Community Corner

Moco Headlines: Purple Line Update, Germantown Man Convicted of Killing Friend

The week's top Montgomery County news headlines.

Catch up on news you may have missed this week including an involuntary manslaughter conviction for a Germantown man, a new recommendation to route a Bethesda trail above ground once the Purple Line is built and news on a family’s pleading for information on a traffic accident that killed a Wheaton woman this week.

A Germantown man was convicted Tuesday of beating his friend to death during a Fourth of July weekend cookout. Brenden Lamont "BJ" Dashiell, 25, was found guilty of killing Justin Eugene Carter on July 2, 2011, during a fistfight at Carter’s home in Gaithersburg. According to court testimony, the men, who had been drinking, started off “play wrestling” but the rough housing devolved into the fatal fistfight. Read the full story at.

Details surrounding Wheaton resident Nelvis Garcia’s death on a Colesville street are still murky. Garcia was traveling east on Randolph Road when her car may have made contact with an unknown vehicle. Police believe the unknown car was speed racing with another car, neither of which remained on the scene after Garcia’s car flipped over on a sidewalk, killing the wife and mother of three. 

Find out what's happening in Germantownwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Her pink Cadillac may be familiar to residents of North Potomac, but in addition to pink cars, Mary Kay Cosmetics has given Pam Klickna-Powell a long, enriched and very successful career in business. .

A Montgomery County Council Transportation Committee recommended routing the Capital Crescent Trail at street level across Wisconsin Avenue when the planned Purple Line is built—rather than in a tunnel beneath the busy thoroughfare above the planned 16-mile light rail line. 

Find out what's happening in Germantownwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Unsightly—and often unnecessary—attachments to utility poles may soon be a thing of the past in the Town of Somerset, following a meeting of representatives of Pepco, Comcast and Verizon with the Town of Somerset Council. 

The Montgomery County Council voted to add some language to Kensington's controversial sector plan this week, aiming to strengthen its provisions on allowing extra height for developers. The plan will go up for a final council vote on March 20. .

"Saved by the bell" may be a common refrain among students in classrooms and hallways, but parents and teachers are starting to ask if children should be saved from the bell instead. Montgomery County parents have signed on to the Start School Later Initiative encouraging lawmakers to start school no earlier than 8 a.m., allowing kids more time for sleep and rest and teachers more time to prepare lessons.

Montgomery County received two responses to its request for proposal for the Brickyard Soccer Field Project last week -- one from MSI and an unsolicited proposal for an educational farm. But according to county officials it is unclear if the second, unsolicited proposal will be considered. 


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