Sign installed at Ela Mesa Taste of Greece in Gaithersburg

The permanent sign is up at Ela Mesa Taste of Greece, located at 109 Paramount Park Drive in Gaithersburg. Not much has been done on the construction of the interior of the restaurant yet, however.

Rio Fire Lounge construction update

Work continues on the new Fire Lounge at Rio Lakefront in Gaithersburg. The pressure on retail centers and restaurants to provide outdoor spaces has only increased with the new restrictions handed down on indoor dining and shopping by Maryland and Montgomery County in recent days.

Hogan orders all Maryland restaurants, bars to close at 10 PM, new restrictions on retail, hospital visits, sporting events, places of worship

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) announced additional restrictions on businesses and activities this afternoon, as the coronavirus pandemic worsens in the state and around the world. Effective Friday at 5:00 PM, Hogan has ordered all restaurants and bars statewide to close at 10:00 PM nightly. None will be allowed to open between 10:00 PM and 6:00 AM. 

Hogan also ordered most hospital visits to be suspended with some exceptions, and nursing home visitors will be limited to compassionate care visitors, who have to be tested 72 hours before visiting. The governor also banned all attendance at professional and collegiate sporting events, just weeks after fans were allowed to return to stadiums in the state.

Under the new restrictions, all retail stores and places of worship must reduce capacity to 50%. Hogan urged any students returning from college, or who plan to be around elderly relatives for Thanksgiving, to get tested for Covid-19 first. 

The governor asked hospitals to postpone any elective procedures or treatments where possible. He said hospitalizations are up 100% since November 1. The number of patients in ICU beds is the highest since June 2020. Maryland's Health Department is issuing an order to allow hospitals that are full, or nearing capacity, to transfer patients to other hospitals.

"We are in a war right now, and the virus is winning," Hogan said. "Now more than ever, I am pleading with the people of our state to stand together a while longer to help us battle this surging virus.”

Rio Lakefront Christmas decorations in Gaithersburg (Video+Photos)

Here's a look at the Christmas decorations at Rio Lakefront in Gaithersburg. With animated, color-changing lights, the retail center takes full advantage of the reflective lake surface at night. There's a Rio logo minus the "i," which is meant to be filled in by you for an Instagram moment.

NIST helps shine a light on the moon Europa ahead of NASA's Europa Clipper mission

Scientists at NIST in Gaithersburg have assisted in a breakthrough by researchers at NASA's California Jet Propulsion Laboratory in predicting the composition of ice on the moon Europa by its glowing colors. The Europa Clipper spacecraft, launching later this decade, will study this among other details. NIST's Fred Bateman exposed ice samples to radiation beams at the institute's Medical Industrial Radiation Facility, and observed different levels of glow emanate from the samples depending upon their composition. 

"Seeing the sodium chloride brine with a significantly lower level of glow was the 'aha' moment that changed the course of the research," Bateman said in a NASA press release. Unlike our moon, Europa glows even on its dark side without light from the sun. "If Europa weren't under this radiation, it would look the way our moon looks to us - dark on the shadowed side," JPL's Murthy Gudipati said. "But because it's bombarded by the radiation from Jupiter, it glows in the dark."

Measurements made with the help of Bateman at NIST may well assist identification of salty components on the icy moon's surface when Europa Clipper arrives, NASA predicts.

Photo courtesy NASA

Damascus' Sydney Naylor is Pitt prospect for 2021 lacrosse

Sydney Naylor

Two Montgomery County residents will be top prospects for the University of Pittsburgh women's lacrosse team in 2021. Sydney Naylor of Damascus and Maeve Murray of Chevy Chase will be part of the first Pitt women's lacrosse team to face off against NCAA Division I competition in the 2021-22 academic year.

Naylor helped Glenelg Country School attain national ranking as a freshman, and was one of the top scorers in Howard County as a sophomore. She was nominated to the Nike 120 as well as the Under Armour 150 and was named MVP of the EMPIRE Camp in Baltimore in 2020.

Maeve Murray

Murray was the leading scorer and a captain of Georgetown Visitation's indoor lacrosse team before the season was canceled due to the pandemic. She similarly led Capital Blue in scoring in summer play in 2018 and 2019.

Photos via University of Pittsburgh

Upcounty restaurants hit hard by new Montgomery County Covid-19 restrictions as cases, hospitalizations spike

Upcounty restaurants already struggling through the coronavirus pandemic are facing another financial blow, as Covid-19 cases spike in Montgomery County ahead of what is expected to be a difficult winter. Many mom-and-pop restaurants, and even operators of chain businesses, have said they are struggling to turn a profit while surviving month-to-month with various government assistance programs. On Tuesday, the Montgomery County Council unanimously approved tougher Covid-19 restrictions, including the reduction of restaurant capacity to 25% effective yesterday at 5:00 PM.

The new restrictions limit gatherings to 25 people or less. 25% capacity restrictions will also apply to houses of worship, retail stores, museums and galleries, and gyms. Restaurants will now be required to maintain a record of all indoor and outdoor patrons, for at least 30 days, to assist with contact tracing. Information collected must include date, time, name of each patron and contact information.

Loss of indoor dining capacity comes just as plummeting temperatures make outdoor dining much less practical. Whether heaters and tents will in any way reduce that impact will be determined for the first time this winter. We are in uncharted waters in an industry that already has razor-thin profit margins in high-rent, high-tax, high-operating-cost, liquor-monopoly-controlled Montgomery County.

At the same time, there is no doubt the pandemic is taking a turn for the worse as winter approaches, as many had predicted. Maryland hospital beds are currently filled at a higher rate than during the summer coronavirus spike. All County hospitals were under Blue Alert Monday night, and at least one went to a full Red Alert Tuesday, forcing rerouting of emergency patients who require electrocardiogram-monitored beds. Yesterday, Covid-related hospitalizations in America reached a record high.