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."