The winners and the losers

• Loser: While we hate to rain on anyone's idea of fun, the new minibike craze that seems to be sweeping the nation (and that was the subject of a feature story in this newspaper on Friday) sounds like a bad thing. The little bikes are just small enough to escape state laws on registered vehicles, yet they can go up to 40 mph with the rider's feet a scant 6 inches off the ground. That's not exactly something you should want your child doing without a helmet. Come to think of it, you should not want him or her to do it with a helmet, either.

• Winner: Nicco Quinones, a 13-year-old student in Park City, took first place in a national competition that asked students in middle schools and high schools to produce documentaries on campaign issues. His entry looked at the lives of undocumented Mexican workers in the Park City area, and it earned him a spot recently on the C-SPAN network.

It also earned him $5,000, which he plans to spend on video equipment. Something tells us we haven't heard the last of this budding filmmaker.

• Winner: Researchers say modern Americans are suffering from various forms of skin cancer to much larger degrees than any previous generation. So it was comforting to read this week that a new topical cream that soon may be available to destroy pre-cancerous lesions that appear on the skin.

A cream would be better than scraping the lesions with a razor or cutting them out — the current methods of dealing with the problem. Since most people aren't about to abandon fashion or comfort for high-necked clothing, large hats and long sleeves on a hot summer day, this is good news, indeed.