gaithersblog.net

From Channel 5’s website:

Montgomery County Police say they have arrested a Gaithersburg man after recovering weapons and explosives from his home Wednesday.

James L. Boka, 47, was arrested without incident when investigators served a warrant at his home on Turtle Dove Terrace.

Note that Turtle Dove Terrace, which is just east of Goshen Road and north of Centerway, is not in the City of Gaithersburg. (It isn’t in Montgomery Village, either, so it sort of gets called “Gaithersburg” by default.)

Also, from Channel 4:

They found 46 different types of chemicals commonly used to produce fireworks and destructive devices, authorities said.

Boka was charged with several counts of explosive-related offenses. More charges are pending.

• Patricia M. Murret writes, Firefighter charged in two arsons:
  

  A firefighter with the Gaithersburg-Washington Grove Volunteer Fire Department was charged last week in connection to two upcounty arsons that caused significant damage, including one fire at a neighbor’s house.

• Patricia M. Murret writes, City police seek surveillance cameras:
  

  Gaithersburg is considering installing surveillance cameras in some commercial districts, including Olde Towne and Market Square in Kentlands.

• Marcus Moore writes, Six county high schools among the nation’s best:
  

  The schools are:

  *Richard Montgomery and Thomas S. Wootton, both in Rockville, ranked 32nd and 59th, respectively.

  *Bethesda-Chevy Chase, Walt Whitman, Walter Johnson, all in Bethesda, ranked 63rd, 68th, and 75th, respectively.

  *Winston Churchill in Potomac, ranked 96th.

• Meghan Tierney writes, Activists urge steps to prevent abuse of circus animals:
  

  Animal activists are urging county officials to take a stand against elephant abuse in response to an upcoming visit from a circus accused of instructing employees to strike the animals with cattle prods and hooks.

• Patricia M. Murret writes, Capital spending curbed in draft Gaithersburg budget:
  

  Gaithersburg city officials have shaved more than $2.1 million from last year’s capital spending to meet increased operating expenses in the fiscal 2009 city budget.

• Patricia M. Murret writes, City officers save woman’s life in front of station:
  

  Gaithersburg Police used CPR and other lifesaving skills on Thursday to resuscitate a 77-year-old woman driven to the police station by her husband after she suffered a heart attack.

• Nathan Carrick writes, Ceremony honors county’s fallen police officers:
  

  Families, friends and fellow officers of the 15 Montgomery County Police officers who lost their lives in the line of duty gathered Friday to pay tribute to their fallen compatriots at the Public Safety Training Academy in Rockville.

• Joe Beck writes, Hanson floats toll idea for congestion:
  

  Gridlock trends and predictions for even more traffic outlined in a report released last week could signal the need for the county to consider ‘‘congestion pricing” to better manage roads, said Royce Hanson, chairman of the county Planning Board.

  The Muddy Branch Road-Great Seneca Highway intersection in Gaithersburg headed the planners’ list of the 10 traffic crossings most likely to set drivers’ teeth gnashing.

• Sebastian Montes writes, Protesters urge compliance with federal Real ID Act:
  

  Dozens of protesters descended on Maryland Motor Vehicle Administration branches in Gaithersburg, Beltsville and Glen Burnie on Saturday morning, calling on the state to conform with a federal law that would cut off illegal immigrants’ access to valid driver’s licenses.

• Sebastian Montes writes, County vows to hear Webb Tract neighbors:
  

  Neighbors of the Webb Tract, where the county now says it plans to build a new police and fire training academy as well as a food warehouse, are voicing loud objections. And county officials are vowing to listen.

• Sebastian Montes writes, New plea expected in alleged drunk-driving crash:
  

  An illegal immigrant who killed a U.S. Marine from Columbia and a counseling student from Montgomery Village in a 2006 car crash intends to plead guilty to two counts of negligent manslaughter next week in Howard County Circuit Court, according to prosecutors.

• Audrey Dutton writes, Speed camera tickets will always catch up with you:
  

  What happens when speed-camera tickets don’t get delivered to the right person? One Bethesda woman found out — and her debt to the county now exceeds $1,000.

• Sebastian Montes writes, Johnson property plans shift again:
  

  A new plan is taking shape for the roughly 20 acres at the northeast corner of Darnestown and Quince Orchard roads, where the Johnson Family Flower and Garden Center had been for nearly 50 years.

• Patricia M. Murret writes, Cop charged in DUI was honored for prom-season arrests:
  

  The Montgomery County Police officer arrested earlier this month on drunk-driving charges was part of a 2005 Post-Prom Task Force honored by the police chief for making 125 drunk-driving arrests and issuing nearly 300 alcohol citations in 24 days, according to the county police Web site.

  John Distel, 32, a six-year veteran and patrol officer with the 2nd District station in Bethesda, told fellow officers that he was the victim of a hit-and-run driver after crashing his police cruiser in the southbound lanes of Interstate 270 near the Montgomery Village interchange at about 1:25 a.m. on May 9, according to an accident report filed with county police.

• C. Benjamin Ford writes, Remembering the fallen:
  

  Paula Davis wants people to remember her son, Justin Davis.

  Justin Davis died on June 25, 2006, at 19 in a faraway land in a war that many don’t want to think about and that she fears is forgotten.

• Janel Davis writes, Council set to OK $4.3B budget:
  

  The Montgomery County Council is scheduled to approve a $4.3 billion operating budget Thursday that includes a mix of tax and fee increases and spending cutbacks as part of a financial plan that closes a $297 million deficit and keeps spending growth at its lowest level in at least a decade.