Paul Cardwell was indicted Tuesday by a federal grand jury in Cheyenne for charges relating to his alleged embezzlement of nearly $850,000 from Powell Valley Healthcare. That’s welcome news, but it’s only one step toward dealing with the problems he created as chief executive officer for Powell Valley Healthcare.

A new chief executive officer, Bill Patten, is on board now, but fallout from Caldwell’s behavior continues to be a problem for two boards that govern the hospital.

As happens every few years, people who want to be elected president are out there promising me that I will receive huge benefits if I just pull the right lever next November.

Consider the current quartet of Republicans squabbling over convention delegates. Newt Gingrich, for example, promises that he will bring the price of gasoline down to $2.50 per gallon. All it will take, according to Mr. G, is increasing production here at home so we don’t have to import oil any more. According to the old law of supply and demand, he says, the increased supply will just naturally bring down the price of gas.

I received some big news while talking to my daughter last week.

It seems my grandson Arun, a precocious 2-year-old, has been promoted at his day care, where they deemed him advanced enough to move from the toddler room to the big kids room.

The Powell Panther wrestlers closed their home season Tuesday night with a big win over Cody in an abbreviated dual.

Six forfeits by the Cody wrestlers meant the Panthers only had to win one of the seven remaining matches to win the team score, and Charles Wittick took care of that in the first match, taking a 12-3 major decision over Cody’s Max Dickerman at 113. Wittick outscored his opponent 6-0 in the first two periods and expanded the lead to nine by allowing three escapes and scoring three takedowns in the third period to score four team points.

The Powell Panther wrestlers closed their home season Tuesday night with a big win over Cody in an abbreviated dual.

Six forfeits by the Cody wrestlers meant the Panthers only had to win one of the seven remaining matches to win the team score, and Charles Wittick took care of that in the first match, taking a 12-3 major decision over Cody’s Max Dickerman at 113. Wittick outscored his opponent 6-0 in the first two periods and expanded the lead to nine by allowing three escapes and scoring three takedowns in the third period to score four team points.

Early this week, Gov. Matt Mead met with residents in the Pavillion area in an effort to resolve complaints some have raised about groundwater tainted by pollution.

Specifically, some residents of the rural area in northern Fremont County believe their wells have been contaminated by the chemicals used in the process of hydraulic fracturing, commonly called fracking. Fracking involves pumping water, sand and various chemicals under pressure into a well to release oil or gas by fracturing tight rock formations.

Andrews takes gold in 152-pound bracket

Five medalists paced the Powell Panthers to a sixth place finish in the giant Ron Thon Invitational at Riverton last weekend.

Randy Andrews led the Panther efforts, wrestling through the 152-pound bracket to take Powell’s only championship. Andrews pinned three opponents on his way to the finals and took a 6-2 decision over Reed Burgener of Douglas, a defending state champion in the finals.

Last week, Northwest College received a request that was bound to come up sooner or later.

As we reported in our Tuesday issue, a new faculty member at the college has asked NWC to consider offering the same health insurance benefits to domestic partners and same-sex couples that the college offers to married couples and their families.

Powell Economic Partnership hires project manager

A new effort to promote economic development in the Powell area took a step forward recently with the hiring of a project manager.

Robbi Welch of Powell became the project manager for Powell Economic Partnership, Inc. two weeks ago, and she will present a plan for fundraising to the board of directors this week.

Board Chairman Rick LaPlante said Welch was hired to drive the group’s activities for the next few months and create awareness of those activities in the community.