Fifteen years ago, a group of determined individuals formed the Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation.

Their intent was to preserve the site of the World War II era Heart Mountain Relocation Camp. They wanted to establish an educational facility where visitors could learn about the internment of Japanese-Americans during the war and where researchers could study the political, civil rights and racial discrimination issues surrounding the relocation.

There is an old warning that we should not forget history, lest we repeat it.

It really isn’t that simple, of course. Remembering history isn’t always a guarantee that we will learn from it, and if we do learn from it, we’re probably just as likely to learn the wrong lesson as the right one.

District joins nationwide campaign for relief from federal law

With approval of a resolution Tuesday, the Park County School District No. 1 board joined a national effort asking for relief from a federal education mandate.

The resolution, developed by the National School Boards Association and the American Association of School Administrators, asks Arne Duncan, U.S. Secretary of Education, for immediate relief from regulations under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, pending reauthorization of the law by Congress.

A decade ago, Congress passed the so-called No Child Left Behind Act.

The intent of the law was to force schools nationwide to make sure all of their students achieve proficiency in the skills they need to succeed, regardless of their economic status, race, special educational needs and a number of other factors.

Westside students will move to new building in 2012

For several years now, school years in Powell have been marked by construction projects, and this 2011-12 is no exception.

The students who will be most affected are those from Westside school, who moved to the old Southside school building last year while their school was demolished to make space for a new building.

Grand opening of interpretive learning center set for next week

With its grand opening just days away, the Heart Mountain Interpretive Learning Center is rapidly approaching completion.

Last week, crews were working on the water system outside the building as Christy Fleming, manager of the site, and Steve Leger, executive director of the Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation, showed members of the media through the center, built on the site of the camp entrance and administration buildings.

Grand opening of interpretive learning center set for next week

With its grand opening just days away, the Heart Mountain Interpretive Learning Center is rapidly approaching completion.

Last week, crews were working on the water system outside the building as Christy Fleming, manager of the site, and Steve Leger, executive director of the Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation, showed members of the media through the center, built on the site of the camp entrance and administration buildings.

For the second time in less than two years, a resignation has left Ward I short a representative on the Powell City Council.

Powell schools continue to show improvement in nearly every area according to results of last year’s statewide testing.

More than 80 percent of Powell students tested as proficient or advanced on most sections of the Proficiency Assessment for Wyoming Students, which was administered statewide in April to students in grades three through eight and to high school juniors.

By the time you read this bit of “wisdom,” Congress will either have taken action to raise the nation’s debt limit or they will have failed to take action.

Either way, they won’t have solved the mess that is the nation’s budget, and, I’m guessing, they won’t — because, frankly, I don’t think anybody in Congress really knows how to solve it.