Computing Sciences Division Director Horst Simon, left, shows O'Malia a computer simulation during his visit.

Senate Subcommittee
Staffer Tours the Lab

Scott O'Malia, a staff member of the U.S. Senate Energy and Water Development Appropriations Subcommittee, visited the Lab yesterday to get an overview of major facilities, including NERSC, the Joint Genome Institute, the Advanced Light Source and the Joint Dark Energy Mission. O'Malia has been with the Energy and Water Development Appropriations Subcommittee for about one year. He handles almost all DOE issues for the subcommittee, including National Nuclear Security Administration and the Office of Science.

Remember: Don’t Come
To Work on Monday

King

The Lab will be closed on Monday in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday. “Today at Berkeley Lab” will resume publication on Tuesday, Jan. 18.

Calendar Offline
This Weekend

The Information Technologies and Services Division will be conducting calendar server hardware and software upgrades, so the service will be unavailable from 7 p.m. today to 3 p.m. Sunday. Those who use the old Netscape or Steltor Calendar client should visit the Lab’s download page to upgrade to Oracle Calendar. For questions, call the Help Desk (x4357).

Clark

U. of Texas Opts Out
Of Competition for LANL
Keay Davidson

The University of Texas has decided to opt out of a competition to choose the next manager of Los Alamos National Laboratory, removing perhaps the biggest threat to the University of California's continued — and controversial — operation of the lab. University of Texas Chancellor Mark G. Yudof plans to announce today that he will advise the system's regents at their Feb. 10 meeting in Austin not to compete for a contract to run the nuclear weapons lab, Yudof's spokesman told The Chronicle late Thursday. If the regents vote to follow that recommendation, then UC might be left standing alone by the time the competition for the next Los Alamos contract formally begins, perhaps in the next few months. Full story.

Exposed Lab Worker
Payouts Expedited
By Edward Epstein

Labor Secretary Elaine Chao pledged earlier this week to expedite payments to thousands of people, including many in the Bay Area, who may have developed cancer or other serious diseases while working at nuclear weapons research facilities. The Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program has been dogged by slow-moving bureaucracy. Chao said her department is trying to whittle a backlog of 25,000 claims from workers and their survivors. Over the past four years, the federal program has paid about $5.5 million for about 40 cases at Berkeley and Livermore Labs. Full story.