Rockville City Centre sold

One of the larger shopping centers in Rockville has changed hands. Rockville City Centre, home to a Giant grocery store, Popeyes and other popular tenants, was sold to Wheaton Properties of Maryland, LLC, a shell company established in Aspen Hill. According to Maryland real estate records, the property sold for $7 million - quite low considering the redevelopment potential here, at the intersection of MD 355 and N. Washington Street on the edge of Rockville's Town Center.

The seller was Tafida Associates. This site was once home to one of the DC area's famous Hechinger hardware stores, known as "The World's Most Unusual Lumber Yards."

Regal Cinemas Rockville marquee has new coronavirus messaging

Regal Cinemas Rockville Center has posted some new coronavirus pandemic messaging on its marquee at 199 E. Montgomery Avenue. Not surprisingly for a cineplex, the updated messages draw on classic movies like Casablanca and Sudden Impact. Most of all, the theater misses "our Rockville neighbors."

Rockville construction update: Duball Rockville Town Center Phase II (Photos)

Duball LLC's Rockville Town Center Phase II is anticipated to deliver in mid-2021 across from Phase I, which included a Cambria Suites hotel, The Upton luxury apartments, and several shops and restaurants. Phase II will add 20,000 SF more of retail and dining space, beneath 400 apartments. 250 apartments will be market rate, and the other 150 will be affordable housing for seniors.

Barnes & Noble installs sign at Congressional Plaza in Rockville

The permanent sign is up at Barnes & Noble's future Congressional Plaza location on Rockville Pike. They'll be moving up the Pike from Montrose Crossing later this year. There's still a long way to go on the interior construction of the new bookstore, but the new canopy and exterior look finished when you look up from the sidewalk.

Enterprise Holdings to lay off 92 in Rockville

The economic collapse caused by the coronavirus pandemic continues to implode Montgomery County's already-moribund economy. Enterprise Holdings announced yesterday that it intends to lay off 92 of its employees in Rockville. In a statement, Enterprise said their rental car business is "at a standstill" with very little travel taking place nationwide.

Judge orders Maryland to hand over Montgomery County voter data in voter fraud investigation

MoCo has more names registered to

vote than citizens eligible to vote

A federal judge has ruled that the Maryland must hand over the voting registration data of Montgomery County voters to Judicial Watch, a right-wing government watchdog organization. Judicial Watch filed the suit several years ago when a review of public data revealed that there are more names registered to vote in Montgomery County than there are citizens eligible to vote.

The Maryland Board of Elections refused to hand over the voter data after earlier legal action. Elections Administrator Linda Lamone went as far as to delete the voter birthdate box on the registration form. That action was one that U.S. District Court Judge Ellen Hollander seized upon in her ruling for Judicial Watch.

Judge Hollander stated in her opinion that:

"Judicial Watch need not demonstrate its need for birth date information in order to facilitate its effort to ensure that the voter rolls are properly maintained. Nevertheless, it has put forward reasonable justifications for requiring birth date information, including using birth dates to find duplicate registrations and searching for voters who remain on the rolls despite 'improbable' age."

"Because full voter birth dates appear on completed voter registration applications, the Administrator may not bypass the Act by unilaterally revising the Application."

Judicial Watch had stated its intention to sue Maryland over the issues with the Montgomery County voter rolls in 2017, if the state did not remove names of ineligible voters, or of those who had passed away or moved out of the county. A man noted on Twitter in a post just last week that voting records showed his mother continuing to "vote" in Montgomery County elections for a full decade after her death.

Maryland and Montgomery County rebuffed Judicial Watch at the time. The organization filed suit over Montgomery County's "impossibly high registration rate – over 100 percent of its age-eligible citizenry" later that year.

“Maryland politicians fought us tooth and nail to keep Judicial Watch from uncovering the full truth about their dirty election rolls,” Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said in a statement yesterday. “This latest court victory will allow Judicial Watch to ensure Maryland and Montgomery County are removing voters who have moved or died long ago.”

Gilead's Remdesivir effective in Rockville study of monkeys with coronavirus covid-19

A study at the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases {(NIAID) in Rockville has shown that pharmaceutical firm Gilead's experimental Remdesivir anti-viral treatment slowed the progression of the covid-19 coronavirus in monkeys infected with the virus. It also reduced lung damage.

Early administration of the drug made it more effective, according to a report on the study by HospiMedica.com. The drug did not reduce the monkey's shedding of the virus while infected, however, which means they would remain contagious even while on Remdesivir, if this study's finding holds in further clinical testing.

The NIAID is at 5601 Fishers Lane in the Twinbrook area of Rockville.