Get a McKinley brick

Alumni of McKinley Elementary School are invited to pick up mementos including trophies, photographs and bricks between 2 and 4 p.m. Tuesday at the entrance gate at 1038 N. Glenn Road, near the Natrona County School District's central office.

The school district asks that each person take only one brick.

McKinley Elementary was torn down this year to make way for the new Cottonwood Elementary School, now under construction at the same site.

Ranches or subdivisions?

The work of the Wyoming Stock Growers Association with the Wyoming Legislature's committee dealing with subdivisions, and the potential for creating residential development while still preserving significant ranch operations, open space, and wise use of water resources will be the topic of talks in Casper on Thursday at the University of Wyoming's free lecture series.

"Cutting Up Land" is the third evening's talk in the series "Delicate Networks: Wyoming's Land and Water and the Decisions Demanded by Growth," at the University of Wyoming/Casper College (UW/CC) Center.

The event, free and open to the public, takes place from 7 to 9 p.m. on Thursday in the Wheeler Auditorium, Room 103 of the Wold Physical Science Center on the Casper College campus.

Guest speakers are John Jenkins, with Sand Creek Ranch Preservation Company in Buffalo, and Jim Magagna, executive vice-president of the Wyoming Stock Growers Association.

Development issues affecting land and water in a number of communities including Casper, Buffalo, Cheyenne, Laramie, and Pinedale will be addressed.

BLM lifts fire restrictions

The Bureau of Land Management has lifted partial fire restrictions in Natrona, Converse, Platte and Goshen counties due to cooler weather.

People can now build campfires outside of fire grates, smoke, operate a chainsaw and use welders and acetylene torches.

Activities that are always prohibited include using fireworks, burning hazardous materials, use a firearm with incendiary or tracer ammunition, and operating an off-road vehicle without a spark arrester.

BLM Fire Management Officer Jay Esperance still urged caution: "Even though we have received some moisture, many areas are still very dry. When hunting and recreating, please be careful with campfires, and report all wildfires immediately."

Police make forgery arrest

Police Sunday arrested a Casper woman suspected of writing a check from a stolen checkbook.

Jessica Leigh Martinez, 25, faces a forgery charge, according to a police affidavit.

On Sunday, Martinez told police that she got a stolen checkbook and wrote a $100 check to another woman because the woman's kids didn't have any food. Martinez said she didn't sign the check.

The checkbook was taken during a July car burglary. The affidavit doesn't specify who was involved in that burglary.

The other woman, Timika Shonte Wallace, was arrested this summer on suspicion of possessing forged writing and wrongful taking and disposing of property, police said at the time.