New Dessert Shooters at Hooters of Rockville (Photo)

If you remember those shot glass-sized desserts at Timpano Italian Chophouse down the Pike, there's something similar now at Hooters of Rockville.

The four varieties include:

Peanut Butter Pie - Peanut butter nougat with chocolate candy pieces atop crunchy chocolate cookie crumb

Key Lime - Key Lime-flavored sweet cream topped with whipped cream, on top of graham cracker crumb. Hooters is calling this the "Official Dessert of the Florida Keys"

Strawberry Cheesecake - Cheesecake with 2 layers of house-made strawberry topping on top of cookie crumb

Chocolate Decadence - Chocolate mousse topped with ganache and chocolate curls on chocolate crumb

Hooters of Rockville

1584 Rockville Pike

(301) 230-2134

Photo courtesy Hooters of Rockville

Alleged sex meet-up at Rockville hotel ends in stabbing (Photos)

An apparent prostitution case gone bad has Montgomery County Police searching for a suspect in a violent stabbing at a Rockville hotel. According to police, the male suspect arranged via online classifieds to meet the 22-year-old female victim at an unidentified Rockville hotel. There, they had agreed the woman would engage in sexual acts with the suspect in exchange for cash.

On October 7, around 11:30 AM, the victim and suspect met at the hotel. The suspect paid the victim the agreed fee. He then forced the victim’s hands behind her back. The victim pulled a small knife from a sheath hanging from her necklace, and began struggling with the suspect. Amidst the struggle, the suspect stabbed the victim. The suspect then claimed he was a law enforcement officer, and was trying to arrest her. The suspect then took his cash, and the knife, and fled the hotel.

Police describe the suspect as a black male, in his 30s, approximately 6’00” to 6’03” tall, bald, "very muscular," and dressed in all-black. He wore black loafers with silver buckles, and a tan baseball cap with an unspecified logo.

Anyone with information about this suspect is asked to call the 1st District Investigative Section at 240-773-6084. Those who wish to remain anonymous can call Crime Solvers of Montgomery County toll-free at 1-866-411-TIPS (8477).  Crime Solvers will pay a cash reward of up to $10,000 for information provided to them that leads to the arrest and/or indictment of this suspect.

Soft opening of Lavande Patisserie this Saturday in Rockville (Photos)

The long-awaited opening of Lavande Patisserie at 275 N. Washington Street in Rockville is near. Stop by when they soft-open at 11:00 AM this Saturday, November 14, to try French bakery specialties like macarons and croissants, and much more.

Serving breakfast and lunch, Lavande is positioning itself as a "farm to table café". It is one of four new Asian-owned businesses in JBG's new mixed-use retail center.

Rockville City Council candidate challenges election results

Rockville City Council candidate Richard Gottfried has contacted acting City Clerk Sara Taylor-Ferrell, and has challenged the results of last Tuesday's election. Gottfried is asking for a manual recount of all paper ballots, under Section 8-41 of the Rockville City Code.

Gottfried finished 282 votes behind incumbent Councilmember Virginia Onley, according to the City's posted election results. In his letter to Taylor-Ferrell, he cites an "excessively high number of under-votes, 1762 to be exact, which constitutes 28% of total ballots casted." He also notes that the new voting machines did not allow voters to compare their paper ballot with the scanned ballot for accuracy.

One other Election Day issue I've heard about from a source was that each polling place did not have a Chief Election Judge on-site at all times. I cannot personally verify this, as I was not at every polling place at every hour of the day. Reportedly, several judges were floating from site to site as needed. Article 10-203-B of Maryland election law states:

2. One or two election judges in each precinct shall:
   
   1. (1)  be designated chief judge; and
      
   2. (2)  supervise the staff at the polling place. 
      

 Photo via Vote Richard Gottfried website

Noodles and Company closes at Rockville Town Square

Noodles and Company has closed on Gibbs Street in Rockville Town Square. Outgoing Rockville City Councilmember Tom Moore sent this photo. The company has been expanding in the area this year, so this came as a bit of a surprise.

Black students more likely to be suspended by MCPS than by Texas schools

Everything's bigger in Texas - except racial disparities in public school discipline policies, apparently. A new study by Texas Appleseed helps provide further context to a recent report that showed African-American students in Montgomery County Public Schools are 3 times as likely to be suspended from school as white and Asian students.

In Texas, there are also racial disparities in school discipline. But the Texas Appleseed report, titled "Suspended Childhood", found that black students in that state are less likely to be suspended than black students in Montgomery County. Black students in Texas are more than 2 times as likely to be suspended as whites - not laudable, but lower than in MCPS schools.

Montgomery County should consider this comparison, and some of the recommendations in this report, as it continues to struggle with a growing achievement gap. A 2014 County Office of Legislative Oversight report confirmed that MCPS had declined, and the achievement gap had widened, since 2010.

Now we know that Montgomery County students also fared poorly on this year's PARCC exams, the scores of which determined less than half of MCPS high school students are ready for college-level work.

And that superintendent search? Yeah, that search. They'll get around to it. Maybe some of the WMATA runners-up will give it go. The Montgomery County Council and Board of Education have made slouching a science.

3 new buildings proposed in office park across from King Farm in Rockville (Photos)

First Potomac Realty Trust has made a pre-application submittal with the City of Rockville proposing to add two new office buildings, and a café pavilion with open space for employees, at the Redland Corporate Center. The office park is located directly across Gaither Road from King Farm, at 520-540 Gaither Road.

This neighborhood is directly
across from the office park
entrance

After adding these structures over a 3-phase construction schedule, the property will hold 800,000 SF of office space, and a maximum of 3,000 SF of restaurant space (including the existing buildings already on the site). The two 11-story buildings will be built atop 267 surface parking spaces that are there today, and replace those with 1342 structured parking spaces.

Site plan
(click to enlarge)

FPRT says the additions will help the office park be more competitive in the weak Montgomery County office market, by adding the types of building designs, features and amenities employers want today.

The calendar for the full build-out is not known, as the application notes the construction will be based on market conditions. A Development Review Committee meeting on the project is currently scheduled for December 3.