THUMBS DOWN: It’s not that far into the school year yet and weird things are happening. This week Weber High School students were evacuated after several randomly started falling ill from an unknown substance. While the others might have enjoyed getting out of school early that day, it’s unusual that officials investigating could not pinpoint the cause or source of the sickness causing lightheadedness and nausea for more than 50. It hardly seems like parents would find the determination that the cause was a mystery hardly comforting.

THUMBS DOWN: While investigations are still ongoing, like many in the community, we were concerned and sad to hear about the death of Hooper city employee Dennis Steele who drowned over the weekend in a sewer pipe. Our sympathies to his family.

THUMBS UP: We hope you caught some of the festivities that were part of the Festival Hispano de Ogden last weekend. We enjoy getting to witness the different, vibrant cultures that are a part of Ogden. The diverse people of area make it great. The festival was a opportune chance to learn more about our neighbors during National Hispanic Heritage Month.

THUMBS DOWN: What can we say, Sen. Mike Lee? You managed to be the sole dissenter (99-1) this week in a rare bipartisan package of opioid bills — from which your state suffers greatly. Fox News reported that Lee slammed the legislation in a speech for creating a slew of “unaccountable federal grant programs [that] aren’t going to help much” and suggested that Congress was simply “throwing money” at what he called a very real problem.

Lee was quoted as saying, “It is not an accomplishment for us all to go home and pat ourselves on the backs for spending vast amounts of money on a large, blanket, federal spending package if it will not actually accomplish its goal, laudable though it is,” Lee said. “What we ought to do is focus our efforts on the state and local level – where we can best tailor our solutions and effectively reach people succumbing to the grip of the opioid crisis. American lives depend upon it.”

While many things can be solved at local and state levels, to suggest the best way to fight a national epidemic is through those community levels that are crippling under the burden of the opioid problem also isn’t “going to help much.” Only on the federal level can our representatives make changes to how drugs are shipped through the postal service, how the FDA requires prescriptions to be packaged or make other changes to federal agencies’ processes. America has already waited too long to address this problem.

THUMBS DOWN: We’ve seen a number of comments suggesting that Elizabeth Smart’s frustration at the release of Wanda Barzee is an indicator that she’s somehow harboring fear in her life instead of forgiveness. To these comments from Utahns, we suggest you reevaluate how safe you would feel if the co-conspirator in your kidnapping and continual rape was released without successful rehabilitation. We admire Smart for the strong woman she has become over the years in the face of such an evil situation that she was forced to encounter.

THUMBS UP: Happy National Public Lands Day! Part of what makes Utah so wonderful are the abundant public lands and outdoor spaces available to us as residents to marvel and enjoy. We encourage you all to find your own way of getting outside this weekend or supporting our lands.

THUMBS UP: While its not likely that many are happy at the fact development has still not occurred at the old Fred Meyer lot off 12th Street, the only positive of the current situation is that Ogden was smart when it approved the development for IASIS Healthcare and will not be on the hook for $100,000 grant it gave the for-profit company for demolition of the building given the fact no hospital construction has taken place. Fortunately, the city’s deputy director of economic development confirmed that the money was never transferred to IASIS following a buyout the healthcare company faced in the last year.