Conner and Henderson get the shove from LLNL

See you in the funny papers....

Looks like Conner and Henderson get the shove from LLNL. It's official and I hear there is a PARTY next week! These guys are frauds and should be sued. They (and their "parent" companyies) should have to repay every penny that they fraudulently took from the US taxpayers. Absolutely nothing but misery left from their "vacation" to California.

Will the LLC protect UC against environmental fines?

"In addition, the board discussed the status of a $36.6 million fine levied against the Department of Energy and Los Alamos National Security, LLC, or LANS, by the New Mexico Environment Department after a canister of waste related to Los Alamos National Laboratory released detectable radiation in February 2014.

LANS, which was formed in part by the university, has operated the Los Alamos lab since 2006. The existence, however, of LANS — a limited liability company — is “designed to protect (the university) against these kinds of things,” according to Regent Norman Pattiz."

http://www.dailycal.org/2015/03/19/napolitano-apologizes-regents-vote-to-exempt-veterans-from-nonresident-tuition-at-thursday-meeting/

Edward Snowden documents and note about Sandia hacking Apple:

Edward Snowden documents and note about Sandia hacking Apple:

http://www.valuewalk.com/2015/03/cia-apple-inc-security/
In a 2012 seminar, Sandia Labs made a presentation titled “Strawhorse: Attacking the MacOS and iOS Software Development.” The lecture illustrated how a comprised version of Xcode makes it possible to get access to iPhone and iPad data, or create “backdoors” on Mac computers, as well as turn off key security features on Apple devices. Exactly how the agencies planned to get developers to use the comprised software code was not specified.

Another Electrical Near Fatality at LANL Involving a Post-Doc

Colleagues:

Last Friday evening (3/13/15), there was an electrical incident in one of the P-Div labs at TA-53. A postdoc noticed a “tingling” when he was working on the (supposedly) grounded case of a stepper motor. Upon investigation he found ~60 volts a.c. on the outside of the case. The investigation is ongoing, so many details are not known.

The points that I want to make are twofold:

1) He was not expecting anything to be amiss, but received a shock anyway. It occurred Friday evening, when there are very few people around. Having said that, you can understand how this could have ended up very badly. My expectation is that if you are doing any lab work after hours ,that there be another person in the near vicinity.

2) As it turns out, he doesn’t appear to exhibit any ill effects, although his Deputy Group leader is taking him to Occ. Med. as a precaution. However, no one was notified until Monday morning. Anytime any untoward electrical event happens (or any safety related event for that matter), someone in your line management must be notified as soon as practical. By notification, I mean talking to a human being; voice mail, email, texts, etc. are insufficient. Your line manager will then follow up by notifying me and the FOD; both of which are required. You and your line management need to jointly ensure that you know how to contact them whenever a safety event occurs. This can be by posting numbers in your workspaces or putting them into your cellphone. If you can’t find them, my Blackberry number is appended below.

Please be safe out there and if you ever have a question as to whether you should let your line management know about a concern, then the answer is yes, let them know. Telling us about something that requires no action is much better than the opposite.

Doug

R. Douglas Fulton, Ph.D.
Division Leader
Physics Division
Los Alamos National Laboratory

White House official selected as LLNL Deputy Director of S&T

White House official selected as LLNL Deputy Director of S&T
Newsline - 3/13/15

Patricia Falcone, the associate director for National Security and International Affairs in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), has been selected as deputy director for Science and Technology at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL).

Falcone will join the Lab on April 7.

"Falcone's proven leadership and expertise in national and international security matters, combined with her commitment to and experience in sustaining and developing science, technology and engineering excellence for critical national missions were prominent among many factors in her selection," said Lab Director Bill Goldstein in announcing the appointment.

During her tenure at OSTP - a position appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate - Falcone advised on a wide range of national security science and technology issues including the health of national security science and technology capabilities in federal and national laboratories, universities and industry. Prior to serving as associate director, she was on assignment from Sandia National Laboratories to OSTP, working on science and technology issues associated with nuclear security.

"Dr. Falcone's breadth and depth of knowledge, her terrific contacts across the defense and intelligence communities, and her superb judgment all contributed to an outstanding performance in her leadership of national-security science and technology for the White House, said John P. Holdren, OSTP director and science and technology adviser to the president.

While at Sandia she served in a variety of technical and management positions and was named a Distinguished Member of the Technical Staff in 1989. Falcone has a Bachelor of Science in Engineering in aerospace and mechanical sciences from Princeton University and earned both a Master of Science and doctorate degrees in mechanical engineering from Stanford University. Throughout her career, Falcone has been connected with Lawrence Livermore and arrives with deep knowledge of the National Nuclear Security Administration and its laboratories.

As a member of the LLNL senior management team, Falcone will serve as the principal advocate and champion of the Laboratory's science and technology base, and oversee the strategic development of its capabilities. She will be responsible for the Laboratory's portfolio of world-class ST&E activities, for collaborative research with academia and the private sector, the Institutional ST&E Roadmap, and internal investment portfolio, including the Laboratory Directed Research and Development Program.

In announcing Falcone's appointment, Goldstein also thanked Greg Suski for "outstanding support over the last year in the acting DDST role and in supporting the transition in the DDST Office."

Layoff notices?

Layoff notices? Anybody hear anything?

UC Hires Fresh Counsel To Combat Retiree Lawsuit

UC Hires Fresh Counsel To Combat Retiree Lawsuit
Independent
March 12, 2015

In its battle with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory retirees who would like to return to University of California healthcare, the University has hired a law firm that knows a thing or two about fighting: Crowell & Moring LLP, which represented the Blackwater Security Co. after it was accused of unnecessarily killing Iraqi civilians in 2007.

Last week, the University terminated the law firm that had been representing it, San Francisco based Hanson Bridgett LLP.

Observers wondered whether recent court setbacks prompted the University to make the move was unclear. Rulings in Oakland Superior Court, where the class action healthcare case is being heard, have tended to favor the arguments of the retirees. The University did not explain or announce the change in law firm other than to file a required notice with the court.

UC’s new lawyers are from an international firm with some 500 attorneys and extensive experience in dealing with government contracts. Crowell & Moring is headquartered in Washington, D.C., with offices in San Francisco, New York and London, among other major cities.

After Blackwater employees killed 17 Iraqi civilians in a 2007 Baghdad shootout, Crowell & Moring successfully defended the company (today called Academi) against a range of accusations, including complaints worth more than $1 billion under the False Claims Act.

The False Claims defense was so successful that Crowell & Moring summarizes it on its website as a case study.

Now it will try to help UC prevail against LLNL retirees.

The retiree lawsuit, first filed in 2010, is intended to return the retirees to UC health care programs. Those programs were available to them from the time of the Laboratory’s founding in 1952 until 2008, when a for-profit consortium took over for the University as manager of the national defense laboratory.

The contract change led to industrial style health care coverage, which retirees considered a violation of promises made during their careers at the Laboratory. They formed a grass roots organization, raised funds and found legal counsel to file suit.

The University has contested the suit from the start. In rulings, the court confirmed, over UC objections, that the retirees have standing to sue. More recently, it allowed the retirees to convert their suit to a class action, which UC opposed.

As of last week, as the window closed for retirees to choose to remain in or to remove themselves from the lawsuit class, only 132 had chosen to “opt out.” That left slightly more than 4,400 retirees and surviving beneficiaries for purposes of continuing the suit.

Attorneys for the retirees last week presented a trial plan as requested by the court. University attorneys are expected to present their plan this week. The next conference with the judge is scheduled for April 1.