Oak Ridge Today

Golden Dragon Acrobat Show to benefit ORHS Masquers

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Color Wheels

Color Wheels (Photo courtesy Masskus Productions)

 

The Golden Dragon Acrobats will perform on Saturday, July 25, in a show that will benefit the Oak Ridge High School Masquers, the school’s drama program. It’s the group’s first visit to East Tennessee in more than a decade.

“The Golden Dragons are recognized throughout the United States and abroad as the premiere Chinese acrobatic touring company of today,” a press release said.

It said the Golden Dragon Acrobats represent the very best of a time-honored circus tradition that began more than 25 centuries ago. The group has more than two dozen highly trained acrobats and technicians.

The family entertainment event starts at 7 p.m. Saturday, July 25, at the Oak Ridge High School Performing Arts Center. All seats are reserved. Tickets are $25 for adults and $10 for children 12 and under, and they are available through www.KnoxvilleTickets.com. [Read more…]

Techmer PM becomes benefactor sponsor for ADFAC

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Techmer PM Donates to ADFAC

Committee members of the Techmer PM Employee Volunteerism Program celebrate their corporate donation to ADFAC. From left, Matthew Caruso, Kimberly Williamson, Otella Seeber, Nicole Brannick, Ron Lawson, and ADFAC’s executive director, Annie Cacheiro. EVP committee members not pictured: Darren Jones and Rachel Turner. (Photo courtesy ADFAC)

 

ADFAC announced on Friday that Techmer PM has become a benefactor sponsor for its 2015 Corporate Membership Campaign.

The Techmer PM Employee Volunteerism Program committee members presented their donation on behalf of the company to ADFAC’s executive director, Annie Cacheiro, a press release said.

The Techmer PM Employee Volunteerism Program, or EVP, was created to support, encourage, and coordinate the volunteer efforts of their employees, the release said. Its mission is to invest time in national, regional, and local initiatives that improve the quality of life for those in their communities. Charitable support is focused in three areas: youth programs, homeless/indigent, and military. [Read more…]

NNSA awards National Security Campus contract in KC to Honeywell FM&T

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National Security Campus in Kansas City

The NNSA National Security Campus in Kansas City, Missouri. (Photo courtesy NNSA)

 

WASHINGTON, D.C.—The National Nuclear Security Administration on Friday announced the award to Honeywell Federal Manufacturing and Technologies LLC to be the management and operating contractor for the National Security Campus, or NSC, in Kansas City, Missouri.

“Our non-nuclear production capabilities are critical to our national security, and Honeywell FM&T represents the best value to the government,” NNSA Administrator Frank Klotz said.  “Honeywell has demonstrated excellent performance in advancing NNSA’s enduring mission at NSC, and this award creates workforce stability for another decade.”

The NSC is one of several production plants that are critical to the NNSA’s Stockpile Stewardship Program. The National Security Campus is responsible for manufacturing and procuring nonnuclear components for nuclear weapons, including electronic, mechanical, and engineered material components. It supports national laboratories, universities, and U.S. industry.

Copyright 2015 Oak Ridge Today. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Lester to serve as president of Oak Ridge Breakfast Rotary in 2015-2016

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Tony Lester and Kelly Callison

New Oak Ridge Breakfast Rotary Club President Tony Lester, left, accepts the president’s gavel from outgoing President Kelly Callison. (Photo by ORBRC)

The Oak Ridge Breakfast Rotary Club president for the year 2015-2016 is Tony Lester, a press release said.

Lester has been a Rotarian since 1998 and has previously served as Foundation chair for ORBRC.

Having a close family member who has polio inspired Tony to become more involved in Rotary’s worldwide campaign to eradicate the disease.

He has also served on the boards of the Anderson County United Way, WDVX, and the Jubilee Community Arts. [Read more…]

Harrison named CASA executive director

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Edward “Eddie” Harrison

Edward “Eddie” Harrison

Edward “Eddie” Harrison has been named executive director of CASA of the Tennessee Heartland, a nonprofit organization that recruits, trains, and empowers volunteers to advocate on behalf of abused and neglected children in Anderson, Scott, and Blount counties.

Harrison has dedicated his life to the empowerment and mentorship of young men and women living in disadvantaged communities and homes, and has been an advocate for East Tennessee youth for 12 years, a press release said.

“Eddie brings deep experience working as an advocate for disadvantaged kids and nonprofit management to CASA,” Board President John Willis said.

Prior to his work with CASA, Harrison served as the house manager for Columbus Home and earlier as the executive director of Montgomery Village Ministry. [Read more…]

ORNL: Neutrons find ‘missing’ magnetism of plutonium

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Doug Abernathy and Marc Janoschek

Doug Abernathy, left, ARCS instrument scientist at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and Marc Janoschek, Los Alamos National Laboratory, prepare their sample for experiments at the Spallation Neutron Source. (Photo by ORNL)

 

Groundbreaking work at two U.S. Department of Energy national laboratories has confirmed plutonium’s magnetism, which scientists have long theorized but have never been able to experimentally observe. The advances that enabled the discovery hold great promise for materials, energy, and computing applications.

Plutonium was first produced in 1940, and its unstable nucleus allows it to undergo fission, making it useful for nuclear fuels as well as for nuclear weapons. Much less known, however, is that the electronic cloud surrounding the plutonium nucleus is equally unstable and makes plutonium the most electronically complex element in the periodic table, with intriguingly intricate properties for a simple elemental metal.

While conventional theories have successfully explained plutonium’s complex structural properties, they also predict that plutonium should order magnetically. This is in stark contrast with experiments, which had found no evidence for magnetic order in plutonium. [Read more…]

Golf tournament to benefit Free Medical Clinic

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Free Medical Clinic

A golf tournament in August will benefit the Free Medical Clinic of Oak Ridge.

It’s the 16th Annual Summer Golf Challenge for the Free Medical Clinic, and it will be held on Saturday, August 15, at the Oak Ridge Country Club. The tournament has a 1:30 p.m. shotgun start, and it is hosted by Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority of Oak Ridge, Oak Ridge Hoofers Golf Club, and the Oak Ridge Chapter of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity.

The Free Medical Clinic is a nonprofit medical group that provides medical care at no cost to residents of Anderson, Roane, and Morgan Counties who do not have insurance or cannot afford care because of low income. The clinic is staffed primarily by volunteers and relies on donations from individuals, churches, and local organizations for financial support. Although the number of patients seeking care has increased significantly in recent months and donations have not kept pace, the clinic continues to serve as many as possible with the resources at hand. [Read more…]

Ridgeview rep to discuss youth substance abuse on July 18

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Michael Yates

Michael Yates

Michael Yates, development director for Ridgeview Behavioral Services, will discuss youth substance abuse on Saturday, July 18, at Grace Lutheran Church in Oak Ridge.

The presentation is titled “Youth Substance Abuse—the Complex and Courageous Conversation.” It’s free and scheduled for Saturday, July 18, at Grace Lutheran Church in Oak Ridge. It starts at 10:30 a.m. in the fellowship hall, and it is hosted by the church’s Mental Health Ministry. Child care will be available, a press release said.

Yates will discuss risk factors that drive the misuse and use of substances, and offer information on how parents and communities might best respond to strengthen protective factors for youth and families, the press release said.

“Youth and adolescents turn to substance abuse for a number of reasons,” he said. “Some want to experiment with boundaries, some do so because of peer pressure, and others are trying to cope with unmanageable pain, suffering, or anxiety.” [Read more…]

Police: Remains of suspected meth lab found during search of home

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Arthur Wilson Jr.

Arthur Wilson Jr.

Julia Wilson

Julia Wilson

The remains of a suspected methamphetamine laboratory were found during a search of a home on West Wadsworth Circle on Wednesday, authorities said.

Items found in a trash can in the basement of the home included coffee filters, a Coleman brand camp fuel can, lithium batteries that had been cut open, and lithium strips that appeared to have been chemically reacted, Oak Ridge Police Department Officer John Thomas said in arrest warrants. He said other items included a sports drink bottle with a two-part liquid, a soda bottle with a white powdery substance and holes that appeared to have been burned through the bottle from a chemical reaction inside, and two empty boxes of Claritin-D medicine that originally each contained 2.4 grams of pseudoephedrine.

The two defendants, Arthur Wilson Jr., 50, and Julia Wilson, 49, are on probation for convictions for manufacturing methamphetamine in Morgan County, the warrants said. The two are under the supervision of the Tennessee Department of Correction, and one of the conditions of probation is that the home can be searched, Thomas said. [Read more…]

Armed robbery reported at Walgreens on Friday morning

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Oak Ridge Police Department Cars

An armed robbery was reported at Walgreens Pharmacy on Oak Ridge Turnpike at about 6:32 a.m. Friday, authorities said.

Several Oak Ridge Police Department officers, including a K9 unit, arrived on scene within minutes and immediately started searching for the suspect, who had fled the business on foot with a small amount of cash, a City of Oak Ridge press release said. The suspect was described as a white male in dark clothing and baseball cap who indicated he was armed.

The suspect was not located, and the investigation is still ongoing at this time, the press release said. [Read more…]

Two arrested in Atlanta area for check cashing robbery in Oak Ridge

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Arvenzio Clyde Miles and Kianna Denis Hall

Arvenzio Clyde Miles, left, and Kianna Denis Hall (Photos courtesy Liz Artz/WSB-TV Atlanta)

Note: This story was last updated at 7:25 p.m.

Two suspects in an armed robbery at a check cashing store in Oak Ridge in June were arrested in the Atlanta area on Wednesday, authorities said.

The suspects have been identified as Kianna D. Hill, 21, of East Point, Georgia, and Arvenzio Clyde Miles, 22, of Riverdale, Georgia.

The robbery at Check Into Cash at 361 South Illinois Avenue was reported at about 3:15 p.m. Friday, June 26. The store was allegedly robbed by two suspects armed with handguns, a City of Oak Ridge press release said.

Several Oak Ridge Police Department officers and detectives arrived on scene within minutes, and they immediately started searching for two suspects, who were described as an African American male and African American female who had fled the business on foot, the press release said.

Officers canvassed the area, and a section of North Purdue Avenue was temporarily closed while police set up a perimeter around three apartment buildings where the suspects were believed to have fled. No suspects were located, and detectives continued to follow investigative leads to identify the suspects, the release said. [Read more…]

Tennant named director of UT-ORNL Joint Institute for Neutron Sciences

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Alan Tennant

Alan Tennant

Alan Tennant has been appointed director of the Joint Institute for Neutron Sciences at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The institute is a partnership between ORNL and the University of Tennessee in Knoxville.

“Neutrons are the future in characterizing materials, especially soft matter,” said Taylor Eighmy, vice chancellor for research and engagement at UT. “With Alan as director, we can begin to establish deep thought leadership at UT and ORNL in this growing field.”

Tennant assumes the directorship from Takeshi Egami, the founding director of JINS, who is stepping down after leading the institute for 11 years. Egami will remain as director emeritus as he continues to hold his distinguished scientist position at ORNL and teach at the university.

“I am grateful for Takeshi’s leadership as the founding director of JINS, and I look forward to working with Alan as he continues to propel neutron science at the institute,” Eighmy said. [Read more…]