Oak Ridge Today

Y-12 officers detain bike rider on North Patrol Road

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Y-12 National Security Complex

Y-12 National Security Complex (Submitted photo)

Security officers at the Y-12 National Security Complex detained an Oak Ridge man riding a bicycle on the North Patrol Road Saturday afternoon.

The bike rider, Brent Lee, 39, of Normandy Road, was spotted by members of a Y-12 canine team performing a routine random patrol of the area, authorities said.

He was detained at 2:07 p.m. Saturday and turned over to the Oak Ridge Police Department on Scarboro Road, authorities said.

ORPD Lt. Robin Smith said Lee was charged with criminal trespassing, a misdemeanor. He was cited and released.

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‘Dialogue with Dan’ on Monday

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Stephen Seifert

Stephen Seifert

Dan Allcott, music director of the Oak Ridge Civic Music Association and conductor of the Oak Ridge Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, will speak at noon Monday in the lobby of the historic Grove Theater, High Places Community Church. This will be the fourth “Dialogue with Dan” of the concert season.

His topic will be the “Spring in the Mountains” ORSO-Chorus concert at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Mar. 9, at Oak Ridge High School Performing Arts Center. The featured artist will be Stephen Seifert, mountain dulcimerist from Tennessee, in keeping with the ORSO season theme—“Tennessee Sounds Good to Me.”

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ORAU, ORNL announce winners of high-performance computing grant competition

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Oak Ridge Associated Universities and Oak Ridge National Laboratory have partnered again to award two new grants in the ORAU/ORNL High-Performance Computing Grant Program for 2013.

ORAU provides up to $75,000 over three years to researchers and their teams. In addition to the monetary award, ORNL provides faculty and student teams with valuable access to the laboratory’s computing resources and staff.

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ORNL starts new six-year californium-252 production contract

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The Oak Ridge National Laboratory—home of one of only two reactor facilities in the world capable of producing californium-252 (Cf-252)—has begun implementing a new six-year contract between the U.S. Department of Energy Isotope Program and industry to make this unique and versatile radioisotope.

The new contract follows the successful completion of a four-year Cf-252 program under an agreement with a consortium of industries that use the neutron-emitting radioisotope for a number of applications that focus mostly on analysis, detection, and nuclear energy.

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Gospel concert in Oliver Springs helps infant with serious health problems

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Ava Rose Brown

Ava Rose Brown

A concert in Oliver Springs tonight will help a family with an infant with serious health problems.

The gospel benefit concert for Ava Rose Brown is scheduled from 6-9 p.m. today at Beech Park Baptist Church on East Tri County Boulevard in Oliver Springs.

It will help Ava Rose’s parents, Tiffany and Eddie Brown, purchase a van and remodel their home, concert organizer and family friend Kevin Craft said. He said Eddie and Tiffany Brown, who also have two other children, are now living with a relative in Oak Ridge, and their home is partially remodeled.

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Vowing to reorganize, Habitat board replaces husband-wife director duo

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Jennifer Sheehan

Jennifer Sheehan

Charlotte Bowers

Charlotte Bowers

Vowing to reorganize, the board of directors of Habitat for Humanity of Anderson County has replaced a husband-wife duo that had served as longtime executive director and operated its home store in Grove Center.

Board members said they agreed last week to replace Susan Burgess-Parrish, who had been executive director for about 12 years, and Rodney Parrish, Habitat Home Store manager for about seven years.

The Parrish couple was told of the decision on Tuesday.

The 11-member board sent out a press release the same day announcing that Jennifer Sheehan, who had been Habitat’s resource development director since October, is now interim executive director. Charlotte Bowers, who had been community development coordinator for two years, is interim manager of the home store.

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Alexander: President failed to lead on spending cuts; ORNL, UPF should be shielded

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U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander

Lamar Alexander

U.S. Senator Bob Corker

Bob Corker

U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander on Thursday said the automatic federal spending cuts going into effect today demonstrate a failure of presidential leadership.

The senator also said he would like to minimize the impact of the cuts on important government institutions such as the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, student loans, and the proposed Uranium Processing Facility at the Y-12 Security Complex.

Congress and the White House approved the automatic, across-the-board cuts in discretionary and defense spending— known as sequestration—about 18 months ago in the Budget Control Act of 2011. Considered unpalatable by many, the cuts were meant to encourage Democrats and Republicans to compromise on deficit reduction efforts.

That hasn’t worked.

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ORCMA Coffee Concert features violin, piano, voice

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“A Night of Violin, Vocal, and Piano Music” will be presented at 7:30 p.m. Sunday at First Presbyterian Church in Oak Ridge.

This first free coffee concert of the Oak Ridge Civic Music Association season will feature violinist John Michael Fox, tenor singer George Deaton, and pianist Pam Robertson.

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ORHS Masquers present ‘The Sound of Music’ this weekend

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Oak Ridge will come alive with “The Sound of Music,” which will be presented at the Performing Arts Center at Oak Ridge High School this weekend, starting this evening.

The Masquers, Oak Ridge High School’s drama club, will perform the musical, which is based on the story of the von Trapp family, who fled Austria to escape the Nazi regime in 1939. The Masquers promise to offer the audience a fresh look at the beloved story, which was first made famous by the 1959 Rodgers and Hammerstein musical and world famous by the 1965 film adaptation, a press release said.

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Oak Ridge Wildcats win regional championship over Maryville

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The Oak Ridge Wildcats boys basketball team won a regional championship game 71-54 over the Maryville Rebels on Thursday night.

Oak Ridge took an early 14-0 lead and never looked back, although Maryville was able to occasionally cut the lead to single digits. Oak Ridge had a 20-point lead with less than a minute to play.

The Wildcats will host the Sevier County Smoky Bears at 7 p.m. Monday at the Wildcat Arena.

Worker hours could be cut at Y-12 in response to sequestration

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Chuck Spencer

Chuck Spencer

Note: This story was updated at 8:05 p.m.

The work week at the Y-12 National Security Complex could occasionally be reduced to 30 hours for many employees between April and October as part of a budget-cutting plan announced Thursday.

Under the proposal, nonessential personnel could work three 10-hour days rather than four 10-hour days every third week. The plan has been proposed in response to the automatic federal spending cuts scheduled to start taking effect at midnight.

B&W Y-12 General Manager Chuck Spencer said the cuts would require furloughs, or temporary layoffs, for most employees.

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‘American Idol’ contestant from Oliver Springs advances

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Information from WYSH Radio

Oliver Springs native Janelle Arthur has made it through the first phase of the “American Idol” semifinals.

She was one of the last two women in the top 40 contestants to learn whether they would be moving on, but she learned that she will during Wednesday’s episode of the popular Fox TV show.

She will be back during the next phase as one of the top 10 female semifinalists.