Charlie Kirk vigil to be held in Rockville on September 20

A vigil will be held for Charlie Kirk in Montgomery County this coming Saturday, September 20, 2025. The event will be held in Rockville at the Courthouse Square park, located at the corner of E. Jefferson Street and W. Montgomery Avenue in Rockville Town Center, from 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM Saturday. There will be tributes to Kirk, prayers, and speakers. Kirk, the founder of the conservative political organization Turning Point USA, was assassinated on September 10 while speaking at the launch of TPUSA's latest college campus tour in Utah.

Arrest in Silver Spring armed carjacking

Montgomery County police have arrested a suspect in the June 30, 2025 armed carjacking in the Hillandale area of Silver Spring. Around 2:50 AM, the victim was attempting to fill up at the gas pumps, when a dark SUV pulled into the station, and stopped across the front of the victim's vehicle. Two suspects emerged from the SUV, one allegedly brandishing a handgun. The victim was allegedly ordered out of their black Honda Accord at gunpoint. Both suspects got into the Accord and sped off, as did a mystery driver in the dark SUV.

Through investigative efforts, detectives identified Amilio Xavier Hernandez, 18, as one of the suspects. They then obtained an arrest warrant against Hernandez, charging him with armed carjacking and related charges. On Wednesday, September 10, Hernandez was arrested in Hyattsville and transported to the Montgomery County Central Processing Unit, where he is being held without bond.

Anyone with information regarding this crime or the other suspects involved is asked to visit the Crime Solvers of Montgomery County, MD website at www.crimesolversmcmd.org, click on the “Submit a Tip” link, or call 1-866-411-8477. Tips leading to an arrest may be eligible for a reward ranging from $250 to $10,000.

3 gang up on man in Silver Spring armed robbery

Three armed robbers ganged up on one victim in the White Oak area of Silver Spring on September 6, 2025, Montgomery County police report. The adult male victim was in the 1500 block of December Drive at 7:00 PM, when he was surrounded by the three suspects displaying weapons. They obtained property from the victim, and a set of vehicle keys.

The suspects then attempted to use the keys to steal the victim's vehicle, but were unsuccessful. Police did not indicate what prevented them from taking the car. The suspects then fled the scene. 

Police describe the suspects only as three Black males of unknown age. If you have any information that can assist detectives in closing this case, or can identify any of the three suspects, call police at (301) 279-8000.

Police searching for Silver Spring attempted murder suspect

Montgomery County police are seeking the public's help in locating a suspect in the July 20, 2025 attempted murder of a man in downtown Silver Spring. The victim was in his car in the 8000 block of 16th Street shortly before 4:27 PM, police say, when the suspect pulled up in a silver Chrysler Pacifica with Maryland license plate 4FC4143. Deondray Darnell Osborne, 33, of no specified address, allegedly climbed out of the minivan and fired multiple shots at the victim before driving away.

The victim somehow avoided injury, but his vehicle was struck several times. Detectives obtained an arrest warrant against Osborne, charging him with attempted first-degree murder and related charges.

Osborne is considered armed and dangerous. Police warn that if you see him, you should not attempt to approach or engage him, but to call 911 immediately. Anyone with information regarding this suspect or crime is asked to visit the Crime Solvers of Montgomery County, MD website at www.crimesolversmcmd.org, click on the “Submit a Tip” link, or call 1-866-411-8477. Tips leading to an arrest may be eligible for a reward ranging from $250 to $10,000.

Oak Barrel & Vine sets opening date in Wheaton

Oak Barrel & Vine will open its newest location in Wheaton on Thursday, September 25, 2025. The Montgomery County Government-owned liquor store is inside of Westfield's Wheaton Plaza mall at 11160 Veirs Mill Road. Look for it on Level 2 of the mall in the Costco wing, across from Nando's Peri-Peri.

The Oak Barrel & Vine store concept features a large tasting room and event space, a handpicked selection of items with an emphasis on locally-produced products, an improved selection of small format items, a dedicated non-alcoholic products section, queue lines for faster checkout, wayfinding signage, and "enhanced customer accessibility." This new format is designed to rebrand the County's government liquor sales monopoly through the aesthetics of private retail businesses like Total Wine & More, which are banned from operating in Montgomery County.

Purple Line construction update near Silver Spring Library (Video + Photos)

Here's look at the progress during August on the Purple Line light rail system in the area around the Silver Spring Library in downtown Silver Spring. You can see the library station continuing to take shape. Things are still pretty rough at the intersection of Fenton Street and Wayne Avenue. And businesses continue to take it on the chin during this wildly-behind-schedule infrastructure project.

Human BioSciences fleeing Montgomery County for West Virginia

The hits just keep on coming for Montgomery County. Its moribund economy took another cannonball to the gut yesterday. Human BioSciences announced it will be the latest company to move its corporate headquarters out of Montgomery County to a lower-tax jurisdiction in the region. It will move its current HQ from 940 Clopper Road in Gaithersburg to wild, wonderful West Virginia. 

The blow is an especially painful one for the County, as the biotech industry is the only bright spot in MoCo's private sector economy. According to the Maryland Department of Labor, all Human BioSciences employees are being offered positions at the new West Virginia facility, meaning that the taxable revenue of any MoCo residents leaving with the company will also be lost to the County's coffers.

It says quite a bit about the state of business in Montgomery County and Maryland that a biotech firm would leave. Remember, the County and State both provide financial incentives and tax breaks to the biotech sector, decisions made decades ago by smarter leaders that allowed for the creation of a strong life sciences presence in the I-270 corridor. In recent years, that strength has begun to weaken. It hasn't been helped when you have the state legislature and Governor Wes Moore wallop firms that are immersed in technology with a new 3% tech tax, as of July 1 this year. 

The tech tax is piled on top of the fact that Montgomery County already suffers from the highest tax and fee burden in the region. We've seen the results over this century, as companies like Discovery Communications have fled. Only a week ago, Rocket Money announced it was moving its HQ from Silver Spring to Washington, D.C. 

Meanwhile, Northern Virginia has been cleaning our clock, Hoovering up the corporate HQs of Northrop Grumman, Amazon HQ 2, Nestle, Corporate Executive Board, Hilton Hotels, Lidl, Gerber, Lego, Intelsat, CoStar, Volkswagen, Blackboard, and General Dynamics. This is the direct result of decisions made by failed leaders who have no clue about the world of international business circa 2025. Heckuva job, Brownie!