• Sebastian Montes writes, Gaithersburg High School upgrade may be delayed:

    Despite county assurances in response to years of parent efforts, four Montgomery County high schools is facing yet another delay to being modernized as the state’s contribution to school construction is coming $14 million short of expectations.

  • Patricia M. Murret writes, City travel budgets are under review:

    Money spent on travel and training are under scrutiny in Gaithersburg as the city manager prepares for several years of revenue shortfall. Raising interest among some city officials is the travel budget for city leaders, which is at least 150 percent higher than that of most departments and makes up nearly one-third of the city’s nearly $88,000 travel and training budget.

  • Sebastian Montes writes, Defendant reneges on murder plea:

    The suspect in the June killing of a beloved Montgomery Village waiter told a judge last week that his guilty plea was compelled by his lawyer and asked for his case to go to trial.

    Facing upwards of 30 years in jail followed by deportation to El Salvador, Manuel Antonio Barahona, 19, of Gaithersburg, insisted at his sentencing in Montgomery County Circuit Court on March 17 that he did not kill 24-year-old Longyuan “Mooney” Wang, who was stabbed to death June 5 while walking home from work at the Red Robin restaurant in Lakeforest mall.

  • Patricia M. Murret writes, Shepherd gets maximum sentence in Harvey killing:

    A 20-year-old Gaithersburg man found guilty of conspiracy to commit an armed robbery was given the maximum penalty Monday by a Montgomery County Circuit Court judge, who said his poor decisions ultimately resulted in the April murder of a Gaithersburg woman.

    “Another life gone,” said Juanita Brown of Gaithersburg in anger, following the sentencing of her nephew, Aaron Shepherd, one of three men convicted in connection with the April 13 death of Lindsay Marie Harvey, 25, who was killed during a robbery outside her home at the Grove Park Apartments on Quince Orchard Boulevard.

  • Sebastian Montes writes, Transit, density of Gaithersburg West doubted:

    The Gaithersburg West master plan is heading into its first public hearing Thursday with growing skepticism over some of its pivotal assumptions on transit and density.

  • C. Benjamin Ford writes, Montgomery gets kudos for red-light camera use criteria:

    A stoplight enforcement program in New Carrollton has AAA Mid-Atlantic seeing red, but the automobile group praised the enforcement program in Montgomery County.