Oak Ridge Today

City move could add another police officer to Oak Ridge Schools

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Oak Ridge High School

The number of reported crimes is down at Oak Ridge High School since police officers were given office space there in August, and a move recommended by city administrators could add another school resource officer in the Oak Ridge school system.

The number of reported crimes is down at Oak Ridge High School since police officers were given office space there in August, and a move recommended by city administrators could add another school resource officer in the Oak Ridge school system.

It’s part of a program to improve student safety and use law enforcement to reduce unacceptable student behaviors, Oak Ridge City Manager Mark Watson and Police Chief Jim Akagi said.

Oak Ridge Schools now have one school resource officer, or SRO. There have been discussions about adding more officers, especially since the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., in December 2012, but funding has been an obstacle.

On Monday, the Oak Ridge City Council will consider a resolution that would allow the Oak Ridge Police Department to hire an extra police officer, exceeding its authorized personnel staffing levels, in order to assign an existing police officer as an SRO. There have been proposals to add more—in December, City Council member Trina Baughn proposed one at each of the city’s two middle schools—but Watson and Akagi are recommending one additional officer now. [Read more…]

Final milestone in U.S.-Russian partnership converting nuclear warheads into fuel

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Ernest Moniz

Ernest Moniz

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Russia has converted 500 metric tons of highly enriched uranium—the equivalent of 20,000 nuclear warheads—and the resulting low enriched uranium, or LEU, has been delivered to the United States, fabricated into nuclear fuel, and used in nuclear power plants to generate nearly 10 percent of all U.S. electricity for the past 15 years, federal officials said.

That’s roughly half of all commercial nuclear energy produced domestically during that period, a U.S. Department of Energy press release said.

Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz announced the final LEU shipment on Thursday.

The LEU was derived from Russian weapons-origin highly enriched uranium, or HEU, under the 1993 U.S.-Russia HEU Purchase Agreement, commonly known as the Megatons to Megawatts Program, the press release said. [Read more…]

Schools have to report illegal activity, turn over dangerous weapons or drugs, agreement says

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Bruce Borchers and Mark Watson

Oak Ridge Schools Superintendent Bruce Borchers, left, and City Manager Mark Watson during a Monday evening reception for Borchers, who started working in Oak Ridge in June.

School principals have to notify the Oak Ridge school resource officer, or SRO, of suspected illegal activity, and principals or school staff members who locate dangerous weapons or drugs have to turn them over to the SRO, according to a renewable one-year agreement signed Wednesday by municipal and education officials.

School staff members must also provide the SRO with the names of people who are not allowed on school property, and the staff is required to notify the officer when they expect problems from parents of students who have been disciplined.

Meanwhile, the Oak Ridge Police Department is required to tell the school board of criminal gangs and associated criminal gang activity. It wasn’t immediately clear if—or how much—any of those requirements differed from earlier procedures.  [Read more…]

Guest column: Did God initiate the invention of the atomic bomb?

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Y-12 Plowshares Protesters

Pictured above are the three anti-nuclear weapons protesters who broke into the Y-12 National Security Complex on July 28. From left, they are Michael Walli, Megan Rice, and Greg Boertje-Obed.

I hear the siren. It’s noon on May 1, the first Wednesday of the month. What a coincidence, as I sit at my computer reading the Washington Post article “The Prophets of Oak Ridge.” It mentions that siren and reveals the circumstances of the Y-12 security system breach last year. The article links Oak Ridge’s first known prophet, John Hendrix to the nun, painter, and drifter who made national news.

I think to myself, “God WAS responsible for the creation of the atomic bomb….and there ARE real prophets in Oak Ridge – still today!”

“What?” your mind must be responding, as you wonder how I could think such a thing. Well, if you’ll stick with me, you’ll see the path to my conclusion. [Read more…]

Three charged with drug, gun crimes in OS raid

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Oliver Springs police seized almost 15 pounds of marijuana, several firearms, and drug paraphernalia during a raid at a home on Wilson Road on Sunday night, according to WYSH Radio in Clinton.

WYSH reported that police found 13 firearms, several boxes of ammunition, two homemade gun silencers, two vehicles, and paraphernalia including scales and assorted equipment that could be used to grow marijuana.

[Read more…]