Bill seeks anti-DWI technology funds

U.S. Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M., is co-sponsoring legislation to fund development of new technologies to prevent drivers from operating vehicles while under the influence of alcohol.

A bill introduced late last month by Udall and U.S. Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., would authorize $12 million annually for five years for a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration program "to explore the feasibility, potential benefits and public policy challenges associated with using in-vehicle technology to prevent drunk driving," a news release said.

The agency would use the funds to explore a variety of emerging technologies, the announcement said, including devices that determine a driver's blood alcohol level by touching the steering wheel or engine start button, as well as sensors that passively monitor a driver's breath or eye movements. If the sensors indicate that the driver's blood alcohol level is over the legal limit, the vehicle would not start, the statement said.

In December, Udall joined U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., in introducing a bill that would make New Mexico's current DWI ignition interlock mandate the national standard for dealing with convicted drunken-driving offenders.

Lab development arm awards grants

Los Alamos National Laboratory's Venture Acceleration Fund will provide $100,000 grants to two Northern New Mexico businesses.

Simtable will use its grant to improve and market technology it developed for wildfire training, incident command and community outreach that combines hardware and software to create simulations on sand. Google Earth and other data are projected onto the sand surface, allowing the user to hand-model terrain elevation.

The other grant recipient announced Monday, Southwest Bio Fuels, chemically alters waste vegetable oil into biodiesel. The company will use the funds to increase production at its plant in Albuquerque, enabling the firm to meet the demand of in-state customers, such as the city of Albuquerque and state of New Mexico, which currently buy biofuels from the Midwest.

The Venture Acceleration Fund is an initiative of Northern New Mexico Connect, the principal economic development investment arm of Los Alamos National Security LLC and Los Alamos National Laboratory.

Woman indicted in tax-evasion case

Authorities say an Albuquerque woman has been indicted on tax-evasion charges for allegedly failing to pay her taxes from 2005 through 2007.

A grand jury with the First Judicial District in Santa Fe last week returned an indictment against 53-year-old Angela Two Bulls on six counts of attempts to evade or defeat tax.

Prosecutors said Monday that the woman could face up to nine years in prison and $30,000 in fines if she's convicted.

They say the indictment is the result of an investigation conducted by the New Mexico Taxation and Revenue Department's Tax Fraud Investigations Division.

Community college holds talent show

Santa Fe Community College is having its biannual Student Expo talent show Wednesday and Thursday, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., in the school's Jemez Rooms.

The event, which is open to the public, features student performances in such talents as music, dance and performance poetry and literature.

For more information, call 505-428-1174.

Jal could be on radioactive waste route

JAL — Jal could see low-level radioactive waste travel through the community next year on the way to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant disposal site near Carlsbad.

The U.S. Department of Energy is expected to request shipments be routed through Jal after highway improvements are finished this summer.

The chief scientist for the DOE's Carlsbad field office, Roger Nelson, says going through Jal in eastern New Mexico would save about 100 miles.

Waste had traveled through Texas on Interstate 20 to Pecos, then along U.S. 285 into New Mexico.

A culvert collapse last year changed the route to enter New Mexico near Eunice and take other highways to the disposal site.

The Energy Department kept using that route after news of a possible sinkhole forming near U.S. 285 in Carlsbad.