It is not in the media, but Kim Budil, LLNL Director, sent a lab-wide email this week (19th) admitting to being cited (arrested actually) for drunk driving and speeding
NNSA, the board of governors etc. have all been informed.
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...
Comments
9/22/2022 5:31 PM
Probably not. Lets be fair this has happened to many other people with clearances. You come clean with and deal with it. Hell half of DC could have the same record.
Will there be a lessons learned memo?
Will a new web safety class be designed and become mandatory for all to view on a yearly basis?
If her license gets popped she can be chauffeured into the lab like Ed Teller did for years.
Perhaps she can consult with Paul Pelosi on the ramifications of her deeds.
9/22/2022 5:31 PM
Not if she promptly reported it to the proper authorities.
“Coming clean” is when you contact EAP prior to the DUI.
I too have seen the second tier Q holders shown the door when they get a DUI. There are a lot of reasons to drink, and not to drink. Some can do it without destroying their own and other people’s lives, and some cannot. It is a well-known problem, as are the solutions.
As for Kim. She has been open and honest. Unless she has a drinking problem she will survive.
pontificated Msr. 9/25/2022 5:13 AM, who obviously has never wandered into a sports bar on game night when the home team is winning.
9/27/2022 11:20 AM
As the saying goes in academia, "Don't worry too much about getting tenure, you can always get a job at a National Lab."
I agree with you. However, 10 years ago this month, a NIF Tech was given an "an intent to dismiss" memo for drinking on site with no consultations, therapy, etc. offered. The NIF Tech committed suicide days later. Which begs the question, would this NIF Tech still be alive today raising his children if given the expected DUI considerations our LLNL Director is likely receiving now?
Your use of "begs the question" is rhetorically incorrect. It does not mean what you think it means.
And this is your take away from comments on Lab employee DUIs and suicide prevention? Thank goodness for red herrings when Lab management events are morally indefensible. Maybe 10/01/22 5:41 PM can search for language or grammar errors in the comments below as well.
from this blog in 2014:
"I had a coworker commit suicide and the division leader would do nothing for his family or even acknowledge what had happened. When the group leader of the employee who had died asked the the division leader why they were doing nothing for the family his response was "Let HR take care of that". These people have absolutely no empathy. They despise the workers and only listen to fellow managers or the so called distinguished members."
and
"It's worse than lack of empathy. They somehow contributed to the conditions leading up to the suicide, and they are worried that doing ANYTHING will be a partial admission of liability. These lab managers are much worse than just lacking empathy."
10/03/2022 5:17 AM
Only one of the "common meanings" is actually correct. The rest are used by uneducated people.
10/03/2022 5:34 PM
That is not how language works. Do you know a Linguistics professors? They can tell you that phrases take on different meanings and over time and after awhile these different meanings become accepted. This is how language evolves and "begs the question" is a prefect example of this. I will take a guess that the 5.17 AM poster is far more technically accomplished and has better educational credentials than you. How do I know, well in my experience people that commonly correct or boast about grammar rather than addressing the points raised are compensating for their lack of arguments or ability reasoning and is the only method they have to add anything. Remember this is a blog nothing more nothing less, it is not a platform for serious writing it is only for conversations. You have nothing to add to the conversation because that would require a level of cognitive ability that is far beyond you. You can correct some grammar but oddly you cannot actually write a paragraph or anything else of substance. Ironic is it not? I am going to take a guess that you are not exactly a particularly "educated" person. You are the student in the philosophy class that after reading "Beyond Good and Evil" by Nietzsche would only say "the sentences are too dense!" after being asked by the professor to give a summary of the book.
10/03/2022 5:34 PM"
Once again a midwit.
Midwits are truly cursed to be neither blissfully dumb nor reap the benefit of being of superior intelligence or a genius. They can grasp general concepts, but are less capable of digging deeper, understanding nuance, or adapting quickly to complex problems, leading to an entire middle class of perpetually unhappy, often vaguely angry people.
Then there are the rules for HRP or a commercial driver.
I wonder what was being consumed when the decision was made to give out 1/2 of the employees retention bonuses and the other1/2 not. I wonder why people on site can no longer work together or train the new hires???
10/04/2022 5:09 PM
And how would you know?
10/04/2022 10:08 PM
How would I know what?
Kim made a mistake, she was extremely transparent about this mistake. How about instead of throwing stones at others, you try a bit of empathy? Maybe a bit of honest support.
She has been an excellent director, clearly cares about the lab, its mission, and its people.
Yes, there are unfair situations at the lab and abuses, and quite a few managers who should be out the door. That doesn’t mean taking it out on the new director for past injustices…
Usual leftist “rules for thee” thinking and actions… she will walk and nothing will come of it… but lord help you if you misgender the mentally ill or say something on NewsLine that breaches narrative.
To be fair to the Director I do no think she believes any of this woke stuff at all. She puts out the emails to cover the bases but LLNL has been spared actually any of the insanity you see in other places. She knows how to say "look we are taking action" and "see I sent and email" to fight whoever but none of the actual crazy stuff never gets implemented such as the policies you see in universities and certain bay area business. Mason also seems to care less about any of this stuff. Of the DOE labs only Sandia went for this junk but that backfired on them real fast.
10/08/2022 2:34 PM
They all do, which is why taxpayers wonder "why LLNL?"
Correction noted... "Drunk loon"
How is this "woke projection"? I simply pointed out that LLNL has not been subjected to the really crazy woke CRT stuff that many other places have. A few words have been stated in emails but nothing more. If the Director was a woke loon you would know it, again I think she just sends out a an email and than does nothing more. She either does not care about the woke stuff or thinks it is nonsense. Perhaps I am wrong and you are correct. I know some people in academics, industry and the California school systems, many say it is not strop barrage of extreme woke agenda. We are not seeing that at LLNL. Heck maybe if Kim had her way that is what would happen but I doubt it.