Homers: What's going right

FREE SPEECH: The Iowa City school board upheld an exercise of free speech, barely. The board killed a proposal that would have banned residents from wielding signs or submitting multimedia content input during board meetings, allowing only verbal comment. If the other forms don't cause major disruption, no need to stifle them.

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SAME STANDARD: Both the Iowa House and Senate have OK'd bills lowering the legal blood-alcohol limit for boat operators from 0.10 to 0.08 percent, the standard that motor vehicle drivers follow. Makes sense. Guiding a boat on public waters also is a privilege that comes with responsibility.

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HELP FOR JAPANESE KIDS: Students in Japanese classes at Cedar Rapids Washington, Kennedy and Jefferson high schools made several thousand origami paper cranes to sell for $1 each and send proceeds to a children's charity in disaster-struck Japan.

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INTERIM FIX: Linn County Sheriff Brian Gardner has come up with a plan to keep the county's emergency rescue service funded for another year: Use the anticipated increase in fees for housing federal prisoners.