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Up, up and away. Summer's nearly gone and another crop of Racine high school grads are already getting ready in the next couple of weeks to head off to colleges and universities - or maybe stay home and attend one of the nearby higher-education institutions. So it was good news this week to read that the number of local students taking the ACT tests and their scores were both on the uptick this year. The ACT scores are one of the benchmarks universities use to determine admission and Unified students had an overall composite score of 21.3. That's above the national average, but still a point behind Wisconsin's composite score, which is one of the highest in the nation. Still, they're up and that's coupled with an 11.5 percent increase in the number of students who took the test, the first increase here in seven years. There's room for improvement, of course, but for this class and some of next year's class the news this week was an encouraging sign that we hope translates to success in the next four to five years.

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It's hard not to like the drama of the Beijing Olympics as we cheer our underdog gymnasts and favored swimmers like Michael Phelps. Their efforts shine brightly because the drama is real and the results are not choreographed. Host country China would have done well to consider that when they fudged the opening day ceremonies by using faked computer generated fireworks "marching" toward the stadium and inserted it into the live coverage. NBC's Bob Costas called it "quite literally cinematic", which, of course, is code for "faked." Deception also cropped up with lip-synching of a song when Chinese authorities yanked the real singer because of her crooked teeth and popped in the lip-syncher. We're fine with pageantry, but the deceptions did nothing to enhance these Olympics.

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Welcome to the fuel cost whipsaw report. On Monday we were cheered by reports that gasoline prices were dropping across the country and had plunged by an average of 15 cents per gallon over the past two weeks to $3.85. That giddy feeling of relief was short-lived, however. By Wednesday we were reading new reports by the federal Energy Department that projected the cost of natural gas was up and our fall and winter heating bills would be up $200, up 21 percent from last winter. The "good news" is that natural gas costs have dropped 25 percent in the past month - so that fuel cost project could have been much worse. Feeling better now?

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Want to be a lifesaver? A real one? The Racine Infant Mortality Center is looking for volunteers (and donations) that could do just that. It's hosting a Baby Expo next month in an effort to reduce the infant mortality rate of the city's black babies. In 2006 that rate was 16.79 per 1,000 babies - double that of white babies which had a rate of 8.49 per 1,000. The expo on Sept. 6 is a child-care teaching session on topics like prenatal care, breast-feeding, first aid, labor and delivery, baby crying and other issues. Hospital and resource workers will lead some of the sessions, but additional speakers are needed and so are volunteers to run booths and help with snacks. To volunteer or make a donation, call Kim Dyer of RIMC, (262) 639-6570. It's the chance of a lifetime.