Stop the presses (thumb down) » They bridged the chasm, reached an accord and learned the fine art of negotiation along the way. The student editors of Copper Hills High School's award-winning student literary magazine - Chasms - also learned a little bit about censorship, and about the lengths that adults will go to cover their behinds. The magazine, after a weeklong delay, has made it to the school newsstand, with one condition attached by principal Todd Quarnberg: A signed parental permission slip is required for students to purchase the publication. Quarnberg, citing "grotesque" artwork and "PG-13" profanity, had confiscated the 2009 edition, and finally allowed its release last week. In the future, the magazine's staff and class adviser will have administrators looking over their shoulders during production, and students' freedom of expression will surely suffer.

Job-hunter help (thumb up) » Losing a job and hunting for a new one are tough enough without also losing child care. That's why a state plan to make child-care funds available for low-income people who are job searching should be finalized and implemented. Right now state day-care money is allotted only to low-income working parents. But with toddlers to tend, out-of-work moms and dads could stay that way even longer. The plan under consideration would pay child-care providers directly; parents would have to submit a daily log showing they were hunting for a job while their children were being cared for at state expense. That should prevent parents from abusing the system. This is a wise expenditure of federal stimulus money that can help workers get back on the job.

'bout time (thumb up) » The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has snuffed out the fuse to a powder keg - the defunct but still dangerous explosives plant in Utah County owned by former Utah Congressman Merrill Cook. Noting that the bags, barrels and deteriorating tanks of hazardous, explosive materials at the 2.6-acre site in the foothills of Saratoga Springs posed an "urgent threat" to public health and the environment, the EPA put the cleanup project on the fast track. And there's more good news. Taxpayers won't be paying the tab, which could run to $2 million. Cook's company and the landowner, the Utah School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration, will be billed for the work.