Today's News

The Associated Press is reporting that New Mexico’s Public Education Department made a clerical error that added S218,076.73 in extra funding to the Los Alamos Public School District’s “at-risk” students fund.
Each year, the PED gives schools a certain amount of funding to aid the district’s “at-risk” students. The funding amount is supposed to be based on the number of students the district has at that time. At-risk students are considered to be students who don’t attend school regularly, cannot speak English, or are considered living below poverty level.
In the article, the PED is said to have made an alphabetical error in its annual list, due to where they placed West Las Vegas. This resulted in Los Alamos as one of the districts that received more funding than it should and others to have received less than they should, according to the article.

The Oklahoma tornadoes earlier this week hit way too close to home for Los Alamos Police Department Cpl. Patrick Massara.
Massara’s mother, Candace Jenkins, lives just a mile and a half from Moore, Okla., which was devastated by the powerful twister that killed 24 people and leveled an elementary school and hundreds of homes.
“Mom is OK,” Massara said. “She got lucky. She is retired from the Air Force base that is located near Moore. She never left the house all day. But the following day, she went to check on friends and she said it was absolute devastation.”
The tornado missed Jenkins’ house and Massara was asked if his mother heard anything.
“She just heard the warning sirens,” Massara said.
Massara said his mother grew up in Los Alamos.
“She was raised here and she was a Hilltopper,” Massara said.
Massara, meanwhile, was working the 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. shift Monday and did not know what was going on until the late afternoon.
During a break, Massara watched the news coverage.
“A member of the family got a hold of her around 4 p.m., Massara said. “I ended up talking to her later.”

The Pajarito Environmental Education Center is hosting a three-planet event.
Mercury, Venus and Jupiter will come very close together. PEEC and the Pajarito Astronomers will be there with telescopes to help viewers enjoy this event.
The telescopes will be set up for twilight sky viewing starting about 8:45 p.m., about 45 minutes after sunset. Besides these planets, there will also be some galaxies to view.
Public is invited to dress accordingly and if the viewing is good, the event will last until around midnight.
The three planets will form a tight triangle that will fit into a 2.5 degree circle above the western horizon. After they set at around 9:35 p.m., the rings of Saturn and then the galaxies can be observed.
For more information, call PEEC at 662-0460. 

Los Alamos National Laboratory’s Bradbury Science Museum is again partnering with the National Endowment for the Arts, Blue Star Families Foundation and the Department of Defense in the Blue Star Museums program to host active duty military personnel and their families from Memorial Day through Labor Day.
“In this the 70th anniversary year celebration of Los Alamos National Laboratory, the Bradbury Science Museum is once again excited and proud to be part of the 1,800 museums throughout the United States participating in the Blue Star Museums program to thank our nation’s military personnel — and their families — for their service,” Bradbury Science Museum Director Linda Deck said.
“The museum already has a free-admission policy, but we’re participating in this program to raise awareness of the importance of honoring members of the U.S. armed services, as we share our collective history,” Deck said.
The Bradbury Science Museum features films and interactive exhibits interpreting LANL’s contributions to modern science, research and technology, including its role in the Manhattan Project and current mission in national security. The museum is open daily except Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Day.