Nation

Rollovers This Month Can Still Count For 2014

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IRS News:

  • Tax-Free Transfers to Charity Renewed For IRS Owners 701/2 or Older

PHOENIX – Certain owners of individual retirement arrangements (IRAs) have a limited time to make tax-free transfers to eligible charities and have them count for tax-year 2014, the Internal Revenue Service said today.

IRA owners age 70½ or older have until Wednesday, Dec. 31 to make a direct transfer of part or all of their IRA distributions to an eligible charity.

The Tax Increase Prevention Act, enacted Dec. 19, extended for 2014 the provision authorizing these qualified charitable distributions (QCDs). Read More

Local Swimmer Competes With Some Of America’s Best

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Los Alamos Charger Aquatics relay with Dax Hill. Courtesy photo

SPORTS News:

Sarah Lott, a junior at Los Alamos High School, was given an opportunity to compete in the Oklahoma Elite Pro-Am Swim meet Dec. 18-21 in Edmond.  

Forty clubs from 20 states raced in this meet including teams from New York down to Florida over to Arizona and California. This competition was unique in that there were professional swimmers (vying for monetary rewards in each event) seeded with amateur athletes looking to better their times and possibly qualify to swim in the top heat during finals with the pros.  Read More

Udall, Heinrich Announce $324 Million For WIPP

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U.S. SENATE News:

Legislation signed by president includes $104 million more than administration’s budget request

 

WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Senators Tom Udall and Martin Heinrich announced that the president has signed legislation providing $324 million for recovery and operations at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in Carlsbad.
 
Earlier this year, Udall, a member of the Appropriations Committee, and Heinrich had requested the funding to ensure recovery efforts can continue so the facility can safely resume operation and accept waste from Los Alamos National
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Dateline Los Alamos: Top Science News Of 2014

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LANL postdoctoral researcher Elena Guardincerri, right, and undergraduate research assistant Shelby Fellows prepare a lead hemisphere inside a muon tomography machine, which can peer inside closed containers and provide detailed images of dense objects such as nuclear materials or other items of interest. The detector, developed at Los Alamos, uses muons — tiny particles generated when cosmic rays interact with Earth’s atmosphere — to do its work, providing a simple, passive system that can be used to thwart nuclear smugglers or look inside the cores of damaged nuclear Read More

Mysteries Of ‘Molecular Machines’ Revealed

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A picture of a membrane protein called cysZ determined with Phenix software using data that could not previously be analyzed.Courtesy/LANL

LANL News:

Scientists are making it easier for pharmaceutical companies and researchers to see the detailed inner workings of molecular machines.

“Inside each cell in our bodies and inside every bacterium and virus are tiny but complex protein molecules that synthesize chemicals, replicate genetic material, turn each other on and off, and transport chemicals across cell membranes,” said Tom Terwilliger, a Los Alamos National Laboratory Read More

False Radiological Alarm In WIPP Underground

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WIPP News:

At approximately 7:40 a.m. today, a portable continuous air monitor (CAM) alarm activated in the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) underground.

Shortly after the alarm, Radiological Control (Rad Con) Technicians wearing appropriate personnel protective equipment, entered the underground, performed radiological surveys, collected additional air monitoring data and examined the CAM before declaring it a false alarm. As a precautionary measure, all WIPP personnel were evacuated from the underground when the initial alarm was received.

Personnel exiting the underground Read More

One Million Curies Of Radioactive Material Recovered

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Rick Day of LANL’s International Threat Reduction Group and the Off-Site Source Recovery Project (OSRP) holds a non-radioactive training mockup of what a typical cobalt-60 source might look like. The source is similar to what OSRP team members recovered from a site in Maryland in late 2014, putting the number of Curies recovered as part of the project above 1 million since the project began in 1999. OSRP recovers and disposes of unwanted radioactive sealed sources, eliminating a potential threat that could be used by terrorists to create ‘dirty bombs.’ Courtesy/LANL Read More

Udall, Heinrich Secure Critical PILT Funding

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U.S. SENATE News:

  • PILT helps counties provide services including schools and public safety

WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Senators Tom Udall and Martin Heinrich announced that the president has signed legislation that fully funds the Payment in Lieu of Taxes program (PILT) for 2015.

New Mexico counties rely on PILT to provide services, including schools, roads, and public safety. Udall, a member of the Appropriations Committee, and Heinrich are strong advocates for the PILT program because of how important it is to New Mexico communities, and they have pushed hard to ensure funding would be available Read More

IRS Offers Help Selecting A Tax Preparer

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IRS News:

PHOENIX – With the filing season approaching, the Internal Revenue Service joined with national tax organizations to provide people with new options to get information and tips on selecting tax professionals and avoiding unscrupulous preparers.

The effort includes new information available at IRS.gov/chooseataxpro, including a list of consumer tips for selecting a tax professional. There will also be a new gateway page with links to national non-profit tax professional groups, which can help provide additional information for taxpayers seeking the right type of qualified Read More

DOE Announces 22 New Projects To Enable Emissions Reductions And Improve Energy Efficiency

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DOE News:

  • ARPA-E Invests $60 Million to Detect and Measure Methane Emissions and Develop Local Thermal Management Systems

 

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Energy Department’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) today announced $60 million in funding for 22 innovative new projects aimed at detecting and measuring methane emissions and developing localized thermal management systems that reduce the energy needed to heat and cool buildings.
 
The projects are funded through ARPA-E’s two newest programs: Methane Observation Networks with Innovative Technology to
Read More