It was Bramble's attempt on the site, run by Senate Republicans, to discredit what I wrote in the column last Wednesday about his distortions with the numbers in his attempt to show the need for private school vouchers.

The Provo Republican had written a pro-voucher column in the Provo Daily Herald in which he noted 34,423 new students came into Utah's public education system between 1995 and 2005, compared to 154,752 new students projected for the decade between 2005 and 2015. "That is a staggering 450 percent increase," he said.

So far so good (except mathematicians tell me that really is a 350 percent increase).

But then he says in that article, "It's not hard to see what a 450 percent increase in student population is going to do to public education." (The italics are mine.)

After I pointed out that 154,752 is not 450 percent of the current student population, which is around 540,000, he wrote on the Republican-controlled site, "That is not what I said."

Actually, that is what he said. It's right there in black and white in the Daily Herald.

The original mistake could easily be construed as an honest faux pas.

But now, on a partisan Web site sometimes known to be a propaganda organ for leaders of the Senate majority, he doesn't admit the mistake and basically ignores his erroneous claim in the earlier treatise.

That makes it look more like a deliberate distortion than a reckless goof.

Bramble and other voucher advocates pushing that argument and claiming it will require a tripling of the income tax also ignore what Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. pointed out at his monthly news conference last week: With the influx of all those new students also comes the influx of their parents, who will work and pay taxes, naturally expanding the tax base.

Trouble in Corrections: Two state correctional officers are under investigation for an alleged improper strip search conducted on two female prisoners they were transporting to St. George for a hearing.

The incident allegedly occurred Thursday night at the Sevier County jail in Richfield, where the prisoners were to spend the night before the trip continued to St. George Friday for the hearing.

Corrections Director Tom Patterson confirmed the department is investigating a complaint of an alleged incident involving at least one officer and one or two inmates of the opposite sex. Sources told me employees at the jail were concerned about their possible liability for what occurred. Patterson said the investigation would possibly include witness accounts from jail personnel.

But it ain't socialism: The customer service number listed on United Healthcare's Web site is a nonworking number. Then a call to the main number listed on the Web site Tuesday resulted in this message: "Our systems are currently down. We are advising our customers to please call back in a few hours."

prolly@sltrib.com