For anyone thinking that having Burleigh County sheriff's deputies ride school buses the first week of school was a waste of time, the resulting traffic citations prove otherwise. Deputies issued 43 citations the first three days of the program, and 17 citations the final two days. That so many people ignore traffic rules isn't much of a surprise, except they were violations within reach of a big yellow school bus. Speeding near a school bus or failing to stop when lights on a school bus are flashing are big no-nos.

People carp all the time about the frequent failure of Bismarck-Mandan drivers to follow the rules of the road. And it looks like, at least from this school bus program, it's carping for good reason.

Drivers, please pay attention. Remember who's riding in that school bus.

Sky must not be limit

A review of NASA's plans to return to the moon with a manned space vehicle recommends the program not get off the ground. And, actually, that's a good thing. The return-to-the-moon fever was driven more by feel-good human pride than scientific need.

The independent space experts that reviewed the program based their decision on cost. Such an adventure to the moon had a price tag of $3 billion a year above NASA's $18 billion annual budget. Although the bailout and stimulus packages have worn down some of the sharp edge on the word billion, it still hurts to think about spending that kind of money.

Hubble shots fantastic

Space exploration and research is terribly important to the United States. But lately, we've been all over the map trying to determine a mission for NASA, and politicians have been busy second-guessing scientists about priorities.

Before the U.S. spends additional money on NASA, there needs to be a scientifically and financially sound plan for the next several decades at the space agency. Then we can return to space in new and interesting ways.

Things aren't necessarily bad at NASA. The new photos released this past week from the Hubble Space Telescope have been wondrous, and that's courtesy of a May telescope repair job by a shuttle crew. The Hubble has been in space for nearly 20 years, and has needed a little tinkering and tuning up from time to time.

The Tribune published several of the new Hubble images Thursday, including a "celestial object that looks like a delicate butterfly" and stars bursting to life in the Carina Nebula. And then there was the image of the 100,000 stars in the core of a giant galaxy.

By the way, that butterfly was "36,000-degree cauldrons of gas spewed into space by a dying star and moving at more than 60,000 miles an hour."