Crime

A 34-year-old Virginia man has been arrested and charged with sexual solicitation of a minor after he attempted to meet up with who he thought was a teenage girl.

On Thursday, August 11, 2022, Jose M. Jimenez of McLean, VA, initiated a conversation on a social media site with a Montgomery County Detective posing as a 15-year-old girl. The next day, Jimenez and the detective exchanged messages and phone numbers, eventually agreeing to meet in person. Jimenez asked the “girl” her age and continued to have sexually explicit text conversations with her.


MoCo Police

Per MCPD: Detectives from the Montgomery County Department of Police – Special Victims Investigations Division (SVID) are asking for the public’s assistance in locating a missing 14-year-old from Silver Spring. Joann-Carla Metho was last seen on Wednesday, August 17, 2022, in the 2800 block of Strauss Ter.

Metho is approximately 5-feet, 6-inches tall and weighs 120 pounds. She has black hair and brown eyes and was last seen wearing a black t-shirt. Police and family are concerned for her welfare.


Germantown

KPot Korean BBQ & Hot Pot will be opening a second MoCo location in Germantown following the 2018 opening of its Rockville location (the Rockville location is not associated with the Germantown location). KPot will take over the space previously occupied by Honey Pig at 19727 Frederick Rd #1337. Honey Pig closed permanently in November of 2021 after five years at the location. Kpot did not have an expected opening timeframe for us, but did let us know of a nearby Laurel location coming soon.

According to KPot, the restaurant was started by four friends from different backgrounds who decided to share their mixed cuisine over the same table. KPot combines traditional Asian hot pot with Korean BBQ flavors. Hot pot, also known as “soup-food” or “steamboat,” is a communal pot of simmering broth that is stuffed with raw ingredients like meat and vegetables to cook in the pot.


MoCo Government

The Montgomery County Board of Elections certified the 2022 Gubernatorial Primary Election on Saturday, August 13, 2022. Marc Elrich lead David Blair by 35 votes and a petition was filed by Blair for a recount of all votes cast in the contest for the Democratic Party’s nomination for the office of Montgomery County Executive.  The petitioner, David Blair, requested a manual recount of all voted paper ballots ( Maryland State Board of Elections Recount Guide ).

Montgomery County Board of Elections began the recount on Friday August 19, 2022, at the Germantown Community Recreation Center (Gym), 18905 Kingsview Rd, Germantown, MD 20874. Below you will see an update by the Montgomery County Board of Elections:


Event

General admission is $25 per person, which includes chili tastings. Free Admission for kids under 18, Police Officers and their Family is provided by MCPF). All proceeds benefit the Foundation’s mission to strengthen community-police relationships, support officers wellness, and enhance public safety initiatives across Montgomery County.

In addition to delicious chili, attendees can enjoy local craft beer from Lone Oak Brewery, family activities, and opportunities to meet and interact with Montgomery County police officers in a fun, relaxed setting.


Bethesda

Around this time last year we let you know that Little Sesame, a restaurant that offers freshly spun hummus and seasonal pita sandwiches, would be opening its first location outside of D.C. at 7118 Bethesda Lane in Bethesda Row. On Monday, the company announced that after a successful run of hummus production and distribution, it would be consolidating restaurant operations to its Golden Triangle shop, located at 1828 L St NW, and closing its Chinatown location on Thursday August 25. When asked if the statement meant that the Bethesda location would not be coming after all, Little Sesame replied “Sadly yes. Sticking to just one location for the time being.” The full statement can be seen below:

Nick & Ronen here with a little update:


Downtown Silver Spring

Back in December we let you know that DSW (Designer Shoe Warehouse) would be closing its location at 910 Ellsworth Dr on January 22 and opening a new location in Ellsworth Place at 8661 Colesville Rd. taking over the space formerly occupied by Guitar Center. Originally expected to open on March 24th, delays didn’t make that possible. Ellsworth Place has recently announced via Instagram that DSW will be opening on August 25th, as first reported by Source of the Spring. The Silver Spring Guitar Center closed back in January of this year, while the Rockville Guitar Center at 12401 Twinbrook Pkwy remains open.

https://www.instagram.com/p/ChkexReubKU/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link


Bethesda

Fresh Baguette was founded in 2013 in Bethesda by Florent de Felcourt, a former French naval officer. Since opening the Bethesda location, Fresh Baguette has expanded with bakeries across the DMV located in Rockville, Georgetown, Alexandria, and McLean opening soon. Soon, the bakery will move its primary production facility to a recently leased building at 19548 Amaranth Drive, off of Middlebrook Rd. in Germantown. The bakery will still keep its present facility at its Rockville location at 804 Hungerford Drive, according to Maryland Newsletters.

Their kitchens feature a stone oven imported from France and, with a cold dough process and homemade “levain,” yields “a baguette that is light, airy, with just the right crunch,”according to the company. Per the Maryland Newsletters article, “Opportunities Inc. sold the building on 19548 Amaranth Drive in Germantown to investment group Sun Peak Partners for $5.325 million, but signed a leaseback deal for a smaller portion of it. Sun Peak also brought in Fresh Baguette, which will first move into the remaining space and then gradually occupy all of it.


Business

Per UFCW Local 400: Today, workers at Zen Leaf cannabis dispensary in Germantown, Md. announced they have officially unionized with United Food & Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 400.

“The biggest driving factor for us was that management always said the cannabis industry is a new and better world and we’re building it from the ground up, but we didn’t see any of that improvement happening for the workers,” said Ginko Spinel, a patient care advisor who has worked at Zen Leaf for a year and a half. “Now that we have a union, we have a voice on the job and we can contribute to making that vision a reality. I couldn’t be more excited for us to negotiate our first union contract.”


East County

Developers Bernstein Management and Finmarc Management have pulled the first permits that will allow for construction to begin on the upcoming White Oak Town Center (12345 Columbia Pike), according to a report from Maryland Newsletters. In February, BizJournals reported that “Amazon has reached a deal to open a new supermarket at a long-planned Silver Spring redevelopment fewer than three miles from the Food and Drug Administration’s campus”, referring to White Oak Town Center. “The team behind the White Oak Town Center has swapped a 41,000-square-foot Amazon-branded market, likely an Amazon Fresh, in for what had been a roughly 16,000-square-foot Trader Joe’s.” While a date for construction to start has not been set, there isn’t anything else currently standing in the way.

Last year we shared preliminary plans for the upcoming White Oak Town Center that included updated renderings (available below). In the renderings there was a noticeable change in the grocery store that was depicted. In earlier drawings, the grocery store designs resembled Trader Joe’s, but the updated renderings resembled Amazon Fresh. White Oak Town Center will be located at 12345 Columbia Pike, in the northeast quadrant of the intersection of Prosperity Drive and Industrial Parkway. Below you’ll see some bullet points about what to expect, along with the renderings from our July update:


Maryland

From the office of Governor Larry Hogan: Governor Larry Hogan today announced the launch of the Maryland Manufacturing 4.0 grant program, a new Maryland Department of Commerce initiative that provides grants to small and mid-sized Maryland manufacturers to invest in Industry 4.0 technologies to modernize their operations. This pilot program is funded by $1 million in the fiscal year 2023 budget, which focuses on continuing the state’s strong economic recovery.

“Manufacturing and innovation have played a critical role in our incredible economic turnaround,” said Governor Hogan. “We are excited to launch the new Maryland Manufacturing 4.0 program as another tool to help our manufacturers stay competitive in a rapidly changing environment and to revolutionize how they do business.”


Bethesda

Full statement from Dr. Anthony Fauci: I am announcing today that I will be stepping down from the positions of Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and Chief of the NIAID Laboratory of Immunoregulation, as well as the position of Chief Medical Advisor to President Joe Biden. I will be leaving these positions in December of this year to pursue the next chapter of my career.

It has been the honor of a lifetime to have led the NIAID, an extraordinary institution, for so many years and through so many scientific and public health challenges. I am very proud of our many accomplishments. I have worked with — and learned from — countless talented and dedicated people in my own laboratory, at NIAID, at NIH and beyond. To them I express my abiding respect and gratitude.