Buffalo Chip to Lehi City Council for passing a law putting an exorbitant price tag on the public's right to know. Ask to see something under the Government Records Access Management Act and you could be billed for any assistance supplied by the likes of outside lawyers or computer experts whom the city deems it must consult to fulfill your request. If a city department head ambles over to a file cabinet and pulls out a document, you could be charged at $50 an hour. As attorney Jeff Hunt told a newspaper, We the People own the records; the government just holds them in trust for us. Lehi officials lamely say that those who ask for public records should pay the expenses. So if a resident's house burns down, he or she should pay the full cost for the fire company to respondfi Telegram to Lehi City Council: Letting citizens know what government is doing is not an annoying distraction, it's the most important thing you do. Slapping down this silliness is now an important thing the Legislature could do.

Beehive to members of the Utah Valley Home Builders Association for serving as "Subcontractors for Santa." Every Christmas season the builders help families by doing home repairs. This year's recipients included seven families with members serving in the Utah National Guard, some in Iraq. The help was much appreciated, especially since many National Guard personnel are paid less on duty than in their regular jobs, adding money problems to their families' worries. Lynnae Chilcott of the National Guard said, "To have them come in and say, 'Let me take this off your shoulders,' is really huge. It just takes a load of stress off the backs of these families to help them like that."

Buffalo Chip to the Utah State Office of Education for denying a request by state Sen. Margaret Dayton, R-Orem, for a copy of a grant application by Brigham Young University. State officials argued that the application could give competitors an unfair look at the research. Oh, please. The school won the $500,000 federal grant, administered through the state office, to study the controversial "Math Investigations" program at public schools. So the process involved federal, state and local government in a matter of wide public concern. If researchers are truly worried about exposure of their applications, here's a simple answer: Don't take the people's money to study public issues. The State Records Committee voted unanimously to give the documents to Dayton, but the Office of Education is mulling a court appeal. We're setting a pile of Buffalo Chips aside just in case.

Beehive to Independence High School for taking steps to fight bullying, truancy and drug abuse. The Provo alternative school has scheduled a three-day program called Challenge Day that aims to ease student feelings of isolation, loneliness and lack of connection. Principal Sarah Lloyd says that Challenge Day tries to get to the root of school problems, and hopes it will help the school reach its goal of doubling its 30 percent graduation rate. But Lloyd's vision is for a greater change in the community as well. "I see Challenge Day as a way for all of us to work together and have something that really we're very inspired by," she said. "We think it is going to help transform our school." We commend school officials for tackling these tough issues, and wish them success on Challenge Day and beyond.

Do you agree?