Down To the atrocious behavior of some of England’s newspapers, accused of hacking into peoples’ private email to get juicy details for their front-page stories. We’ve given them a “Thumbs Down,” but that’s not the digit we would prefer.

Up To Bellevue’s Fourth of July celebration at the Downtown Park. It was another day of rousing patriotism and family fun, brought to a climax by a spectacular fireworks show and the farewell performance by the Bellevue Philharmonic Orchestra. A letter on this page by Leslie Lloyd, president of the Bellevue Downtown Association, sums it up nicely.

UP To the final (we hope) “sit down” between the City of Bellevue and Sound Transit over the route, mitigation, costs, etc. of the light-rail route. Short of chucking the project altogether and reallocating the money to complete the Federal Way portion of light-rail service, Bellevue is going to have trains in its future. The bottom-line issue is how to make it work well.

UP To Rep. Dave Reichert for bucking most of his GOP colleagues in the U.S. House and voting for new energy standards for light bulbs. Given how long we all leave these on for no reason, it only makes sense to have them use as little energy as possible.

UP To Bellingham residents Jill McIntyre Witt and Brooks Anderson who found a common-sense way to ban the use of plastic bags at grocery stores. Like the idea or hate it, the pair proposed that the city ban plastic bags and impose a nickel fee on each paper bag. The key? The money stays with the grocery stores to defray costs and the nickel is an easy push to shoppers to switch to cloth bags. The measure passed with no opposition by the public or the city council.

DOWN To Congress and President Obama for not being able to balance a budget. Hey, we elected you to be leaders. Isn’t it about time to show that?

– Craig Groshart, Bellevue Reporter