Thompson Ridge Fire Declared 100 Percent Contained
BAER Assessment Team sifts through ash from the Thompson Ridge Fire. Courtesy photo
Staff Report
The Thompson Ridge fire was officially declared 100 percent contained last night.
Mop-up and patrol will continue.
While many wildfires cause minimal damage to the land and pose few threats to the land or people downstream, some fires result in damage that requires special efforts to reduce impacts afterwards. Loss of vegetation exposes soil to erosion; water run-off may increase and cause flooding. Soil and rock may move downstream and damage property or fill reservoirs putting community water Read More
IRS Summertime Tax Tips Available Through August
IRS News:
PHOENIX – Even though taxes may not be on your mind, the IRS wants to help you with your 2013 federal tax planning now.
Summer is a good time for you to learn ways to reduce your taxes.
Beginning July 1, the IRS will offer its annual Summertime Tax Tip series of useful information affecting millions of taxpayers. Tax Tip subscribers receive a new Tip via email three times a week during the summer.
IRS Tax Tips are plain language messages that are easy to understand. They often include links to helpful IRS.gov references, IRS YouTube videos and podcasts.
- Sample Tax Tip topics this summer
NM Governor Orders Flags Flown at Half Staff to Honor Arizona’s Fallen Firefighters
STATE News:
Gov. Susana Martinez has ordered that all flags in New Mexico be flown at half-staff from sunrise July 2 to sundown July 5 in honor and mourning of the Granite Mountain Interagency Hotshot Crew Firefighters.
The thoughts and prayers of all New Mexicans go out to the families and friends of these fallen heroes and we honor them for their courageous service, she said.
EXECUTIVE ORDER 2013-026:
WHEREAS, nineteen members of the Granite Mountain Interagency Hotshot Crew, part of the Prescott Fire Department, lost their lives Sunday, June 30th, 2013, while Read More
Los Alamos Police Blotter: June 20–June 26, 2013
The following information is provided by the Los Alamos Police Department.
Neither arrests nor charges indicate a conviction, and neither means that a person is guilty of the charges filed against them.
JOHNNIE SANCHEZ
June 20 at 8:24 p.m. / Police arrested Johnnie Sanchez, 35, of Los Alamos in Central Park Square and charged him with possession of drug paraphernalia.
JAMES REAGAN
June 22 at 10:54 a.m. / Police stopped James Reagan, 48, of Los Alamos near West Road and Trinity Drive for speeding and charged him with driving on a suspended or revoked license.
June 23 Read More
Hilltalkers Excel at National Tournament
Members of the Los Alamos High School Hilltalkers. Photo by Margo Batha
Speech and debate awards announced. Photo by Margo Batha
LAPS News:
Seven Los Alamos High School speech and debate students traveled to the National Forensic League National Tournament June 16-21 in Birmingham, Ala.
The group consisted of Daniel Ahrens, Antonia Batha, Sam Baty, Ali Berl, Naftali Burakovsky, Katie Haynes and Jessie Zhao. Margo Batha and Janet Newton, who coach the speech and debate team, stated this was the Hilltalkers “most successful national tournament since 2003.”
Katie Haynes competed in six preliminary Read More
Santa Fe Opera Apprentice Artists Fill Fuller Lodge
Santa Fe Opera apprentices Rocky Sellers of Memphis, Tenn., and Kate Tombaugh of Streator, Ill., performed to a stand room crowd at Fuller Lodge Sunday. Photo by Carol A. Clark/ladailypost.com
Staff Report
The 57th season for the Santa Fe Opera opened Friday, June 28 and two apprentices performed Sunday afternoon to a full house at Fuller Lodge in Los Alamos.
Tombaugh recently made her solo debut at New York City’s Carnegie Hall upon winning the Barry Alexander International Vocal Competition.
Luján Addresses Doubling of Student Loan Rates
U.S. Rep. Ben Ray Luján
U.S. CONGRESSIONAL News:
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Rep. Ben Ray Luján of New Mexico’s Third District released the following statement today on the doubling of interest rates on federal student loans.
“As of today, the interest rates on all new federal student loans will double from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent, adding thousands of dollars to the cost of a college education for millions of young adults. It is deeply disappointing that Congress has yet to find a solution to this problem that makes college more affordable and does not make it harder for New Mexico’s Read More
Letter to the Editor: Flower Larceny a Shameful Act
Wanton destruction, apparently by someone taking pleasure in defacing a flower garden at Central Park Square Sunday. Courtesy photo
Flower Larceny
My predecessor, Tom Netuschil, established a custom at Central Park Square of planting Marigolds, thousands of them, every spring.
We have continued this tradition. It is an expensive and elaborately organized project, with very precise specifications on planting, mulching, irrigation, etc. Our highly capable maintenance crew, Cesar and Howard, cumulatively spend weeks carefully Read More
Mountain Lion Visits Backyard Habitat in Los Alamos
A mountain lion drinks water from a local backyard habitat. Over the last year, Hari Viswanathan setup a camera trap to observe the critters visiting his parent’s pond on Barranca Mesa in Los Alamos. The National Wildlife Federation (NWF) took notice of the amazing variety of wildlife visiting Selvi Viswanathan’s NWF Certified Backyard Habitat and asked Hari to write an article about it. Here is the article that describes the history of Selvi’s Certified Backyard Habitat, with links to certifying your own yard, and preventing problematic wildlife encounters: https:////blog.nwf.org/2013/06/mountain-lion-seeks-backyard-oasis/ Read More
NM Governor Addresses Arizona Firefighter Deaths
STATE News:
Albuquerque – New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez released the following statement this morning about the tragic deaths of Arizona Hotshot Firefighters this weekend in the Yarnell Hill Fire in Central Arizona:
“I was saddened to hear the news about the deaths of 19 wildland firefighters in Arizona, members of the Granite Mountain Hot Shots, based in Prescott. They were killed when the wind suddenly shifted as they fought the fast-moving Yarnell Hill Fire, sparked by lightning.
“For New Mexicans, this news hits especially close to home because Read More
Science Café Brings Ravens and Visitors to PEEC
Ravens seem to love flying, sometimes doing acrobatics for the fun of it. Photo by Bob Walker
Saturday’s presentation about ravens captures audience attention at PEEC. Photos by Katie Watson
PEEC News:
Ravens proved a popular topic for the jam-packed PEEC lecture room Saturday, June 29, when Science Café came up to Los Alamos from KNME in Albuquerque.
People signed up from all over Northern New Mexico—the maximum of 70 people was reached a week before the event and many were turned away. Some wait-listed visitors took the place of a few no-shows, and it was delightful to welcome people Read More
KKOB Broadcasts Attributes of Los Alamos
Katy Korkos, center left, of the Los Alamos Chamber of Commerce and Carolyn Mangeng of the Los Alamos Creative District Committee spoke about the attributes of Los Alamos during a live interview on KKOB with Billy Cornelius and Scott Stigler Friday at the Community Building, 20th Street and Central Avenue. KKOB reports a listening audience of more than 40,000 people. Courtesy photo
KKOB‘s Billy Cornelius and Scott Stigler set up operations Friday at the Community Building to interview Los Alamos business and community leaders. Courtesy photo Read More
NNSA Announces Selection of Centers of Excellence for Academic Computational Science Partnerships
NNSA News:
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) has announced the selection of its six new centers of excellence whose primary focus will be on the emerging field of predictive science.
Six universities were selected either as a Multidisciplinary Simulation Center (MSC) or as a Single-Discipline Center (SDC). The MSCs will receive $3.2 million and the SDCs will receive $1.6 million each year for five years under NNSA’s Predictive Science Academic Alliance Program II (PSAAP II) agreement. The six universities include:
- University of Utah, Salt Lake City,
Congressional Delegation Seeks to Help New Mexicans with Genetic Brain Disorder
CONGRESSIONAL DELEGATION News:Yang: Change – We Want It; We Avoid It …
Change: We Want It; We Avoid It; We Always Want It For Others, But Only Maybe For Ourselves? — A Few ExamplesThis is a much longer post than usual; changes take time and space.
“Major changes in an entity [such as an organization, my words] take place on the boundaries. The most basic element of relationship is the boundary ‘not.’… Because all relationships are predicated in part on boundary ‘nots,’ changing the location of ‘not’ changes the entity’s relationships with itself and what it is not.” — Kenwyn Smith, in “Philosophical Problems in Thinking About Read More
Bandelier Weekly Nightwalks in Frijoles Canyon Begin July 5
Frijoles Canyon. Courtesy/NPS
BANDELIER News:
Solo Traveler: The Stripper’s Keys
Solo Traveler: The Stripper’s KeysAs a solo traveler, I’ve learned the hard way that there is no one to count on but myself. That means I have to be über-responsible, always alert and on guard.
Traveling in second- and third-world countries, every day is a training ground. Literally, the ground must be watched carefully, or I will fall, trip, drop into a hole, or have my feet slide out from under me. Falling is by far my biggest travel fear, and I seem to have a trip per trip, no matter how careful I am.
The other great fear is losing something extremely valuable, like the Read More
Governor Shares Her Own New Mexico True Story
STATE News:
- Governor Urges New Mexicans to enter New Mexico True Stories Contest
Santa Fe – Gov. Susana Martinez is sharing her own New Mexico True Story today to encourage people to travel this 4th of July, and remind New Mexicans that there are only six weeks left to enter the NM True Stories contest.
“I am so excited to add my NM True Story to the many amazing and rich travel stories that New Mexicans have shared over the past six weeks,” Martinez said. “And I want everyone to know how fast and easy it was to do! I encourage all New Mexicans to head out on your own New Mexico adventure Read More
‘Downtown Friday Nights’ High-Speed Camera Demonstration Dazzles Crowd at Bradbury
During the June 28 ‘Downtown Friday Nights’ at the Bradbury Science Musesum, Chris Danley demonstrated what people miss in the blink of an eye. During the ‘What’s in a Click?: The Wonders of High Speed Imaging.’ Danley, a UNM graduate student working at Los Alamos National Laboratory in P-23 group, showed the crowd new advances of high-speed cameras and the things scientists discover by using them. Members of the public engaged in live demonstrations using a 11,500 fps camera and learned about the work LANL is doing with these devices and the history of this Read More
Warnings Issued For Flooding and Mudflows
Flooding Downstream of Burned Areas Precautions:
NOTE: It is important that residents take steps to protect themselves and their property from flooding and mudflows.
Residents living near or around a recently burned area need to:
• Monitor local weather reports and public safety bulletins, local road closures, emergency notifications, weather alerts, follow local county and city advisories, and act accordingly.
• Use a “weather radio” or smart phone “weather apps” that monitors “all hazards” alerts issued by the NOAA-National Weather Service:https:////www.nws.noaa.gov/nwr/. Read More
