Ever since World War Two, the University of California has managed the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in New Mexico, generating jobs, influence, prestige, and income for the university and bureaucrats who administer it.  The LANL, which developed the first atomic bomb and has huge responsibilities for the nation's nuclear arsenal and more, has a yearly budget of $2.5 billion, which generates a huge amount of "administrative overhead" paid to the contract administrator to cover the expense of administering such a vast enterprise.  Jobs, office space, and many other expenses would have to be cut back at U.C. if the contract were lost. Los Alamos National Lab.  Picture via Office of the President, University of California. Now it appears that this historical plum for the university is at risk.  Lindsay Ellis writes in the Houston Chronicle: Texas' two largest university systems will have to knock off the incumbent if...(Read Full Post)