Four Northwest College students were rescued Sunday evening after they became stranded in the Owl Mountains west of Thermopolis.

The students, all young men in their early 20s, were traveling back to Powell after spring break.

The anniversary observed in the United States on Tuesday was a solemn one, not a joyous one.

March 19 marked the 10th anniversary of the start of the war in Iraq, also known as Operation Iraqi Freedom, on March 19, 2003. Just two days after the war began, Lt. Shane Childers of Powell became the first casualty of the war as he helped lead the charge, suddenly making the war halfway across the world feel very close and very personal.

After a year and a half of anticipation and preparation, Melissa Hill’s goal of adding an eagle to the birds she cares for at Buffalo Bill Center of the West became a reality in January.

Kateri, a female golden eagle, came to the center as part of the Draper Museum of Natural History’s raptor education program after spending five months at the Northeast Wyoming Bird Rescue and Rehabilitation Center in Gillette. She was taken to the rehabilitation center after being struck by a vehicle — a semi truck — on Interstate 90, said Hill, assistant museum curator, who manages the museum’s Yellowstone Raptor Experience.

One of the most immediately obvious effects of budget cuts forced by the so-called federal sequester will be felt in our own backyard.

The opening of the East Entrance to Yellowstone National Park will be delayed by two weeks this spring, thereby saving the National Park Service some of the cost of plowing the roads to those entrances.

Powell Valley Healthcare leaders plan to provide information, seek public input

Master facilities planning efforts at Powell Valley Healthcare have been put on hold while the organization’s leaders consider how extensive they want those plans to be.

Davis Partnership, the firm hired to develop a master facilities plan for Powell’s medical campus, presented three concepts for facilities planning during a meeting in January of the Powell Valley Healthcare board, Chief Executive Officer Bill Patten and the PVHC leadership team.

Public input sought

Powell Valley Healthcare leaders will be making some big decisions in coming weeks and months, and they want your input and opinions before making them.

The Powell Valley Healthcare board — comprised of the seven Powell Hospital District board members plus three doctors — recently was given three concepts in regard to master facility planning. The concepts range from modest changes to get the organization by for the next few years to most everything PHVC leaders and the community could want.

Six months after his death in Afghanistan, a Northwest College scholarship endowment has been established to honor Army Command Sgt. Maj. Kevin J. Griffin, who also was a former NWC wrestler.

The supplemental budget passed Friday by the Wyoming Legislature includes $20 million for distribution to the state’s cities, towns and counties. That’s good news, and it’s quite remarkable, given that state agencies are looking at budget cuts.

The federal government giveth, and it taketh away.

Park County recently received news of a windfall totaling more than $767,000 from the federal government — $585,000 more than had been expected.