Today, as we prepare to celebrate our liberty, there's a desperate need for members of Congress willing to stand up to protect it.

Another fatal crash raises more urgently than ever the question: What is being done about the road in Provo Canyon?

Aproposed ordinance governing landlords in Provo raises troubling questions of constitutionality. At least three provisions are completely unacceptable in a free society, and a fourth is questionable.

The Utah Valley State College community is entirely justified in feeling proud that it will officially become Utah Valley University on Tuesday. Looking back, the school's growth is a phenomenal story. It's a story both of expansion and of staying true to roots. As the special section "UVUphoria" in today's Daily Herald reveals, great opportunities -- and a few challenges -- lie ahead.

Beehive to technology entrepreneurs for fueling the dynamic growth that propelled Utah to an eighth-place finish on a prestigious ranking of technology and science states. The study by the Milken Institute, a California-based think tank, is an encouraging sign that the Beehive State's economy remains ahead of the curve.

Buffalo Chip (dry) to the State Tax Commission for sending threatening letters to as many as 800 Utahns for failing to pay their state income tax. The trouble is that the people in question had already paid up. We're awarding dry chips because they're less threatening than wet ones and we wanted to cut the agency a break because it sent the people letters of apology. How about calling them up on the phone and begging forgiveness? And maybe sending flowers, too?

Beehive to a young man who, as a BYU undergraduate, was sole author of a paper accepted by a scientific journal -- a feat many doctoral students can't match. Neuroscience major Brett Alldredge's article in the Journal of Clinical Pathology, to be published soon, examines connections between cells and their role in human diseases. Alldredge has just graduated, and will attend medical school in the fall. It's a great start.

Buffalo Chip to the unnamed Lehi High School teacher whose negligence led to private information about dozens of students literally blowing away in the breeze. The teacher was supposed to feed a grant document containing Social Security numbers to the shredder. Instead, pages were placed on a stack to be recycled. Somehow, on their way to the recycling bin, some pages blew away. (And do school workers just let trash blow around the neighborhood?) A nearby resident found some, while teachers and Lehi police recovered most of the rest. But a couple of pages are still missing. The teacher has been disciplined. We suggest he or she be required to write 1,000 times on a chalk board, "A recycling bin is not a shredder" or "Laziness is the habit of resting before you get tired."

Now that the dust has settled, it's easier to see that Utah's elections process has functioned fairly well, although it's still abysmally weak when it comes to encouraging voter participation, and that goes for both of the major political parties.

Sometimes America's Freedom Festival at Provo is called one of the nation's top Fourth of July celebrations, but that may fall short. Not only may it be in some ways the best and biggest, but also the widest and most profound.

The voters have spoken. And Tuesday's Third District congressional race is a warning to incumbents everywhere.