Keeping score: A bright spot among Utah's perennial educational problems - lack of funds, achievement gap, teacher shortage - is the news that our students continue to score higher than the national average on the ACT test, though their peers are gaining. Probably the brightest statistic among the latest data is that 17 percent more Latino high school graduates took the college-entrance exam in 2007 than a year earlier. The bad news is that college readiness, especially in science, is low, both in Utah and the nation. But we'll take the gains among Latinos as a good sign.

Log on, sound off: The town meeting remains a cherished democratic tradition in New England, where it dates from colonial times. Utah's tech-savvy Legislature, which operates an award-winning Web site, has put a 21st-century spin on the idea by creating a virtual town meeting. It launched last week during the lawmakers' tour of Salt Lake and Davis counties, giving Utahns a chance to sound off and ask questions. That's good for democracy.

How green are my cows: Ranching that balances grazing with ecological integrity should be the future of the industry. The ranches run by the Conservation Fund and Grand Canyon Trust in Utah and Arizona are successfully using "green" techniques on their 860,000 acres of federal grazing permits. And they aren't the only ones. Some smaller ranches, as well as another 800,000-acre operation in Idaho, are becoming more conservation-minded. It's a healthy trend that other ranchers could well join.