Silver Spring

At approximately 4:25 a.m., 3rd District officers responded to the Solaire Apartment Complex for the report of a burglary that just occurred.

The investigation by detectives has determined that at approximately 4:02 a.m., the suspect entered the apartment building through a rear door. The suspect then accessed the mailroom through an unknown manner and began loading packages into a cart. When an employee entered the mailroom, the suspect fled the scene through a rear door.


MCPS

The Montgomery County Board of Education and MCPS mourn the passing of Mr. Reginald “Reggie” Felton. Elected to the Board in 1994, Mr. Felton served until 2004. He served three terms as president and twice as vice president and sat on many Board committees. His personal and professional commitment to the students and staff of MCPS continues to have a lasting impact. Mr. Felton went on to serve as a member of the Montgomery College Board of Trustees from 2007 to 2015 and on the Board of Directors for the George B. Thomas Learning Academy.

“On behalf of the Board, we are all deeply saddened by the loss of Reggie Felton,” said Board President Brenda Wolff. “He was an exemplary Board member. Passionate, collegial and committed. Reggie worked hard to improve educational opportunities for all students, and advocated for high-quality professional development for staff, and safe and modern school facilities. He will be remembered as a leader not only for the public schools, but as a fierce advocate for education in Montgomery County”


MoCo Government

Statement of County Executive Elrich:

“We are currently experiencing multiple incidents of hate in Montgomery County over the past two weeks. On May 31, KKK imagery appeared on internet app searches for Damascus High School.  On June 2, in Kemp Mill, antisemitic flyers were posted at Ride-On Station. Last week, on June 7, swastikas were carved at a MARC train station in Garrett Park. And, over past the weekend, flyers with references to groups affiliated with the KKK were discovered in Chevy Chase.


Gaithersburg

After the COVID-19 pandemic caused cancellations in 2020 and 2021, Independence Day fireworks and celebrations are back in a big way this year. Below is a list of all the MoCo fireworks displays that have been announced:

Sign language interpreter services and other auxiliary aids or services will be provided upon request with as much notice as possible, preferably at least three business days before the event. To request special accommodations, contact a therapeutic recreation specialist at 240-777-6870 or email [email protected].


MoCo Recreation

According to a social media post by Montgomery County Recreation on Wednesday morning,  a water proofing test took place for the main pool at the building site of the Silver Spring Recreation and Aquatic Center this week. Construction on the South County Regional Recreation and Aquatic Center that is located at 1315 Apple Ave began in 2019.

The new facility will be located in Downtown Silver Spring, in the ‘Central Business District’ of Silver Spring as part of a Public-Private Partnership undertaken with the Housing Opportunity Commission and the Lee Development Group. According to a recent report by Source of the Spring, “This is not just a pool, it’s a monster… It combines an aquatic facility and a large recreation center. We do not have this kind of space down county.”


Beyond MoCo

The City of College Park in Prince George’s County, MD has announced that it has cancelled this year’s fireworks display due to supply chain issues, posting the following on it’s website: “The City of College Park and University of Maryland regret to announce the cancellation of the annual Independence Day Fireworks and Concert due to COVID-19’s continued impact on the supply chain. We apologize for any inconvenience, and anticipate the return of the event in July 2023.

The City’s first Fourth of July parade is still scheduled for 11 a.m. July 4, 2022 on Rhode Island Avenue. The city is still looking for local groups and organizations to participate. Click here for details and an application.”


Celebrities

Actor Michael Ealy has recently made a splash in his recurring role on ‘Bel Air’, the reimagined version of popular 90s sitcoms ‘The Fresh Prince of Bel Air’ which started Will Smith.  We’ve mentioned several times that Michael Ealy, then known as Michael Brown, graduated from Springbrook High School and grew up in Silver Spring (later attending the University of Maryland).

Earlier this week, reader Mekhi Leftwich, sent in some photos of Ealy from his time at White Oak Intermediate School (now White Oak Middle School) on 12201 New Hampshire Avenue, back in 1986, where he attended school prior to moving on to Springbrook.


Beyond MoCo

On Tuesday night, the United States came from behind to tie El Salvador 1-1 in the CONCACAF Nations League at Estadio Cuscatlan in San Salvador, El Salvador. Lizandro Claros entered the game in the 87th minute, to play against the USMNT for the first time. Claros came to the United States with his brother Diego in 2009, after fleeing violence in their native El Salvador. He attended Roberto Clemente Middle School in Germantown and then Quince Orchard High School in Gaithersburg, where he graduated in 2017. Lizandro’s athletic ability earned him a scholarship to Louisberg College in North Carolina, where he planned to attend in the fall of 2017.

According to a report on Elfaro.net, “In August 2017, Claros was deported alongside Diego, one of his three siblings. They entered the U.S. in 2009, at the ages of 10 and 12, respectively, to reunite with their parents. Their relatives provided fake passports, and immigration officers had their sights on their case ever since, mandating routine check-ins with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). It was during one of these visits that Claros informed authorities he had earned a sports scholarship to go to college. That tipped the scale. ICE concluded that he had no intention of leaving the country, even though they had been issued final removal orders in 2012. “I never thought they were going to deport me for wanting to go to college,” Claros said.”


Education

County Council-funded Initiative Will Build, Enhance Joint Efforts of MCPS, MC, USG

Montgomery County’s public education partners – Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS), Montgomery College (MC) and the Universities at Shady Grove (USG) – will deepen their collective efforts to build and/or enhance successful pathways that lead students into college degree or training programs and ultimately to impactful careers, through the creation of the new “READY Institute.” The initiative is being launched with start-up funding approved by the County Council in the fiscal year 2023 operating budget.


Business

United Therapeutics Corporation, a public benefit corporation co-headquartered in Silver Spring, announced that in partnership with 3D Systems Corporation (NYSE: DDD) it has produced the world’s most complex 3D-printed object – a human lung scaffold – and demonstrated it at the LIFE ITSELF Conference that occurred May 31 to June 3, 2022 in San Diego. The event was organized and hosted by Dr. Sanjay Gupta and Marc Hodosh and was sponsored by CNN, United Therapeutics, and other prominent corporate leaders in healthcare.

Per the press release: Dr. Martine Rothblatt, United Therapeutics’ Chairperson and Chief Executive Officer and Chuck Hull, 3D Systems’ Co-Founder, Executive Vice President, and Chief Technology Officer for Regenerative Medicine, explained to conference attendees during a presentation entitled What’s the Future of Organ Transplantation? that these 3D-printable lung scaffold designs consisted of a record 44 trillion voxels that lay out 4,000 kilometers of pulmonary capillaries and 200 million alveoli. Scientists at United Therapeutics plan to cellularize these 3D-printed scaffolds with a patient’s own stem cells to create tolerable, transplantable human lungs that should not require immunosuppression to prevent rejection.


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