Thumbs down to the absurd schedule Congress has set for itself.

Plan to enjoy this holiday weekend? Expect to take a trip, or relax at home on the couch, enjoying time away from the workplace? Sorry, but you’re a piker when it comes to time off.

Congress was not in session for a single day in August. Not one.

Credit Wyoming Sen. Gale McGee for championing this schedule. He pushed for a more “modern schedule” and from 1971 to this day, Congress is rarely in session in August, allowing the members the kind of long, relaxing break most of us can only dream about.

The senators and representatives don’t exactly kill themselves in September, October and the first part of November, either. From Sept. 1 to Nov. 11, Congress will be in session for 10 whole days.

All told, the Senate and the House have scheduled 113 days in session this year. Several of those days will last a few hours at most. Not bad, with a base pay of $174,000. With this so-called schedule, it’s no surprise so little gets done in Congress.

This is an election year, so Congress is spending more days at home, either glad-handing, meeting with supporters and raising money, than in non-campaign years. Two-thirds of the Senate is not up for re-election, and when you add in members who are retiring, the vast majority of our elected representatives are footloose and fancy-free for the summer and early fall.

Nice work, or non-work, if you can get it.

Thumbs up to Northwest College for rolling with the punches as another enrollment decline hits the campus as a new school year opens.

President Stefani Hicswa said last week that enrollment will drop by 6.7 percent this year. It’s not a unique situation for the Powell college, she said.

“Community colleges throughout the United States are experiencing declining enrollment due to the economic recovery,” Hicswa said

The college has been planning on how to deal with this while also making steps to stem the tide or even reverse it, she said. That doesn’t mean a cut in staffing, Hicswa said, since it did not add employees when enrollment went up during the national economic downturn five years ago.

While that sounds reasonable, and we do wish to call for a bloodletting, if there are fewer students requiring services in and out of the classroom, Northwest needs to look at reducing its staffing level, possibly through attrition.

She said NWC’s institutional effectiveness committee has been asked to figure out what the school’s “ideal enrollment” would be, examining demographics, a revised funding formula, facilities usage and its capacity for career and technical associate of applied science program development.

In addition, NWC will focus on bringing in more international students. That’s a dual blessing, as it adds students to the college while also exposing a rural, rather isolated community to other cultures and ideas.

We wish the best for the college. Hicswa has us believing it is up to meeting this challenge.

Thumbs down to the wild crime spree that a 25-year-old Lovell man is accused of committing in and around Powell early Sunday.

Israel Silva allegedly stole two vehicles, one in Lovell, one in Powell, fired gunshots through the window of three other vehicles, and then led police on a high-speech chase near Heart Mountain.

Thankfully, no one was harmed during this outbreak of madness. Maybe that’s because it happened between 5-6 a.m. or perhaps luck, fate or God was on our side in this case.

We’re glad it ended without a more serious and sad conclusion, and we thank the law enforcement officers who helped bring it to a peaceful conclusion.

Thumbs up to the launch of the high school sports season.

All the Powell High School teams will be in action this week, with the cross country teams in Cody Friday afternoon, the tennis team in Green River Friday and Rock Springs Saturday. The volleyball team will be in Douglas Friday and Saturday and the girls swim team will be in Lander.

The golf teams opened play last weekend in Riverton and will be in Buffalo on Sept. 4.

The three-time defending state champion football team will kick off the season Friday at Custer County High School. It will obviously be a very emotional game for the team, its coaches and fans as the Panthers take to the gridiron for a game for the first time since the tragic death of coach Jim Stringer.

We wish them well, and hope all the orange-and-black-clad athletes have a tremendous fall, full of triumph and joy. That’s what sports are all about, in the end.