Credit card skimmer found on ATM in Rockville

A credit card skimmer was turned over to Rockville City police after it was discovered on an ATM machine on April 6, 2025. The skimmer had been attached to an ATM at the CVS Pharmacy at 20 Upper Rock Circle. Police have not said how long the skimmer device, which captures the information from credit cards, was in place on the ATM. 

Detectives do not currently have a suspect description of the scammer. Be sure to monitor your account and statements for fraudulent activity, if you used this ATM in the days before April 6.

Montgomery County's highway robbery

The Montgomery County Planning Board is on the verge of sending the County Council a draft of the latest Master Plan of Highways and Transitways (soon to be called the Master Plan of Walkways and Bikeways, if planners get any more woke) that will do many terrible things, chief among which is permanently removing any chance of building the long-delayed M-83 MidCounty Highway Extended from Montgomery Village Avenue to Clarksburg. If approved by the Board at its meeting this Thursday, April 10, and the Council at a later date, it will be the realization of a long-held fever dream by the War-on-Cars folks who suffer from Highway Derangement Syndrome, virtually all of whom have motored to their Kill M-83 meetings in the very cars they claim you need to get out of. It will also be a theft and reckless disposal of one of the most valuable public holdings government can possess: a transportation right-of-way.

Passage of this Master Plan will drive the stake through the heart of M-83, and confirm that once again County officials were lying through their teeth when they promised all stakeholders and residents of the Upcounty that they would deliver the infrastructure needed to support the massive housing development they had proposed for rural Clarksburg and Damascus. As we all know, all of the new housing was approved and constructed. But none of the supporting elements were. 

No M-83 Highway. No Corridor Cities Transitway light rail. And no high-wage jobs. All of these items were mandatory, but the Council didn't deliver a single one.

Now the Council is poised to throw away something that, frankly, is not theirs to discard. The highway project, and its right-of-way, belong to the taxpayers of Montgomery County. Planners are giddy to note in the Master Plan materials online that the County may not only remove the highway from the plan, but give the land away for free to the Councilmembers' developer sugar daddies. They've done this many times before, giving away public rights-of-way to developers via a "Declaration of No Further Need" abandonment.

A right-of-way is simply too valuable to waste. The Council is free to go down in history as the deranged and corrupt elected officials responsible for worsening traffic congestion, increased emissions from cars idling in traffic jams, and increased response times for police and fire calls by canceling an essential highway. It won't be the first time, as the Council already canceled the equally-long-planned new Potomac River crossing, the Northwest Freeway, the North Central Freeway, the Rockville Freeway, the Montrose Parkway East, and the Northern Parkway.

But a right-of-way is not theirs to give away. They have a responsibility to preserve it in total. No one can predict the needs of the future. Whether it is a road, or a railway, or some form of transportation or use we haven't even imagined yet, these are the scenarios for which smart governments obtain rights-of-way at great cost. Believe it or not, Montgomery County long ago had smart government.

This Master Plan draft represents a double betrayal of the public trust, first and foremost the trust of residents in Clarksburg, Damascus, and Goshen. People bought houses in Clarksburg and Damascus with the expectation of the M-83 and CCT providing viable options for commuting to the Shady Grove Metro station and beyond. Only to find the Planning Board and County Council pulling the rug out from under them after they had taken on their mortgage, and paid all the hefty fees and taxes to the County. But it is also the latest betrayal by the Council of one of its chief charges, stewardship of County assets and resources, which include planned highways and expensively-obtained rights-of-way. Canceling the M-83 is, quite simply, highway robbery.

Duke's Grocery opening today in Potomac

Duke's Grocery will open its new Potomac location today, April 8, 2025, at 6:00 PM, the Washington, D.C. restaurant announced last evening on Instagram. The East London-inspired pub is located at 10128 River Road, at the Potomac Place shopping center. Duke's boasts the "best burger in D.C.," its Proper Burger. The burger features Creekstone Farms Angus beef patties on a brioche bun from locally-famous Lyon Bakery. You could take a more-authentic British route by ordering the Fish and Chips or a Banger and Mash. But then again, look at this burger:

Photos courtesy Duke's Grocery

Montgomery County planning sneaky speed limit cut on Josiah Henson Parkway

The Montgomery County Planning Board is on the verge of approving a War on Cars draft of the Master Plan of Highways and Transitways at its meeting this Thursday, April 10, 2025. Removal of the M-83 Highway (Midcounty Highway Extended) is the centerpiece of the document. Opponents of the highway have successfully blocked its construction for decades, but anti-highway officials on the Planning Board and County Council are seeking to take matters a deranged step further by removing any possibility of its construction, despite it being the most-essential piece of infrastructure to support the growth upcounty that has already been approved and realized over the last twenty years. Also buried within the document are thousands of speed limit reductions to 20 or 25 MPH, even on major state highways.

Just one of many egregious speed limit cuts proposed is on Josiah Henson Parkway, between the "Western edge of downtown White Flint" and E. Jefferson Street, and from E. Jefferson Street to Towne Road. The change would lower the speed limit from 40 MPH to 25 MPH. In addition, the street classification of Josiah Henson Parkway (a.k.a. Montrose Parkway) would be changed from "parkway" to "Downtown Boulevard."

If this sounds familiar, it's because it has already happened elsewhere in the County. Developers seeking to demolish homes, churches, and country clubs along major state highways, and replace them with urban apartment towers, were successful in politicizing the Maryland State Highway Administration during the Larry Hogan administration. Formerly staunch advocates of sound traffic engineering best practices, MDSHA became a political playtoy amenable to any request from local officials beholden to development interests. This led to major speed limit cuts on highways like Georgia Avenue and River Road.

Josiah Henson Parkway is a County road, and the Montgomery County Department of Transportation was politicized even earlier this century than MDSHA was. The speed limit drop and street reclassification request for the parkway is being made (surprise!) on behalf of developers who are seeking to redevelop the land around it. This is yet another abuse of the system in Montgomery County. Not only was our master plan highway system never completed, but we have a continual effort to further cripple the congested roadways that somehow got built. Taxpayers were charged a fortune to build Josiah Henson Parkway, a mere shadow of the Rockville Freeway that was originally intended to use this right-of-way between Falls Road in Potomac and the InterCounty Connector in Silver Spring. Further impeding the (already-compromised) vehicle throughput function of the road we paid for, to facilitate private developer profits, is an abuse, theft, and misuse of public property.

The revision of the master plan of highways is a massive compendium of many such abuses. Most of the public will be unaware of the changes proposed until the new speed limit signs are installed. The document is fully "woke," to be sure. And while planners are smugly proud of their newfound power to ram things through over any public objection - a.k.a. dictatorship - they are most proud of the document's "Racial Equity and Social Justice Statement," which pretty much tells you how insane and out-of-touch-with-reality planning and governing in Montgomery County have become.

Burglars hit Rockville self-storage units twice in 48 hours

Storage units at a self-storage facility in Rockville were burglarized twice in 48 hours, Montgomery County police report. The incidents occurred at Gude Self Storage, located at 851 E. Gude Drive. In the early morning hours of March 24, 2025, one or more burglars forced their way into a unit there and stole property. Sometime between 2:45 PM and midnight the next day, at least one other unit was broken into. 

No description of the suspect(s) has been released at this time. If you have any information that can assist detectives in closing these cases, call (301) 279-8000. 

Rockville man finds gun in yard

A Rockville man called police to report he found a discarded handgun on March 29, 2025. Rockville City police were called to his home in the 600 block of Blandford Street at 3:05 PM that afternoon. The complainant told officers that he discovered the gun in the yard of the home. 

Montgomery County protesters head to Hands Off! demonstration in D.C.

Protesters wrapped in Canadian and Ukrainian flags filed into Montgomery County Metro stations this morning. They were heading to the Hands Off! demonstration in Washington, D.C., where supporters are expecting 20,000 attendees. The protests are criticizing President Donald Trump, and the DOGE government waste initiative spearheaded by Elon Musk. Montgomery County Congressman Jamie Raskin and Minnesota Congresswoman Ilhan Omar are on the speaking list. 

The event is sponsored by the Human Rights Campaign, the American Civil Liberties Union, the American Federation of Government Employees, Planned Parenthood, and the George Soros-funded Indivisible. A livestream of the event will be available on YouTube beginning at 12:00 PM today, April 5, 2025.