The owners of Lone Oak Farm Brewing Company are thrilled have announced the expansion of Lone Oak’s legacy with the opening of Fallen Oak Distilling on the existing brewery property (5000 Olney Laytonsville Road). This will include a speakeasy that will “transport you to the 1920s.” Photos below.
Detectives from the Montgomery County Department of Police – Special Victims Investigations Division (SVID) are asking for the public’s assistance in locating Diana Salvado, a missing 17-year-old from Silver Spring. (more…)
Talent is one of the most important factors influencing where companies choose to invest, expand, and grow. As competition for skilled workers intensifies, employers are embracing a broader talent strategy: one that leverages partnerships. Last week, almost 120 business leaders, elected officials, and members of Montgomery County’s business community attended the Montgomery County Economic Development Corporation’s (MCEDC) panel, “The Talent Advantage: A Growth Strategy for Companies in Montgomery County, Maryland,” to hear how local businesses are capitalizing on the County’s world-class academic institutions, innovation ecosystem, quality of life, and economic development resources to attract and retain top talent.
Moderated by Dr. Anne Khademian, Executive Director at The Universities at Shady Grove (USG), the panel included executives from businesses and institutions across industries, including Lockheed Martin, TrilliumBIO, Thales Defense & Security, Johns Hopkins, Montgomery College, and AstraZeneca, who discussed their companies’ strategies for developing their workforce.
Talent as a Business Strategy
For companies competing in highly specialized industries like the defense industry, access to talent directly influences where they choose to locate and grow. For Lockheed Martin, which employs nearly 1,000 people in Montgomery County, talent is one of the primary reasons the company chose to be headquartered here.
“Talent is in the top one or two reasons why we are in the County,” said Todd Cohen, Senior Lead of Strategic Workforce Development, Lockheed Martin.
According to Cohen, Lockheed Martin begins working with partners to develop their talent pipeline well before students enter the workforce, including partnering with Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) on programs such as coding challenges. Lockheed Martin also maintains close relationships with local higher education institutions, including the Universities at Shady Grove (USG).
That local talent pipeline is also an important factor for AstraZeneca, which employs more than 5,000 employees and contractors in Montgomery County. According to Tiffany Lukis, Director of STEM and Community Engagement at AstraZeneca, the company often taps into its alumni base from Montgomery College (ranked #26 nationally among community colleges) and USG (which offers nine different public universities onto one campus), and other local institutions to fill highly technical roles.
Local Companies Are Developing Talent and Not Just Finding It
According to the panelists, investing in existing employees is just as important as recruiting new ones.
At Suburban Hospital, workforce development is closely tied to talent retention. The hospital partners with local educational institutions to provide employees with opportunities to gain new skills and advance their careers. Programs include a Certified Nursing Assistant program through Montgomery College and English as a Second Language classes.
“A huge part of our talent strategy is to prioritize holding on to our top tier talent,” said Corey Lewson, MSW, Program Manager, Workforce Development, John Hopkins Medicine.
For smaller companies, developing talent internally can be especially valuable. Lane Edwards, Vice President of Operations, TrilliumBIO, a biomarker discovery company with fewer than 20 employees based in Rockville, described the challenge of balancing the need for highly specialized expertise with the realities of building a team at an early-stage company.
“When it comes to hiring, we have to be very strategic,” Lane said. “Do we have someone who has the expertise or someone that we can build on?”
Calling all builders, crafters and woodworkers. Montgomery Parks will hold its annual Urban Wood Sale on the weekend of November 9-10, 2024. The Urban Wood Sale will take place on Saturday and Sunday, November 9-10, 2024 from 8:00am until noon at Montgomery Parks’ Green Farm Maintenance Facility (8301 Turkey Thicket Drive, Gaithersburg, MD 20879).
Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Services (MCFRS) responded to a report of a vehicle striking a house Wednesday morning in Gaithersburg.
When I moved back to Northern Virginia after several years in New York, most of my old friends had moved away. I found myself rebuilding a social circle from scratch.
I had plenty of people I could connect with online, but that wasn’t translating into anyone to grab a beer with after work, play trivia with, or text when I wanted to get out of the house. Making new friends as an adult required far more deliberate effort than I remembered.
October 10 & 11, 2026
The MoCo Epic is a festival celebrating mountain biking, natural surface trails, and the community that makes this region a great place to ride! 2026 marks the 16th anniversary of the MoCo Epic.
The non-profit organization SmileHub today released new reports on the Best Charities for Health & Wellness and the Best States for Health & Wellness in 2024. Maryland came in ranked as the “8th Best State for Health & Wellness.”
The Montgomery County Police Department (MCPD) has announced that four teens—a 13-year-old, a 14-year-old, a 17-year-old, all from Silver Spring, and a 15-year-old from Prince George’s County—have been arrested for an armed carjacking on Bethesda Avenue, where the 17-year-old displayed a gun and demanded the victim’s car keys, resulting in their apprehension following a traffic stop on Wisconsin Avenue.
On Tuesday, Judge Lydia K. Griggsby sentenced Darnell Palmer, 23, Germantown, Maryland, to 84 months in federal prison, followed by three years of supervised release, for possession of a controlled substance with the intent to distribute and possession of a firearm and ammunition by a convicted felon.
Detectives from the Montgomery County Department of Police – 5th District Investigative Section are asking for the public’s assistance in locating a missing Germantown man. (more…)
Detectives from the Montgomery County Department of Police – Special Victims Investigations Division (SVID) are asking for the public’s assistance in locating Walmer Miranda-Gomez, a missing 15-year-old. (more…)
The PGPD’s Financial Crimes Unit identified four suspects who targeted an elderly woman last week in a “pigeon drop” scam in the county. A pigeon drop scam involves convincing a victim to give the suspect(s) a large amount of cash as collateral with the hope of then sharing a sum of money.
As autumn settles in, many are eagerly anticipating the return of an extra hour of sleep while others lament how early it will be getting dark. With fall in the air, pumpkin spice lattes in full force, and temperatures gradually cooling down (though you wouldn’t be able to tell today and tomorrow), the changing of the clocks is another sign of the season. Video of a fall morning in the area can be seen below.