LLNL - The True Story -

Anonymously contributed: From: LLNL Public Affairs Office Sent: Tuesday, April 12, 2011 4:13 PM To: E-line Subject: MESSAGE TO EMPLOYEES FROM CHAIRMAN NORM PATTIZ Members of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory community: I am writing to let you know that George Miller has informed the Board of Governors that he will be stepping down as Laboratory director in October 2011. It is with mixed emotions that the LLNS board has accepted George's decision. While we deeply regret his decision, we respect and appreciate him for his contributions to Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and to the nation and we wish him the best as he transitions to the next phase in his personal and professional life. George has served as the Laboratory director since 2006, both under the longtime management of the University of California and as the first president of Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC. Under his leadership, the Laboratory has delivered exceptional science and engi...

Anonymously contributed: From: LLNL Public Affairs Office Sent: Tuesday, April 12, 2011 4:00 PM To: E-line Subject: MESSAGE FROM THE DIRECTOR TO ALL EMPLOYEES Dear LLNL employees, I would like to tell you that I have submitted a letter to the Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC (LLNS) Board of Governors informing them of my decision to step down as Laboratory director in October 2011. This has been a difficult decision for me, but I believe this is the best time for me personally and for the Laboratory to make this change. It has been my great pleasure and honor to be an employee of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and serve the University of California and our nation for almost 39 years. More than 20 of those years were as an associate director and the last five as Laboratory director and president of Lawrence Livermore National Security. It is now time for me to move on to another stage in my life. Throughout my career, I have been privileged to participate in ...

Anonymously contributed: So oh wise one who holds all the answers to LLNS, LANS, our 401k, and UC 403b's what happens to our money with this event takes place which shouldn't be all that long from now and surely will be before most of you turn 59.5 years old and are able to take withdrawns without penalty If you have 5 minutes, this is well worth the watch. http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=183985

From: LLNL Public Affairs Office Sent: Thursday, April 07, 2011 02:25 PM To: E-line Subject: MESSAGE FROM THE DIRECTOR ON FEDERAL BUDGET E-LINE: Message from the director on the federal budget As you have probably heard, the latest Continuing Resolution (CR) will expire Friday, April 8, at midnight. Unless a budget or new CR is passed by Congress and signed by the President, there will be a temporary lapse in government funding (aka "shutdown"). I would like to let you know what this would mean for us on Monday, April 11. As a government contractor, we are able to use existing funding in our contract to continue operations. This is sufficient to last a few weeks, which may be long enough for this issue to be resolved. So regardless of what you hear on the news over the weekend, please come to work on Monday. If there is a lapse in funding, I will provide you with additional information next week, based on guidance I receive from NNSA.

Anonymously contributed: So, if the government shuts down, what are the plans for LLNL? Please no wise-crack comments, just trying to hear what the plan is for after April 8. Do all but the security forces stay home (if the government shuts down)?

Anonymously contributed: From: LLNL Public Affairs Office Sent: Tuesday, April 05, 2011 03:17 PM To: E-line Subject: UPDATE ON SALARY ADJUSTMENT INCREASE E-LINE: Update from the director on salary adjustment increase Today, we were notified that the Secretary of Energy has decided to allow the Laboratory to increase available funds to be used for salary adjustments and promotions from the previously authorized level of 0.5 percent up to a total limit of 2.0 percent. DOE also has authorized the Laboratory to apply these increased promotion and salary adjustment funds retroactively to the beginning of the CY2011 pay cycle. This decision was approved to help achieve parity with the salary adjustments received by federal employees. Per the guidance received, these funds are not intended to be used as merit increases; they are for adjustments to address equity and retention issues. Our plan is to review current salaries with respect to the approved use of promotion and adjustme...

Anonymously contributed: Memo to SNL Non-Represented Employees re Salary Freeze Colleagues – On March 9, 2011, I communicated to you that certain aspects of the salary freeze previously announced by the Secretary of Energy were under review by DOE. I am very pleased to announce that the Secretary has decided to authorize a 1.5 percent base salary special adjustment fund for calendar year 2011. This fund was approved to help achieve parity with the salary adjustments received by Federal employees through legislated “STEP” increases. This 1.5 percent authorization is in addition to the previously authorized base salary funds for promotions and special adjustments, as long as the total amount does not exceed our previously approved CY11 compensation increase plan amount. Salary increases from this authorization will be retroactive to December 31, 2010, the original effective date of the previously planned salary increases. This authorization will allow us to provide the base salary ...

Anonymously contributed: China 'to overtake US on science' in two years David Shukman Science and environment correspondent, BBC News China is on course to overtake the US in scientific output possibly as soon as 2013 - far earlier than expected. That is the conclusion of a major new study by the Royal Society, the UK's national science academy. The country that invented the compass, gunpowder, paper and printing is set for a globally important comeback. An analysis of published research - one of the key measures of scientific effort - reveals an "especially striking" rise by Chinese science. The study, Knowledge, Networks and Nations, charts the challenge to the traditional dominance of the United States, Europe and Japan. The figures are based on the papers published in recognised international journals listed by the Scopus service of the publishers Elsevier. In 1996, the first year of the analysis, the US published 292,513 papers - more than 10 times China'...

I don't know how many have received the invitation to the UPTE presentation in Los Alamos, so I thought I post it here: To a reprise of UPTE’s presentation to the National Academy of Sciences Committee to Review the Quality of the Management and of the Science and Engineering Research at the Department of Energy’s National Security Laboratories: “Effects of Privatization on the DOE/NNSA Labs’ Science and National Security Missions” Date: Thursday, April 7 Place: Best Western Hilltop House Hotel 400 Trinity Dr at Central, Los Alamos Time: 5:30 pm

Anonymously contributed: An Update on the NAS review from Nuclear Weapons Monitor March 23, 2011 Nat’l Academy Panel Takes Aim at Fee Issues in Lab Visit What, exactly, is the National Nuclear Security Agency getting for the money it spends on its management contracts at Lawrence Livermore and Los Alamos National Laboratories? That was the implicit question behind an exchange Tuesday between former Lawrence Berkeley lab director Charles Shank and Paul Hommert, current head of Sandia National Laboratories. Shank co-chairs a National Academy of Sciences panel looking at science and engineering management at the nuclear weapons laboratories, and during a meeting at Sandia yesterday, Shank said the panel's members were trying to figure out what the government was getting for the money it spends on management contracts at Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories, more than double---and in Los Alamos' case nearly triple---the $25 million a year it pays Lockheed Martin ...

Anonymously contributed: From Weapons Complex Monitor March 17, 2011 Nat'l Academy's Weapons Lab Panel Hits The Road The National Academy of Sciences panel tasked with studying the health of the National Nuclear Security Administration's three nuclear weapons laboratories and the impact privatizing management has had on the institutions will hold public meetings at all three of the labs it is studying over the next month or so. The panel, which is chaired by former Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Director Charles Shank and UCLA professor Kumar Patel, will host a meeting next week at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque and will visit Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories in April. At the March 22-23 Sandia meeting, the panel will hear testimony from a handful of lab officials, including current lab director Paul Hommert as well as retired lab director Tom Hunter and Sandia Site Office Manager Patty Wagner. The panel will visit Los Alamos April...

Anastasio Reorganizes LANS With 3-months left at LANS, Anastasio forms a "Bechtel" Principal Associate Directorate (PADCAP) and "selects" a Bechtel Manager without posting the position. It appears the "lame duck" Anastasio has begun his pardons and favors. Come one, come all from Bechtel to join PADCAP. SUBJECT: Organizational Restructuring Today, I am announcing a new senior leadership position - Principal Associate Director for Capital Projects (PADCAP) - and a restructuring that will shift the project management functions from the Project Management & Site Services (ADPMSS) directorate, together with the directorate for Environmental Programs (ADEP) in its entirety, to the new PAD organization. I have selected Paul Henry as the PADCAP. Paul is a Bechtel senior manager who brings 32 years of construction and enterprise management experience to the Lab. He will relocate from Pueblo, Colorado, where he has served most recently as project manager on the...

Anonymously contributed: In an unprecedented communication, LANS has announced a 2-percent pay increase to all LANS employees. Make sure you give full-credit, appreciation, and accolades to LANS Management for making this happen! Great Financial News! If you have not noticed already, employees’ take-home pay in effect increased by 2 percent in 2011 as a result of the Tax Relief Act of 2010, which lowered workers’ Social Security (FICA) tax withholdings from 6.2 percent to 4.2 percent. The employer portion remains the same at 6.2 percent.

Anonymously contributed: Livermore lab watchdog group appeals decision to allow research on bioterror agents By Suzanne Bohan Contra Costa Times 03/11/2011 11:01:09 PM PST Tri-Valley CAREs, a Lawrence Livermore Laboratory watchdog group, on Friday appealed a district court's ruling that Lawrence Livermore Laboratory can study deadly pathogens such as anthrax. The appeal, filed with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, challenges a September ruling of the U.S. District Court in Oakland that permits the Department of Energy to proceed with research at secured facility called Biosafety Level-3, or BSL-3. The Energy Department oversees the national security lab. The research involves the study of microbes such as anthrax, plague, Q fever and other deadly pathogens. The group is requesting that the appeals court reverse the earlier ruling and require a comprehensive environmental assessment before the research with the microbes continues. Tri-Valley CAREs describes the work as "biow...

Anonymously contributed: Congress Seen Cutting Obama's Nuke Budget Friday, March 11, 2011 – Global Security Newswire Recently defeated budget bills suggest fiscal 2011 funding for the maintenance of U.S. nuclear weapons will ultimately fall below levels sought by the Obama administration, the Albuquerque Journal reported on Thursday (see GSN, March 3). President Obama requested $7 billion for the National Nuclear Security Administration's weapons stockpile activities in the current budget cycle, which ends on September 30. Congress has yet to approve a final budget for the current fiscal year and the federal government is operating under a continuing funding resolution set to expire next Friday. The fiscal 2011 spending budget passed by the House of Representatives would provide $6.7 billion for nuclear stockpile work. Though the amount is less than what Obama sought, it would provide a 7 percent increase over fiscal 2010 funding levels. A separate Senate budget proposal would ...