On a new U.S. guideline forcing international students to leave the country or transfer to another college if their schools only offer online classes this fall

When Campbell County commissioners instructed staff Monday to begin investigating what it would take for Gillette College to break from the Northern Wyoming Community College District and become its own independent entity, we thought that may have been a little extreme.

Excerpts from recent editorials in the United States and abroad:

Coronavirus has claimed another victim.

Shay Lundvall was right to resign his Ward 3 seat on the Gillette City Council even if now he wants his old job back and feels as though he was coerced into resigning.

Twice this month, the Gillette City Council has shot down an opportunity to hear from its residents.

Turns out most of those dang hoodlum kids who have no respect for others don’t live up to their stereotypes.

People who are looking for a good deal this weekend during Memorial Day sales should remember a few numbers.

What’s supposed to be one of the most memorable, life-changing times for young people has been just that this spring, albeit for all the wrong reasons.

Time will tell whether the nation’s hurry to reopen things was a risk worth taking.

U.S. Sens. Mike Enzi and John Barrasso have picked an opportune time to advance the development of rare earth minerals — one that could provide a huge boost to local initiatives.

The production of coal and oil in Campbell County is an essential service, but unfortunately essential doesn’t mean expendable.

KUDOS TO OUR local governments for recognizing people’s needs during this pandemic and trying to do what they can to help mitigate hardships.

If we needed another example of why our grandparents made up America’s Greatest Generation — or great-grandparents if you’re a millennial — the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic is it.

Set aside for a moment individual political proclivities and feelings toward either Donald Trump or Nancy Pelosi.

From the March 22 Wyomiing Tribune-Eagle

It was unavoidable that Campbell County would end up with a case of the novel coronavirus. As much wishful thinking that we might do, the odds were stacked against it.

It is easy these days to be judgmental of others, particularly when dealing with a pandemic that’s been so politicized.

It sounds almost too good to be true: A million acres that someday might help provide tax dollars to the state of Wyoming from grazing or hunting; through mineral development of coal, oil, gas, trona and possibly rare earth minerals; through rights of way for transmission (lines), for wind, …

Included in Gov. Mark Gordon’s budget recommendations were two key provisions that will help mineral industries, which means they will help Campbell County and the rest of the state.

With as many second shoes dropping on the Powder River Basin coal industry over the past few years, we’re starting to think we’re living under a family of centipedes.

When school trustees began talking about allowing armed educators in the Campbell County School District, they promised a slow, deliberative process.

If someone were to ask the Legislature whether it would rather pay $175 for something or $6, there’s no doubt our esteemed lawmakers would say they’d take the cheaper route.

The last time the Campbell County Commission was tasked with filling a vacancy nearly created a civil war within the local Republican Party. A mere 15 months later, it could be, as Yogi Berra once famously quipped, déjà vu all over again.

A district court judge in Albany County ruled Friday in favor of openness in determining that the University of Wyoming Board of Trustees withheld information that should have been open to public scrutiny regarding the employment of former UW President Laurie Nichols.

Today’s Sunday cover story reviews some of the tops stories that made news in and around Campbell County in 2019. Not surprisingly, a pair of Jekyll and Hyde coal bankruptcies came out far-and-away the No. 1 local story this past year.

If one ever doubted the goodness of people in Gillette, they had to look no further than events of the summer when Blackjewel locked out its employees and about 600 local workers were suddenly thrown into the maelstrom of shoddy corporate shenanigans.

We shouldn’t be surprised there is cheating in sports. The stakes are too high and the rewards too great — be it status or money — to be scrupulously clean.

Commissioner Mark Christensen is absolutely right when he says that Campbell County’s future relies on an ambitious project to market northeastern Wyoming as a “Carbon Valley,” where companies and individuals can research, develop and commercially apply advanced carbon technologies.

Two momentous things mark the early days of December in America’s history. One of those started in Wyoming, the other in a territory thousands of miles away. Both were events that would forever change the country’s course, and as such are worth taking time to remember and reflect upon.

It’s taken a half-century, but Gillette is finally on the cusp of realizing a long-held dream of having a public education system that can serve local residents from kindergarten through earning a bachelor’s degree.

The Legislature’s Joint Judiciary Committee considered a bill last month that strangely reduced government transparency, which was quite the buzzword earlier in the year when the Legislature was in session.

The Campbell County School District may have found a new location for its bus barn, and that is a positive development indeed, not only for the district but also for outdoor recreationists who see much untapped potential in a location that the bus barn was supposed to occupy.

The Integrated Test Center adjacent to the Dry Fork Station power plant north of Gillette is no longer a big, empty space filled with what-ifs and potential. While there are still plenty of both, those immaterial hopes and dreams have some more concrete company.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reported last week that highway deaths are down for the first half of 2019.

When the Wyoming Legislature failed to act on a 2016 push to require county ad valorem taxes to be paid monthly, lawmakers crossed a line that separated the Cowboy State from simply being industry-friendly to being an energy flunkie.

It wasn’t a summer for the faint of heart in Gillette. Before a storm with hurricane-force winds and small hail brought down numerous trees and limbs around the city, at least two substantial hailstorms did millions of dollars of damage to cars, homes and businesses.

This was a historic week for Powder River Basin coal.

Good news!:

Whoever originally coined the proverb “better the devil you know than the devil you don’t” never worked for either Contura Energy Corp. or Blackjewel LLC.

A show of significant support last month by soccer and sports enthusiasts convinced the Gillette City Council that it was headed in the right direction when it proposed adding other recreational opportunities to the Energy Capital Sports Complex.

Before we pull out the burgers and brauts and head to the grill, before we sit around the last campfire of the season, and before we bemoan the end of a three-day holiday that officially ends summer, do something more meaningful.

A local judge and commissioner approached a legislative committee earlier this month to argue for adding another judge at the District Court level in Campbell County.

Would it be too cliché to say we’ve had an absolute blast as the host city for the 50th Pyrotechnic Guild International convention?

Not a shell has been fired yet at a public show for the PGI’s 50th anniversary, yet we can say with some certainty that the Gillette and Campbell County community hope that the Pyrotechnics Guild International will return again in a few years

No one in their right mind wants to be in another arms race. One Cold War was quite enough.

It takes something pretty spectacular to take the attention of the Gillette community away from the bankruptcy of one of the Powder River Basin’s largest coal producers and employers.

When nearly 500 coal mine workers were laid off in the spring of 2016, it was the final straw that nearly broke the economic back of the Campbell County community. Having come in the middle of a downturn in the oil industry, thousands of local men and women were out of work, vacancy rates to…