Today's News

Bandelier National Monument and Pajarito Mountain Ski Area are both hosting events Saturday.

After a year’s hiatus due to the Las Conchas fire, Bandelier National Monument’s Fall Fiesta is back with both new and familiar activities for the whole family. This year’s theme is “Celebrating Nature through Art and Culture.”

“We’re looking at really tying together the Native cultural aspects with the Spanish cultural aspects of the region and to do concerted outreach and to make this sort of the destination event for that outreach,” Public Information Officer Rod Torrez said. “We will also include the natural history of the park as part of it as well. I think hopefully we’ll have something that covers a wide range of Bandelier’s history.”

The event will include Pueblo and Hispanic cultural demonstrations, games, traditional dancing and arts at the park. Artist demonstrations will include tinwork and pottery. Gary Roybal demonstrates moccasin making while his son, also Gary, exhibits his turkey calls. Turkeys played a big part in Bandelier’s history.

Friends of Bandelier and representatives from Valles Caldera National Monument will focus on the park’s natural history, and a group with rescued raptors will be on hand.

The folks in charge of building the Chemistry Metallurgy Research Replacement facility are acting like the project will be deferred for five years.

That may be the case or maybe not.

The House and Senate Armed Service Committees put funding in for the project for the FY13 budget, but a continuing resolution passed by Congress last week earmarked no funding for the CMRR-NF.

In fact, Steve Fong of the Los Alamos Site Office who helped run the project said $120 million of the $200 million in funding earmarked for the project has returned to Washington.

Fong made the statement at a semi-annual public meeting that was required by a settlement agreement brokered by the New Mexico Environment Department between a coalition of six activist groups and the National Nuclear Security Administration and the Los Alamos National Laboratory.

Fong then announced this would be the final meeting.

That did not sit to well with some of the activists.

“We don’t believe these meetings should end,” said Joni Arends from Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety in Santa Fe. “We need to get everybody to the table and have a discussion about this.”

Nearly 20 runners just beat out the Tuesday night rainstorm at the Atomic City Roadrunners’ Pace Race.
Just as the final racer finished the 3-mile race, which started on San Ildefonso Road near Big Rock Loop, rains hit North Mesa.
The best predictor in Tuesday’s race was made by Marin Kelly. Kelly finished with an adjusted prediction error of nine seconds on the 1-mile course, well ahead of David Kratzer’s next-best prediction error of 23 seconds.
Kelly was also the fastest finisher on the 1-mile course with her time of 8:32. Bob Weeks finished in 12:58.
On the 3-mile course, Roxana Candia had the fastest finish (23:18). Zach Medin finished in 24:17.
The next Pace Race is the final regularly scheduled race of the season. It will be at Canyon Rim Trail Tuesday night.
More information can be found at the Roadrunners’ website, atomicrunners.com, or by calling 672-1639.

Despite losing by four touchdowns last season, the Los Alamos Hilltopper football team had a turning point of sorts in its 2011 contest against the Belen Eagles.
Los Alamos could use a boost like that again. Tonight, it will get that chance.
The Hilltoppers will face the Belen Eagles in a Class 4A match-up. Kickoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. at Sullivan Field.
Los Alamos is heading into tonight’s contest off an impressive showing a week ago. Los Alamos thumped the Kirtland Central Broncos for homecoming, 34-0, to improve to 2-2 on the season.
But while the Hilltoppers went in as favorites last Friday, they will be the underdogs against a solid Eagles squad that is currently ranked No. 6 in the state.
The situation was similar for the Hilltoppers a year ago when they traveled to Belen. In that game, Belen grabbed a 35-8 victory, but the game wasn’t as one-sided as the final score would make it seem, with the Hilltoppers moving the ball fairly effectively on offense, although those drives would stall except for the final eight-play, 76-yard drive to the end zone.
That contest marked a turnaround of sorts for the Hilltoppers and the last hurrah for the Eagles, whose season started off promising but quickly unraveled.