Las Conchas Fire

For those of you who haven't followed the news for the past 2 weeks, Los Alamos was evacuated again after a roaring forest fire (Las Conchas) grew from 50 acres to 50,000 acres in less than a day. The residents of the "hill" had to evacuate for a week while White Rock did not have to evacuate.

This was the 2nd evacuation we had to go through in 11 years. It gets old fast. Luckily very few homes were lost this time and those that were were up in the Jemez Mountains.

The climate has been very dry this year (2011) and as of today, 7/11, we still haven't had any rain. The fire has now grown to 142,000 acres and has pretty much devastated the east end of the Jemez Mountains including part of the Valles Caldera. Very sad.

The health care debate is getting ugly. Just yesterday(11/5) there was a demonstration in DC by opponents to "Obamacare". People who were interviewed made statements like "we don't want death panels" and "they will take away my choice of doctors". Such statements show the ignorance of the people who attend these things. Health care reform is critically needed in this country. Delaying even what is being proposed now is just going to create even more unnecessary expenses which we cannot afford, not with Irag and Afganistan wars still ongong.

Los Alamos goes for Obama in caucus vote

The results from Tuesday's Democratic Party caucus in New Mexico are slowly coming in. As of this morning (2/7/08) the only county not reporting is Sandoval. It appears that Hillary Clinton will win by about 1000 votes out of 150,000 cast -- a record for a caucus turnout in NM. However, it's interesting to note that there were several counties that were won by Obama in a big way (60% for Obama vs. 30% for Clinton). Two of these are Santa Fe and Los Alamos counties. The Los Alamos county vote is interesting because of the turnout. I voted at the only polling place in the county, Fuller Lodge, where there were long lines and, unfortunately, long waits. There were many senior citizens in the lines. Los Alamos usually has a high voter turnout among this segment of the population. The fact that Obama won by such a large margin in this county tells me that all segments of the voting population in Los Alamos agreed with me that he is the best hope for taking back the presidency in November.