Thumbs up to a significant drop in methamphetamine use that has occurred in Montana, according to a new report. It found a 73 percent decrease in the number of people testing positive in workplace tests, teenagers reported a drop in their use of the drug from 13.5 percent to 8.3 percent, and 93 percent of Monday middle and high school students say using meth is a “grave risk.”

Thumbs up to District Judge Jeffrey Sherlock for taking a bite out of cell phone noise pollution. Although most of us have to put up with the irritating ringing, Sherlock has imposed a $5 fee for people who don’t turn off their phones in his courtroom, with the money going to Big Brothers Big Sisters of Helena.

Thumbs down to a young Townsend woman whose alleged exploits have stirred up strong media and police attention on both U.S. coasts. Authorities think Esther Elizabeth Reed, who hasn’t been seen by her family since 1999, has been stealing other people’s identities and using them to try to get into Harvard University in Boston, Columbia University in New York, and California State University at Fullerton.

Thumbs up to a cooperative effort by environmental groups, a timber company, the U.S. Forest Service and ranchers to come up with a multi-use plan in the Blackfoot River Valley that would add wilderness areas, open new lands for snowmobiling and create a new biomass power plant in Seeley Lake.