Tri-Valley Cares needs to be on this if they aren't already. We need to make sure that NNSA and LLNL does not make good on promises to pursue such stupid ideas as doing Plutonium experiments on NIF. The stupidity arises from the fact that a huge population is placed at risk in the short and long term. Why do this kind of experiment in a heavily populated area? Only a moron would push that kind of imbecile area. Do it somewhere else in the god forsaken hills of Los Alamos. Why should the communities in the Bay Area be subjected to such increased risk just because the lab's NIF has failed twice and is trying the Hail Mary pass of doing an SNM experiment just to justify their existence? Those Laser EoS techniques and the people analyzing the raw data are all just BAD anyways. You know what comes next after they do the experiment. They'll figure out that they need larger samples. More risk for the local population. Stop this imbecilic pursuit. They wan...
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Any chance the departures are somehow related?
Also, it is alleged that John Tapia threw Rich Marquez a birthday party at a local casino using a lab purchase card and called it a conference event. In addition, it is alleged that John Tapia committed time card "irregularities" when he was being paid for the same hours expended at both the Lab and a local electric cooperative on which he served on the Board of Directors. John Tapia resigned in lieu of being terminated by the Lab - same as Rich Marquez.
It is all allegations at this point that there is a connection between Rich Marquez having an IT contract, Carolyn Zerkle having responsibility for the IT program at LANL, and John Tapia having responsibility for the warehouse operations, which include supporting the IT organization. Carolyn and Rich directed that John Tapia be noncompetively promoted to his position as a management official in the procurement organization.
In the coming days, more will be more known regarding the continuing investigation. Rich Marquez earned $492K per year before he was canned (forced to resign) John Tapia earned well over $250K before he was canned (forced to resign). These two highly paid individuals were deep in some type of activity that warranted a termination. More to come.
Los Alamos Daily Post
When millions of dollars of purchases at Los Alamos National Laboratory were called into question by Charles Montano and a fellow auditor in 2003, the governance of the lab was challenged.The investigation into procurement processes at Los Alamos National Laboratory was one of many scandals detailed in Montano’s 2015 exposé, Los Alamos: Secret Colony, Hidden Truths, a record that continues to serve as a glossary on current events.
As Montano told the story, an angry senior official refused to allow the audit to be shared with the Department of Energy in order to protect the University of California’s award fee. For his efforts, Montano got nine months of cubicle confinement and professional humiliation. And the University of California began to lose its grip on three national weapons labs."
As an employee, Charles Montano reported to line managers Carolyn Zerkle and Rich Marquez during the relevant period of time and they were involved in the disciplinary and retaliatory actions taken against Charles Montano. And John Tapia was the individual who testified to Congress that nothing was wrong when the number of items purchased didn't match the property records.
The Lab Director and Deputy Director resigned, the Bechtel/UC team won the new contract, and Rich Marquez and Carolyn Zerkle were promoted by the new Bechtel management team. And John Tapia was noncompetitively promoted by Rich and Carolyn to a senior procurement official position.
At a ceremony in the Senate Hart Building, Montano, along with Sen. Diane Feinstein, (D-Calif) and Rep. Adam Smith, (D-WA), ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee, also were honored
It was Montano's official job duty to audit lab contracts for fraud, waste and abuse. And that is exactly why Pete Bussollini was sent to federal prison when he caught committing procurement fraud. For example, Pete ordered many computer monitors that were really HD TV's for the ranch that he was going to help run for Burick, the number two man at the Lab at the time. The day the FBI showed up, Burick was found dead with a bullet to the head at the ski hill. Burick's plan was to equip his ranch with TV's and other items purchased with Lab $ and Bussollini and Alexander were the two henchmen who were convicted of their crimes. This is not in dispute.
In the coming days, more will be more known regarding the continuing investigation. Rich Marquez earned $492K per year before he was canned (forced to resign) John Tapia earned well over $250K before he was canned (forced to resign). These two highly paid individuals were deep in some type of activity that warranted a termination. More to come.
April 21, 2016 at 2:55 PM
So when does Zerkle "resign"? Something is going on with LANS that is for sure.
who gives a rats a**. This is LLNL-The True Story. Go start your own blog.
April 21, 2016 at 12:20 PM
Payback for sending us all your carpetbagging managers. It's our blog now. Get used to it. And, we'll take your lunch away too!
That has become the LANL motto in the waning days of the lab contract where corruption is as prevalent as blue meth in the fictional Breaking Bad:
Beth Sellers knew somebody who would cover up and/or be a party to avoid disclosing that she had obtained her husband a big bucks contract at LANL (who was the LANL buyer)?
Burick knew somebody (Bussollini) who would carry out his procurement fraud;
Rich Marquez knew somebody who would cover up that he has an IT contract for which he provides contract employees as a sub-sub contractor and not disclosed to LANL;
Zerkle knew somebody who would approve the noncompetitive appointment of John Tapia as a procurement manager;
Tapia knew somebody who would not question his timesheets and would approve his time sheets for THREE YEARS while he worked a second job as the head of the electric coop. The DOE contract limits a Lab employee to community service of 80 hours per calendar year; Tapia allegedly provided community service at 40 to 80 hours PER MONTH;
LANL - Breaking Bad.
Culture of arrogance. We are "scientists" so we are special. Its all starting to come together.
Great place for Science ? Not so much anymore.
April 21, 2016 at 8:06 PM
The "Big Blonde" has more power than the Lab Director. Never gonna happen.
You can fire anybody for sexist remarks...like you.
May 3, 2016 at 3:35 PM
Since when is a statement of fact a "sexist remark"? Calling names or accusations instead of engaging on a factual issue is a "progressive" hallmark. At all costs, stamp out all opposing (i.e., incorrect) thought.