Thumbs up to this week’s stellar voter turnout for a primary election.

In Montana as a whole, the turnout was 45 percent, the highest since 1994. In Lewis and Clark County, it was even bigger. At 55 percent, the local turnout was 20 percent above the primary election in the county two years ago.

Thumbs down to the news that the suicide rate among Army soldiers is at an all-time high. Especially since a local National Guard soldier killed himself, Helenans are sensitive to the fact that soldiers’ suicides have been rising each year of the five-year-old war in Iraq and the nearly seven years of war in Afghanistan.

Thumbs up to everyone who participated in the recent Spirit of Service Day, now in its eighth year. Coordinated by the Rocky Mountain Development Corp and Anderson-ZurMuehlen, the volunteer effort spruced up 40 seniors’ homes in the Helena area.

Thumbs up to C.R. Anderson straight-A eighth-grader Julia Platt, who received the highest score in Montana on the American Mathematics Competition. The test is a 25-question multiple choice exam given to middle school students to promote the development of their mathematical problem-solving skills.