Free Republic

At a rally Thursday night in Rockville, Maryland, Joe Biden said “assault weapons” will be banned if Democrats pick up two more Senate seats in November. The Washington Post quoted Biden saying, “I want to be crystal clear about what’s on the ballot this year…Your right to choose is on the ballot this year. The Social Security you paid for from the time you had a job is on the ballot. The safety of our kids from gun violence is on the ballot.”

Parents of students at a Rockville, Maryland, high school posed serious questions Wednesday about the school’s handling of what sources allege was an attempted assault in its football locker room. Some privately expressed concerns that the investigation was conducted, and concluded, too quickly. Montgomery County police were called to Wootton High School just after 4 p.m. Tuesday for what was described as an assault believed to be sexual in nature. In the end, authorities said there was no sexual assault and no charges have been filed. Sources told News4 that the incident, which took place in the football locker room...

Veteran John "Bill" Williams recalled to WRC-TV that he was in Vietnam just six days before two fellow service members were shot down, declared missing in action, "and they still haven't found their bodies." Such losses are why the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Plaza in Rockville, Maryland, means so much to Williams. Image source: WRC-TV video screenshot And it's also why he was upset that the plaza's POW/MIA flag was replaced with an LGBTQ rainbow flag for pride month, the station said. "I wasn't happy about it at all because the park is supposed to be a veterans park," Williams told...

Maryland’s Board of Public Works approved the state’s use of private companies to widen highways in the Washington suburbs, but agreed to delay work on the Capital Beltway after running into opposition. The vote came during a lengthy and tense meeting Wednesday on Gov. Larry Hogan’s plan to enlist the private sector to widen the Capital Beltway and Interstate 270. The private contractors would recoup their investment through tolls charged on drivers who use the new lanes. The Hogan administration has sold the plan — known as a “public-private partnership” or P3 — as a way to alleviate traffic congestion...

Toll lane plans for parts of the Capital Beltway and Interstate 270 are set to move forward next week, including plans for improvements to the American Legion Bridge. Maryland’s Board of Public Works — Gov. Larry Hogan, Treasurer Nancy Kopp and Comptroller Peter Franchot — is set to formally designate the planned toll lanes as a public-private partnership on May 8 and to support plans for separate phases of construction. Once the public-private partnership designation is approved, the state expects to quickly issue a request for qualifications from private companies so that a short list of the private firms or...

Attorneys for one of the two suspects accused of raping a 14-year-old girl in a bathroom stall at Rockville High School said the girl texted their client the day before the incident and agreed to have sex with him, according to court papers filed Monday.

<p>A 14-year-old girl was pushed into a boys bathroom at Rockville High School on Thursday morning and raped by two other students during school hours, according to Montgomery County District Court records filed Friday.</p> <p>Police arrested two ninth-graders, Henry E. Sanchez, 18, and Jose O. Montano, 17, who appeared in court Friday and were ordered held without bond.</p>

Rockville, Md., the city home to the recent immigrant high school rape scandal, is considering declaring itself a sanctuary city to hide illegals. Although Rockville police have had a long-standing policy neither to question suspected illegals about their immigration status, or to cooperate with federal immigration authorities, the city is now considering the process of formalizing that informal standard by becoming a sanctuary city. Rockville City Councilmember Julie Palakovich Carr introduced an ordinance in early March in response to President Donald Trump’s pledge to beat back illegal immigration.

Two immigrants, ages 17 and 18 were arrested at a Maryland High School on Thursday and charged with three counts each in connection with the rape of a 14 year old female classmate. One of the immigrants, Sanchez, 18 is actually the subject of an ‘alien removal’ case. Henry Sanchez, 18, and Jose Montano, 17, were arrested at Rockville High School on Thursday and charged with three counts each in connection with the rape of a female classmate.

A century-old statue of a Confederate soldier that stands outside a Maryland courthouse will be moved to private property. Montgomery County Executive Ike Leggett said in a news release Tuesday that the county will cover the cost to relocate the bronze statue from the courthouse in Rockville to White’s Ferry, a docking site on the Potomac River named for a Confederate general. …

OCKVILLE, MD (ABC7) — A 31-year-old man told police he entered a secure apartment building, broke into a second floor apartment and tried to rape an unsuspecting woman all because he was horny. Tedros Ishetu, of Silver Spring, is facing criminal charges of attempted first-degree rape, home invasion, second-degree assault and false imprisonment. Managers of the leasing office at Congressional Towers Apartment building tell ABC7 that a letter will be sent out Tuesday to residents informing them about the incident. On Monday, January 16, Ishetu snuck into the Congressional Towers apartment building, located along the 200 block of Congressional Lane....

Students from Richard Montgomery High School, in Rockville, march in protest of the election of Donald Trump to the presidency Wednesday morning. A 15-year-old in a 'Make America Great Again' hat was beaten during the march. (WTOP/Nick Iannelli) WASHINGTON – A march of students in Rockville, Maryland, protesting the election of Donald Trump to the presidency turned violent on Wednesday morning as a teenager wearing a Donald Trump hat was beaten.

U.S. Rep. John K. Delaney said Thursday that toll lanes might be needed to ease traffic and congestion on Interstate 270, a corridor vital to the future of Montgomery and Frederick counties. Leaders in the region must make sure the highway operates as efficiently as possible, Delaney (D-Dist. 6) of Potomac told legislators and business leaders from the two counties Thursday in Frederick at a meeting on the I-270 corridor. Del. Michael Hough (D) of Brunswick, an incoming state senator from District 4, said Virginia has done a good job of combining ideas such as high-occupancy toll lanes and private...

A Rockville gun store owner who said he would sell the nation’s first smart gun — even after a California gun store removed the weapon from its shelves to placate angry gun-rights activists — backed down late Thursday night after enduring a day of protests and death threats. Andy Raymond, the co-owner of Engage Armament, a store known for its custom assault rifles, had said earlier this week that offering the Armatix iP1 handgun was a “really tough decision” after what happened to the Oak Tree Gun Club near Los Angeles. Oak Tree was lambasted by gun owners and National...

ROCKVILLE, MD — Thousands of motorists were brought to a standstill when police conducted a massive roadblock to find three crime suspects. Twelve lanes of traffic were shut down and swarms of armed government agents combed through a giant traffic jam performing warrantless vehicle-to-vehicle searches. The busy Tuesday morning commute was abruptly halted just after 10:00 a.m. on March 11th. One driver told ABC News that traffic stopped and he witnessed 30 police cars pass on the shoulders of I-270 near Rockville. “Then, when I saw a wall of police officers with automatic weapons approaching our cars, it was apparent...

WASHINGTON - Interstate 270 is considered one of the most choked roads in the Washington region, but solutions for the gridlock are few and far between. Figures from the Maryland Department of Transportation show about 114,000 cars use I-270 daily, and that number is expected to jump to 200,000 in the next 10 to 15 years. "Everyone who is familiar with 270 knows it is jammed up in the morning rush hour and evening rush hour," says Gus Bauman, who studies transportation and funding and who chaired a Maryland Blue Ribbon Commission on Transportation Funding. One proposal to ease congestion...

Traveled by Native Americans, presidents, generals, gypsies and families seeking a new life in the west, “The Great Road,” known today as Frederick Road or Route 355, provided a path for both the adventurer and the entrepreneur. As the main route northwest from Georgetown, the last port on the Potomac River, it was heavily traveled from the mid 18th century until it was replaced by Interstate 270 in the 1960s. It began as an Indian trail leading from the Piscataway settlement at the mouth of Rock Creek to the great “Conestoga,” a trail that included footpaths and waterways (what we...

As a national recession wears on, more middle-class people are asking for food, even in places like affluent Montgomery County, Md. About 24,000 families have been added to the rolls of Manna Food Center in Rockville, Md., in the last year and a half, said Kim Damion, director of development and communication. Close to 400 families picked up food boxes on Thanksgiving Day this year, more than any other year since the center opened in 1983, Damion said. Manna gave food to 1,600 families on Thanksgiving week. Nationally, 49 million Americans are at risk of not getting enough to eat...

ROCKVILLE, Md. (AP) - Montgomery County Public School officials say they're closing Rockville High School until further notice due to a probable swine flu case involving a student. School officials say the school will be closed on Friday under the order of state and county health officials. Deputy Secretary for Public Health Frances Phillips says the student represents the ninth probable case of swine flu in the state, but there are no confirmed cases yet. Montgomery County's health director Dr. Ulmer Tillman says the student last attended school on Monday. School officials were alerted to the case around 6:30 p.m....