Standing on a high wire 40 feet off the ground is one way to learn fast about how to really believe in yourself.

That was the aim of a "Challenge Course" at Camp Oakhurst that 32 Yosemite High School Cadet Corps members got to push themselves on earlier this month -- a high ropes course with obstacles including a swinging log, zipline, and a jumble of suspended ropes that got many temporarily stuck like flies in a web.

Three Mountain Area high school students swept first through third place in a county-wide Poetry Out Loud competition Saturday at Yosemite High School, hosted by The Madera County Arts Council.

"I'm so thrilled with the way that every one of these kids have stepped up and really brought their own passion to each poem, which is hard for young people because they don't have the same experience to draw from, so I am very impressed," said Anne Molin, area coordinator for California Poets in the Schools, about all eight of the contestants. "I wish I had the same depth of experience to draw from when I was their age."

Nestled next to his mother on the couch with a puppy pressed against his face, four-year-old Hudson Vaughan proudly declares that when he grows up, he's going to be a cowboy.

His father smiles and says that soon they'll have to get him a real cowboy hat.

With losers of a December Chukchansi tribal council election still seated at the Picayune Rancheria of Chukchansi Indians, election winners have met with Bureau of Indian Affairs in hopes the agency will recognize their body as the true tribal council based off results of the Dec. 3 election.

At stake is the future membership of the tribe, many Chukchansi believe, with leadership still split.

For one family, descendants of the last Chukchansi chief, Chief Hawa and his daughter Princess Melliot, being Chukchansi has always been a way of life.

Since 1892, heirs of Chief Hawa -- who the family refers to as "Grandpa Mukchaw" -- have lived and raised their children on the family's 1,000-plus acre ranch in Ahwahnee beside the Fresno River, living off the land and raising cattle.

The majority of about a hundred residents at an Oakhurst meeting last week said area public water and road services are below satisfactory along with Oakhurst planning.

The meeting was held Jan. 26 at the Oakhurst Community Center to gather public input and discuss quality, cost and overall effectiveness of Oakhurst area sewer, water and road maintenance systems as well as other related services.

After several dry months, umbrellas were finally up in the Mountain Area last weekend following the winter's first significant storm. The area received a much needed 5.7 inches of precipitation Friday through Monday said Philip Messerschmitt, visitor information officer for the Bass Lake Ranger District, Sierra National Forest.

Since July, the official start of the rain season, 10.43 inches of rain have fallen in the mountains -- half the precipitation the area saw last year at this time.

Drama Intervention -- a play about the potential problems with being in a play -- is gearing up for its debut 7 p.m. Feb. 2 and 3 at the Yosemite High School Theater.

From crazed relatives to alien invasion, Lars Thorson's Theater Arts 2 class is ready to deliver a performance like you've never seen before.

Following an election last month that ousted Chukchansi tribal council chairman Reggie Lewis and treasurer Chance Alberta, letters signed by Lewis have been sent to winners of the election stating they are to be stripped of all tribal benefits and services for 10 years, excluded from all Chukchansi meetings for five years and forced to pay restitution and expenses associated with the disruption of a tribal meeting Dec. 26.

At least 16 letters are believed to have been sent out, said Morris Reid, the newly-reelected chairman who also received one of the banishment letters.

The City of Chowchilla filed a petition for a Writ of Mandate Jan. 6 against California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation for failure to comply with the California Environmental Quality Act in its decision to convert Valley State Prison for Women into a men's prison.

The conversion is part of the state's prison realignment plan, mandated by a federal court order to reduce the state inmate population in its 33 prisons to 137.5% of capacity by June 27, 2013.