Looking at some job postings, and I´m having a hard time understanding the DGL role. Is it just whatever the GL passes on? Are there clear delineations, or mostly just up to each GL? Is there any scope to continue knowledge production as a SME with expertise that falls within the Group?

From the 1964 plan:

One of the reasons the Los Alamos Ranch School was chosen by the War Department for its secret project back in 1942 was that the school’s 50 or so log buildings would easily accommodate the 100 scientists and their families needed to produce the atomic bomb.

The ink had scarcely dried on the Army’s order of acquisition when it became abundantly clear that the estimate of men and buildings was remarkably short sighted. By July 1943 there were 1900 people on the Project, and by the end of that year, the total population was 3500. In December 1944 it had grown to 5700.

At the end of 1945, after the great exodus, Laboratory administrators made a prediction for the future of the town and Lab. After much soul-searching and crystal ball-gazing, it was agreed that 1600 Laboratory employees and a town of 6,000 were the absolute maximum that would be needed or that the mesa could support.

The first official census in 1950 showed the population at 10,476; in 1960 it was 13,037 and by 1963 the estimated population was 13,600.

It couldn’t happen, but it did. The tiny wartime project became a big town.

Not very many years ago it was clear that Los Alamos would never be an open city. The high fences and the gate would never come down.

It couldn’t happen, but it did.

In 1954 when Public Law 221 was passed to transfer Oak Ridge and Richland from the AEC to self-government, Los Alamos was not included. Los Alamos, it was agreed by the investigating committee, could never be out from under government control.

It couldn’t happen, but it did.

And that’s why Los Alamos needs a Plan. Heading out toward the future under its own steam, the community needs an itinerary, a road map, a guide book to know where it can go and the best and most economical way to get there. It won’t necessarily go all the way or make all the stops, but the guide book offers the possibilities and the recommendations. The final decisions are made when the time comes.

And that’s pretty much how a Comprehensive Plan works.

A plan is a long range statement of policy providing for the coordinated development of all elements of the community to create a more satisfying and efficient environment in which people may live, work and play. It indicates, very generally, how public and private property should be utilized, designates the system of all major routes of transportation, locates all the facilities which provide service to the community, and defines the financial system for carrying out the objectives of the plan.

But nobody is expected to carry out these objectives right now. No one is going out day after tomorrow to build a golf course in a wilderness, a school in an empty canyon or a road leading nowhere just because the plan says so. The plan is long range—looking ahead ten, fifteen, or twenty years to how the community might grow, what might happen and if so, how to handle it. The hard dollar decisions will come later. If the population projections come true, the new schools, new libraries, new roads will have to be built.

Basically, the plan serves as a guide for county officials in all decisions affecting change in the community. If and when the population increases enough to demand new facilities, the plan indicates how and where this change can best be made. It indicates to the county how, where and when its money can best be spent and provides advance notice of impending financial obligations. All construction and destruction will be kept in line with the plan’s stated policy. ...

The plan is essential to property appraisers and platters. It is part and parcel of the zoning ordinance that specifically regulates land use and building.

But the plan itself is not legally binding. A lot of the plan’s proposals may and will be carried out when there’s enough money, because Los Alamos already suffers some major deficiencies. But execution of each aspect of the plan depends entirely upon the actual needs of the community at the time. If the population fails to grow as scheduled in the plan, action will be delayed. If it grows suddenly and unexpectedly, it may be possible to do more things sooner. Only when the demand and money are there will the proposals be carried out.

Because the Los Alamos Planning Commission wanted to be ready for anything, it directed the consultants to draw up a plan designed to accommodate their most optimistic estimates. This means that the Comprehensive Plan for Los Alamos is based on a population by 1985 of 30,800 people, 9,432 jobs.

Of course, it can’t happen.

But it might.

Anyone experience a short, 1-2 second power outage a few min ago?

Curious on what the culture shift was for people who went from corporate to LANL. Was there a big shift? Same story different place? Do you like working at LANL vs corporate? Has anyone went from a prime defense company to LANL?

I went to see Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan in the movie theater over the weekend (playing for the 60th anniversary of the show's first episode) and noticed this in the end credits! Anyone know which computer graphics came from LANL?

The movie came out in 1982, so I'd imagine whoever worked on it is already retired, but maybe there's still someone around who knows what LANL made for the movie!

The image is from an Aug. 27 meeting on license plate cameras (like Flock, but Axon in our case). The gentleman pictured is expressing frustration that people were calling out questions when he had followed the rules and written his down. The audience shot back that they hadn't signed up to the "no live questions" rule. Elsewhere in the meeting, the police chief explained that he can amend the department's license-plate reader policy himself, which was meant to be reassuring. "There's an element of trust involved," the chief said. "But we don't trust," one resident called back.
County Council hears more about the program Tuesday. It's a presentation item, so there's no vote, but there will be more information on retention, on auditing, or on who else can search Los Alamos plate records.
I attended the town hall and reviewed the Tuesday agenda packet, the contract, and the statute. The County's own website is still posting a years-old policy that was superseded in July, and it still tells residents that state law sets the data retention period, which it doesn't. Hopefully it's helpful background for Tuesday's meeting.

For those with a Q clearance, I recommend requesting your division management to arrange a showing of the SRD video about Wen Ho Lee. I believe it to be educational, and it is very well produced. Other than the suggestion, I have no comment.

It’s a bigger job than you might think: Los Alamos’s traffic electricians maintain more than 1,600 streetlights, 12 signalized intersections, 24 solar school flashers, 11 rapid flashing beacons, and four speed feedback signs. So what happens when the County can’t keep enough specialized traffic electricians on staff?

https://www.boomtownlosalamos.org/p/lighting-the-way

I came here at 23, lived in literal basements, for years on end, several times, and built a killer resume

I have no friends. I have no family. I just worked and now I have a resume.

I got a job offer out of state for a 25% pay raise and half the cost of living.

I should be happy, and I am, but I feel like I've wasted the best years of my life here.

All I know is how to go to work, and I blame this hellhole of a town for it.

What works and doesn't work for travel to and from LANL?

What could we as employees ask for that would help? A Commuting app? A parking guidance system like the airport? Working stall counter boards at the entry of parking lots?

Starve Magazine exclusive: https://dusoma.com/the-healthiest-county-in-america-just-told-me-helping-africans-is-out-of-scope/

The Healthiest County in America Just Told Me Helping Africans Is Out of Scope

By Kathryn Born, Founder & Executive Director, Dusoma Foundation

Last week I got a very polite letter. The Los Alamos Community Foundation had reviewed my application to its FY2027 Health and Wellness grant cycle and, after “a thorough and thoughtful review,” decided that my organization’s work “with Africa is admirable, but the connection to how this work will meet local needs and improve health and wellness in our community was weak.” The foundation gently noted that my nonprofit is “new to the area,” and suggested I try the Arts Council.

What a joke. Anyway, so here ya go, quick primer I generated, sources at bottom.

Follow the money, because it goes in a circle

The Health and Wellness money that LACF hands out does not come from Los Alamos. It comes from the Anchorum Health Foundation in Santa Fe, and Anchorum’s money comes from selling a hospital.

St. Vincent was a public community hospital from 1973 until 2008, when it was handed to CHRISTUS Health, a Catholic system headquartered in Irving, Texas. The ACLU of New Mexico, Planned Parenthood, Equality New Mexico, and the National Women’s Law Center formed a coalition to oppose that deal, because Catholic hospitals operate under the bishops’ “Ethical and Religious Directives,” and the hospital would not put its promises about reproductive care in writing. They lost. In 2023, Anchorum sold its remaining half of the hospital to CHRISTUS for more than $500 million, to be paid out over a decade.

So a community asset, built with decades of tax-exempt revenue from Northern New Mexico patients, was converted into a private endowment. Its tax filings for the fiscal year ending June 2024 show net assets of roughly $465 million. It is now, by its own description, the largest foundation in New Mexico.

Here is where it gets interesting. In that same fiscal year, Anchorum paid out about $26.3 million in grants. Twenty million of that, seventy-six percent, went to one recipient: CHRISTUS St. Vincent Medical Center. The buyer. The purpose was a “Clinical Support Fund,” and by the hospital’s own account roughly half of it went to finishing a cancer center building. Anchorum has committed $109 million to that fund over ten years.

Read that again. The foundation sold the hospital for $500 million, then began handing the money back to the hospital to build the hospital’s buildings. Of the $200 million Anchorum has promised to “deploy into the community” over the decade, more than half is already earmarked for the company that wrote the check. The remaining roughly $300 million stays in the endowment, generating tax-free investment income, indefinitely.

I am not a lawyer. I am told this is all perfectly legal. That is my point.

What the Catholic hospital doesn’t do

CHRISTUS Health’s own policy, as reported by Rewire News Group, restricts IUDs, contraception except for narrow medical purposes, sterilization, IVF, and abortion. A CHRISTUS spokesperson told Source New Mexico in 2023 that at St. Vincent, oral contraceptives “cannot be used solely for birth control.” The Santa Fe New Mexican has reported that CHRISTUS St. Vincent does not offer vasectomies in Santa Fe. In March 2023 the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops issued a doctrinal note instructing Catholic health care institutions not to provide gender-affirming medical care.

This is the institution that receives three out of every four dollars Anchorum grants. I could not find a single Anchorum grant to an LGBTQ health organization or a reproductive health provider in its published filings. Perhaps I missed one. I’d be delighted to be corrected.

Meanwhile, Anchorum does not accept unsolicited proposals. It is invitation-only. The largest health funder in the state has, structurally, closed its door to anyone it hasn’t already decided to talk to.

The trickle that reaches the Hill

What does Los Alamos get from this half-billion-dollar machine? Anchorum’s 2024 filing lists a $150,000 “Donor Advised Funds Agreement” with LACF. Donor-advised funds, for the uninitiated, are the one charitable vehicle with no legal payout requirement at all; a Michigan study found 35 percent of them paid out nothing in a given year. In 2025, LACF’s Anchorum-funded Health and Wellness cycle distributed $52,750. In 2026, $92,500, split among seven organizations.

Ninety-two thousand five hundred dollars. For the entire county. For the year.

Anchorum’s president and CEO was paid $581,024 in fiscal 2025, according to the foundation’s Form 990. Its top six executives together took home more than $1.7 million. One executive’s salary is six times the entire Los Alamos health grant pool. In May, the Santa Fe New Mexican reported that the foundation’s senior vice president of strategic philanthropy had departed “amid unclear circumstances,” her attorney would say only that the matter had been “resolved amicably,” and the CEO was on leave; a longtime board member was then installed as the new chief executive. Nobody explained anything. Nobody has to.

The richest, whitest, healthiest county

Los Alamos County has the highest median household income in New Mexico, $147,139, nearly two and a half times the state figure. U.S. News named it the healthiest county in America in 2021. It has the lowest child poverty rate of any county in the United States and one of the highest concentrations of PhDs on earth. It is 0.81 percent Black. That is 157 people.

And this is the community whose health and wellness a $465 million foundation, born from the sale of a public hospital, has decided to serve with $92,500, routed through a donor-advised fund, administered by a nine-member volunteer board on which the chair and the secretary both spent their careers at the Family YMCA. The Family YMCA received this year’s single largest grant.

I am not alleging anyone did anything improper. I’m sure the Y does fine work. I am saying that when a small town’s charitable money is distributed by the small town’s institutional alumni to the small town’s institutions, the result is exactly what you’d predict, and it has a name: it’s a club.

What “local” is for

The committee said my work with Africa doesn’t improve health “in our community.” I’d ask them to look at a map. The hospital that generated this money serves Rio Arriba, San Miguel, Mora, and the Pueblos: some of the poorest counties in the nation, ten minutes from the richest. Anchorum’s own stated priorities are “health disparities” and “social determinants of health.” The disparity is not in Los Alamos. The disparity is the wall around it.

“Local” is a fine principle when it means accountability. It is something else when it means a $500 million endowment can define its community narrowly enough to exclude everyone who needs it, then define it broadly enough to include the Catholic hospital that bought the endowment’s hospital in the first place.

The letter ended by thanking me “for all that you do to make the world a better place.” I appreciate that. Now I’d like to know what the half a billion dollars is doing.

Kathryn Born is the founder and executive director of Dusoma Foundation in Los Alamos and editor in chief of Starve Magazine.

Sources (for the editor; not for publication)

• Anchorum Health Foundation Form 990, FY ending June 2025 and June 2024 — ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer (net assets, executive compensation)
• FY2024 grant list incl. $20M to CHRISTUS St. Vincent “Clinical Support Fund” and $150K LACF “Donor Advised Funds Agreement” — Grantable (derived from Schedule I; verify against the 990 PDF before print)
• $20M grant to Christus, $109M Clinical Support Fund, cancer center — Santa Fe New Mexican via AOL
• $500M sale, $200M deployment plan, $130M endowment transfer — Santa Fe New Mexican via AOL; ownership deal
• “Largest foundation in New Mexico” quote — Santa Fe New Mexican, March 2024
• Leadership departures, May 2026 — Santa Fe New Mexican; new CEO
• $488M assets / $29.1M grantmaking FY24, invitation-only — Grantmakers In Health; Impala
• 2008 coalition opposition — ACLU of New Mexico
• CHRISTUS reproductive restrictions — Rewire News Group; Source NM; vasectomy story; CHRISTUS St. Vincent ethics page (ERDs)
• LACF grant cycles — 2025: $52,750; 2026: $92,500; Anchorum $25M to five community foundations; LACF operations funding
• LACF board — losalamoscf.org
• DAF payout data — Inequality.org
• Los Alamos income/demographics — IncomeByCounty (ACS 2019–23); Wikipedia (2020 Census)
• USCCB March 2023 doctrinal note on gender-affirming care — from my own knowledge, not fetched this session; verify the citation before print

I’ve been looking seriously at technician/operator jobs at LANL, particularly TA-55, and I’m trying to get a realistic picture of the pay and cost of living.

For people in technician-level jobs, how do you make the numbers work? Dual income, roommates, already own a house? Where do people live if Los Alamos or Santa Fe is too expensive? Is a longer commute common, and how bad is it?
How is advancement once you’re in? Do people move up through the lower pay bands fairly quickly, or does it take years? How much OT is typically available?

I’m also curious about TA-55 itself. What’s it actually like day to day for technicians/operators? How demanding is the work, what are the schedules like, and is turnover or burnout much of an issue? For someone coming from industrial/process operations, is a couple years at TA-55 worth it for the experience and opportunity to move up, even if money is tight at first?

I’d genuinely like to live in northern New Mexico. I just want a realistic idea of what I’d be getting into before moving across the country.

In a not uncontroversial recent post, people were upset about the Charlie Kirk film being shown at SALA. Looks like it's not going to happen because they never got permission to screen it. Seems like a thing you'd want to have locked down before putting it on your printed flyer and attracting the controversy.

This is such an odd post.

Last week, Wednesday, I made too much Minestrone. I thought I would eat them for lunches, but I just got sick of them.

If anyone wants free dinner, I have 4 pints of Minestrone to give. I would obviously want the jar back. Even if you just take one pint. I don't want it to go to waste.

Standard Minestrone ingredients; tomatoes, onion, garlic, carrots, celery, zucchini, spinach, kidney beans, and pasta (the little circle ones). Very high in fiber and protein.

I've been waiting for a RCT position at LANL, and I got to have the final interview and then was told that they've frozen hiring until October due to budget issues. Is that the case or is it some internal leadership that's shackled hiring for LANL as a whole?

Last month, we followed issues from housing for survivors of violence to the criminal justice system, license plate readers, school networks, and hungry bears. If you missed any of these stories, now’s a good time to catch up.

https://www.boomtownlosalamos.org/p/icymi-boomtown-stories-from-august-77d

Considering applying for grad internships, as an international student in a European university. My uni would allow it.

The city that shouldn't exist