THUMB DOWN: Barely a slap » Probation and community service. They sound like a punishment for teenage shoplifting or aggravated jaywalking, not an appropriate sentence for a woman who has admitted to embezzling hundreds of thousands of dollars meant to help the education of low-income schoolchildren. But that was the sentence handed down to Susan G. Ross by U.S. District Judge Clark Waddoups after she pleaded 47 charges down to two counts of felony money laundering. She and her husband, John D. Ross, who admitted helping his wife bilk the Davis School District, were also ordered to repay just $350,000 to the district. That's the amount Waddoups estimates their scheme netted, not the $4.3 million they were accused of stealing. So much for the punishment fitting the crime.

THUMB DOWN: Missing the point » The group Gun Owners of Utah is urging people not to sign the initiative petition being circulated by Utahns for Ethical Government. The gun owners' beef? The initiative would require legislators to file an annual conflict-of-interest statement. It would include disclosure of any property, other than a personal residence, owned by a legislator that is likely to be subject to acquisition, trade or regulation by a public body. Because guns are property and are subject to government regulation, the gun owners believe that legislators would have to disclose their personal arsenals. The petition's authors say that argument is ludicrous. We think it's clear that the disclosure is aimed at real estate or other assets that a reasonable person could foresee would be subject to government action that could affect its value or could profit the owner. Guns? Not so much.

THUMB UP: Another Aggie liftoff » NASA launched a new orbiting telescope last week that will photograph infrared light emitted by objects in space that are invisible to the naked eye. As such, most of the failed stars and other space rocks to be photographed by the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer have never been detected before. Utah State University's Space Dynamics Laboratory spent five years designing and assembling the telescope. It's another in a series of projects conceived and executed at USU to expand human knowledge of the final frontier. Any university worthy of the name would be justifiably proud of this record of achievement.