Restaurants

Coming soon signage is up for Wiseguy Pizza in the Wheaton Mall food court. The restaurant will be located in the space that was previously occupied by Angel’s Pizza.  Wiseguy serves stone-deck oven baked pizza by the slice that’s made with imported ingredients from Italy, homemade sauces, and dough using a special water filtration system. Pizza options include Cheese, Pepperoni, Paneer Tikki (House Masala, Paneer, Mozzarella, Onions, Tomato, Green & Chili Peppers, Cilantro, Jalapeño Sauce), Nashville Hot Chicken, Chicken Parmesan, and Whitestone (Garlic, Ricotta, Mozzarella, Parmigiano, Oregano, Oil from Tuscany Italy.)

 


Crime

Per MCPD: Detectives from the Montgomery County Department of Police – 6th District Investigative Section (6DIS) are looking for three suspects involved in a Gaithersburg commercial burglary.

On Wednesday, June 14, 6th district officers responded to the Tobacco King, in the 18500 block of Woodfield Road where they spoke with a caller who stated that when they arrived at the store at approximately 6:45 a.m., they noticed the glass door damaged and shattered.


Sponsored

As the academic year came to an end, the University of Maryland’s A. James Clark School of Engineering’s Cyber-Physical Systems Engineering (CPSE) program at the Universities of Shady Grove (USG) hosted a graduation dinner celebration for their senior class of 2023. The celebration was on the evening of Tuesday, May 23rd. With there only being two seniors in the graduating class of the CPSE program at USG, it was a small but joyous celebration. Senior, Kaiyue Zhou, was in attendance as well as family, guests, academic partners, the CPSE junior class, and the CPSE faculty.

As dinner was served, there was ample and meaningful discussion happening, especially between the senior class, junior class, and the faculty. Much of this discussion included how students found out about their major, the CPSE community summer program, and current student coursework/expectations. Most of the students in the program remarked how they found out about this program during their time at Montgomery College (whether it was through an advisor, another classmate, or a representative of the CPSE program). One of the students from the junior class said he attended the CPSE summer program in 2022, before he was a student of the CPSE program. Now this student and the other students in the junior class are volunteering to help with this year’s summer program as rising seniors.


MoCo Government

Per Montgomery County: The minimum wage will again increase in Montgomery County on July 1. Sponsored by then-County Council member, and current County Executive, Marc Elrich and signed into legislation on Nov. 17, 2017, Bill 28-17raises the minimum wage incrementally each July 1.

Based on the consumer price index for all urban wage earners and clerical workers (CPI-W) for Washington, D.C.-Arlington-Alexandria area, the Montgomery County Chief Administrative Officer has set the rate for the increase of minimum wage for July 2023 for large employers (those with 51 employees or more) at $16.70 per hour.


Crime

The first suspect is described as a Black male, approximately 5-feet, 8-inches, to 5-feet, 9-inches tall, between the ages of 17 and 18, wearing a black sweatshirt, black pants and red and black sneakers. The second suspect is described as a Black male, approximately 5-feet, 6-inches, to 5-feet, 9-inches tall, between the ages of 17 and 18, wearing a black sweatshirt, black pants and yellow and black sneakers.


Education

Their work was evident as Montgomery County Public Schools celebrated the graduation of nearly 12,000 students who will now continue on their pathways to success. To the graduates and their families – congratulations on reaching this significant milestone! You have demonstrated resilience, perseverance, and adaptability to change. We are proud of each graduate’s accomplishments and are excited to see where your future leads.

We made significant progress in a variety of areas since our mid-year report. The state of Maryland released its Star Rating, in which 92% of MCPS schools earned three or higher. We repeatedly reported progress on student performance and refined plans to support all students to reach their full academic potential. We released the new Pathway to Student Success in College, Career, and Community initiative. Vital work to address student security issues and incidents of racism, antisemitism, and bias became a focus for school and school system leaders.


Damascus

A $170,566 winning FAST PLAY lottery ticket was sold on June 22nd at the Liberty Gas Station (26241 Ridge Rd) in Damascus. Additional details below courtesy of MD Lottery: “A pair of FAST PLAY purchases turned June 22 into a memorable evening for lucky Lottery players in Riverdale Park and Damascus. Someone bought a $5 World Championship Poker ticket that won a progressive jackpot worth $107,801 at Kenilworth Liquors in Riverdale Park. Then Lottery luck struck again in the $10 Casino Royale Slots game, when a jackpot-winning ticket worth $170,566 was sold at Damascus Liberty in Damascus.

The two retailers share in the fun as well. For selling the tickets, Kenilworth Liquors, located at 5401 Kenilworth Avenue in Riverdale Park, and Damascus Liberty, located at 26421 Ridge Road in Damascus, will each receive a $1,000 bonus from the Lottery. Lottery officials encourage the winners to sign the backs of the ticket immediately and put them in safe locations. Winners of FAST PLAY games have 182 days from the date of their purchase to claim their prizes.


Sponsored

495Movers was established on May 18th, 2009 by two best friends. They created 495Movers to change the way people felt about their moving experience. 495Movers established its reputation by being a pioneer in up-front, no-hassle pricing, and including all of the packing materials and other fees already included and built into the price you see from the very beginning. 495Movers leads the way when it comes to transparency and putting customers first. Over the past 14 years, 495Movers has grown to be one of the elite moving companies in the DMV area, growing from just 1 truck to more than 20 trucks on the road today.

495Movers recently launched 495 Self-Storage, a new service line that is sure to round out the customer experience when it comes to moving and storage. Where most moving companies can only offer warehouse space which adds logistical hassles and expenses, 495Movers now has 3 self-storage facilities. They just announced two new exciting facilities right in the heart of Rockville MD including a newly constructed, fully climate-controlled facility with 24-hour video surveillance at 12111 Parklawn Dr Rockville, MD, 20852. The company just purchased the former Tri Mini Storage at 12330 Parklawn Drive and plans to redevelop the 16,000 sqft facility into a 100,000 sqft brand-new storage building.


Aspen Hill

Per Montgomery County: After tenants of Westchester West Apartments were informed that their building was going to be sold, they worried that rents would rise even more than they already had and so they worked with the community organization Action in Montgomery (AIM), to ask the County to intervene, which it is allowed to do under the County’s Right of First Refusal (RoFR) law. County Executive Marc Elrich, in agreement with Councilmember Natali Fani-Gonzalez, asked the Department of Housing and Community Affairs (DHCA) to find a partner who could preserve the affordability for the long term. This naturally occurring affordable housing rental property includes a large number of three-bedroom or “family-sized” units. After working with non-profit housing organization Enterprise Community Development (ECD), on June 8, 2023, Montgomery County’s DHCA purchased Westchester West Apartments, a residential property with 345 units located at 3214 Hewitt Avenue in Aspen Hill, Md., from Westchester Gardens LLC., for $67 million.

After purchasing the apartment building, DHCA immediately sold the rental housing property to ECD Westchester Apartments, LLC, an ECD affiliate, who will carry out the long-term plan for the property. This includes preserving affordability, curing deferred maintenance, and improving operations and services for residents. When transferring the property to ECD Westchester, the County also provided a $5 million loan for immediate rehab work to address deferred maintenance.


MCDOT

Per Montgomery County: The Montgomery County Department of Transportation (MCDOT) and Alpha Corporation have won a National Recognition Award from the American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC) for their work on the MD 355 Crossing Project completed in February 2022.

ACEC is a national federation of America’s engineering industry consisting of 51 state and regional member organizations that focus on advocacy, education and research. ACEC’s Engineering Excellence Awards highlight the year’s most innovative and impactful engineering triumphs worldwide. The National Recognition Award is a prestigious distinction honoring projects demonstrating exceptional engineering excellence at the national level.


Maryland

“Nobody wants to address violent crime more than the people that actually live in communities suffering from violence. Yet we’ve politicized this issue to a point where we believe it’s us against them. Let’s come together on this and focus on the realities of violence instead of emphasizing the deficiencies of certain communities.”

“Elected officials can underinvest in housing and pull the plug on mass transit projects – but because they enhance sentencing, they’re called champions for public safety in the news. Don’t allow yourselves to get spun. Networks that sensationalize violence miss the full story. You won’t hear them talk about bad policies that limit opportunity and increase violence in our neighborhoods. You won’t hear them talk about pipelines from poverty to prison. You won’t hear them talk about the breakage in the system that allows so many of our young people to fall through the cracks.”


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