Free Republic

In the community of Shady Grove Woods, trees are becoming more and more scarce. Residents and other anti-Intercounty Connector activists marched through the neighborhood on Saturday, pointing out the trees that were cut down to make way for the six-lane highway. ‘‘It’s just that we didn’t have a say in it in so many ways and we’re not talking about a two-lane road, we’re talking about a major highway running through here,” resident Sam Chim said of the ICC. ‘‘We have a lot of nice, private woods back here and now we’re going to have a highway running through instead....

A parcel in the County Service Park, a county-owned cluster of industrial facilities just south of Shady Grove Road, will be the site of a new employment center for day laborers, county officials announced Thursday. The center will be located on a half-acre parcel behind a Department of Liquor Control warehouse at 16640 Crabbs Branch Way. According to a statement from County Executive Isiah Leggett (D), the location is more than half a mile from the closest residential area. It is also about 700 yards from the nearest bus stop. The Shady Grove Metro station is a little more than...

Gaithersburg city officials have announced that a property owner is willing to lease space to open a day-laborer center by winter, after rejections this year by more than 30 landlords. But several residents said yesterday that they will sue the city and force a recall of the mayor and the City Council if members approve the plan to help find work for laborers including illegal aliens.

Dozens of day laborers who have gathered for years in a Gaithersburg parking lot must find a new place to seek work beginning today because the lot's owners have asked police to shut down the site. The lot, owned by S&B Partnership, is at 117 North Frederick Ave. between a shopping complex and Grace United Methodist Church. Laborers had been allowed to loiter there daily until 9:30 a.m.

Woman Escorted From Maryland High School. A Maryland substitute teacher was arrested after an alleged anti-Islamic tirade in front of high school students. Carol Joan McVey, 49, was charged with resisting arrest, trespassing, disorderly conduct and disturbing the peace. Police said McVey became upset when she heard some students at Gaithersburg High School, who were being assisted by another teacher, practicing a speech and using some Arabic words. The Washington Post said she reacted after overhearing the group utter an Islamic greeting of peace. Charging documents allege McVey shouted, "Islam doesn't mean peace, it means killing everyone for peace" and...

Gaithersburg officials said yesterday that a proposal for a day-laborer center for illegal aliens has been further delayed because landlords, merchants and other residents say it would bring crime and other problems into their neighborhood.

Gaithersburg officials are looking to form a task force to decide how to deal with scrapped plans for opening a day-laborer center in the city. Mayor Sidney Katz and City Council members will hold a work session next Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. to discuss the task force's duties, composition and application process. The session will be broadcast on Gaithersburg's public access Channel 13, or Channel 95 in the rest of Montgomery County. Those chosen for the task force will help determine how to deal with day laborers who loiter outside Grace United Methodist Church.

FALLUJAH, Iraq (Sept. 19, 2005) -- Corporal Darryl Toquinto is a warrior and a Purple Heart recipient who has seen combat in Afghanistan and Iraq and doesn’t mind the lulls that come between missions. "It's our job to be hot, bored and miserable, but suck it up and carry on with the missions," said the 24-year-old infantryman with 1st Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, a unit currently conducting counterinsurgency operations here. "We're here to do a job, and we know we didn't come out here for seven months of sun tanning and sitting in the AC." Although this Gaithersburg, Md., native...

<p>FBI agents have arrested eight men in Maryland, Virginia and Pennsylvania in a suspected scheme by Islamic extremists to engage in "holy jihad" to drive India out of the disputed Kashmir territory in South Asia.</p> <p>The men, along with three others, were named in a 41-count federal grand jury indictment handed up in U.S. District Court in Alexandria accusing them of conspiracy to "prepare for and engage in violent jihad" against foreign targets in Kashmir, the Philippines and Chechnya. Nine of the 11 were identified as U.S. citizens.</p>

First Woman al Qaida Suspect By: ANWAR IQBAL Source: United Press International WASHINGTON, Mar 29, 2003 (United Press International via COMTEX) -- The first woman accused of links with the al-Qaida terrorist network has a doctorate in neurological science and is a mother of three, FBI officials said. The FBI recently issued a worldwide search notice for Aafia Siddiqui, the first woman the federal investigations agency has accused of actively helping Osama bin Laden's terrorist network. Bin Laden is the Saudi exile suspected of being the driving force behind the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Siddiqui, 31, lived in Boston...