Today's News

Former U.S. Rep. Heather Wilson collected nearly half a million dollars in questionable payments from four federally funded nuclear labs after she left office, the Energy Department's inspector general says in a new report.

Wilson failed to provide documentation for the work she did to earn $20,000 a month from the Los Alamos and Sandia national labs in New Mexico from January 2009 to March 2011, the report said. Officials at the Nevada Test Site and Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee acknowledged there "were no deliverables" associated with $30,000 the two labs paid Wilson. Sandia had Wilson lobby for more defense dollars, an apparent violation of her contract, the report said.

In total, nearly $450,000 in questionable payments were identified, the bulk from Los Alamos and Sandia.

In a statement, LANL defended Wilson and her work.

“LANS, LLC has reimbursed the government approximately $195,000 in potentially unallowable costs related to the consulting arrangement with Heather Wilson,” the statement said.

Tim Tebow may still have a future in the NFL after all.

The New England Patriots seem to think so and plan to sign him on Tuesday if he passes a physical.

He won't be a starting quarterback, of course, with Tom Brady on hand in Foxborough. But certainly he's an intriguing reclamation project — yet another chance for coach Bill Belichick to torture the New York Jets, who failed to find a role for Tebow last season.

And that could make for quite a Boston Tea-bow Party.

A person familiar with the situation told The Associated Press on Monday that Tebow will join the Patriots' minicamp on Tuesday and sign with the team, pending the medical exam. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because no official announcement had been made. Even when Tebow signs, there is no guarantee he will play for the Patriots.

ESPN first reported that Tebow would sign with New England.

Former Broncos general manager Ted Sundquist sees the logic in the move.

Area nonprofit organizations will receive more than $180,000 from Los Alamos National Security (LANS), LLC during a recognition event beginning at 9:30 a.m. June 12, at Fuller Lodge in downtown Los Alamos.

LANS contributions are determined by the number of volunteer hours logged by Los Alamos National Laboratory employees and retirees through a web-based organization called VolunteerMatch and through the Los Alamos Retired Seniors Volunteer Program (RSVP).

Deputy Laboratory Director Beth Sellers is scheduled to be the keynote speaker and present awards. Sellers also will recognize the top volunteers and nonprofit organizations.

“The genuine care and commitment laboratory employees and retirees have for their communities are clearly demonstrated by the number of hours volunteered to these nonprofit organizations,” said Kurt Steinhaus, director of the Community Programs Office, which manages the laboratory’s volunteer program.

Since the laboratory joined VolunteerMatch and RSVP in 2007, nearly 3,000 Los Alamos employees and retirees reported more than 1.2 million volunteer hours. In 2012, more than 269,000 hours of volunteer service were reported through the lab’s Vecinos volunteer program. Vecinos is Spanish for neighbor. Additionally,