Regardless of the outcome of the debate over Act 44, which calls for tolling Interstate 80 and expanding the power and jurisdiction of the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission to manage that road, one state lawmaker is proposing a long-overdue action — a thorough, independent audit of the commission and turnpike operation.

For decades, the Turnpike Commission has been seen as a swamp of nepotism — an employment agency for friends and relatives of turnpike officials and their friends in the General Assembly. Its staffing levels, debt and operating expenses, examined on a per-mile basis, have raised questions about the efficiency of turnpike operations.

More recently, a 139-count federal corruption indictment against state Sen. Vincent Fumo, D-Philadelphia, produced evidence of no-bid contracts awarded by the commission to friends and former associates of Fumo and turnpike bosses. Regarding at least one of the no-bid contracts, federal investigators noted that there was no evidence of any work having been done, and the Turnpike Commission itself could not produce any tangible reports produced by the consultant.

To give the public a better understanding of how the commission operates, state Rep. Scott Conklin, D-Centre, says he will introduce a plan to have state Auditor General Jack Wagner audit the commission.

Conklin, who has attracted 11 sponsors to his measure, says the audit is a way to ensure that taxpayer dollars are being well spent and that the commission is following the best practices in terms of operation.

A serious, independent audit of the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission is appropriate, whether or not its power is eventually expanded over a tolled I-80.

Many Butler County residents look forward to Girl Scout cookie time each year. For many families, it's a longstanding tradition to buy not one, but several, boxes.Fortunately, Butler County Girl Scouts haven't been victimized by con artists like those who wiped out a day's earnings by Scouts in Westminster, Colo. The thieves paid for cookies with a fake $100 bill, receiving $93.50 in real money in change.Although the story had a happy ending when a resident who heard about the Scouts' plight donated $100, hopefully authorities will apprehend the thieves.And, if they are apprehended, one of the provisions of their sentence should be to sell many boxes of Girl Scout cookies, with the money, of course, going to the Scouts, not them.

While Russia, China and some other countries might not be happy with the U.S. military's success in shooting down a disabled spy satellite about 150 miles above the Earth's surface, the military nonetheless deserves emphatic plaudits.Not only did destruction of the satellite put to rest fears regarding the 1,000 pounds of hydrazine in its fuel tank — the hydrazine could have posed a health hazard to humans if it had landed in a populated area — destruction of the satellite also ensured that no secret technology would fall into the hands of the Chinese or others.What made the situation regarding this spy satellite so different was that it had an almost full fuel tank because it lost power and became uncontrollable shortly after it reached its initial orbit in December 2006.Still, there is a potential downside from Wednesday's action. Some scientists, national security experts and historians believe that the action could provoke a military space race leading to weaponization of space.U.S. officials should step up efforts to lessen other nations' fears over Wednesday's action. But that won't be easy, if Theresa Hitchens, director of the Center for Defense Information, a Washington-based think tank, is right."Given that the Russians and Chinese have long been paranoid that the U.S. missile-defense program is a cover for offensive-space-control weapons, the use of a missile-defense interceptor to take down the satellite only serves to confirm their worst fears," she said.For now, the U.S. can take pride in apparently having ended the potential threat posed by the hydrazine. China, Russia and other nations concerned about the mission can rest with the knowledge that the world was given full notice and sufficient detail about what was to take place and how the mission would be carried out.

Some people who lose a loved one because of another person's actions ignore how their loved one also might have contributed to his or her own death. To her credit, Lisa Kern, amid her grief and sense of loss after the death of her 21-year-old son in a crash in September 2006, is not one who has overlooked — unintentionally or otherwise — the full scope of responsibility surrounding the tragedy that claimed her son.Her son, Ben Andrews of Valencia, died when a speeding car driven by Devin Byers of Clinton Township hit a pair of large trees and flipped upside down. Byers, who was injured in the crash, was sentenced Wednesday in Butler County Court to serve 22 to 44 months in prison for the alcohol-related crash.Byers and Andrews had been drinking at a bar prior to the crash, and Byers' blood-alcohol level after the accident indicated intoxication.At Byers' sentencing Wednesday, Kern, in a written statement that was read to Judge Timothy McCune, told the court that she blames her son just as much as she blames Byers for what happened."Devin and Ben made bad choices all the time," Kern wrote to the judge. "Ben was told by myself and others that we were going to bury him at a young age."In the letter, Kern asked, "How can we save our children?"Kern, who attended the sentencing but was too upset to read her letter in court — a representative of Mothers Against Drunk Driving read the letter for her — also included in the letter an observation that all parents should ponder."Too many young men and women make the same mistakes," she wrote. "How many more will go down this road? It grieves me very deeply to know that others before me and after me will bear this same pain."Kern's courage and concern in expressing her thoughts and properly placing responsibility, despite her personal pain, hopefully will help provide a means for some other parents to avert a similar tragedy.