While riding a bike is a healthy and environmentally friendly way to reach the Lab, once here employees should take a moment to ensure they are parking their bikes in the proper place. The photo above — taken near the cafeteria ATM machine — is an example of where bikes should not be parked. Parking a bike along a stairway makes it difficult for pedestrians who need to use the railing to navigate the stairs. Lab policy prohibits bikes being parked in pathways or in areas that could compromise access to life-saving or emergency equipment (such as fire hydrants, fire alarms, and emergency rescue boxes). They are also prohibited inside building corridors, stairwells, entrances and exits.
Go to OurSafety for more on the Lab's safety efforts.
Blackberry Gate: New, Shorter Hours for Employee-Lane EntranceStarting Monday, the Blackberry Gate employee lane will be open from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday. Outside of those hours, employees entering the Lab via this gate should use the visitor lane, following the same procedures as used for the employee lane. The visitor lane will remain open 24 hours, seven days a week. The change in hours is the result of an Office of Science cut in security funding for the Lab. For more information, contact Joe Reilly at x 7791.
People: EETD’s Sathaye Panelist at Governors’ Climate SummitCalifornia Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is hosting a climate summit next Tuesday and Wednesday, which seeks to develop partnerships between the U.S. and other countries to fight global warming. Among the panelists is Jayant Sathaye, with Berkeley Lab’s Environmental Energy Technologies Division. He will discuss “Sectoral Cooperation to Combat Global Warming” and participate in a breakout panel on energy. Sathaye was among those who received the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for his participation on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The summit includes several U.S. governors and world leaders. More>
In The News: Lab Helps Stablize Berkeley's Employment Rate [Daily Californian] With the national unemployment rate ballooning to a 14-year high and 240,000 payroll jobs dropped in October, Berkeley has felt the impact of the recession, but not to the extent of the rest of the state or country. The city's unemployment rate held steady at 6.4 percent from July through September. Some business leaders said that Berkeley is more stable economically because its largest employers — including Berkeley Lab — are less affected by national economic conditions than most other industries. More>
To accommodate conduit-installation work at the Bevatron, several parking spots will be barricaded in the adjacent lot on Monday and Tuesday of next week. The spots will be blocked off from 6 a.m. to 3 p.m. on both days. It is anticipated that more closures will occur in this area over the coming weeks.
In response to the volatility that has spread through the financial markets, the HR Benefits Office has scheduled a series of workshops to help employees develop investment strategies. The next one will be held on Monday at 10 a.m. in the Building 50 Auditorium. Future meetings are scheduled for Nov. 25 and Dec. 18.
A brown-bag meeting for users of the speech recognition program Naturally Speaking will take place on Monday at 12:30 p.m. in the Perseverance Hall Addition. For more information about the user group, contact Ciccina Guagliardo (x6490). Prospective users can contact Ergonomics Program Manager Ira Janowitz (x6071).