The winners and the losers

• Winner: We're not entirely sure about the costs of a new plan at City Hall to bring neon parking signs to downtown Salt Lake City, but we applaud anything that would bring light and a visitor-friendly feel to the city's core. The city's redevelopment agency has been promoting neon signs for two years but requiring the owners of parking lots to pay half the costs. No one took the bait. So now the mayor's office wants the city to pay for everything.

Free-market economists would say that if this is such a good idea, the private market would be doing it already. However, it is true that nighttime visitors to the city may be unaware of where to find parking. Neon signs would be informative as well as inviting. We think it's worth a try, anyway.

• Loser: If the court finds Jeremy Shane Craig guilty of scribbling a ridiculous chalk message over ancient rock art in Buckhorn Draw, it ought to make an example of him. The rock art is from 2,000 to 4,000 years old. It is an irreplaceable treasure and a rare glimpse into a people and a way of life long since gone. This isn't the first time this particular panel has been desecrated, and subsequent efforts by a presumed do-gooder to "wash" the wall did even more damage.

Ancient artists may have used rocks as a canvass, but some modern people seem to have them firmly implanted in their heads.

• Loser: Speaking of thoughtless criminals, someone stole a $300 Bocce set this week out of a truck that was headed to a Special Olympics competition in St. George. Bocce is a game enjoyed by about 250 Utahns with disabilities, and the set that was stolen was to be a vital part of the competition.

Frankly, we don't see how anyone could get any pleasure out of playing a game that doesn't belong to them. If the thief has a heart, he or she will return the game to the Special Olympics office, where officials have promised to take it back without any questions and without any criminal charges.