide without lighting the rocket.

Virgin Galactic founder Richard Branson tweets that "Space feels tantalisingly close now."
 

ALBUQUERQUE (AP) — Four candidates for governor of New Mexico are offering solutions to the state's struggle to provide adequate care for the severely disabled, the elderly and residents coping with addiction and mental health issues.

Specialty health care providers will sponsor a Thursday afternoon discussion about shortages in the health care workforce, burdens of an aging state population and responses to Medicaid reforms sought by the Trump administration.

Candidates are discouraged from criticizing each other directly or wandering off topic.

The forum also is likely to delve into mental health issues linked to violence and the opioid addiction crisis in a state with the highest overdose death rate in the western U.S.

Three Democrats and one Republican are vying to succeed GOP New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez, who cannot run for a third consecutive term in fall elections.

U.S. Congressman Steve Pearce of Hobbs — the sole Republican — will eventually confront one of three Democratic candidates: Congresswoman and former state health secretary Michelle Lujan Grisham of Albuquerque, state Sen.

Joseph Cervantes of Las Cruces and former media executive Jeff Apodaca of Albuquerque.