Students who don't return for their sophomore year can cost taxpayers valuable funds in a tough economy.

At a time when California's public colleges are battling to maintain state funding, a report says that over a five-year period, the state spent nearly half a billion dollars to educate first-year college students who dropped out before their sophomore year.

The 55 volunteers who signed up to plant marsh grass in the Big Branch Marsh National Wildlife Refuge on Saturday did so without knowing that U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar would stop by the St. Tammany Parish site to plant a few clumps of grass himself.

Under the umbrella of the Eldercare Workforce Alliance, a team of Utahns who are extraordinarily knowledgeable about the challenges and deficiencies of the eldercare system have been in Washington, D.C., this week to stump for policies and programs that would equip an eldercare workforce to help people stay in their homes as they need services.