Grumble

Maybe it's the weather. We'd rather be out playing in the snow than schlepping to work. Whatever. We were just in a mood today.

* We take no position on the merits of economic development junkets. But....is it fair to say taxpayer money plays no role? Here's the Examiner's report on where the money is coming from to pay for HoCo Exec Ulman's trip to India.

The trip, which begins this evening, costs about $35,000 for the three officials and a reception, and is being paid for by the Howard County Economic Development Authority, Economic Development Authority CEO Dick Story told the paper.

Taxpayers are not footing the bill, he said, because the money comes from company investments in the authority. One hundred companies pay a total of $300,000 a year for the authority to promote economic growth in Howard.

The county also provides more than $1 million to the authority in annual grant funding.



* We love restaurants in Oakland Mills. But...the Flier has a story about the Fire Rock Grill closing and quotes folks saying things like: "It's one thing to go get your dry cleaning, but if you can get lunch while you're there then you get those synergies that we need." What about Lucky's? Vennari's? Bangkok Garden? Heck, even Sam's? We so want to read rhapsodies about these longtime pillars of the community in the mainstream press. We did our part to frequent Fire Rock but truth be told the menu didn't seem exactly right for a neighborhood family joint, service could be spotty, and ownership, at least from what we read, never really seemed all that accessible, given the troubles getting launched and now the sudden, no-warning closing. Fire Rock was not Last Chance in our humble assessment.