Montgomery County is moving closer to overhauling a land use master plan to spur more development with a greater mix of uses along its I-270 corridor, particularly in an area of Rockville seen as the epicenter of the county’s life sciences industry. The Great Seneca Science Corridor Master Plan, adopted in 2010, aimed to encourage economic growth across 4,300 noncontiguous acres, with a particular focus on a big area dubbed the Life Sciences Center, just west of the City of Rockville.

Thrive Earlier Detection Corp., a startup company based on early cancer testing technology developed at the Johns Hopkins University, was snatched up three years ago and is now planning to move out of Baltimore. Another startup spun from the same revered Hopkins team called Haystack Oncology was bought last year by New Jersey-based giant Quest Diagnostics but plans to stay long term in the city.

Frederick County plans to replace about 21% of its vehicle fleet with electric vehicles, as well as use biodiesel fuel for other parts of the fleet, to help lower the county’s greenhouse gas emissions. At Mobilize Frederick’s climate summit at Hood College on Friday, County Executive Jessica Fitzwater announced a plan to replace parts of the county fleet with electric vehicles (EVs), as well as a resource document and website for residents and businesses to consult when considering switching to EVs.

 

InventWood (IW), an early-stage company born out of its incubator space at the University of Maryland, College Park, Monday signed a lease with Baltimore-based commercial real estate brokerage firm KLNB for a 88,971-square-foot commercial industrial space in Frederick to serve as the company’s new headquarters. Located at 5971 Jefferson Station Court, the property lease was coordinated by KLNB Vice President Kristin Rebeck, who acted as IW’s tenant representative.

On Jan. 2, 2023, during a pivotal Monday night National Football League game, Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin tackled Cincinnati Bengals receiver Tee Higgins. It was a standard tackle. One that the then 24-year-old had been making for years playing the game. Hamlin got up, adjusted his face mask and then collapsed a few seconds later, laying motionless on the field. His heart stopped beating due to a condition known as commotio cordis, in which the heart stops beating after a severe blow to the chest at the exact wrong time and location during heartbeats.

 

Overall, crime increased in Montgomery County for the third year in a row. In a briefing before the Montgomery County Council Public Safety Committee, legislative analyst Susan Farag laid out the data: Auto thefts spiked by 131%, Carjackings rose by 28.6%, Crimes under the category “crimes against society,” including drug offenses, fell by 13.8%, Crimes under the category “crimes against persons,” including homicides, rose 6.6%.

Some 6,000 Anne Arundel County residents will soon find out whether they need to check their water pipes for lead. Federal guidelines require that every water utility across the country announce publicly by October how many water pipes need to be checked for lead and report the results. WBAL-TV 11 News Investigates was the first to report in November that some 230,000 residents in Baltimore City and Baltimore County need to check their pipes for lead.

PJM, the nation’s largest grid operator, is changing how it plans transmission upgrades needed to ensure reliable service for the 65 million people who live in its footprint. The effort comes after plenty of criticism of how the regional transmission organization, responsible for coordinating the flow of electricity in all or parts of 13 states and the District of Columbia, including Maryland, has traditionally conducted planning.

Appointees span the worlds of government and business, representing the interests of both riders and investors. Jon Laria, a Baltimore attorney and the panel’s newly appointed chair, hopes their work can “drive policy and investment.” Besides the Charm City Circulator, a free bus service run by the city Department of Transportation, Baltimore does not make its own transit choices or control any purse strings.

 

State Sen. William “Bill” Folden (R-Frederick) is sponsoring a bill to allow law enforcement officers to stop and search a vehicle if the odor of cannabis is perceptible from the outside. The bill, titled the Drug Free Roadways Act of 2024, would reverse a key provision of a law passed on the final day of the 2023 legislative session. HB1071, which took effect on July 1, 2023, prohibits law enforcement officers from initiating a stop or search of a person, motor vehicle or other vessel based solely on “the odor of burnt or unburnt cannabis.”