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The Garden of Lights display transforms Brookside Gardens into a magical winter wonderland. Stroll through the one-half mile, outdoor, walk-through exhibit and enjoy the twinkling lights and glimmering one-of-a-kind displays adorning the flowerbeds and grounds throughout the 50-acre horticultural gem in Wheaton. Hot chocolate and light snacks will be available for purchase.
Garden of Lights will open on November 17, 2023. The exhibit is open every night through December 31, 2023, except November 20-23 and December 24-25, 2023. Event information:
Per Montgomery Parks: Trick or treat yo’self this Halloween season at Montgomery Parks with many spooky activities as well as other programs celebrating autumn.
October nature center events include:
Montgomery County, MD is commonly known as being a suburb of the nation’s capital, but what might surprise some is that it is also home to a thriving biotech ecosystem. With over 350 life sciences companies, including global brands like AstraZeneca, United Therapeutics, and Novavax, Montgomery County anchors the third largest biophama hub in the U.S., behind only Boston and San Francisco.
Running annually in Washington D.C. for over 25 years, World Vaccine Congress attracts an international audience from over 80 countries and convenes more than 3,000 people to learn about the latest trends, research, and technologies in the vaccine industry. This year, Montgomery County took center stage, with a featured session on the extensive Biologics Value Chain in the County, as well as a session during which County Executive Marc Elrich spoke about the extensive resources available to companies here, and an exhibit space showcasing these resources.
A Complete Biologics Value Chain in One Region
One of the defining strengths of Montgomery County is its ability to support the full lifecycle of biologics, all the way from early research to large-scale manufacturing. During the panel discussion, moderated by Dr. Stefanie Trop, Director of Life Sciences at the Maryland Department of Commerce, local leaders emphasized that the region’s strength lies in its network of partners who work collaboratively across discovery, development, testing, and production. Panelists from companies in all stages of the value chain spectrum included Dr. Andrew Lees, Founder of Fina Biosolutions, Benjamin Moutier, Senior Vice-President, Vaccines and Immune Therapies at AstraZeneca, Dr. Helen Sabzevari President & CEO of Precigen, and Dr. Frederick Holtsberg, Chief Scientific Officer of Integrated BioTherapeutics.
This end-to-end capability in close geographical proximity gives companies a unique advantage and is rare to find in other markets, even established ones like San Francisco and Boston. In fact, only a handful of places worldwide offer the combination of infrastructure, expertise, and collaboration found in Montgomery County and if diversity, education and population density are taken into consideration – then Montgomery County standouts even more.
“Gaithersburg is one of the six places in the world where we can do what we’re doing,” explained Benjamin Moutier, Senior Vice-President, Vaccines and Immune Therapies, AstraZeneca. “We have the right partners at every step of the value chain [in Montgomery County].”
A Strong Partnership Network
Biotech breakthroughs rarely happen in isolation. They depend on strong partnerships between private companies, local and state governments, academic institutions, and workforce training organizations. Montgomery County has intentionally cultivated these connections, making collaboration and coordination defining characteristics of its life sciences ecosystem.
Dr. Frederick Holtsberg, Chief Scientific Officer at IBT Bioservices, a full service CRO offering clinical & preclinical contract research services, says the company’s close partnerships between them and local stakeholders have been crucial to its success. “As a Rockville-based company, we’re grateful for the partnership and support from city, County, and state leaders,” explained Dr. Holtsberg. “These programs have helped fuel our growth, and we’re excited about the continued momentum of our community.” (more…)
Per WMATA and the Washington Commanders: Metro will provide late night service support to ensure everyone can effectively plan their travel after the conclusion of Thursday night’s game between the Washington Commanders and the Chicago Bears. Additionally, Metro and the Commanders are excited to announce a five-year joint promotional agreement that will invest in promoting Metro as the optimal travel option to and from games.
“This supports our strategic transformation plan to be customer centric, grow ridership, and be a great regional partner,” said General Manger and Chief Executive Officer Randy Clarke. “We look forward to the many ways we can partner with the Commanders as they build a World Champion organization.”
Beautiful venue; great art, gifts and hand-crafted items; refreshments; and meet the award-winning painters, photographers, mixed media artists, ceramicists, fiber artists, and more – some 40 artists in all. It’s an extraordinary array of framed wall works, 3-d media including sculpture, ceramics, jewelry, and fiber pieces, and unframed prints.
Among them, you’ll see:
On Tuesday, the House of Representatives voted to oust Kevin McCarthy from the speaker’s chair. Shortly after, Congressman Jamie Raskin tweeted, “Kevin McCarthy’s sycophantic appeasement of Trump’s MAGA enablers brought to our body chaos, extremism and his own toppling. Today, unified behind our exceptional leadership, Democrats are clearly the only party capable of ending the dysfunction and governing for the common good.”
Earlier Tuesday, Raskin released the following statement: “Congressman Jamie Raskin (MD-08) today released the following statement on the current crisis of GOP chaos and dysfunction in the House of Representatives.
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Per the Office of Senator Van Hollen: U.S. Senators Chris Van Hollen and Ben Cardin and Congressmen Jamie Raskin and David Trone (all D-Md.) announced $530,000 in Department of Homeland Security grants in Montgomery County, MD to develop violence prevention programs focused on LGBTQ+ youth.
The federal investment comes through the Targeted Violence and Terrorism Prevention (TVTP) Grant Program for Fiscal Year 2023. This funding will help the Sexual Minority Youth Assistance League (SMYAL) develop programming to address the risk of violence and negative mental health outcomes faced by LGBTQ+ youth in D.C. and Montgomery County. SMYAL’s program will provide in-school support and resilience programming for LGBTQ+ youth, training for school staff and youth service providers and support for parents and caregivers.
Cafe Hong Kong, located at 13038 Middlebrook Rd in the Germantown Commons shopping center, is available for sale for an asking price of $250K. According to the business listing, the 3,150SF restaurant has a lease that expires in September of 2028 and has been in business for 45 years.
Per the listing, the “Chinese Restaurant for Sale – 45 Years in Business! Great Opportunity. Fully Equipped Turn-key Chinese Restaurant for Sale in Germantown Priced to Sell. Opportunities are endless when you have the high traffic counts and tenure this location has provided the nearby community.”
La Speranza is coming soon to Rockville, opening at 806 Baltimore Rd. in the location that was most recently home to Tia Ochi in the Burgundy Park shopping center that has been the longtime home of Jonathan’s Sports Pub.
While an exact opening date is not yet available, the restaurant had its alcohol license hearing with Montgomery County’s ABS last month and expects to open this month. La Speranza will feature both Tex-Mex and Italian cuisine, with a menu created by executive chef Neptali Mendoza, according to the restaurant’s website. Additional information from its website below:
Per the U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of Maryland – A federal grand jury has returned an indictment charging Satbir Thukral, age 61, of Germantown, Maryland, for interference with commerce by extortion, and attempted witness tampering. The defendant had an initial appearance on September 29, 2023, in U.S. District Court in Greenbelt before U.S. Magistrate Judge Ajmel A. Quereshi.
“A top criminal priority for the FBI is to investigate public corruption perpetrated against the government and American taxpayers,” said Wayne A. Jacobs, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Washington Field Office. “Today’s indictment is an example of an important partnership with TIGTA and the work we do every day towards our common goal. The FBI will not relent in our mission to root out corruption and fraud within the government, and to hold those accountable who put greed above their trusted positions.”
With deals to open up shop in Germantown and Rockville falling through, and last year’s Burtonsville store not coming back, many Montgomery County residents are relying on the recently opened Rio location in Gaithersburg for their Halloween costumes and decorations. A nearby store has opened in nearby Laurel, just outside of the county, that can better-serve those who are closer to that area than Gaithersburg.
The Laurel store has taken over the former Total Wine storefront, located at 3221 Corridor Marketplace, for the Halloween season. We are told this is a larger Spirit Halloween location with more items and additional animatronics for customers to enjoy or purchase.
Per MCDOT: The Montgomery County Department of Transportation (MCDOT) is partnering with the State to celebrate “Walktober,” a month-long series of activities in October promoting Maryland’s official exercise: walking. Maryland named walking as the official State exercise in 2008.
“Walking improves your physical and mental health, strengthens community ties and reduces environmental impacts,” said County Executive Marc Elrich. “We are committed to making walking and pedestrian mobility easy, safe and accessible throughout Montgomery County. Whether you are using walking as a form of transportation or recreation, I encourage all residents to take advantage of our County’s pedestrian-friendly suburban and urban centers and more than 250 miles of hiking trails to explore Montgomery County and enjoy the fall weather.”
Go to Montgomery County Announces ‘Walktober’ Events to Promote Walking Throughout October
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